I’ve been playing Odin Sphere. It’s a pretty good game although I’m not sure I like the idea of going through the same levels over and over. I noticed a significant slowdown in the final levels. (The onscreen action is slower) Is this a problem with the game or is it time I bought a new PS2?
It’s a problem with the game. I assume you’re playing as Gwendolyn, since you mention the last level (the level order changes depending on character – and I think there’s also one more level than you play with each character, so some see a level others don’t) the land of the dead (and ESPECIALLY the boss fight) is known for being incredibly laggy, even when played on a Backwards Compatible PS3.
Yup.
On a related note, is there a PS2 emulator that does the job well yet?
Thanks a lot. I was sure I’d have to shell out another 50 bucks for a used one.
PCSX2 does a decent job, but even on monster rigs can get laggy with certain games. It’s not as reliable as something like ZNES certainly. My computer had issues playing Tales of the Abyss and it’s no slouch, yet others with much worse specs than me said it was smooth (or maybe they just didn’t notice the opening cinematic being ever so slightly off). There are any number of factors that could have affected it, granted, I was playing from disc rather than iso, for instance.
So it can certainly do it WELL, but not necessarily consistently.
Yup. I use PCSX2 myself which is good and runs most games without a hitch provided you learn how to tinker with its internal settings a bit on a game to game basis - but Odin Sphere is still laggy as hell on it, even on a rig that runs Crysis w/ all sliders to the right 
It would amuse me to no end if they just trolled everyone by hardcoding a really low frame update limit during certain animations or attacks in the Odette fight/level.