A look back at: Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria

Yes! I'm finally done with this one. There's a ton to cover here, the excellent battle system from the first game returning, the finishing strikes (known as "Soul Crush" now), the 2D puzzle-solving being more complicated, goodness gracious I have way too much on my plate! But that's how the RPG player does it. You gotta customize like crazy to get the best out of everything. Even if those Einherjar are temporary, they are significantly more useful than in the last game due to how equipment is now set up to help with added effects. Plus Sealstones. Can't forget those! Ah, and I love the breaking of enemy parts and the fun break mode. Making the battle system semi-action RPG was a weird touch that oddly enough I actually didn't find too bad either. The tutorials thankfully helped ensure that I understood that complex battle system more.

Overall what Valkyrie Profile 2 does is expand on the original game's mechanics and cut out the stuff that actually was easy to criticize about that game. I think the time limit in that game was a problem, and having to send Einherjar up to Valhalla and giving them equipment to go along and saying bye to a potentially powerful member was, as unique as it was, robbing of awesomeness. Here, releasing an Einherjar is just fine, since they appear as living again and give rewards, plus you don't have any time limit and can hold on releasing them until it's necessary. The game has tons of battle strategies surrounding them, their equipment, and certain other things, to the point where it can be doing a million damage points to your enemies. Which, by the way, is necessary for the Seraphic Gate stuff. Hoo boy.

Okay, enough gushing about the good, the bad thing is actually oddly enough the game's overall plot. I mean, you can tell that since Alicia has Silmeria inside her, basically every other character has a dark secret to hide. Except Arngrim cause he's Arngrim I guess, just a genuine badass. But most people can tell Leone is Hrist from a mile away, and Dylan as Brahms may be a surprise, there was at least one hint with how he mentions what kind of person he is. And those who played the first game know EXACTLY what is Lezard's deal. It was interesting how the plot shifts from Alicia trying to get back home only to be treated poorly, to having to run from Hrist, to accidentally BONDING with Hrist, and then Lezard hijacks everything. He takes Odin, the valkyries (including Lenneth, yeah, she's the creator Lenneth from the "A" ending, but you can tell Lezard had something up his sleeve for her) and tries to pull a Kefka on everyone. Nasty guy. But it really sucks to see all that hard work and all the main characters die except for Rufus and the valkyries (well, they are just souls at the end of it all). Brahms decides to die in that twisted world, both Lezard and Odin are gone, and Alicia unfortunately just took Lezard's stab from Gungnir. I loved her full valkyrie transformation too.

Essentially speaking, Lezard screwed up the original Valkyrie Profile's timeline by removing the event of Silmeria being trapped in the crystal, instead it's Brahms, and then Lezard continues to ruin things by taking what is Odin's later on. And it just feels like a kick in the pants for those who loved the original Valkyrie Profile, which I certainly did. That game was hard but WORTH IT. This one, well, it was enjoyable on all ends but the plot.

A look back at: Valkyrie Profile

Valkyrie Profile is the telling tale of a valkyrie finding dead souls to fight for the sake of Valhalla, or is it?

This ended up being one of my favorite games in a similar vein that Lufia II had, in that basically everything about it is good. Sure, the dungeons turn into side-scrolling platformers, but have the right enemies and traps to get over. The game's unique combat system sticks out over many others, utilizing the buttons for good attacks, plus the combos that can be done, oh yes, and mages tend to be useful too. Sure, you can use the menu for things as well, and might as well since the game can get quite rough, but it's a worthwhile value of the games battles. The Purify Weird Soul moves are pretty anime-esque but do their job as finishing moves, and can be comboed for extra fun. The MP in this game is actually currency, the DME in this game is essentially the HP, and the EXP ball is so helpful.

Oh yes, and time periods get used up upon entering and doing things. Go to towns, find recruits that end up dying, also train up recruits and then send them over to Valhalla, meaning you can't use them again, yet said warriors are in fact what pleases your superiors. The characters you get all have their unique personalities and how each one of them died and join your entourage. Even the ones that don't join but are still very important plot-wise, like Brahms and Lezard, care to be among the memorable ones. You can obviously expect Asgardians to be rich in power, just look at Loki and you can tell he's gonna be a villain. You can also look at Midgard and realize just how miserable it is. Part of it may be Odin's fault too, considering he took one important thing called a Dragon Orb, which ends up in some destabilization of that area. As far as most interesting character, that's easily Lenneth, a character basically defrosted into an emotionless warrior finder, who in the A ending would end up getting her memories back should you choose. And naturally the B ending doesn't cover any of this at all.

And then there's the prospect of endings and difficulty settings which give this game quite the replay value. Each time, you are liable to get different Einherjar in each game depending on what the RNG provides, and to avoid C ending you gotta get those characters sent up. But the Seal rating is the key to the A ending, and needs to somehow be kept low to unlock those events there. It's quite a balancer. As for difficulty settings, this is one of the reasons why Hard is the best difficulty setting, due to several accessories that boost stats on level-ups, this means that several characters in the game will have it much easier than they would on Normal and especially Easy.

So yes, when the story and gameplay are real good and the characters are interesting, with the main ones growing on the player, it pretty much is a sign the game is gonna be fantastic all around. I really could not recommend this game anymore than I already have, it is excellent and worth a buy.