Forget Ragnarök, we dead
The original Valkyrie Profile series was one that always seemed interesting to me but for some reason or other there was always a bigger game I was into. So, its been shoved down the list to the point where I had forgotten about the series until Square-Enix; the company that will never bring us Final Fantasy 14 or Final Fantasy 7 Remake to Xbox announced Valkyrie Elysium.
MSRP: $59.99
Platforms: PlayStation (reviewed), PC
Price I’d Pay: $49.99
The biggest difference between Valkyrie Elysium and its forbearers aside from the change in protagonist is that Valkyrie Elysium is an action RPG. This was initially a bit disappointing because I had heard very good things about the battle system in the original series and was looking forward to trying it out. This became a none issue as while the combat may no longer have been turn-based, players still summon Einherjar; which are the souls of dead warriors who will join the Valkyrie Nora in her fight to rid the world of wicked souls. The story is a pretty generic set up which sees Nora fighting on behalf of Odin; but ends up finding herself torn between her duty to her God or her newfound empathy for humans. Sounds grand, and honestly its presented as such but just kind of fails flat with obvious plot twists.
Graphically, Valkyrie Elysium is a beautiful game which will come as no surprise as say what you want about Square but usually their games look great. (Yes, I know Babylon’s Fall is ugly af but since its dead we will give them a pass) As players make their way through the large levels, they will find backstories to different Einherjar that are recruitable. Some of them have some good stories to tell, while others are just kind of middling. This becomes more of a negative when you realize just how empty the world is, there aren’t bustling towns of NPC’s that are normally found in Square games which is unfortunate to say the least.
What Valkyrie Elysium lacks in story and world building though can be kind of forgiven because of how fun the combat is. I enjoy some fast, and fluid combat and luckily VE delivers. Inputs are on the similar side only using std attack and heavy attack button; but the more complex stuff comes in when you start using the Einherjar and the various ‘Divine Arts’ which are the magical abilities. Most enemies have a weakness to a particular element, which unfortunately reduces most battles to just summoning the appropriate Einherjar to give constant damage and then finish up with a divine art. This is also true of boss battles, which takes any thrills from vanquishing a foe but when its firing on all cylinders mixing up all of the above in a fast and fluid way thankfully makes each encounter fun, which is why we’re here after all.
I was excited going into Valkyrie Elysium because of what I had heard about the series. While after my time with it that excitement certainly has dulled, not because of the combat but just because everything around it just kind of felt ‘meh’. If the world was more populated or at the very least more interesting there would be much more here to really sink one’s teeth into, as it stands once players are done doing Odin’s bidding they will find little reason to return in my opinion.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
