Valkyrie Profile (PSX Review)

Hey Mark57Raider here for another Review. This time I'm doing a review on Valkyrie Profile. The story goes that you are a Valkyrie Maiden named Lenneth serving under Odin. Your father Odin has served you with a task along with your sister Freya to fight Ragnorok. A calamity who threatens the underworld and god world alike. You've been sent to find souls who are on the verge of death through their hopes, sorrow or on their last leg of life. This isn't a very happy rpg, so if you're expecting happiness and peace in this game. This isn't for you. Every story is very sad. They focus this on the fact in this period that there is much war going on and usually evil always wins through the heroes of the defeated. This is where Lenneth the Valkyrie Maiden comes in to absorb their souls as Einhjariar. Einhjariar are souls of humans who have been killed through sadness and war. She takes them in to help them in their final war with the Ragnorok.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

The visuals of the game are a stunning anime like quality masterpiece. The portraits of the characters are very very detailed and well done for a renaissance era game that looks like 16 or 17th century fantasy. The background effects are extremely well done psuedo 2.5 Dimensional on a complete side scrolling plane. You can go to several locales using up or down. The graphics are three-dimensional with two dimensional characters. The art is very beautiful, even though the art is digitalized it still looks very, very well done. Even near the beginning of the game you can fly around anywhere you want on the earth below in a grand overworld scope. As Lenneth searching the people of the world, you are a maiden who can fly. The world looks mode 7ish, absolutely breath taking.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

The sounds and battle clashes, voice talents are truly epic. The music is an epic masterpiece of dungeons, the overworld theme makes you feel like there is impending doom as you search for people in the world to help you in your battles. In help right the wrongs of society and help along those whom need to be cleansed from death. The music for the battles are generally upbeat. The music is extraordinary for the playstation.

The game plays like a platform rpg in many cases. There are no random encounters and you can fight enemies or run away as you see fit. The game consists of turn based battles with some action elements which gives it a sense of strategy and depth. When you enter a battle, your characters are set with a button icon which is used to attack with that character...such as "square","triangle","circle","x". There is a turn counter on the upper right part of your attack hud which tells you how many turns you've taken in battle. You can then attack depending on the number of green bars you have on the "button" hud. You can attack up to that much for each of those three trigger buttons. By careful and precise reaction time with the buttons you can do insane combos and hits. And you can charge your special attacks to 100% gauge if you are able to be quick and accurate. Anything less results without having a special attack. Once you use all four buttons and your attacks, you use a turn and then the enemy will attack. If by any chance you can't use your character you have to wait for your charge turn which is displayed in red to empty. Using up one turn will recharge until you can use your characters button again, (four party team). With each person triggering a button. Actions such as items ,changing rows and changing equipment will take a turn also so be careful. If your DME empties for all characters it results in a game over or you win the battle if you beat all enemies.

You can develop your characters and power them up by getting SP each level up which can go to your heroic skills which effect your heroism and may help your luck in certain aspects of the game. Or you can have your Valkyrie allocate your points to leveling up battle skills that are used in battle. You can also gain experience points by doing things outside of battle such as cutting a heavy object or completing a party experience task. At a certain level you can dematerialize your einjharar (soul bound party member) by getting to a certain level. Not sure exactly what that does but if you do you can tell me. Outside of battle and exploring you as a Valkyrie are able to shoot stars the produce crystals and can help you to platform in certain areas of the game. When you open chests sometimes they might have traps inside the treasure that you can avoid. If you don't you take damage from the contents of that chest. When exploring, if you keep certain items also Odin may de-evaluate you because the relic belongs to the kingdom. On the plus side if you keep that item it may help you in someway.