Valkyrie Profile is a series that has been dormant for some time now. Because of this there was excitement when Valkyrie Elysium was announced as a proper return to the franchise on modern hardware. This excitement was short lived as it was revealed that this title would be abandoning its traditional turn-based gameplay in favor of going in an action RPG direction, a trend that seems to be influencing the direction of many popular JRPG names. Change is something we're generally not comfortable with, but it's not always a bad thing, as many popular franchises have benefited by evolving beyond what their initial release offered.

The story of Valkyrie Elysium is one that's original but feels familiar. Ragnarok, the end of all things looms on the horizon, meaning the world is at the brink of destruction. The All-Father Odin wishes to the save the realms from annihilation. Gravely wounded and sapped of his strength, he creates the Valkyrie Maria. The Valkyrie is tasked with saving the world by purifying all the undead souls. It's Odin's final act of redemption, though his motives do open up questions.

Previous entries in this franchise put an emphasis on storytelling and world building. Those who played the demo released a couple weeks ago noticed that there was little in terms of story development. This may have been due to streamlining the demo to get to the action, but that's actually how the entire game is. There is dialogue between the Valkyrie, Odin, the Einherjar and other NPCs, but the story details are doled out sparsely up until much later in the game. The action is clearly what is emphasized in Valkyrie Elysium, and for an action game this type of approach works since it doesn't do much to disrupt the flow of action. In this particular case, however, it seems like they went too bare bones where fleshing things out more would have led to a richer overall experience.

Valkyrie Elysium is an action RPG with an emphasis on the action. The game is structured through chapters where Maria will travel to an area to fulfill the chapter's main objective. This can include hunting down various items needed to convince an Einharjar to join the roster or find one of the items Odin needs to prevent Ragnarok. During each chapter the player can unlock sub quests that can be completed in between chapters. Each chapter takes about an hour to hour and a half to complete and the sub quests are much shorter, typically five to fifteen minutes. Where the player wants to go is selected on a menu, and sub quests can't be completed during the normal chapter playthrough. The sub quests typically have a useful reward or reveal more about the state or the world or an Einharjar's history, but primarily they are a way to grin for gems to upgrade weapons and Valkyrie skills.

An action RPG that's light on story but heavy on combat needs a good battle system, and while rough around the edges, Valkyrie Elysium delivers in this department. There are annoyances, like sometimes Maria will get caught up in an attack animation and is a sitting duck for side attacks or a fancy aerial spear combo will propel her off a bridge. Or sometimes the camera will decide to do an extreme close up on a rock near where Maria is desperately fighting off multiple monsters. These happenings mar what is otherwise a great combat system. There are several weapons that have their own set of combos that unlock with each upgrade, and because there are so many simple to execute, combos can have Maria move like a Viking ninja against multiple opponents at once. The soul chain is one of the most fun battle mechanics in the game where Maria can fly from opponent to opponent, delivering deadly aerial strikes while pulling her out of harm's way. Battle is a regular occurrence that can get chaotic. Maria can also summon her undead warrior Einherjar to help in battle and use her Divine Arts (aka magic spells) to also purify the hostile souls. Battle is such a major part of Valkyrie Elysium, and despite minor room for improvement, the near constant fighting was enjoyable throughout the entire game.

Maria isn't what would be called the most customizable character in gaming history, but there are enough options for players to tinker with her to best fit their playstyle. There are several different types of swords and spears that perform differently. Some weapons are slower and wide sweeping while others are quicker and more precise. The damage output is essentially the same based on weapon level so players can worry less about stats and focus more on what weapon style feels the best. This is also true of the different spells that can be equipped and which Einherjars are summoned. The Einherjars appear for a set amount of time on the battlefield when summoned. Each has their own elemental affinity. Some are better at physical combat and some are better suited for magic attacks.

Valkyrie Elysium is a short game by RPG standards. It was advertised that it would take about twenty hours to complete the story, but I bet that number is closer to 15 if they skip all the sub quests. It may be more like 25 if someone is trying to complete everything and find all the hidden blossoms. Valkyrie Elysium has four different endings. The endings can all be obtained on a single save file as the save clear data will start the player at the beginning of the last chapter. In order to get the true ending, the player must get all nine Verdant Blossoms. If the player wants to see all four endings without doing four different playthroughs, they can simply not collect the ninth Verdant Blossom until they've unlocked the other three endings and then pick that up for the final true ending.

Valkyrie Elysium has abandoned the turn-based format the series is known for in favor of being a full-fledged action RPG. This is understandably disappointing to fans of the classic games, but the format actually works well. During my time with the demo the combat felt lacking, but after spending more time playing the full game the combat is great. The more time spent learning the different combos and flying around with the soul chain attacks it just got more fun. Unfortunately everything else about the game feels lacking. There are environmental puzzles that requires Einherjar to solve, and the term puzzle is used loosely. Summon Taika to burn down barricades, summon Cypher to make an ice platform appear. A lot of the game feels formulaic: there's a new soul to be converted to an Einherjar, go find these random items and then convince them to join. The sub quests must be completed one at a time outside of the main chapters, and these consist of returning to familiar areas to kill more monsters. The combat is great, but some of the situations where you get to engage battle feel like a dull slog that's simply there to prolong the game so the player doesn't notice how short the game really is. The story and characters never get the development necessary in order to care about them. In some ways it feels like the included story and character details were simply outlines of what was to eventually become a fully fleshed-out narrative.

I can't be the only person bothered by this, but does anyone else notice the excessively thick outlines on the character models? It looks like they hired Robert Smith to do the character models just like his eyes from the Bloodlfowers era. Aside from that the character models are weirdly inconsistent. In battle they look like PS3-era models, but look amazingly detailed in the high resolution cutscenes. The environments of green landscapes and ruined castles of the demo set expectations high for great environments in the game, but there's such little variety in level design things end up looking rather bland. One way in which Valkyrie Elysium has stayed true to its turn-based JRPG roots is in monster design. The enemies are actually interesting. There's a lot of variety and creativity in the monster designs, particularly the Naglfar, but like traditional JRPGs so many different monsters are palette swaps of the same design. The voice acting isn't bad, but it was distracting how non Scandinavian the accents sounded, and Odin's character design seemed too modern looking. The score was a highlight of the experience as great music fills the game, although the music in Valhalla had a part that sounded like it was lifted from the Sky Palace in Actraiser and there was another riff that seemed very much like the Temple of Time in Stranger of Paradise

Closing Comments:

It's a departure from its predecessors, but depending on what someone is looking for, Valkyrie Elysium can be a good time. Someone seeking deep storytelling and grand world building won't find any of that here, nor is the strategic turn-based combat Valkyrie Profile fans have come to enjoy. Now if you're seeking frenetic combat where a Valkyrie flies across the screen, conjuring destructive spells while hacking hordes of enemies to death with her Einherjar companions adding to the mayhem, Valkyrie Elysium has what you're looking for. Unfortunately as enjoyable as the combat is everything else about this title comes up short. It's not that the ideas presented in the story are bad, it's that they are so minimal they make the game almost feel incomplete. The potential was there to make Valkyrie Elysium one of the greats, but instead there's an uneven experience of great combat with uninspired storytelling and level design.

Valkyrie Elysium

Reviewed on PlayStation 5

Platform(s)
PC , PS5 , PS4
Released
September 29, 2022
Developer(s)
Soleil
Publisher(s)
Square Enix
Genre(s)
Action RPG
ESRB
T for Teen due to Language, Violence