Valkyrie Profile

"This game gets very BORING after a couple hours! But if you liked Xenogears you'll probably like this game, too!"

Review of Valkyrie Profile:

Here it goes...First of all I want to start off with saying that this game isn't as good as the reviews want it to be. Ofcourse, as all RPGs, this game has something that no RPG has.(More on this later) Ofcourse, ALMOST all the attributes are very high, and as we all know that there is always something not right in an RPG. Lets start off with Gameplay, one of the most important features in an RPG.

Gameplay 8/10
This RPG has good gameplay but not good enough! One problem is that when you play in 'easy' game mode, all your characters are all VERY high levels, as a matter of fact, one of the character's started of with more than 8600 HP! The good thing is that there are more difficulty levels that you can play, which are much better than the easy level. Another good thing(maybe bad) about this game is that you don't have to search around for where to go next if you are lost because all you have to do is press start on the world map and it will direct you to the location where you are suppose ta go and you can just fly there.

Story 5/10
As you can see that this is the weakest-point in the game. The story is very poorly made! You are actually a goddess who is trying to stop armageddon.(I forget what they call the end of the world in the game so I am saying it as armageddon) I didn't beat this game yet, but in the first couple hours, it gets as boring as hell! All you have to do is go to cities, and recruit characters for the end battle, the fight for the universe. You have enough time!

Sound/Music 10/10
This is definitely the strongest point of the game! The music is very good, as a matter of fact, this game has one of the best RPG music! It's very descriptive! One thing is that all the characters have their own voices and in most talk sequences they actually use their own voices to talk, sort of like in Legend of Dragoon, but in this game they use their own voices when they are not in FMV's. I can't say much more about this, find out the greatness for yourself!

Graphics 5/10
This is also a weak-point of the game. The graphics aren't as you would expect from an RPG these days because they look very old. All the characters are hand-drawn, which looks very bad. The WHOLE GAME IS 2-D except on the world map. When you are in a house, all you can do is go right or left, you CAN'T go upto a resident and talk, same for when you are in a town. These graphics look like they should be on SNES right now. There are a couple good FMV's in the game and if it didn't have the support of the FMV's than I'd give the graphics 3/10.

Replayability 9/10
The replayability value is high because the game has three different difficulty modes that you can play. There are really good FMV's which you will want to watch atleast more than once. You can recruit LOTS of Characters for your party. This game is LONG!

Buy or Rent?
First, rent this game if you only like PURE RPGs because this game is mixed with strategy like Front Mission 3. Also if you liked Xenogears than you will like this game but the graphics aren't as good as Xenogears. But even if ou liked Xenogears, I suggest you RENT the game before even thinking about buying it.

That definitely should've given you the idea of what you will experience throughout the game. I can't believe I bought this game, should've rented it first!

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/03/00, Updated 09/03/00