Odin Sphere

In this game, you don't gain levels by fighting, but by eating, so make sure you're always planting seeds. At the end of every battle, suck in some Phozons to get your Phozon level up, but make sure you get lots of food too.

Almost every boss in this game is a major difficulty spike. Don't be afraid to go back to the beginning of a stage if you feel in over your head. You won't lose any items or any advancements whatsoever, so this is a great way to make sure you're prepared.

Make sure you get each character to 35/35 before you end their book. Also get about 6 or 9 elixirs and 3 painkillers. You'll thank me if you follow this advice.

Also, at the end of the game, you'll be able to choose what characters you want for certain parts. Make sure you read whatever literature you've received in the game to pick the right characters for the right parts.

This is way easier than the original release of Odin Sphere, so min maxing and literal farming is not as much as a huge issue. That said you can also play the original build of Odin Sphere if you like. Don't unless you want a challenge or to see how far the game has come.

You no longer have to buy inventory upgrades, they are mission rewards exclusively. Also your seeds and mandragoras no longer take up inventory space. You also have an item chest to store stuff so don't stress about what to keep/sell.

That said, don't really sell stuff. Every item can be used in some form of alchemy and cash is mega plentiful. If you want to abuse it, I think it's
a combination of 2 or 3 onnion to make a bonus gold potion.
Good luck finding that resources as Gwendolyn until the endgame though.

A Ranked up Juggler potion is a good way to clean up trash sitting around the item box if you do want to get rid of stuff like extra bones and stems. Odds are good you'll at least get some food and a few potions out of it. Sometimes of pretty good rank.

In terms of of alchemy, I like to keep one of every spell around for emergencies and either use extra drops as a bonus in tough fights or to power up my existing potion. I like to get stuff that gives you bonus resources (cash, exp, phozons, buffs) at the highest level possible and not stress to much about healing potions and the like.

Make sure you're planting seeds and eating food. Most of your direct stat HP buffs will ultimately come from eating over the course of the game. In general saving raw ingredients for the chef is more beneficial XP, HP and Healing wise, that you will not have access to all the recipes right away. And will be rolling in resources with moderate grinding. And can buy most of the rarer things directly.

The game implies that you should plant seeds at the beginning of a fight and let Phozon come to them naturally. This is a fools move and will net you rotten fruit unless you're on the ball. (Not all that bad as it makes healing potions) Just plant stuff and manually release Phozon when you want to grow things.

A lot of guides say that you should pick a few skills to focus on and get them to max. This is probably good postgame advice because you will be needing to grind. As for just going through the game I'd say get each characters passive skills to max, then get everything else to level 2. Experiment, and if something stands out for you buff it more by all means.

There are hidden areas that have skills in them in each level. The skill grid will give you a clue to where they are, it's not that cryptic but just get a guide if you're stumped. A lot of great skills are the hidden ones.

The secondary skills that use gold orbs from leveling up will help you customize to your play style. You get one orb per level in case you want to know, so just pick what sounds good to you.

All the characters are pretty unique in their play style. Gwendolyn is a good all around intro, and has an awesome air game. But keep in mind that not everything you learn as her will apply to everyone. (Hello Mercedes)

Speaking of combat, you can assign an absolutely insane number of inputs for your special moves. Including fighting game style inputs. I switched over to using fighting game inputs to do anything that's a physical attack and right stick + O to do magic attacks. Buffs, huge Spells and really situational stuff just stay on the regular skill menu. Experiment to find something that works for you, and combat becomes an absolute joy.

You'll get 5 kinds of coins in this game. Three of them are exclusively for restaurants so just feel free to go nuts with those as it will get you mega HP boosts. The other 2 are normal currency and will be used freely. In the original build you had to select what coins to use manually, each has a different gold value. This is a huge improvement.

Keep your combos high, don't get hit to avoid losing rank. Time is not a huge factor, but if you let a battle draw out too long you will start to lose rank at a steady rate.

Growing Food, Using Items, Long Combos and pretty much anything else will net you a point increase. A big spell connecting with a huge group is in particular a good way to get rank. Don't think of this like DMC or Bayonetta where item's cost you. Good wild and have fun. You will in fact likely need magic in a few situations unless you are super good.

The yellow bar that surrounds your current rank will fill in or drain depending on your performance. It's possible to recover lost bar ,but I'm pretty sure if you let it drop a whole letter there's no way back up. That said there no penalty for dying really, or retrying so if you want to for S Ranks feel free.

The game actually tracks your rank from when the last enemy dies, not from when the HUD vanishes. So don't just mash restart if everything is dead and it looks like you've gone down to an A.

Yoghurt Fruit Mousse

When I played through the first time I found I would have a high attack level but not many hit points. I was trying to make complicated recipes and in general it sucked. Then I discovered Yogurt Fruit Mousse. To make this you first have to make the Yogurt Mousse six times.

Yogurt Mousse

Ingredients: Yogurt, Egg

Coin: Ariel

Effects: 2200 EXP, MAX HP+14

You can start making this in CH4 of Cornelius's story at the cafe. After you make it six times you can make Yogurt Fruit Mousse.

Yogurt Fruit Mousse

Ingredients: Yogurt, Mulberry, Egg

Coin: Ariel

Effects: 3300 EXP, MAX HP+24

This shit right here is awesome. Lots of exp, good hitpoints, and only 3 recipes. On later characters I was saving up the materials to make the YFM from the time I started until the time I got to the cafe. The only downside to this is that you have to make yogurts, but that's pretty easy to do.