Title is true to form; there’s a giant hole in a corner of the world, and it’s your job to get to the bottom of it. Structurally, every round of Abyss Odyssey breaks down to sixteen levels before it hits bottom, although there’s plenty of room for lateral movement, dreamlike secrets, and spikes of difficulty along the way. One enduring constant; the final level always contains a dreaming Warlock who’s nightmares are responsible for everything. Vanquish him, and save the day. Kind of.
Your tools and weapons to lead this assault start off rather meek. The elaborately outfitted Katrien bears some non-traditional combat mechanics alongside her unwieldly movement options, a sensation instantly realized the first time you try an about-face maneuver to a higher ledge. Furthermore, combat feels restricted to some basic jabs and kicks, not altogether different from the beat ’em ups of decades past. In a worst case impression, Abyss Odyssey seems to operate like a thoroughly basic brawler.
Of course, Abyss Odyssey quickly aspires for something deeper. In terms of rudimentary additions, every three levels gained grants the use of a skill point. Skill points, which are connected to special moves, can be used to unlock higher damage output, better defensive options, or magic-building bonuses. Special moves are assigned to a different button, and can be employed or paired with the regular attack button. Here are the beginnings of a combo development and general game flow; unload an authored assault against the variety of creatures roaming the abyss, and see what works and what doesn’t.
This all sounds fine until we circle back around to Abyss Odyssey’s tricky approach to combat. At first, my combos couldn’t flow well together, I had trouble making my character face the correct direction, and enemy response was overbearing. My panacea was, of all things, to think of combat as a mirror to Super Smash Bros. The shield-to-dodge roll, basic blocking, mini-combos, combinations of special moves, hell, even the right analog stick’s responsibility as quick reference were all lifted directly from Super Smash Bros. It doesn’t flow together the same way (or quite as well) when presented to the abyss’ assortment of enemies, but the reference is plain and intended.
For a contribution to call its own Abyss Odyssey would like to call your attention to its intricate system of parrying, dodging, and canceling. Parrying is simple enough; pop your shield at the perfect time and either watch a projectile volley back to the enemy, or presses it against a melee attack and see your opponent falter. Dodge canceling is all about gaining an edge, presenting an enemy with a feint before launching into an altogether different attack. I didn’t find a whole lot of use for it, even after reading this well written guide, but it’s there if you can make better use of it.
Application is the next step. The parade of insane creatures populating the abyss carry the Alchemy Day At The Zoo motif made famous by ACE Team’s Zeno Clash, but Abyss Odyssey can’t manage a similar pace between design and identity. After facing them enough times, you know the centaur-thing has a fascination with juggles, the razor-blade-tree-giant moves slow, and the weird-ultra-venetian-mask-guy likes to get you in a corner, but I was never able to develop a reliable offense against anything. More often than not, getting one (or a group) into a corner and unloading Katrien’s forward attacks was enough to get the job done. The same held true for bosses, albeit with the added difficulty of finding a way to maneuver around their otherwise unique attacks. Any different approach and Abyss Odyssey would respond with cheap aggression, so why bother with something other than what works?
To answer the question above; look at all the cool shit you can do in this game. Building a mental inventory of applicable combos almost happens by accident. Throwing people (again, executed precisely like in Smash Bros) is an easy invitation to initiate a juggle, either by Katrien’s standard attacks or her knives-out pirouette special move. Practice creates knowledge, but even that can’t account for the chaos issued by the abyss’ hazards. Giant swinging axes, lethal floors, and bottomless pits— not to mention simultaneous assaults from a cooperative or AI-controlled partner—can deal serious damage to the parade of enemies. Luck seemed to have more to do with success than any sort of applied skill, but, given that I was rarely on the receiving end of harsh judgement, that’s not exactly a complaint.
While combat occupies much of Abyss Odyssey’s active time, it’s very much a subscriber to the increasingly vogue roguelike genre. Explored most popularly by Rogue Legacy and Spelunky, Abyss Odyssey features randomized levels, player equipment, level design, shopkeepers, enemies, and boss placement every time you play. There are a few constants, acquired money and your character’s level and experience remain upon death, but everything else resets. Even your weapons and accessories, some of which you may have paid a handsome sum to achieve, disappear if you’re vanquished.
Abyss Odyssey, for its part, contains a few failsafe’s to minimize presumed frustration. If Katrien falls, a wandering solider will take her place and continue to fight through the dungeon. Something of a spare tire, he can fight in a pinch, but he’s meant to locate the nearest alter and revive a sleeping Katrien. Furthermore, there always seemed to be plenty of swords, health pickups, money, and enemies throughout each dungeon.
Soul collecting and transformation was another strange mechanic. Every enemy in Abyss Odyssey, provided you (1) can match their level, (2) have a full mana bar read to deploy, and (3) have them in a weakened state can be captured. On that specific run, the player can switch over to and play as the captured enemy at literally any time. Through the abyss you’ll also certainly run into one-off levels presenting challenges to conquer while playing as enemies, which makes for a nice change of pace. Mostly, I just used transformations as pin cushions whenever Katrien’s health started to get low.
Platforming is Abyss Odyssey’s final pillar, and it’s also its weakest. Standard challenges like icy floors, emerging spikes, and moving platforms are expected. Less thoughtful are requisite “gotcha’s” like disguised enemies hurling projectiles, any amount of hazards that poison or freeze the player, and poorly considered height differentials. Regarding the latter, I get that you’re supposed to incorporate dodging as a means of amplifying the default double jump, but the degree of accuracy required, especially for Katrien’s back-up solider, often gave way to frustration. Abyss Odyssey’s floaty movement isn’t primed for that sort of challenge, and it weakens its ability to function effectively.
I finished Abyss Odyssey as Katrien after getting to level 26, which took about three hours. This is not the end. Along the way I unlocked a lumbering Ghost Monk and, quite a bit later, the nymph-like Pincoya. Unlike soldiers or monsters, Ghost Monk and Pincoya are fully fleshed out characters with their own special moves, weapons, and skills, and each fight fundamentally different from one another. Was this much of a draw to get me to go through the abyss again and vanquish the Warlock once more? Not exactly, but I had fun fooling around with both of them for another couple of hours.
I get the drive intended to power additional hours through Abyss Odyssey; I just don’t feel invested enough to respond to it. With Spelunky, spontaneity always walked hand-in-hand with challenge, but with Abyss Odyssey I feel like beating the odds is a simple matter of leveling up and getting lucky. Sure, yes, there’s plenty of depth there, with dozens of transformations and a lavish assortment of level design possibilities, but it was interesting or engaging enough for a long term commitment. If friends are there for the ride, either with one other person online (or three more locally in PvP-only), Abyss Odyssey may last a bit longer.
While the core remains the same, the PlayStation 4 release of Abyss Odyssey is actually titled Abyss Odyssey: Extended Dream Edition. This release, nearly a year after Abyss Odyssey debuted on last generation consoles, carries the aforementioned PvP update, vague allusions to additional combo capabilities, and an enemy pulled from Zeno Clash. The Warlock also has some meta-game features unlocked by the community collectively thrashing him, although I have no idea what these may be. The most immediate addition is an entire Nightmare Mode, which seemed to endorse all of the frustrating parts of Abyss Odyssey I didn’t like. At a base level Abyss Odyssey was fine, and I get that developers feel the need to add content to console debuts of an older game, but most of this stuff felt inconsequential.
It’s difficult to turn down anything from ACE Team. Zeno Clash, its sequel,and Rock of Ages, are some of the most aesthetically diverse piece of interactive entertainment set upon the masses. Their only console-level peers are things like LSD Dream Emulator or maybe Noby Noby Boy, although ACE Team’s work is far more playable. Abyss Odyssey is less of an original concept and more like ACE Team taking their favorite game mechanics and merging all of them together into a singular creation, but it still carries their trademark eccentricity and respect. Abyss Odyssey, even inside its conventions, comes across like nothing else.
