Lion Saga Odyssey

Lion Saga Odyssey: Slot Overview

Two things developer Play'n GO hold dear to its heart are the Arthurian legend and expanding symbol 'Book of' mechanics. Both of these beloved concepts came together in the 2019 release Rise of Merlin, which was also able to add additional expanding symbols to its bonus round when it was retriggered. This set-up worked so well for Rise of Merlin that the developer wheeled out much but the skin again for Legacy of Dead and has done so once more in the African wildlife slot Lion Saga Odyssey.

Lion Saga Odyssey might be a long way from Arthurian England, but it resides on the same continent as Legacy of Dead. That continent is Africa, and Play'n GO has painted an attractive, if a bit dry in the base game, version of it. Some might say in the spirit of Disney's The Lion King. The natural world is nicely rendered in the game, which also touches on ideas beyond the physical realm via a glowing blue spirit lion that appears to guide, lead or inspire the lion character to embark on some sort of journey or quest. At a guess, the quest involves leading the animals from dry thirst to watery paradise.

Sticking with a classic 'Book of' set-up, Lion Saga Odyssey drops symbols on a 5-reel, 10 payline reelset. However, players may set the number of active paylines from 1 to 10. This means wagers range from 1 c per spin up to $/€100. The game's volatility has been marked as high (8 out of 10), and its largest RTP of the five configurations is 96.58%.

Distinctive, tree-wrapped card ranks 10-A are Lion Saga Odyssey's low pay symbols, and its high pays are meerkats, a zebra, mummy with baby lion, and daddy lion. Payouts are expressed in coins, depending on how players have set up the number of coins and coin values when picking stakes. The Spirit symbol is wild and lands on all reels. The wild substitutes for all of the paying symbols except Expanding symbols and is worth up to 5,000 coins for landing 5 wilds in a line.

Lion Saga Odyssey: Slot Features

The Spirit symbol is also Lion Saga Odyssey's scatter symbol. Landing 3, 4, or 5 scatter/wilds awards 2x, 20x, or 200x, the bet, respectively and 8 free spins. Before free spins start, one pay symbol is randomly chosen to be a special expanding symbol. After normal win evaluations have been made, expanding symbols expand to become fully stacked if there are enough of them in view.

Expanded symbols pay on all active paylines from any position and do not have to be adjacent to each other. Hitting 3 or more scatter symbols triggers an additional +8 free spins, and another special expanding symbol is chosen. Technically, up to 9 expanding symbols can be in play.

Gamble Feature

In the main game, the total prize on any spin may be gambled. Correctly guessing a facedown card's colour doubles the win, while correctly guessing the correct suit of a facedown card quadruples the prize. The Gamble round can be played up to 5 times in a row and up to a limit of 2,500 coins. The Gamble round does not impact the overall RTP.

Lion Saga Odyssey: Slot Verdict

Rise of Merlin and later Legacy of Dead gave the 'Book of' scene a nudge by opening up what was possible in the free spins bonus round. Till then, a single expanding symbol was about all players could usually expect, who crossed their fingers to get the highest value pay symbol in order to chase down max win full-screen hits. In Rise, starting with a lowly royal as the expanding symbol didn't necessarily mean max win hits were off the table - get lucky with a retrigger or two, or more, who knows? Good things just might happen.

Good things just might happen in Lion Saga Odyssey, too, since the mechanics are the same, but any sense of surprise or jubilant moments of discovery are virtually impossible to experience for anyone familiar with the earlier slots. These days, having more than one expanding symbol active at the same time is by no means as unique as it once was, making Lion Saga Odyssey a follower of fashion rather than a leader. Where it remains something of an oddity, not in a bad way, is by allowing players to pick anywhere from 1 to 10 active lines. In a 'Book' slot, you kinda want as many lines active as possible when connecting expanding symbols. However, lower the number of paylines, and you increase the potential max win multiplier within the capped exposure.

When betting $/€100 per spin, 5,000x the bet is the max win. Lower the wager to, say, a penny a spin, and your calculator better have room for a few more zeroes on the display since it is possible to win up to 250,000 coins when playing Lion Saga Odyssey. So, whilst little to nothing has changed beneath the skin since Rise of Merlin, there's still room on the penny betting shelf for a slot like Lion Saga Odyssey. It might not be considered bona fide old-school gambling just yet, but its one payline/coin system leans towards middle school, which some gamblers may enjoy.