Square Enix is pretty delightful when it comes to RPGs, and the Valkyrie Profile games are no exception. Starting in 2000 as a PlayStation title, Valkyrie Profile captivated the hearts of many with a nice, original plot and an innovative gameplay.
However, for reasons only Odin knows, this series never became as popular as it should have. A sequel entitled Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria for the PlayStation 2 was published on 2006, and a remake of the first game was published in 2006 as well, entitled Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth, for the PSP. Now in 2008, a new game arrives, enjoyable ONLY on our dear Nintendo
DS!
Console: Nintendo
DS
Release Date: 11/01/08[JP], 03/17/09[NA], 04/03/09[EU]
Publisher: tri-Ace
Developer: Square Enix
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: T
The Valkyrie, also known as the Battle Maiden, is a godess entrusted with the duty of gathering worthy, fallen warriors from earth and sending them to Valhalla. By the side of the fallen warrior, soul taken to become an Einherjar, the Valkyrie leaves a white feather, proving the warrior was taken by her. Some people consider this kind of departure an honor; while others...
Wylfred and Ancel are two inseparable childhood friends, both mercenaries looking for some cash from battle. However, there's something about Wylfred we still don't know; He seeks revenge. His father, an honorable warrior, died in battle years ago, a plume laying by his body. Yes, the Valkyrie had taken him. Due to his death, his family had no way of income, so Wyl's mother had to start working, only getting low paid jobs that didn't even suffice for some food. This led to Wylfred's youger sister, Elise, to die of starvation. Our ''hero'' blames the Valkyrie for both deaths - had she not taken his father, his family would be safe and sound. He wants the Battle Maiden to die by his hands.
After a battle fought alongside Ancel, a demon managed to survive and attack Wylfred, dealing a fatal wound. While traveling to the other world, he notices a voice talking to him. The voice declares itself as Mistress Hel, and offers Wyl an effective way of salvation and revenge by forging a covenant: The covenant of the plume.
To fulfill the pact, Wyl must acquire the sin that Hel seeks and blacken the Valkyrie's plume with blood. In order to do so, he is expected to show no mercy in battle, prey upon the weak, and darkest of all... kill his own friends.
Not only does the Nordic style look fabulous on the layout of menus and overall game, but the visual effects and animations look simply amazing. Maps are in full 3D and look really nice, with wind and other effects to complement. When performing a Soul Crush, which I will explain further in the review, a nice cutscene plays, with incredible visual effects and cinematics. There's something I may complain about though; sprites are constantly stretching and shrinking, and while it does look awesome with the battle cinematics, the sprite itself does not look too good. Apart from that, everything seemed perfect.
Valkyrie Profile - Covenant of the Plume veers from previous Valkyrie Profile games. Past titles, while being RPGs, also had some platforming/action/adventure elements; however, Covenant of the Plume was turned completely into a strategy RPG. This means battles are set in a specific grid-based map by turns.
Each map will have its own design and peculiarity. Some will have a difficult terrain which will cut down movement, while others may have poisoned water or lava pits that will damage your party if positioned over them. You can have as many characters at your command as you can get, all being important ones; however, you won't be able to bring more than four to battle. Each ally will be on a specific class, being a swordsman, a sorcerer or an archer.
Now there is a new SRPG game mechanic: the team attack. When attacking an enemy, the ally you command to do so won't be alone, - his allies in the immediate area will join in the fray. Each character, depending on the equipment, will have a different amount of moves during battles, moves being attacks as well. I'll refer to the attack command as ''Attack'' and the attack moves as ''Moves'' from now on. So as I was saying, each character's moves will differ in quantity depending on the equipment. Wylfred, for example, starts with a sword that has two moves, meaning that during an attack, he will be able to strike two times. Ancel's sword has three moves, so if you group attack with Wylfred, you will have 5 moves in a single attack, pretty sweet. Group attacks are a good way to deal great damage, but there's another way it could be used to deal even more damage: the sieges.
Sieges are performed by cornering an enemy with two or more characters so its moves are limited. This could be front-back, left-right, left-right-front or even all four sides, being the strongest siege of all. Sieges do not only grant more damage, but also make attack replenishers appear more often. Attack replenishers are little orbs that come out of enemies when you hit them and that, as the name implies, replenish a move. Imagine you have two attacks; you use the second one and an orb comes out of the enemy, this gives you an extra attack. The red orbs may become shining orbs during a siege, granting two attacks instead of one.
Liese, you are doomed.
As you are hitting your enemy, a Hit gauge will fill; if you manage to fill it completely by dealing consecutive hits, you may perform a Soul Crush, a special attack that deals massive damage to an enemy. While in a Soul Crush the Hit gauge will continue to be filled, but it will get harder to fill with each Soul Crush. Some Soul Crushes will deal a lot of hits and little damage, while others may deal a few hits but incredible harm, so you will have to manage how to use them wisely.
Accomplishing the mission's objective is not the only thing you will have to achieve in a battle,as you will also have to cover the sin quota sent by Hel. To obtain Sin, you need to keep on hurting the enemy once it's dead. A Sin bar will replace the health meter when this happens; this action is called Overkill. However, there's an easier way to fill the sin fee, which is using the plume on your allies. By doing so, the Sin meter will fill competely, but this is not the only thing that happens; your ally's stats get maxed out, gaining incredible strength well ensuring your victory. At the end of the battle, though, that ally dies, so bear that in mind before using the plume on them. If you fail to cover the sin sought, the enemy will deploy amazingly strong units on the next round, called Realmstalkers.
Out of battle, you will attend towns and cities, each having a shop and tavern in it. You can buy equipment in the stores and deepen the storyline in the taverns. You can also equip and teach tactics and skills to allies out of battle, and something I found really irritating while equipping allies was the lack of a comparison chart for the stats. You will have to go back and forth on the menu remembering the values just to see how much some stat went up, sometimes leading to a mistake.
The game will take you quite a while to beat the first time, even in the worst ending. That's right, Valkyrie Profile - Covenant of the Plume has multiple endings, which depend on how much you use the plume in the game. You will have to start the game over to get a different ending, but don't worry, it doesn't have to get repetitive. There are different paths you can take, each of them with a different storyline and characters. In fact, there are so may paths to choose, you can actually take at least one per ending. The storyline is straightforward, so you won't be able to go back and replay battles, but you can get special stages by visiting the tavern. However, a special unlockable obtained under certain condition will keep you busy for a long time.
We all love listening to rearrangements of songs from previous games in a new title, right? Well, this game is no exception, as most tunes are remixes from the original Valkyrie Profile! Songs are really catchy and they perfectly suit the environment they are used in, such as a slow song for a sad part of the storyline, or a dynamic one for battle.
Voice acting is excellent, and each character has a different voice (believe it or not, it's not like that on many games), and they all have different sayings and catchphrases. While on a Soul Crush, the character will say a short monologue which is in sync with the actions taken. Voice acting, though, is only used for short phrases in battle, the acted cutscenes, as seen in the first title, won't come back in this game.
Square Enix does not fail to delight us again with a wonderful game. Everything in it is enjoyable, from the uncommon anti-hero storyline to the original gameplay and the amazing visuals this game has to offer. A nice way to get you introduced into SRPGs and a must-get if you like this genre.
Hmmm...
Linear Mode
