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.