Title: Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria

Date: 10.18.2006

Genre: RPG

Platform: PlayStation 2

Developer: EIDOS Interactive

Publisher: EIDOS Interactive

The long-anticipated Valkyrie Profile 2 finally arrives, and once again, Tri-Ace proves that RPGs can have gameplay superior to the story. Truth to tell, I was a bit hesitant on picking this game up at first, simply because Tri-Ace's former release, Radiata Stories, was…shall we say, less than admirable. My suspicions were dispelled, however, after a mere 30 minutes of starting the game—it reminded me of what video games, especially RPGs, are all about—the fun factor.

Quick History
When Squaresoft (now known as Square-Enix) released Valkyrie Profile for the Playstation, it became a sleeper hit, like many of Tri-Ace's games; that is, no one really seemed to know about when it was first released, and it gained greater popularity in time. Valkyrie Profile was entirely original in terms of story and gameplay to the RPG world. Set in a dark, medieval atmosphere, you played the role of the beautiful yet cold-willed Valkyrie named Lenneth, who was to gather souls from the living world and bring them to Odin. Loosely based off of real Norse Mythology (mainly just the characters and settings—the actual story is entirely fictitious), it's dark, compelling story and fantastically fun gameplay soon made it a hit whose popularity came largely after the arrival of the PS2. Now, many years later, Squeenix, or more specifically Tri-Ace, has released a “sequel”, Valkyrie Profile 2. At the same time, a re-release of the original Valkyrie Profile, now titled VP: Lenneth, appears for the PSP, to let players catch up on the ongoing epic of the humans versus the corrupt gods. Valkyrie Profile 2 doesn't disappoint; in fact, in many ways it is far superior to its predecessor.

Story
I'm being reasonable here; the story actually deserves an 8 or 9 if you bothered to play and understand the first (which is why I suspect VP: Lenneth was re-released). The story gets a 7 by “standing on its own”, without aid from Lenneth's version. And no, you don't need to play VP: Lenneth first, as this game can be played without any prior knowledge of it. The concept is quite appealing; you play the role of an embarrassingly shy princess named Alicia, who was banished from the kingdom of Dipan for sharing a soul with the Valkyrie Silmeria, Lenneth's younger sister. Silmeria lives within Alicia and often talks to her and even takes over her body at times to make her seem more…courageous.

The story focuses around the Kingdom of Dipan and its efforts to defy the gods; specifically, Silmeria's vendetta she has against the All-Father Odin. What commences is a journey involving Alicia and her new friends—an arrogant rogue named Rufus, an alluring sorcerer of many mysteries named Lezard, and a mighty warrior named Dylan. It's not as dark and depressing as the first one, but it's compelling nevertheless. To be brutally honest, the story is ridiculously slow and filled with many clichés for the first half of the game, which is why it gets a 7. However, it's entertaining to say the least and it's not so much of a turn off that it will take away from the game. Another good factor about the story is that the cutscenes aren't long and overbearing; there's plenty of gameplay element.

Graphics
The graphics are superb, outdoing several other of today's RPGs. The characters don't look very anime-ish and in fact hold a rugged look to them that makes them fit in with the world, as opposed to other RPGs where your band of heroes looks unrealistically bizarre compared to everyone else. (I'm being harsh here; this game has MANY characters, but I'm referring to the main cast, more of less.) The medieval setting and exotic locales are very well done, so if anything, it's worth a play-through just to marvel at the realistically-done environments.

Sound
This can be debatable. I found the music very enjoyable and appropriate, but nothing real catchy. The battle music is absolutely superb, which is definitely a good thing, as you'll soon find out if you scroll down to my ‘Biggest Downfall' area in this review. The ultimate fall of the sound comes from the characters' voices…or rather, the dubbing of their voices. The dubbing is god-awful, even I can't deny that, so sometimes it can be difficult to figure out if a character is talking or if he/she is only “thinking” aloud. This is hardly an issue, though; unless you're some kind of pro-synchro fanatic, don't let this minor fault be a major turnoff.

Gameplay
As with every Tri-Ace game, this is where the game shines—the gameplay department. It may seem rather anachronistic compared to today's RPGs, but Alicia (your main character) moves around through cities, exotic locales and other places of interest in a 2D manner. That is, the gameplay style is 2D set in a 3D world. In this sense, Alicia (and you, as the player) has to use her wits to overcome simplistic but often puzzling obstacles including leaping from collapsing bridges, slashing down obstacles with her sword, etc. Sadly, the sliding option has been eliminated from this game, but Alicia can still briefly freeze foes and use them as stepping stools and whatnot. However, the real fun comes from the battles.

Fans of the first game will need no introduction on how the ultra-fun battle system works. When you encounter enemies, Alicia and her comrades (whoever she has with her at the time), will take on the enemies in a 2 x 2 formation. Each character represents a different button on your controller, and by having your group engage an enemy, you can sort of “mash” the buttons to have all four characters attack at once and exhibit deadly combos to expel the monsters. While that may sound like a mash-fest, there is strategy involved. For example, if your wizard attacks first and blows the enemy into the sky, then all the other fighters in your party will miss with their attacks, which is while it is essential to time your attacks perfectly.

The biggest change to the battle system is the 3D environment. In the first VP, your party was stationary and in all honesty, the game really was a mash-fest. The ability to have your party move around the battlefield provides a greater challenge. All your foes have different ranges of attacks too, making dodging a possibility now, too. When you attack a foe, your AP meter is drained. The AP meter calculates just how much of a “turn” you get; that is, whenever you use an item, dash around or attack, the AP meter is drained and when it is empty, your turn has expired, allowing the enemy whom you forgot to run away from to totally wail on you for his/her/it's turn. However, with each hit the enemy does on you, your AP meter fills back up, as it will if you're just casually running around the field. If it sounds complex, it's only because I explained it wrong. The battle system is fairly original and will take some time getting used to, but it provides immense fun (and later, challenge).

Other than that, this IS an RPG, and so all of the usual RPG elements apply, including shopping for items, armor and equipment, talking to people to learn more about the world and what to do next, etc, etc, etc. By the way, despite the small main cast, there are over 40 Einherjar (party member recruits) you can find to aid you on your journey. This diversity makes replay value fun as you'll never get bored with one party. Unlike other RPGs that try and fail at this sort of shtick, no character “sucks” big time—rather, all of them are fairly powerful to a degree. Of course, there's plenty of secrets and optional quests, too.

Biggest Downfalls!
This review is rather long, and I blame the complicated battle system, so if you're going to view anything from this work, I suggest it be this topic. No RPG is perfect; otherwise, there would never be another. So even VP Silmeria here has its…faults. No one likes to hear this sort of old-school RPG folly, but here it comes: This game has level grinding. Seriously. It is possible to avoid such tediousness by mastering the Skill system (a system that allows your party to learn skills based on what equipment and accessories they have), but even then, it takes a while for the party to master such skills. Luckily for you, with such a fun battle system and some very cool battle music, it sort of takes away from the “ugh!” feeling you'll probably experience. That's the major one, however, I do have to bring to light again certain elements of the story. All I can say is keep an open mind, because the first third of the game's story is consumed by clichés and predictability. Again, it's not a major problem and it IS entertaining, but for those of you who only play RPGs for the story, you may have to take a chance and give this one some time. It picks up, I promise.

Replayability
Level grinding can be a turn-off, so you'll hear no praise from me on that, but there ARE over 40 different characters to play as, so you'll never be bored with the same party. I never rate replayability high in my reviews simply because the choice is ultimately up to whether or not the gamer experienced a fun factor worthy enough for the game to be played again. As for me, I'd say it's definitely replayable…but like any game, only to an extent. The game gets progressively harder with each new game, so if you're a challenge-junkie, you'll be in for a treat.

And so, overall, what we have here is another great game by Tri-Ace (even if Square Enix did publish it). Old-school gamers will have to get used to the funky new battle system (which I bring up simply because I've read a lot of people disliking it due to some sort of “complexity”) but the game is magnificent nonetheless. I hate to harass Square Enix on the subject, but this is the best game they've released all year. I seriously suggest you trying it out, even if you just rent it. You may be pleasantly surprised.

Game Score

B+

Reviewed By: Contributed