VALKYRIE ELYSIUM

It's disingenuous to call this a Valkyrie Profile game, even as a spin-off. The inspiration is there, yet the depth is skin-deep. To say there's a story is too generous. It's predictable and dull and the characters unfortunately share the same fate. With that said, without considering the trappings of Valkyrie Profile, the game is quite competent. Graphically, it's nothing to look at if we're talking technical specs, but the art direction makes up for it. The atmosphere of the environments are melancholic yet lovely, The character designs are striking and memorable. The music is penned by Valkyrie Profile's legendary Motoi Sakuraba and while not as bombastic as his existing catalogue, it's certainly a highlight of the game. The gameplay itself is a standard hack and slash a la Devil May Cry. There's multiple weapon types, chain combos, mission grading, grappling mechanics, and some platforming. Although there is character progression, the upgrade trees don't have build options or the luxury of a choice. The gameplay is undoubtedly fun. It's not exciting or blood pumping, but it's therapeutic and enjoyable. This is the game I'd play when I want to relax. It's very clear they h…

I would recommend this game on sale, $30 USD or less. The Valkyrie Profile series is one that I've only really seen in passing, but always had a slight interest in. And the Steam release for Valkyrie Elysium was the only really accessible one for me. [b]Combat[/b] I did my playthrough in Valkyrie difficulty, so that's probably influenced the fun I had playing. From what I've gathered online, it seems that higher difficulty = high enemy aggression/damage and facing higher tier enemies earlier. What I'm not sure of is if difficulty affects HP, to me it felt like even early game enemies were damage sponges but I'm not sure if that's simply due to this being a combo building game. In combat, you're able to swap between two weapons without having to open a menu. Each weapon has their own set of combos that you unlock by upgrading the weapon, but the actual combo inputs themselves are essentially the same across all the weapons. For example, if you know what your aerial combo is for one weapon, then you can expect that using the same input with another weapon will do a similar thing. Some enemies will have a weakness to a specific weapon, and enemies are pretty much just recolors so …

Different from a Valkyrie Profile game, but I enjoyed this game. Bring the saga back to life <3

Valkyrie Elysium is a great action RPG. It's got a moody atmosphere and a dead, empty world that's a delight to explore. The different endings are satisfying and worth pursuing, and the bosses are particularly memorable.

There are subtle callbacks to the original Valkyrie Profile that fans may miss. The Combat might be the highest point of this game, but considering how many options and weapons you have to customize with, it's a beautiful game, and the music helps with the experience. Every sword swing feels deliberately solid, and even if this game doesn't have the Puzzles, Dungeon complexity, Plot Depth, Item Crafting, and so on of Valkyrie Profile 1 or 2, it tries to craft its own vision of what a VP game should be and that's respectable.

Hey