A Player's view of this awesome RPG
Purify Weird Soul! Unique Battle System:
Although similar to the battlesystem in Star Ocean II: the Second Story, Valkyrie Profile offers a new view to traditional turn based battle, and combines it with real–time initiative. One could casually give battle orders, or learn about timing and character synchronisation to acheive great combo attacks and earn a lot of experience and battle spoils. The “Purify Weird Soul!” message will come up once your combo bar is completely filled up, during this time, the attacking characters can perform their special attacks, which are determined mostly by their weapon and personal skill. If your timing is good, you can get all four of your characters to do their special attack; resulting in mayor damage for your opposition. The battle system gets more stimulating later on, and is definately the core of this game next to the brilliant story.
Brilliant Hand Drawn Art:
One of the things you will immediately notice in this game is the wonderful art. Both the characters and the mystical worlds of Midgard and Asgard are drawn with great detail and brilliant use of colour. When characters talk, their portraits show up on the screen with different facials expressions and poses. Although the 2–D graphics of the lateral play can get a bit boring, the hand drawn images make up for it in the end. The more emotional parts of the game are very well accentuated by the art, which makes it feel very real, yet retaining its animated beauty.
Awkward controls:
Though some of the dungeons are a real challenge and require a lot of ingenuity, the controls of Valkyrie while in the dungeons is down right awkward and clumsy. The controls should have been more adept to the actual movements of Valkyrie, and the lack of timing and precision in the controls will annoy you when you have to perform risky jumps.
A story not to be taken lightly:
I didn’t expect that Valkyrie Profile would have such a deep and mysterious story in it when I first played it. As I got along though, I was very surprised at how many issues of life and death are so easily weaved into the tragic and often heart breaking stories. I would not recommend Valkyrie Profile to everyone, because the story can be quite realistic and upsetting.
Voice acting or annoying banter?:
I must say that the original voice acting for the Japanese version of Valkyrie Profile was quite stunning. Especially the voices of Freya, Lenneth and Odin impressed me. The english version definately lacks some good male voice actors. The voice for Odin is downright lame, and some of the other males just do not impress. I do believe though, that Enix did itself a favor when contracting the ever popular Rachel Lillis for the voice of Mystina (Rachell also starred in many other productions, including the ever popular Pokemon series). The voices of Lenneth Valkyrie and Lezard are also very well done, and emotional scenes are very good. It’s hit or miss with the voice acting, you either love it, or hate it.
Award winning musical compositions:
Motoi Sakuraba was already a famous for his work with Star Ocean II: the Second Story, and with Valkyrie Profile he did another amazing job. After the Original Soundtrack, he also made an arranged version as well as a unique voice mix arrangement. The music really fits the tragic storyline of the game, but some of the battle tunes or dungeon arrangements can get a tad bit annoying, but that is the risk with repetative music. Overall, the music is one of the best elements in the game, simply because of the presence it has in the story.
Final Score
Enjoyability = A, The game will be a joy for any RPGamer out there, and with three different endings and a special hard mode, it can keep you busy for quite some time. The brilliant story will also entice people to play it again. Enjoyable battle system as well.
Sound = A+, Like I said before, the music is absolutely brilliant and the game gives you the option to listen to all the sounds in the startup menu as well. The OSTs are diffinately worth getting.
Controls = C-, Awkward control for Valkyrie when she is in a dungeon or lateral level. A shame, because it can drive people away from the harder levels.
Graphics = B+, The hand drawn art is simply stunning, but the 2D grahipcs can put people off because of today’s awesome 3D features. Still, the game is a pleasure to look at.