Names have a lot of power, especially in the world of media and entertainment. When the name of a franchise is attached to something, it brings with it a lot of things: nostalgia, excitement, and perhaps most importantly, anticipation. Valkyrie Elysium is no different: It bears the name and lineage of a series of RPGs known for their daring, experimental gameplay and storytelling enjoyed by a loyal following of fans. Unfortunately, this mid-range action RPG that the title Valkyrie is tied to bears little resemblance to the bold, beloved games that preceded it.
The story of Valkyrie Elysium, set in a short film at the beginning, takes place in the middle of Ragnarok, the apocalypse foretold in Norse mythology. Odin, All-Father and highest of the gods, was mortally wounded in the battle with Fenrir and required the power of the spirits to restore his strength so that he could revive the dying world. To do this, he summons the Valkyrie, the legendary vessel of the gods, who leads the chosen souls to glory in Valhalla. The Valkyrie is tasked with purifying evil spirits, finding something worthy to bring to Odin, and recovering sacred treasures. But, as you might expect, all is not quite what it seems, and Valkyrie is faced with a conflict between her duties as Odin’s servant and her increasingly conflicting emotions.
If you’ve played the original Valkyrie Profile, you’ll recognize many of the very same story rhythms here – but without the emotional weight or exciting character drama. Valkyrie’s transformation from a devoted, one-hearted soldier to a conflicted heroine doesn’t feel real: We’re simply saying that she’s becoming more empathetic to humans with very little equal measure. evidence to prove it. The Einherjar – fallen warriors recruited by the Valkyrie to aid her in battle – have some interesting stories that, though jumbled, are meant to pique curiosity and mystery. hidden but only confuses you until you read their profile and play some side quests.
With the story not the beginning, it depends on the gameplay to bring Valkyrie Elysium. Sadly, while the battle has some interesting ideas, it’s bogged down with dull exploration and some confusing design choices.
Valkyrie Elysium is divided into several chapters, with each chapter a long one filled with various enemies and gimmicks that the Valkyrie must overcome. And when I say long, I mean: You’re watching an average of 1-2 hours per chapter. (At least there are generous checkpoints.) This might be okay if there’s anything interesting to see in these areas, but really isn’t. The levels are obnoxiously large and mostly consist of a lot of ruined buildings, random foliage, cliffs, water, and many more destructible boxes located around the local post office. There are hardly any NPCs that bring life to the world. Instead, you’ll hear random character dialogue from flowers called Hollow Blossoms and Verdant Blossoms, which act as a collector (and, in the latter case, very important). to reveal the real ending). This would be a great way to build on world mythology if the world really felt interesting, but as an alternative to having reality. figurethey are completely flat.
The combat engine is a bright spot among all the dull frustrations. The action-heavy combo sees Valkyrie use a combination of weapon attacks, Divine spells, and fast-moving skills to deliver a divine defeat to the undead. Accompanying her is the aforementioned Einherjar, whom she can summon to act as an NPC assistant and bestow her with elemental attributes. Weapon and element-based weakness system rewards you for exploiting vulnerabilities with additional damage and stuns that render enemies completely helpless for a short time – useful for both crowd control freezes and deals damage to enemies with large health bars. As the game progresses, you can spend souls and gems earned on skill and weapon upgrades to unlock new attacks, counters, and manipulations, giving you a constant supply Exciting new attacks to test.
But alas, even the great combat tool feels pointless when you realize that the strategy of “seeing enemies, identifying elemental weak points, summoning the right Einherjar, tracking Sacred Art to break and stun, do a combo with a defenseless enemy, repeat on the next enemy” works for the majority of encounters. Even bosses fall into this basic battle scheme fairly easily – although there’s an extra step of “shutting down until their stun immunity from recovery fades”. The handful of battles where you can’t use this strategy effectively – like the ones where Einherjar has limited use – feel so much more interesting and challenging.
Exhibition room
There are many other confusing decisions. Why is there no minimap? Why are there rope skills to move across the field and puzzles that require summoning Einherjar when they are so rare and arbitrarily placed? Why do I have to replay a whole long chapter if I miss a Verdant flower I want to collect? But in the end, they’re minor annoyances compared to the main problem: Valkyrie Elysium is a mostly technically good game weighed down by the tedium of its story, setting, and strategy. There are amusing moments in the battle and some dialogue – the rare joke of the average Einherjar is always welcome – but it’s not enough to overcome the oppressive mediocrity. Valkyrie Elysium is just a pretender to the glory of this series’ past efforts.
