Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria Review

September 27, 2008

Avoid Odin’s wrath by using your wits, brute force and clever strategy in this beautiful RPG.

Story

Alicia is the Princess of Dipan. Her life takes a tremendous turn when a mysterious soul from a banished Valkyrie enters her body. Now she is on the run from both her kingdom and the gods. The soul turns out to be Silmeria, a Valkyrie who disobeyed Odin and was sentenced to death, but fate had other things in mind for these two as they set out on an unforgettable journey.

The Game

Valkyrie Profile 2 is an action oriented roleplaying game, and it is a sequel to Valkyrie Profile that was released for the Playstation back in 2000.
The world in Valkyrie Profile 2 is interesting as it borrows much from Nordic mythology and religion while the main story is something new. It makes for a nice blend. The story is actually quite complex and it takes the player to many different places and while it would have benefited from being more free it’s still a great experience for anyone that enjoys stories and tales more than anything else. It keeps you going through the game and beyond (for those who enjoy loose ends in stories) but what really keeps the game flowing is the game mechanics which are explained below.

Content

The game mechanics are the most interesting aspect in any given RPG. It’s the thing that draws you in and makes you enjoy the game. The mechanics in Valkyrie Profile 2 are usually pretty similar to other roleplaying games in that you battle monsters, explore areas and build your characters. This game has some new features in the mix though. They’re maybe not groundbreaking but it’s got some tricks up its sleeve for all power gamers like myself.

First off there’s the “regular attack” system. In many action roleplaying games you have an attack and your character attacks X number of times depending on various factors. Here you control the attacks and the timing to perfect your combos. This is done by giving each character you control three different attacks that they execute in the order you dictate. Every character has several attacks but you are limited to choosing three of them. You attack simply by pressing the button shown on the character portrait when you are in combat. Each attack costs a certain amount of “action points” so you need to find combos that work and preferably hit the target.
Battles take place in enclosed “arenas” rather than in the actual game world. This lets you focus entirely on the fight at hand.

Attacking a target grants you “heat” and when it reaches max and if you possess a weapon that allows you to use “special attacks” you can unleash some insane over-the-top attacks that are both powerful and visually appealing.

Another thing to keep in mind during combat is to find the weak spot of the enemies, which does add a lot of strategy in boss battles.
To make the combat even more exciting every character can learn skills. Some increase your critical hit chance while others let you recover health after being hit. What skills you can get depends on what equipment you have, and each armor piece or accessory is of a different color (the colors are blue, red and green) and of different “Rune”. So by mixing these factors you can acquire the skills you need to get you through even the toughest bosses in the game.

A major difference from other RPGs is the lack of spells in this game. There are not a lot of wizard type characters or spells for that matter in Valkyrie Profile 2. But the main reason why it’s so different from other RPGs is that the spells are so weak that you are better off without them. If you enjoy playing wizards, you’ll be in for a tough challenge. To make spells even worse they cost loads of action points making your other characters lose their attack opportunities, and that can very well be a matter of life and death in this game.

In Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria there are both puzzle solving and treasure hunting aspects. During exploration you are limited to a horizontal 2D space even though the game is rendered in 3D. To get past obstacles you shoot photons that turn enemies into crystals for a brief moment. You can use enemies turned to crystals as platforms to reach higher ground, and there are a lot of tricks you have to master when using photons. By using photons you can explore the most hidden passages and stashes – this will grant you hidden treasures and all that good stuff. Not only do you have to use photons but also utilize the “area effect” system, which determines the “rules” of that area in a sense. This is done by replacing orbs on special pillars that can be found in almost every area and this can either help you or destroy you. If a boss gets the right area effect you can consider yourself dead, but you can however backtrack and correct and change it to your heart’s content.

Something that really takes this game to the next level is the fact that it has 40 playable characters! You can however only have 20 in your party list at one time. These characters are called “Einherjar” and you can release them to acquire unique and useful items to further increase your other characters attributes. If you release an Einherjar, they will be out of your party for good, however you can still meet them and let other Einherjars take their place.

Despite being story based, this game easily offers over 100 hours of gameplay because of a few awesome additions; secret bonus dungeons, characters and 50 difficulty levels – not something you see in every game now is it?
The game also changes every time you play it through – not only do the monsters pose a bigger challenge but you can also find other Einherjars on your journey. To make this game even better there’s support for a two-player mode – a friend take control of the characters of your choice in combat, making for some extremely fun multiplayer, but whether it is useful or not depends on the players and your teamwork.

Graphics

The visuals are some of the best ever produced on the Playstation 2, but the biggest complaint is the amount of bloom effects they used in this game. While certain areas look amazing others suffer.
The amount of detail in the game is simply astonishing, and it all evokes a very vivid and dreamlike atmosphere and presence. The character and monster animations all look great and there are some truly jaw-dropping 3D effects mixed in.

Sound

To accompany these amazing graphics you are treated with some fantastic background music and ambient noises like the wind dancing in the trees. The combat sounds are passable but it has its share of annoying sounds like combat shouts and the like that gets repetitive.

Summary

Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria is an amazing game. It has lots of delightful sights and its world is so engrossing and well presented. There’s lots to discover here and it certainly is worth your time, if you’re in for some quality action roleplaying – especially if you have a friend to enjoy it with!