Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria

"A masterpiece of its genre, an engrossing game."

Amongst all the cookie-cutter, bland and even horrible RPGs that are marketed today, one may come across a hidden gem that is just so amazing and masterfully created that you really wonder why that game did not get nearly the amount of promotion and attention that it deserved. Valkyrie Profile 2 : Silmeria is one of these hidden gems. The Valkyrie Profile series itself was never very well known, and is made more noticeable by the fact that Square-Enix published it. There are many things about this game that are different and bring something fresh to the RPG genre, and it does so very beautifully.

You play as a young woman of 18 years old named Alicia, who was the Princess of Dipan and the only daughter of the King. Around the time of Alicia's birth, Silmeria Valkyrie, the current existing Valkyrie, had disobeyed the King of the Aesir, Odin, and was reborn into Alicia. However, due to a mistake made during this process, Silmeria was not completely reborn into Alicia. Instead, her soul simply moved into Alicia's body, causing two souls to exist in her body at the same time. This gives Alicia a dual personality, and Alicia began to realize Silmeria's presence at a young age as Silmeria begins to speak to her, in order to prepare her for the difficult time that she knew would come. Suspecting madness from the one-sided conversations that his daughter makes, Alicia's own father exiles her from the Kingdom of Dipan as a young girl. The real story starts when Hrist Valkyrie, Silmeria's successor, attacks Alicia's hiding place and demands Silmeria's return, and after hearing that Dipan planned to wage war against the gods. Alicia flees for her life and, with Silmeria's guidance, makes the effort to save her kingdom and Midgard (the human world) itself.

Plot build-up is fine in the first few chapters, but begins to drag during the middle of the game, and picks up again quickly after that, which is when things begin to get very, very interesting. Valkyrie Profile 2 creates a fascinating world and executes its story well, something that few RPGs can pull off.

An aspect that Valkyrie Profile 2 truly shines at is its addictive battle system, a very unique one that I have never encountered before. It is a hybrid of turn-based and action, which other games of similar genre might have done rather poorly, but which Valkyrie Profile 2 excels at. You are given 100 AP (action points, I presume), and with it you can attack, use items, cast magic, or Dash in the battle field, all with a set amount of AP that will be used up when you take action. Once you use up all your AP, you will have to wait for it to recharge before you can take further actions, either by walking around the battlefield or pressing the L3 button to recharge it faster, though this is risky as it causes enemies to move towards you very quickly - one misconception is that enemies will move towards you if you stand still, but time works differently. Enemies will only move if your party moves. If you stay at one place, the enemies will not take any action unless you are standing in their attack range.

Each of your four party members can be assigned an attack button (X, O, etc.) In battle, pressing these buttons while in range of an enemy will cause your characters to execute their attacks. A key to victory in battle is to be able to time your attacks so that every attack connects. Arranging good combos is also important, which takes some time as you need to experiment with different attacks and characters. Besides plot characters, you will also be able to recruit einherjar (souls that can be materialized) and you will be given a sort of choice of which ones you want to recruit. Each einherjar relic will have either one, two, or three choices of einherjar, all with a set percentage of their chances to appear. For example, an archer relic in the Ancient Forest has a choice of either Sha-Kon (90% chance) or Chrystie (10% chance) meaning that you will most likely get Sha-Kon as Chrystie is so rare. You can, however, save and reload to try again if the einherjar you got wasn't your choice.

There are also Sealstones. Sealstones are crystallized sap from the roots of Yggdrasil, the World Tree. These Sealstones will have different effects on your party when carried, and when placed in a Dais, will effect all enemies in the area. Placing the Sealstone in a Shell will negate its effects, and if you restore it at a Dais or Spring, you can use the Sealstone in other dungeons. Otherwise, you cannot take them with you outside of the dungeon you found them in. Sealstones are a great way of boosting Attack power as well as other useful (and not-so useful) effects. Sealstones play a key role in party set-ups and it is important to use the right Sealstone in the right situations.

Skills in this game are learned by linking runed accessories. Runed accessories can be bought in shops or obtained by breaking the body parts of enemies. After forming the skill, you have to fight several battles before the skill is 100% learned. The lower your average party level is compared to the enemies, the faster the skill will be learned.

Needless to say all this can be very overwhelming and difficult to grasp at first, but once you get used to in and go into it in detail, it becomes very addictive and engrossing/

Moving on from battle system to graphics. Graphics in Valkyrie Profile 2 are beautifully done, the background in particular is very nicely created, and the character models themselves are good too. The only flaw is that lip-synchronization is poorly executed - sometimes you will hear a character speak and their mouth won't be moving. It does nothing to mar the overall entertainment of the game, however.

As for sounds and music, both are well done here, from the sound of a body part breaking to the battle theme and boss themes. There are only a few memorable pieces of music, but overall it is still very good.

My final opinion : An amazing RPG, Valkyrie Profile 2 : Silmeria is unique, refreshing, engrossing and masterfully put together. With very few flaws and an addictive battle system, as well as a good story, Valkyrie Profile 2 might seem a little hardcore for the more casual, light RPG-gamers. Doubtless however, Valkyrie Profile 2 : Silmeria is an RPG not to be missed, a gem of its genre.

Go and buy it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/23/09

Game Release: Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria (US, 09/26/06)