Platform: PlayStation

Developer: Tri Ace, Tri Crescendo, TOSE (PlayStation Portable)

Publisher: Enix America

Release Date (NA):  July, 18, 2006

Genre: Role-Playing-Game

Ranking: Amazing

Reviewed by: Juuchi Yosamu

I found this gem at…. my brothers house…. bleh. I fell in love with the game instantly. I’m a big fan of mythology, Egyptian, Roman, Greek, Norse, you name it! Naturally when I saw words like Ragnarok and Einherjar I was sold.

Synopsis 

The protagonist, Lenneth, is one of Odin’s faithful Valkyries and as such is charged with the task of collecting the souls of warriors for the inevitable final battle, Ragnarok. Every new recruit is another tale full of betrayal and woe. You can almost feel their anguish as loved ones are lost and lives are torn asunder. During your journey, you will uncover many forks in the road, you may start to doubt your very existence. Which path will you choose? Will you remain Odin’s ever faithful servant or is there more to this life than what meet’s the eye?

The World

Once on the world map, you are able to soar to any point on the map you wish. Use Lenneth’s divination to find the souls of worthy warriors to add to your Einherjar. You may also find places of interest containing treasure or places overflowing with evil which must be cleansed. Each phase, Odin requests Einherjar with special skills to be sent to Valhalla to help in the war efforts against Vanir. It is up to you to either send him what he requests or (if it is someone you don’t want to lose) keep them for yourself and send another. Depending on where your loyalties lie, the outcome of the story may vary drastically.

Battle

A nice change of pace from random battles. You can see your enemies beforehand roaming around. Once sighted, you can choose fight, avoid or freeze them. If you were touched by the monsters they gain a preemptive strike, and the reverse  if you strike the monster with your blade. Freezing a monster will allow you to use him as a platform. You can use frozen enemies to your advantage and reach places you couldn’t reach before. Once on the battlefield, you can wield powerful magic, initiate combos and annihilate your opponents with deathblows.

Periods

Whenever you enter an area or use Lenneth’s divination you expend time shown in the world map as periods. If you want to grind or explore areas, keep in mind how much time you have remaining, do the essentials first and then do what you want with your remaining time.

Evaluation

You’re work ethic is being critiqued by Freya, and the choices you make may change the outcome of the story. Like with any job, doing poorly may result in your untimely termination.

Completionist 

If you want to experience all Valkyrie Profile has to offer then you’re going to have to play on Hard Mode. I would suggest playing the game on Normal and see how it plays out. If once around was enough for you then feel free to pack it up and call it a day but if you get hooked, like I did, then Hard Mode is the way to go. It offers a few new scenarios and more playable characters which expand your experience.

Graphics & Audio 

The cinematics are nice and the animations for the deathblows are amazing. The surroundings, monster and character designs are all very creative. Motoi Sakuraba is the brilliant composer to this game, you may know him from Tales of Destiny and many, many more. The music is phenomenal and it stirs the emotions. Hearing the music when Lenneth uses her divination always sends a chill down my spine.

Conclusion

This game is great, but it does have a steep learning curve. Once you get past the initial shock and awe of all the new battle mechanics, you will never want to go back to the boring standard style. Valkyrie Profile is like a  Russian Matryoshka doll, a story within a story within a story. Even if battle system was trash and the music was horrid I would still enjoy sitting through the story, but luckily for us we hit the trifecta. The replay value is very high, especially if you take my advice to play the game on normal first. I’m fairly certain, you will be drawn to the game and be forced to replay the game in hard mode. A new mode will be unlocked when saving at the final checkpoint, this mode is not for the faint of heart (more than likely you will be slayed….) Playing in this mode let’s you unlock even more that was not available through the main story line. All in all the game is full of twists and turns and I feel Valkyrie Profile is definitely one of Enix’s top 3 games.