The Gang of Five
Beyond the Mysterious Beyond => Hobbies and Recreation => Gamers Zone => Topic started by: WeirdRaptor on October 05, 2009, 04:10:16 PM
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Yo, not long ago I came into the possession of two of the three games in the Valkyrie Profile series. Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth and Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria. As you may have guessed, the subtitles are the names of the Battle Maidens the stories focus on.
Anyway, I've played a lot of RPGs in my time, but these were really unique and broke the mold from popular RPZG staples. For example, very few RPGs explore what happens after death and death happens so muchin your standard fantasy adventure that its lost all meaning, but in this one a character *has* to be dead before he or she can even join the main party.
Here's the plot: Odin, the Norse King of the Gods and spiritual father to all has forseen that Ragarrok (the end of all existance) is near at hand and Heaven (called Valhalla in this) needs warriors. SO he sends our main heroine, Lenneth Valkyrie, to Midgard (earth) to collect the spirits of slain heroes and train them up to fight against the Vanir (fire giants who live in the Antartic. Yeah, I don't get it, either).
You spend the first part of the game doing just this, but then, of course, there are a number of plot twists and our heroine is forced to make quite a few decisions that directly inpact the outcome. There are three endings. Depending on which route you take, you will get a different primary villain of the story to deal with. Its quite interesting.
I can't tell you too much if you haven't played the games so as not to spoil them for you.
The second game follows the exploits of Silmeria, in a game that is a prequel and sequel all at once. (Long story.)
The gameplay is unique, as are the levels and characters. The art work is to die for and the stories are overall, surprisingly well written for games. I'd recommend these to anyone who wants to play a unique RPG experience.
I'd also like to discuss these games with anyone who has played them.
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I've got VP: Lenneth for PSP and VP2: Silmeria for PS2. I've finished Lenneth but I'm still working through Silmeria. As per usual, Square Enix prove themselves to be outstanding makers of RPGs. The battle system isn't too complex once you figure out how to manipulate it properly and it looks graphically appeasing. One thing I didn't like about VP: Lenneth was that there wasn't much in the way of roaming (as in going from one town to the other whilst strolling the stages) and I didn't like the time limits you had per phase. The other thing that put me off was the sheer mass of characters you got to assign to your team. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for the option but I found I tended to stick with a set 3 characters from the start and kinda ignored the rest. Still, the battle system was engaging and exciting and the OVERSOUL attacks look awesome especially when you string them together.
I haven't played very much of the DS version VP: Covenant of the Plume but I hear it didn't get much of a write up. I'm tempted to try it but I'm not sure I'd fork out for it now. I have bigger games I'm aiming to get my mitts on...
Still, for any Square Enix fan guy, next to Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, Valkyrie Profile is an excellent series that most haven't heard of. At least give it a shot if you come across it. You'll be pleasantly surprised... ;)
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VP isn't Square Its a Tri-Ace title that Square is just helping to finance.
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I agree with on the topic of lack of being able to explore in VP: Lenneth, by the way. It makes it really difficult to experiment around with einherjar and what ones are the best when you're on a frikkin time limit.