Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth

Written by James Dauer  on June 29, 2006

Final Glimpse: It ain't over till the hot, blue-armored lady sings.

Tweet

Comments

Valkyrie Profile is one of those titles very few people seemed to know about when it came out in the August of 2000. Being developed by the same team behind the other underground hit Star Ocean: The Second Story, Valkyrie Profile was almost a guaranteed hit before it was even released. Unfortunately, the game fell into obscurity and very few copies were made. Those fortunate enough to snag a copy were in for one of the most bold and innovative RPGs of the Playstation era. These days one would be lucky to find a copy of Valkyrie Profile at a local EB or GameStop for $45. On eBay, the game's price skyrockets to $80 and over in no time. But things are about to change. This August, Tri-Ace will be releasing Valkyrie Profile to the American public in portable form. This is all in anticipation of the upcoming PlayStation 2 sequel Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria.

Considering that both games are very similar, to discuss Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth is to discuss the original Valkyrie Profile. Set in a fractured Norse mythology, Valkyrie Profile let players take the reins of the mysterious Lenneth Valkyrie- a death goddess if you will. In order to prepare for the upcoming war, Ragnarok, Lenneth is assigned a mission to scour the world of Midgard in order to find spiritual warriors who are powerful enough to face the encroaching onslaught of the Evil Vaenir. Too confusing? It can be if you don't have some idea of Norse mythos (but of course there is always wikipedia). Everyone is just dieing to get into Lenneth's party- literally. Being a sort of angel of death, Lenneth may only approach souls on the verge of the great beyond. This idea leads to a very intense and powerful narrative. Players get to see the triumphant rise and tragic falls of each hero before they join the party.

The game itself is divided into three difficulties, each with eight chapters. The game is very different between Easy, Normal, and Hard. Dungeons, characters, items and ultimately endings all depend on what difficultly level was chosen at the outset of the game. At the start of each chapter, players must use a set number of time points to scout out either a playable character or a dungeon. Usually two of each appear in a given chapter. Time points are also used up visiting towns and dungeons. Once the chapter's set amount of time points have been spent, the chapter ends, and it's time for Lenneth to pay the proverbial piper. She must send one or two characters up to the heavenly Valhalla so they can further train to join the war. Depending on how the previous chapter played out, players will be awarded or penalized by the head god Odin himself. The prizes can range from powerful items to a stockpile of experience points which the player can distribute among the party members at his or her leisure.

Characters have different methods of growth than just the usual after-battle exp. As mentioned before, experience can be stockpiled and distributed at the player's choice. In the hard mode, this becomes necessary because all players enter the party at level 1, even up in chapter 8. When a character levels up, they gain special capacity points which can be used to give them a number of abilities. These abilities range from stat enhancements to new styles of attacks. Everything character in Valkyrie Profile is very customizable.

The battle system itself is unique. Parties consist of four characters, each mapped to a face button on the PSP. When the party's turn comes up in battle, each time a face button is pressed the corresponding character will perform a series of regular attacks. All four characters may attack at the same time, but it isn't recommended. Rather, players should try and time out the attacks so that they get the most effective combination during their turn. As attacks land, a special meter builds. When the meter hits 100, characters go into a special attack mode where time freezes and they can perform super moves. When performing super moves, only one player may move at a time, however, if the super move manages to raise the meter to 100 again, another player may perform his or her super move. The entire system is heavily combination based and awards the use of tactical thinking. It even gets so technical that if players attack enemies that have been knocked into the air, they will gain more EXP, or if they attack downed characters, they will get another turn at fighting sooner.