Smite - The Odyssey so far

The Odyssey is a yearly event running from September until the Smite World Championships in early January. It’s a way for players to participate in special quests and get their hands on some limited edition skins and items. These become available for purchase in batches every patch until completion. Players who purchase a set amount of items are rewarded with a very impressive transforming tier 5 skin. Past years have brought us Thanatos and Thor tier 5 skins and those with deep enough pockets can expect to receive the demonic Underworld Anubis skin this time around. Every time you make a purchase of one of the Odyssey items or complete a specific quest, you’re rewarded with points. Points add up over time to nab various rewards. Quests can be anything as simple as winning a set number of games to completing specific actions such as killing the Bull Demon in Joust as a team. Five Odyssey skins have been released so far. Four available for purchase and one as a progression reward. As each patch brings skins for a select pantheon, we’ve only had the Japanese and Chinese offering so far, and they’ve been a really mixed bag. Foxy Amaterasu isn’t really a bad skin as such, but it doesn’t do anything special. It swaps her standard robes out for a contemporary, cute, fox themed outfit. Her abilities are barely changed. It’s really just inoffensive. I feel that Hi-Rez have missed a bit of a trick here by not opting to instead create a skin referencing the game Okami, which would have been a certain crowd pleaser too. Samurai Susano is the strongest in terms of pure looks, receiving a cybernetic upgrade. There’s not too much I can say about this skin. If anything I feel the theme may be a little too similar to the Scylla skin due to be released further along in the Odyssey, but that’s not really an issue with the skin itself, more with the variety offered in the promotion. Monster Trainer Erlang Shen is a fairly direct Pokemon Parody. Erlang Shen looks fine, if not massively exciting (exciting as jeans and a waistcoat can be, I suppose), but his dog still just looks like a regular dog. They could have really improved the skin by making the dog resemble Arcanine. The voice pack is also grating. He sounds less like a Pokemon trainer and more akin to a member of Greenpeace or PETA, delivering a multitude of cringe-worthy remarks. The weakest of the bunch is Clockwork Knight Ao Kuang. Apart from the ult (which in all fairness does look quite nice), there are barely any changes to the original model. There are a few texture changes on the sword, he has an extra green jewel on his sash and he has an eye piece. It’s not even up to the standard of a tier 2 skin, and a tier 2 skin is half the price. You’ve really got to factor in that that this skin, like all of the other Odyssey skins so far, is 500 gems. That’s a lot, and more expensive than the standard release 400 gem skins. Rumors had led many to believe that the skin would have him as a fully robotic steampunk warrior, with his ult turning him in to a bi-plane. That would have been a fantastic skin, but what we actually got is quite the opposite. The other skin available is Old Wa Nu Wa, an updated take on Nu Wa’s old design. This is a free skin which can be earned just buy playing the Odyssey. No purchase required if you complete quests. The model and animations look sharp, and there’s even a bit of tier 5 technology in there, as she keep the serpentine form she assumes after using her ult. If Hi-Rez managed to put this much effort in to a free skin, then what prevented them from doing the same with Ao Kuang? Unfortunately, the Odyssey has been a fairly weak showing so far, but some of the later items look fairly promising. Let’s hope that Hi-Rez see that the fans are unhappy and make any needed changes to potentially avoid another let down. We’ll keep you updated, here on CollecTech.

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