The Valkyrie Profile series has consistently released high-quality classic RPGs since 1999. These achievements will live on in infamy forever, but with this new edition, an effort was made to revive that renown with something fresh. To restart the series, Soleil was given the mission of developing a new episode that focuses on the action role-playing typical of JRPGs. In an effort to modernize the franchise, the game places such a heavy emphasis on action that veteran players of the Valkyrie series will be forced to adjust their style of play. Although it is crucial to remember that many popular series have thrived by broadening their alternatives over time, VALKYRIE ELYSIUM also came out with an exceptional outcome.

The events of Ragnarök, a war that had only just come to a close between Odin and the wolf Fenrir, serve as the backdrop for the beginning of The VALKYRIE ELYSIUM. Maria, a Valkyrie, wakes up in a field of flowers without a memory of who she is. Then she picks up on a voice out in the distance that seems somewhat familiar to her. What follows is the ultimate identity of the caller, as disclosed in a tutorial. The king of the gods, Odin, will be waiting to greet the Valkyrie the moment she enters his magnificent royal room. Since the Valkyrie owes her entire existence to her creator, she must battle the hordes of invading monsters and retrieve essential artifacts to prevent disaster at the final possible moment.

After completing the brief training and acquiring the necessary knowledge, we are free to launch ourselves headlong into the action. You'll experience an authentic soulslike vibe as soon as we begin playing. Even if it is only a coincidence that the gloomy settings in Valkyrie Profile are complete with artifacts that may be destroyed, it is hard to resist drawing similarities between the two while playing the game in a third-person perspective (3D). Valkyrie series veterans will be in a nightmare when they cannot measure the gameplay standard set by the storyline.

The scenario struggles a bit to get off the ground as we deal with many unpleasant monsters and traveling companions with varying worries. After a third of the total time had passed since the beginning of the game, the outcomes still seemed insignificant. When you reach VALKYRIE ELYSIUM's conclusion and find numerous different endings to pursue, the trip might need to be clarified in that context. You will have four different experiences at the end of the game if you play for fifteen hours. Others will be more concerned with achieving the highest possible score at the conclusion of each mission, while others will go to great efforts to witness all four of the game's potential outcomes for the storyline.

While all the locations on the map are significantly large, chapters in VALKYRIE ELYSIUM are devoid of all life forms other than the monsters. However, there are hidden tunnels and hidden locations concealed throughout the whole world, and the player has the choice to explore these areas in order to discover treasure boxes, soul blossoms, and other items. Each chapter of Valkyrie travels to a new location; however, side quests enable a significant amount of previously explored areas to be revisited, almost to a fault. As the plot develops, the player will grow more acquainted with the layouts of maps and building designs. This will allow them to begin to determine where a secret may be hidden just by taking a quick glance at a map.

VALKYRIE ELYSIUM does not feature an open universe. The game includes a rating system divided up into missions, and as you go through the game's nine chapters, you will come across side objectives that can be picked from the side quests menu. These are typical quests that will typically need you to go from one area on the map to another in order to retrieve the desired item. One of the problems with the game is that it has a large variety of different settings to choose from. To simplify it even further, the game is divided into a total of five unique environments, each of which is split into two individual chapters.

This sensation of isolation is appealing in games where exploration takes you across a vast and complicated area, yet, in VALKYRIE ELYSIUM, all advancement is conducted in a predictable sequence. As a result, we are only allowed to search for gems and flowers in areas that have been adequately delineated. Only a small number of the flowers have any kind of significant impact on the outcome of the game. The others serve no purpose other than to unnecessarily lengthen the amount of time spent playing the game; collecting them isn't necessary to finish it, and doing so doesn't earn you anything in return.

VALKYRIE ELYSIUM has you spending most of your time slaying waves of monsters, with the remainder spent exploring a small number of static areas or attending narratives. The fighting system is sound, and once you discover a pattern, it is tremendously thrilling – Valkyrie zooms over the battlefield at speed, driven by a grapple grip ability that is woefully underused. The fighting mechanism is decent on PC, though it took me a bit of adjusting to the keyboard commands since I first played this on PlayStation 5. Your Einherjar, a squad of warriors with different personalities and skills, contributes to the flow of the story.

The combat in VALKYRIE ELYSIUM is, without a doubt, the most exciting part of the game, if not the story itself. In terms of the gameplay, this game has several components that are already well known, such as ordinary assaults, strong attacks, evading, parrying, and, most significantly, a grappling hook referred to as soul chaining. It allows you to approach an adversary more closely, whether on the ground or in the air, so that you may attack them.

The game is built on a solid foundation and has a range of different combinations that may be carried out by mixing the many types of strikes that are at our disposal. As a result, gaining a higher level or upgrading your weapon grants you access to more methods. These techniques become available after a certain number of actions, such as avoiding, leaping, parrying, and so on. When taken along with the many ways in which each of the Valkyrie's weaponry may be paired, all of these elements provide us a great amount of leeway when it comes to developing engaging strategies for combat with our Valkyrie.

The role-playing components of VALKYRIE ELYSIUM have been kept impressively simple. There are just three skill trees, one each for Attack, Defense, and Support; these trees may be upgraded with crystals of varying colors, which can be obtained by defeating opponents and finding chests. You will also learn powerful magical attacks known as divine arts; in the beginning, you will only have access to four divine arts that may be equipped, but as time goes on, you will get access to a lot more of them. Particularly in the challenging but extremely rewarding boss battles, a significant portion of the strategic depth of the game is based on making the correct choice of divine arts at the correct time.

There is a connection between the items discovered during exploration and the advancement system. Only advancements to abilities and weapons may be made, not the typical experience points or leveling-up system seen in other games. Throughout the course of the game, players will have the opportunity to uncover hidden collectibles, such as diamonds, by destroying buildings or by vanquishing monsters. These may be invested in enhancing skills, which might result in increased statistics or new types of moves. After unlocking certain skills, such as the ability to counterattack or double leap, the gameplay will become more responsive. These methods include the ability to counterattack and double jump. The game offers a great training environment to try out the new skills that are unlocked when you upgrade your armament.

When engaging in a battle, the most efficient tactic is to make use of the Arts or an Einherjar to attack an enemy with their elemental weakness until they enter the crushing phase. Once they reach this phase, you can quickly tear down their health bar with your close combat weapon. It can potentially be a powerful and interesting framework, at least from a theoretical standpoint. In point of fact, the conflicts you confront in one chapter are not all that distinct from the conflicts you face in the next chapter. However, with the inclusion of new enemies and a wide variety of exploitable flaws, the action in VALKYRIE ELYSIUM could be more concise and make the gameplay a bit more varied.

Gems may be discovered in a variety of locations throughout the game. They can range in size, color, and rarity and can be found in a few different categories. As Valkyrie matures, she has access to new combos, increases in health and magic, and even useful moves like double dodging and double jumping, among other things. To upgrade weapons into new combinations of them, the same sorts of components as those used in the original weapons are necessary.

At any moment, upgrades may be performed on the Valkyrie; however, upgrades to weapons can only be performed at Save Points. Once you have advanced the abilities and elemental damage of your weapon, you will also be able to do the action of "chain of souls" during battles. This action serves as a tie that brings us closer to the adversaries, allowing our assaults to continue for a little bit longer. The result isn't super exciting, but it does provide some effect, particularly when using spells and abilities that boost weapon damage.

VALKYRIE ELYSIUM is a rather brief experience when compared to other role-playing games. If you choose to refrain from participating in any of the game's optional side missions, completing the game's primary storyline should only take around 15 hours of your time. The number may be closer to 25 if you try to complete everything and find all the hidden flowers. There are four distinct conclusions that may be reached in the game.

Since the clean save data will cause the game to resume after it has reached its conclusion, all three endings can be accessed using the same save file. Only once the player has gathered all nine Verdant Blossoms will they be able to access the actual conclusion. You can see all four endings without having to play through the game four times if you put off picking up the ninth Verdant Blossom until after you have seen the other three endings unlocked. All you have to do is prolong picking up the ninth Verdant Blossom.

Outside of the actual fights, there isn't a whole lot to get excited about in VALKYRIE ELYSIUM, which is a real shame. The majority of the locations you check out have a monotonous vibe, and if you do have the opportunity to look around, you will probably be underwhelmed by what you discover there. You can become distracted from the primary mission by working on some of the secondary objectives, although they could be more interesting. The game has an amateurish feel, preventing it from realizing its full potential. Some examples of this include poor lip-syncing and clumsy animations. The game has some scenes that are just breathtakingly beautiful, but it also has other rooms that are boring and empty, and it has some small visual faults here and there.

Regrettably, VALKYRIE ELYSIUM reuses the same decorations across the same location, which becomes a problem when those decorations are related to the same small number of different monster kinds. The creature design in VALKYRIE ELYSIUM is the only aspect of the game that keeps true to its roots as a Japanese role-playing game. The enemies provide a dash of flavor that was much required.

While certain monsters, like the Naglfar, display a great deal of creativity and originality in their design, the majority of monsters instead just employ a variety of color palettes. The voice acting is solid, but the non-Scandinavian accents were distracting, and Odin's design seemed like it was trying too hard to be ironic. However, it is difficult to ignore how light the levels are in general, particularly considering that there is no life present in any of the scenarios.

The design and animations in VALKYRIE ELYSIUM are well-detailed, particularly the bosses the player will confront, and the battle effects are excellent, with special abilities like the Nibelung Valesti looking gorgeous. Although the levels the player will traverse have considerable variation, the game as a whole is visually quite unattractive. The lack of commitment to the highly distinctive gameplay concepts established in the last two games causes this to become confusing. They mixed side-scrolling exploration with 3D moments with strategic semi-turn-based fighting. So, although Elysium has brought the feel of a new game, it's not really reminiscent of the Valkyrie games.

VALKYRIE ELYSIUM needed a little more charm, even though I enjoyed the game's fighting system. Some fundamentals that are standard in today's JRPGs and 3D platformers need to be included here. It's easy to see it as a meaningless slog through a lifeless environment if there isn't anything to break up the monotony. Soleil has created the basis for something greater, but the game needs more to earn the place of its predecessors. Expect a good game, but sadly, not for anything revolutionary. VALKYRIE ELYSIUM, one of the numerous RPGs released in 2022 on PC and more to come, is a good starter for JRPG enthusiasts.

There's little doubt that Square Enix will put more effort into developing the stories and characters in the future. Having all the elements necessary to become a classic, VALKYRIE ELYSIUM is a bit inconsistent experience despite having a great gameplay mechanism. At the same time, its uninspired story and level design could have been better. Although this recreation makes a fantastic attempt at starting from scratch, it will be remembered as something other than a timeless work of art.
 

Azfar Rayan (@AzfarRayan)
Editor, NoobFeed