Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth Review

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Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth Review; Score: 8.5/10
Topic Started: Jan 11 2008, 02:18 PM (415 Views)
Fayt	Jan 11 2008, 02:18 PM Post #1
Posts: 548 Group: Admins Member #1 Joined: Jan 10, 2008 Gender Male	Full Name: Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth Genre: RPG Developer/Publisher: tri-Ace/Enix Platform: PSP Japan Release Date: 2 March 2006 US (NTSC) Release Date: 18 July 2006 EU (PAL) Release Date: 27 April 2007 Story Overview: Valkyrie Profile borrows from Norse Mythology. Your role is to play out the story of a Valkryie by the name of Lenneth. As a Valkryie you have a strange power that allows you to listen out for souls of mortals on the brink of tragic deaths. From here Valkyrie employs their souls to fight at her side, which she trains to potentially be really to fight at her master’s side, Lord Odin in his epic wars at Valhalla. As time progresses you must find more recently deceased mortals, which are know as Einherjar, and sent a number of them to lord Odin before the final battle. It’s clearly not your common linear style story line, there is not exactly a typical save the world plot, nor is the story highly fixed in terms of go to one place then another immediately after either. Another factor you must face is the ‘chapters & periods’ which represent time. Time is not of a limitless supply and must be used resourcefully if you with to succeed, particularly to get the games best ending. Gameplay: You’re travels revolve around a god like overhead 3D view with Lenneth while searching for a new area to visit and listening out for troubled souls. At all other times it features a 2D view while you roam in towns and dungeons. The movement is quite real time, you will see your enemies on the battle field, giving you the option to either fight them, strike first, freeze them or avoid them. If you’re stuck in a dungeon you can avoid fighting until you either find the sanctuary of a Load Point or Exit. In a way it’s almost like an old school platform game, you will have to jump over obstacles and at times skilfully manoeuvre yourself through tight situations with great timing and use the aid of your freezing abilities at times as well. The game progresses in more of a semi-linear plot, in that you get a choice of where you want to go, and when you want to. While at the same time having essentially time restrictions in place and required to at least finish some dungeons and recruit some Einherjar to move on. If you perform too poorly in missions by rushing and sheer laziness Lord Odin may even revoke you right as a Valkyrie resulting in a prompt bad ending! I know for a fact this does turn some away from the title, as you don’t get a limitless supply of time, experience, training etc. I guess those familiar with the Fire Emblem series will be able to understand this better then most RPG gamers. (well except for Sacred Stones, but let’s not go there!) Personally, I think the gameplay is fantastic, a great combination of older style 2D environments, with a few 3D elements added in. The way the game progresses is smooth, and you will often find about 2 Load Points per dungeon, so you’ll get plenty of opportunity to save your game! 9/10 Characters: At all times you will play as Lenneth, as well as a ‘rejected’ Einherjar in Arngrim, although it’s not really a bad thing because he too is a powerful swordsman. You will encounter a host of different characters on your travels, all with their own unique personality traits and abilities. The way the game is designed by making you send warriors to Valhalla is actually not such a bad thing, if you wanted to you can transfer the Einherjar you don’t like, and keep the ones you do! Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth offers a host of ways to develop your Einherjar. Via Capacity points allocation to various skill types (not too different to that of Second Story actually), via “bonus exp” stored in an Exp Orb (similar to bonus experience in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance), via items equipment which can be both found & created with Materialize points, and of course by defeating enemies in battle. Even if you rarely use certain characters you still some options to train your Einherjar to be suitable for transfer to Valhalla without even using them in battle! The game offers a great range of characters, and ways to develop them. Allowing you some room to move while developing your characters and not restricted to training everyone fight after fight. 9/10 Battle System: The battle system is basically a left (enemy) vs. right (your party) face off. From here you can select items, magic etc, as usual in most RPG’s. Although the unique aspect is timing, on your turn you can attack an enemy in sequence to try filling your HIT gauge to allow for further special attacks. One notable special attack is the powerful Nibelung Valesti for Lenneth (sound familiar Till the End of Time fans?). Your attack sequence & timing also has the ability to determine whether the enemies to fall into “Feint” status, drop items or to piece an enemy guard, as well as perform counter attacks and other useful support skills during battle. Then on top of that you must be aware of your usage of Special Attacks and Magic as it will increase your “Charge Turn”, making them unavailable for use in further rounds, you can still make use of those turns, just not as effectively. Choose your attacks wisely; when to attack, and who to attack for the greatest success in battle, a sound attack sequence can defeat even the strongest of opponents! The other element which can play a huge factor in battles if your skill setups, alike Till the End of Time a sound skill setup, First Aid for a member or two etc are all worth considering to offer your team the best balance for success. With a range of character development options the timing battle system is quite enjoyable, fast passed and challenging. The battle system is yet another rather unique, but outstanding aspect to the game. 9/10 Graphics: The PSP remake has certainly not disappointed, sprites, dungeons etc are not too different from what you would expect from PSX. But also added in are some eye popping cut scenes. Personally, I think this is perfect for an RPG; I don’t think RPG’s need to have state of the art graphics anyway, they just need to flow well and have the awesome cut scene in between along the way. Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth covers this with ease, hard to believe it’s a PSP title sometimes. 9/10 Voiceovers: The voiceovers are satisfactory and are not too frequent, without been overly amazing. Although considering they are similar to that of the original Valkyrie Profile and not overused they actually blend in quite well. Certainly won’t make you block your ears like those in Star Ocean: The Second Story anyway! 7/10 Replay Factor: If you can get hooked on the unique experience Valkyrie Profile offers you will easily find yourself wanting to replay it at least once. Try a few different things with your rating with Odin, sent some different Einherjar to Odin and train others you previously didn’t use all that often. Well worth at least one more try if you can get into the style it offers. 8/10 Final Thoughts: Overall, it’s just a truly unique gaming experience, and I honestly mean that. I’ve played 25+ RPG’s and it’s quite hard to compare this to any other, if your up for a story and style which is different to your average RPG it’s hard to be disappointed with Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth. If you love your RPG’s try get your hands on a mates copy or rent one at the least, it will be very hard to find RPG’s that can compare to this unique experience, let alone on PSP. Rating: 8.5/10 *This review is based on my personal opinions from my own experiences with the game, and is based on the PSP remake, Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth. Comments on the review are most welcome.
	*Credit to Quark for the tag.


Slick	Feb 10 2008, 01:17 AM Post #2
Posts: 22 Group: Members Member #10 Joined: Feb 7, 2008 Gender Male	o_0 That has...the oddest storyline I've ever heard. I like the idea that you can find different characters (I think?) to recruit, though. This is for the Playstation right? That's what PSX stands for? Maybe if I see it at my game store, I'll rent it or something. Fun Factoid: Nibelung uh...whatever is also Valkyrie's special attack in Radiata Stories. Edited by Slick, Feb 10 2008, 01:19 AM.
	Sun Ce's DW6 Ending


Fayt	Feb 10 2008, 08:23 AM Post #3
Posts: 548 Group: Admins Member #1 Joined: Jan 10, 2008 Gender Male	PSX = Playstation (The Playstation version of the game is quite rare however). And no doubt the storyline is far from traditional; I think that's one of the things I like about the game. As Arngrim calls the says the main character is more or less a "Death Goddess". Valkyrie in Radiata stories sounds like she (I guess she) has borrowed much from Valkyrie Lenneth from this game. She also of course has a varied role as an incredibly difficult post game boss in Till the End of Time. On par with the other most difficult post game boss, Freya - whom is also a character from this very game. Cross references are everywhere in tri-Ace games!
	*Credit to Quark for the tag.


Slick	Feb 10 2008, 10:53 PM Post #4
Posts: 22 Group: Members Member #10 Joined: Feb 7, 2008 Gender Male	Valkyrie's somewhat difficult, though not godly, in Radiata Stories. I'm pretty sure it's the same Valkrie that's in Lenneth, rather than the other game. She has the same special move, and a bio which implies that it's the same character. Anyways, nice review! (Sorry, I meant to say that before :P) Edited by Slick, Feb 10 2008, 10:54 PM.
	Sun Ce's DW6 Ending


Gumdrop	Sep 30 2008, 08:45 PM Post #5
Nyum Posts: 170 Group: Moderators Member #29 Joined: Sep 23, 2008 Gender Female	I got this game for the PSP for a while ago but I'm almost afraid to play it! That might sound stupid but I heard if you go into the wrong place or waste to much time or something then its game over :s



Fayt	Sep 30 2008, 09:51 PM Post #6
Posts: 548 Group: Admins Member #1 Joined: Jan 10, 2008 Gender Male	Oh, that would be the periods, that has put off a few from the game actually. Just don't randomly visit the areas that appear like you would in any typical RPG. Focus on the main areas that appear, the dungeons and try complete them without having to leave. If you can do that often, you'll be fine. If you get to the point of finishing the dungeons in the area and you can't find any more places in that particular chapter THEN you can have downtime and chill doing whatever you like. It's a bit of a role reversal. Typically you attempt a dungeon when you have prepared. Here you tackle the dungeons and then top up preparation at the end of the chapter, to be ready for the next one. It's different...but if you can tolerate it like mentioned with Infinite Undiscovery you should enjoy it. I loved it and think it's one of tri-Ace's best games.
	*Credit to Quark for the tag.


Gumdrop	Oct 1 2008, 07:04 AM Post #7
Nyum Posts: 170 Group: Moderators Member #29 Joined: Sep 23, 2008 Gender Female	Might try again at some with your comments in mind point since I seem to remember I was enjoying it.



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