Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth

"A moving story."

Graphics: 7/10.
Well, we are talking about a PS1 port. So don't expect much here. But the new CGs are nice, and even the old PS1 sprites are actually pretty nicely animated. And the super/special moves (PWS) are rather nice, too.

Sound: 6/10.
The dialoguing is very annoying at first. It's very much apparent the moment you start up the game, when you have to go through the prologue. Once you get used to it, it's not bad. The sound effects seem a bit primitive too, but again, this is a rather old game. Btw, as the fans will quickly note, the game uses the same voice actors as Pokemon. :D

Gameplay: 7/10
It's an interesting mix of platforming, puzzles, turn based and real time combat. Personally, I did not enjoy the platforming part. That genera was never my favorite, and the PSP's diagonal insensitivity makes some of the jumps a pain to do. The combat is rather fun and original. But after about mid game, your characters are so over-leveled and over-equipped, almost all of the battles except for a few boss battles become trivial.

Replay: 8/10
There's a lot to do here. And the chances are, that on your first game, you've missed out the "A" ending, the true ending. The standard "B" ending is pretty mundane. And there are quite a few characters in the game, and you probably will not get to explore all of them until you replay the game. Personally, I'm a story driven player, so once I know the plot, I have little interest in replaying the game, but I think many players don't mind going through the story again- and for such players, the replay value should be fairly high.

Story: 9/10
A most excellent story. The many characters that you come across have rather poignant stories, and you learn that each of them, are small reflections of your main character. The plot is weaved very nicely, although it is somewhat slow in the beginning. My only negative that's keeping this from being a 10/10, is the very last scene- it somewhat left me unfulfilled. But I hear that's a matter of opinion.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/09/06