Valkyrie Profile

Valkyrie Profile developed by Tri-Ace is a first in a series of jRPGs. The team earlier prepared two installments of another famous representative of the genre, Star Ocean. The game employs numerous elements of Nordic mythology and stands out from the competitors with its original battle mechanics.

Story

Valkyrie Lenneth receives from Odin and Freya the task of gathering warriors, einherjar, who will help them in the war against the Vanir and during the coming Ragnarok. She sets out for Midgard to gather the souls of the fallen heroes. As part of her stay in the earthly world, she undertakes various tasks, trains gathered heroes in battles against beasts and gradually discovers the truth about her earthly life, about which her memories have been erased. She also faces Odin's enemies, whom she must stop from bringing chaos to the world.

Mechanics

Valkyrie Profile is distinguished by many unique solutions, unparalleled in other jRPGs. Before starting the adventure, the players choose one of three difficulty levels that affect, among other things, the number of available dungeons to complete and heroes to gather, as well as the number of avilable endings. Exploration of the world takes place in the body of Lenneth, who, flying high above the Midgard, searches for new cities, warrior souls and quest areas. Movement on individual maps has been solved based on the model of two-dimensional platform games. The main character can only turn left or right, attack with her sword and send magical, freezing projectiles. On each map, there are occasional arcade and logic challenges, as well as large numbers of opponents to defeat.

The battles are conducted in special arenas and presented in a static view, which shows both parties from the side. Each of the four characters in the party has one of the buttons on the controller assigned. The player, by clicking on them, decides on the order of the heroes' attacks, creating spectacular combinations and charging a special bar. When it reaches one hundred percent, special attacks can be executed. Tactical abilities are increased by the variety of classes of available characters, including heavy knights, archers, samurai, and wizards. The latter are subject to special rules on attacks - they can only cast spells from time to time when their corresponding indicator is at 0.

Squaresoft's game gains depth with elements such as the ability to send trained warriors back to Asgard to help Odin in the war, as well as limited time to explore the world within each chapter. The devs also prepared a special dungeon, "Seraphic Gate", in which the players will be faced by a number of extremely difficult challenges and bosses.

Technical aspects

Valkyrie Profiles successfully combines 2D and 3D graphics. The former is used during the exploration of individual cities, dungeons, battles, and is distinguished by, among others, detailed character designs. The second one is used to depict the game world and Lenneth's movement on the world mapd. The whole game employs numerous elements of Nordic mythology, referring to the deities, events, and legends appearing in it.

Last updated on March 16, 2020