Valkyire Profile Lenneth Publishers: Square-Enix Release Dates: US: July 18, 2006 Japan: March 2, 2006 Europe: April 27, 2007 Platform: PSP Genre: Role-Playing Game Six years ago, a RPG that shook the world was released. It was named Valkyrie Profile for the PSX. Controlling the Valkyrie Lenneth, players must collect fallen soldiers, also known as Einherjar. Why are souls needed when you are a God? Well Ragnarok is about to occur and it is your duty to collect these souls, train them in the battlefield of Valhalla and eventually sending them to Ragnarok to fight for the Gods. The story thus far… A young girl named Platina is scheduled to be sold by her parents to slave owners. Her best friend Lucian discovers that Platina will be sold, only after having his younger sister fall victim to this curse. Lucian persuades her to run away with him, and the two disappear into the night. Following their departure, the two stumble unto the Weeping Lily Meadow, and Platina succumbs to the toxic pollen in the lilies. Weeping Lily Meadow Awoken by the ‘All-Powerful’, half-human and half-god, Odin, Valkyrie is given the task of collecting souls as the end of the world draws near (Ragnarok in Norse Mythology). Travelling all over Asgard, she collects the fallen souls, until she is confronted by Lucian. After some talk and tremendous cutscenes, he is recruited to the Einherjar group. Lucian believes that he recognized Lenneth as Platina, but because Valkyries have their memories erased at their ‘awakening’, Lenneth does not remember her childhood friend. After being released to Valhalla, he learns of this and contacts Lenneth, even though it is forbidden. When Odin finds out that Lenneth had visited Platina’s grave, Odin immediately shatters her soul and replaces it with her sister’s, Hrist. Lenneth’s Einherjar vow to resurrect her, and succeed in doing so. At the same time, the leaders of the two warring factions of the Aesir (Odin) and Vanir (Surt), are killed by a powerful mage named Loki. Lenneth regainaing her memories, from the power of an Elven homunculus created by Lezard Valeth, grows to defeat the mage. And the tale lives happily ever after with the wedding of Lenneth and Lucian. Take that! So what makes this game a spectacular RPG? There are several things that make this title have a claim to fame. The storyline is very engaging and gives you a sense of satisfaction as you play through the completion of the game, only to receive one of the game’s three unique endings. Gameplay wise, you can control Lenneth in the Map screen, the dungeon and city screens, as well as the battle screens. On the map screen, you get to Spiritual Concentrate, in order to unlock new dungeons and find new recruits. On the dungeons and city screens, Lenneth reverts to her human form in order to blend in with the humans. Finally, the only place where you can control both your Einherjar and Lenneth is on the battle screen. Battles begin when you encounter a monster in the dungeon screen. On the battle screen, you control your characters on a turn by turn basis. However, like in the PSX game, there are CT (charge turns) which increase as you ‘Purify Weird Souls.’ This move is a ‘super’ move and is unique to each character, or sometimes to the type of weapon being used. But be warned, as it uses CT’s, and some character classes, such as mages, cannot attack during the following turns until the CT is zero. The battle screen is very clean, it has vibrant backgrounds and shows the outline of the characters very well. The music collection and special effects is about the same as that of the original Valkyrie Profile. Unfortunately, not every gamer likes this old effects and it could be a burden to their ears. However, it still does sound futuristic and current as it gives a theme to the game that matches its overall message of old-fashionedness. The Goddess Freya and Lord Odin The key part of the game is the party screen. To access the party screen, one must first enter into the main menu with the Start Button. Then from the main menu, one must go to the part tab on the top of the menu. Form here a lot of options open up for you. Firstly, you can distribute experience points to certain Einherjar. Or you could re-arrange your party members, or switch them out for others. Lastly, and the most important is the transmittal of an Einherjar to Valhalla. Without this will surely lose major points on the evaluation form Lord Odin. Evaluation points may be earned by these two ways: 1) by offering artifacts found at the end of dungeons and after boss battles and 2) by sending Einherjar to Valhalla. Like all RPG’s you have a villain and a hero. Well this RPG gives you villains and over 30 heroes. Though there are only two main villains, there are still enough side quests and dungeons to explore to keep you occupied for a while. Scores: Presentation: Really great feel of the game, the menus look the same as the old game, but that was never a problem to begin with. Beautiful setup from Square-Enix. 9/10. Graphics: The in-game cut scenes do not look as cool as the main cut scenes. Main cut scene look high def. as seen in some of the sceenshots shown above. It’s one of the first few games on the PSP to have great graphics that rival that of FF. Simply amazing. 9/10 Sound: As said before, a lot of the old sounds are incorporated here, and some may dispute with me on this, but I really like the music. Special effects are really loud if you’re trying to play about 4 in the morning and not trying ot wake anyone up, but can easily be adjusted. 8/10. Gameplay: Really all your going to do is run around in towns and dungeons, and fly around on the World Map. In battles however, lots of random monster will appear and are immensely hard as you increase levels. All in all, it’s a challenge for you. 8/10 Lasting appeal: It has got a lot to offer. The three endings are worth playing to see what they have in store for you. Also the are three game modes; Easy, Normal, Hard, try them out and see what they are like. However, the only way to play with all 30 characters, one must play on Hard Mode. 8/10 Total: Valkyire Profile: Lenneth gets a 42 out of 50. Map Screen, all in 3-D Closing Comments: I’ve had this game for quite some time, for about 3 months actually. I’ve tried to play it, but I got obsessed with trying to get the perfect ending, so I ended restarting my game about 5 times. Don’t worry; it’ll happen to you too. Give it a go, great, solid game made by Square-Enix, and one of the best RPG’s ever created. By the way, its one of the two 'games of the month' games I've played. Side Note: Sorry I’ve been absent from the review scene, I started university on Wednesday. I’ll try to squeeze in another review tomorrow, hopefully, if calculus doesn’t cause me anymore headaches. To everyone else that writes reviews, you’ve all done a great job, keep up the excellent work. I’m glad that other members have started to take up the reviewing task as well. I might not be around as often reviewing, but I’ll make time for RomUlation. See you all around. Happy Gaming! - dmac154
Wow, nice review! Nice screenshots too, the pre-rendered cinematics look awesome. I don't have a PSP, but this game looks like a blast. You'd best not be quitting on romulation now! Ya Hear?!
Dude, I hear ya on the Calculus. Luckily, I don't start Calculus 2 until Tuesday. Great review as always. This is really the only game I know that was originally made by Enix. For everything else, there's Squaresoft. The only beef I have with this game is the ridiculously long introduction. It takes forever to get to the World Map (still haven't gotten that far). Even FF7 getting to the World Map meant at least a few hours but at least they had me doing something. This is basically how my experience went with this game: Opening movie -> 30 minutes later -> Cutscenes -> I'm controlling a random person -> Nobody explained how to battle -> I'm a random guy now -> SAVEPOINT! -> More cutscenes! -> Turned off. Even when I played the PSX version, with frameskip set to spacebar, I still didn't make it past the first part where you are able to walk around. A game really needs to lure me in right from the start. I'm pretty sure the rest of the game is absolutely amazing, but an extremely long intro isn't the way to do it.
Yeah I actually forgot to put this in my review: it took 39 mins for me to really start the game. I actually timed it, but the wait is certainly worth it.
One thing that stood out from the others was your graphics statement, you said the graphics from Valkyrie Profile rival the ones from FF. Anyway, if I'm not wrong, Valkyrie Profile and FF were made by the same producer, so how can they rival each other? Just a detail. Nice review, dmac! This is one of the very few games that would make me want a PSP, along with Daxter, Tekken DR and Wipeout. The last screenshot looks remarkably like DQ8 when flying.
I read this and I am thinking "wow I wish I had a PSP right now"!! Great review dmac!! Loved it. Looks like a great game. I love RPG's so would love to play this.
Loved the review and screenshots. Nice. Yes, this game is superb. One of my favourites of all time, the whole Valkyrie series is awesome indeed, among the small group of RPGs that I tried completing.
Again Nice review dmac. Good presentation. I too have beaten this game and can honestly agree with you on your score. For perfectionists out there....don't worry if you don't get the best ending on your 1st time through. There are 3 possible endings: The best / common / worst endings. You have to work hard for A, play normally for B, consciously play bad for C. So just enjoy the game and collect up that character quote collection bit. I dig the Nanami cutscene music.....so nice!
