Today, we’ve got a special treat for you kids. We’ll be telling the story of Odin Sphere Leifthrasir for all of you that missed the Odin Sphere story time. You can all thank little Alice for picking this one out. Now, how about we quiet down and let her begin reading this wondrous tale?

Odin Sphere Leifthrasir is an HD remake of the original Odin Sphere which released way back in 2007 for the PlayStation 2. Thanks to the power of technology progression, Odin Sphere Leifthrasir features a much needed facelift to the original with sharper imagery and smoother gameplay. The style and feel of the original game is still very much present and Odin Sphere veterans will feel very at home with this HD remake. To me, the art style captures the storybook feel very well and I find that impressive, considering little Alice is the one reading the story from a book. There’s a pinch of childishness in the art and graphics of the game, which I feel enhances the quality by a good margin. You’ll be seeing a lot of the art style since the cut scenes are also played using the regular game graphics, so better start loving it.

The audio of Odin Sphere Leifthrasir also deserves praise. The tracks are quite magnificent and sound excellent in combination with the scenery the player views during missions. During battle missions, the audio switches between a more regal tune, while there’s a lull after a battle, and a faster-paced tune when the action kicks in. Players can also look forward to voice acting from the characters. Better yet, you can even choose whether you’d like to hear it in English or Japanese. Whichever you choose, you won’t be disappointed. How could you be disappointed with the fantastic music playing anyway? It’ll keep you going.

Odin Sphere Leifthrasir tells the story of five different characters and this story is contained within a book that is being read by a little girl named Alice. Players take control of the different characters as they progress through the story, which is divided into different chapters. As the story unfolds, players experience prophecies relating to each of the characters and get to see those characters' fates play out.

Odin Sphere Leifthrasir is a 2D action game where players control a character and navigate through different levels to accomplish the objective, which is usually killing x amount of bad guys and progressing. You’ll see your character’s stats in the upper left, which includes their current level, health bar, PP gauge, and power gauge. As you may have guessed, if your health hits 0, you’ll be down. You can move your character with the Left Control Stick or the Directional Pad and jump with the (X) button. Pressing up or down on your movement commands along with the (X) button allows you to move up or down in a level if the option is available. Pressing the (Triangle) button opens the Item Ring. Players can cycle through different tabs and use an item, such as a fruit, or equip an item. The (Square) button allows you to attack and you can chain together combos to deal more damage to your opponent or outwit them. Holding down the (Square) button allows you to guard, but your guard can break after too many attacks. Tapping the (R1) button allows your character to perform a quick evasion maneuver. Each character is powerful, but stay on your guard.

Tapping the Touch Pad on your controller pulls up a map to show the area. Each stage of the current level is represented in the map and players can run around in a looping circle on each map. You’ll be able to explore different areas, defeat enemies, and collect treasure on your magical journey. Fortunately, you’re also given rest areas that have teleport pads to take you back to previous rest areas you’ve visited before and they will be shown on the map. You’ll also be able to see the difficulty of an area represented by the amount of stars it has. Cleared areas will show your ranking for that level, too. The ranks range from S at the highest to D at the lowest and are determined by how well you fight. After clearing an area, you’ll be given the rundown of your score. Higher ranks means higher rewards, so do your best!

Pressing the Options button on your controller will bring up the, you guessed it, Options Menu. Here you’ll see various tabs that you can select: Skills, Equipment, Retry, Home, Text, Story, Options, and System. In the Skills tab, you can check the various skills you’ve learned and make them stronger. You can even strengthen your Psypher weapon here. The Equipment tab allows you to change your character’s equipment. There are three slots you can customize with different items, so pick and choose accordingly. The Retry option allows you to redo a battle or move to a previous stage. The Home option allows you to return to your base or go to the world map. Text allows you to view the different documents you’ve gotten from progressing through the story or doing missions. All of this information is archived here for your viewing pleasure. The Story tab lets you view previous scenes that have happened in the story and all of it is listed along a timeline. Options allows you to change different game settings, such as difficulty and your button configurations, and the System tab lets you save, load, or return to the title screen. The layout of all these Menus is pretty, too. You’ll like it, trust me.

Players are able to choose the difficulty they wish to play at shortly after starting the game. You can expect to see the usual difficulty levels of Easy, Normal, and Hard, so you can pretty much pick whatever you feel most comfortable with. If you want to breeze through the game and focus primarily on the story, you might feel at ease playing on the Easy setting. For those looking for a bit more of a challenge, but don’t want to go over the top, Normal might be the best setting to go for. The most hardened among us will more than likely go for the Hard difficulty and show what they’ve got. Regardless of what you initially pick, the game allows you to change the difficulty whenever you please by going to the Settings. You can experiment to find whatever you like the most, or you can make that one boss fight insanely hard. Whatever floats your boat, you know?

To be a great warrior, you must know all of your tools and strategies very well. Odin Sphere Leifthrasir has several of these mechanics to help players along the way and give them a higher chance of obtaining victory in battle. They’re easy to learn and will be a great help in your journey.

Let’s cover Phozon first. Phozon is a source of life energy in Odin Sphere Leifthrasir that has multiple uses throughout the game. You collect Phozon from defeating enemies or finding majestic glowing butterflies fluttering about. Phozon is represented as little bright purple spheres that float around and you can run through to collect them or hold the (R1) button to absorb them. By using Phozons, you can plant seeds you’ve obtained from defeating enemies and make them grow, sprouting various types of fruits. Fruits have different effects depending on the type of fruit, such as granting some experience points or giving an effect in battle. Any time you get a seed from battle, it’s always worth it to spend a few Phozon to grow it.

Spamming the (Square) button to attack relentlessly is pretty effective, but you’ll be amazed at what you can do once you get a few skills under your belt. Skills are unlocked by finding a Phozon Prism and you can access your list of skills by pressing the (L1) button. From here, you can quick select a skill and assign it to the (Circle) button plus a D-pad input. Skills are pretty powerful, but they do have a cost. Skills use two types of resource depending on what type of skill it is. Some skills only require a certain amount of PP, which is shown at the top left with the character’s other stats. Other skills may require a certain percentage of your power gauge, which is also shown at the top left. Phozon can be used to enhance your skills in the Skill tab. Each skill can be enhanced to a certain level and gain added attributes as you level them up. You can even use Phozon to increase the level of the character’s weapon. Collect as much as Phozon as you can to become as strong as you can, then you’ll become a force to be reckoned with.

Odin Sphere Leifthrasir is a fantastic remake of an already fantastic game. Veterans of the original will most certainly love this updated version and newcomers get a chance to play a great game they missed out on years ago. Even better is the ability to play a classic version of the game, allowing players to still enjoy the improved graphics, but with the same mechanics as the PlayStation 2 version. Whether you want to enjoy the game as it was or prefer the refined version of the game, Odin Sphere Leifthrasir is sure to please both veterans and new players alike.