Valkyrie Profile

"Enix and Tri-Ace have done it Again!!!"

First of all i'd like to start off by saying that i have been an old school gamer since the beginning. Yup thats right no FF7 bandwagon for me. I've been there since the beginning with Final Fantasy 1-6 and SoM, Chrono Trigger and so on. Next I'll say I'm a huge fan of Star Ocean: Second Story and when i hear ENIX/TRI-ACE were coming out with another game I was excited to say the least heck besides Final Fantasy IX it was next in line on the list of MUST BUY games. And Let me TELL you I was not disapointed at all.

Story - Score 15/15

You play the role of Lenneth Valkyrie a god of fate. You must recruit fallen warriors to wage war against ''Ragnarok'' which is basically the end of the world. So you recuit warriors to fight for the gods against the ''end of the cosmos'' Sounds cheezy right? Well ITS NOT. It is very religious and follows norse mythology very well and actually is VERY original and very interesting. If you loved the religious side and story of Xenogears like I did then you'll love the story in Valkyrie Profile. And if you think you'll be offended cuz of your beliefs don't be worried it is norse mythology so it doesn't offend anyone, well not that i can think of. Excellent job TRI-ACE very oringinal and very cool and interesting.

Graphics - Score 10/10

What no polygonal characters no realistically looking squall??? Well if your are that type of person you might be disapointed. but don't give up. As mentioned before i am an old school RPG'er and would take sprite based graphics over polygons andy day of the week. The Graphics are insanely awesome. The Sprites are amazingly well done and they're animations are better than anything polygons could do in FF8. Battle Animation is crazy and are a joy to watch. Amazingly detailed and beautiful pre rendered graphics illustrate the backgrounds and give the game a very original and cool feel. Exactly like ''Legend of Mana'' did. So different it was awesome. Full screen character portraits when dialog was going on it an another awesome trait it shows the emotion of the characters perfectly and show the character with amazing detail. This face with dialog is a growing trend in games (Final Fantasy Tactics, Xenogears, Front Mission 3, Grandia) and I have to say I can't get enough of it. I love it. Oh yea that game is well balanced with amazing CG scenes and Anime scenes too. Watch the opening movie and you'll know what I Mean. Graphics although not neccesary for a games success is done great in this game.

Sound - Score 9/10

If you loved Star Ocean: Second Story's music then you'll love VP. It is so sweeping and so epic it gives you such a world feel of the game and is very different from other typical RPG's which is good! Since the dungeons in the game are done in a 2-D platform type action the music is very upbeat and very fast paced. It sounds alot like an action game but has that RPG music feel that you've come to love. Alot of people may feel this almost ''techno'' type music is not part of an RPG and should not be in Valkyrie Profile. But since this game is so oringinal and so varied from the tradtional RPG norm that I truly love it. Its not Uebuo Numematsu (i think thats how ya spell it, Music guy from FF games)but hey its the next best thing. Good Job ENIX/TRI-ACE.

Gameplay - Score 25/25

This category alone makes or breaks a game and thats why i feel it is out of 25 and the hugest part of a game. If the game don't cut it here it just doesn't make it as a classic. And THIS category is where Valkyrie Profile shines with true colors. Two words can some up the gameplay. Innovative and Fun What lacks from most of today's RPG's is what Valkyrie Profile is good at. It is so innovative and so different you can't help but have fun with this game. (another lacking feature in some recent RPG's) The game's dungeons are layed out as mentioned before in a 2-D action platform type. And this keeps dungeon crawling very fun and very interesting it has its puzzle elements to get hard to reach treasures. You have to use your brain to get them. The way you encounter battles is very fun also. It is NOT random encounters. It is like Chrono Cross where you see the enemy unit. If you want to fight and get first strike walk up to the enemy unit and slash him with your sword. If you feel you have enough levels and don't want to. Freeze him with your crystal power and jump over. And now on I think the one of the most crucial parts of an RPG. The Battle System. As with the rest of the game it is totally oringinal and totally AWESOME and most of all it is fun. You get 4 characters in a party and they each correspond to a face button (triangle,square,x,circle) and you press those buttons with timing to have each character to attack and create combo's. sounds like button mashing right? well its not its very strategic and very deep. the battle system in depth has no limits and with 24 characters youll be sitting there for hours figuring out cool party combinations and combo's not to mention if you syncronize your combo's well and fill up the attack bar to 100 one of the character who particapted in combo can execute 'Purify Weird Soul'' attack. The games weird name for ''Super Awesome attack with awesome special effects and lots o' hits'' and if that ''limit'' fills the attack gauge to 100 u get to use another purify attack. So if played right you can have all yur characters use their ''purify'' attack in a row creating some very high hit combo's. My record now is 42 hits but im sure they sky's the limit as im only 1/4 to 1/2 way through the game. I can't same enough about the battle system. I LOVE IT. and will play it forever. Excellent Job TRI-ACE/ENIX

Replay value - Score 10/10

It has come to my attention recently that people who play through RPG's multiple times are thought to have been creppy or weird, but that is not the case. Personally I think that if you do not play through a game more than once it is a waste of yur 40$ US / 80$ CDN. I have played through FF6 over 25 times, FF4 over 15 times, Front Mission 3 twice, Legend Of Mana 3 times, Chrono Cross 3 times. And I think Valkyrie Profile will be no different with tons of characters(24 i think), multiple endings and 3 difficulty settings a secret dungeon only accessible after beating hard mode (very reminsicent of Star Ocean; Second Story) 3 secret charactes you can only get in that dungeon. plus the battle system alone will you keep playing for hours. 50+ hours thats nothing I'll prolly log my usual 100-150+ hours on this game too. And if your not into going through games more than once you might surprise yourself and do it with this game.

Conclusion
I can't say enough about this game. I could be here for hours (I'm writing this review in the computer lab at school on my free period) Go out and buy this game and you will not be disapointed. See my final overall mark then go buy this game. Its GOT IT ALL.

Overall Mark - Score 69/70 = 10/10
This game although not perfect ( i dont think any game is) is closer to a 10 than a 9 and since you have to have whole numbers I'll easily round up to a 10.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 09/28/00, Updated 09/28/00