User Reviews (1 - 11 of 20)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

AAAAARRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHH

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 31
Date: August 09, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Pretty much sums up how I felt after 15 minutes of introductory waffle, hellishly annoying bingy bongy music and (admittedly very pretty) cut scenes, totally emotionless voice overs, impossibly slow conversations that served little or no point.

And to be honest at that point it was either switch off the psp or throw it against a wall. I decided to switch it off.
Now I'm a big fan of adventure games, played untold legends 1 till it gave up on me (literally left hanging around with nothing to do and no more quests on offer).

From what I can gather, the in game graphics for Valkyrie (after 15 minutes [though it seemed like much longer]) I'd seen some really cool character graphics - bit like tekken DR in-game graphics - and some of those horrible 2d munchkin japanese rpg graphics, which are the in-game stuff.
So the bit you play looks like it's 20 years old and should be on a gba, the cutscenes are nice but there will no doubt be far too many of those - ie: 5 minutes of slow cut scenes for every encounter.

I can't say this is a proper review as I couldn't stand this title long enough to get to any actual gameplay and there's no way I'm sitting through that intro again.

My advice, if you like the long winded old style walk-and-talk for three hours before actually doing anything, japanese rpgs. Get this (or better still go to an antiques shop and find an old text adventure).
If you prefer a game where you actually play the character and do stuff - avoid this like the plague.
I've got high hopes for dungeon siege when it comes out (but then I had high hopes for valkyrie too :-( ), but for now untold legends 2 is okay, not as good as it should have been but a helluva lot more fun than valkyrie.

I would like to point out that I've never played on a ps2, xbox or game cube - so this is the first time I've seen a valkyrie profile game. I didn't have any preconceptions, obviously if I had I'd never have gone anywhere near this title in the first place :-)

Rent Before You Buy

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: April 11, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Back in '99, I owned the original copy of VP, but sold it to Game Stop to purchase Suikoden II a mere three days after the purchase. The amateurish voice acting really grated on my nerves, as well as having a "time limit" to play the game, topped with a lack of true world exploration and character interactment.

Over a course of seven years, I heard the game was EXCELLENT from many gamers, so I thought I had really missed out on something special due to my quick judgment. The original game, retailing at an astounding 100+ dollars made the title even more alluring. Years later, I picked up Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria, thinking I would never play the original and this would be the next best thing. As fate would have it, VP was ported to the Playstation Portable!
Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this game. Playing felt like a chore.
For those of you who sold your copy with the same mindset I had, or have always been curious about the title, but refuse to pay a ridiculous price for the original...you may want to rent this first before you buy.

Here are the Pros and Cons of this game:

Pros:
-A unique revision of Norse Mythology. You can really use this game as a tool to cause Norse Myth buffs to "spin on their eyebrows" and the liberties taken with the Pantheon (Heh,heh)
-20+ recruitable characters
-Clean CGI visuals
-No random battles
-No need to worry about "money farming" to purchase arms and items

(*More of a personal "pro", for those of you who have played the PS2 prequel before this...Brahms. Oh, LAWD, Brahms! <3*)

Cons:
-PAINFULLY repetitive
-Lackluster sound track
-Bad voice acting (with the exception of the new CGI cut scenes), poorly delivered lines.
-Timed.
-Little to no world exploration
-Not much of a story, really. Why were the Aesir and Vanir fighting one another? I was disappointed by the lack of appearance by Hel, Goddess of the Norse Underworld (..Hel).
-Virtually no character interaction. Coupled with the lackluster story, this feels very hollow and boring if you're accustomed to playing traditional RPGs, and this missing element really formed my opinion about the game. Lenneth is the only character that really shares her thoughts (which is usually the same "ice princess" kind of attitude).
I liked VP2: Silmeria in this respect, as a certain degree of camaraderie was felt between Alicia and the core Einherjar. Many "main" characters were flat, had virtually no dialog or purpose, and back stories and motives went unexplained, even if one has played the PS2 prequel, VP2: Silmeria. For example, how and when did Lezard come to become so sickly enamored with Lenneth? What was the depth of Brahms's and Silmeria's relationship? Lezard and Mystina? During a certain event in the game, you'll be asking yourself, "Why are Arngrim and Mystina even emotionally affected by this?"
-One DUD of an ending. (I received the "A Ending", i.e. the "best" ending)
-Voices CANNOT be muted
-Cutscenes involving einherjar recruitment can't be skipped, and can be quite lengthy.
-Items cannot be sufficiently organized. Searching your inventory for an Elixir can be a real annoyance if one has too many items
-Providing you meticulously preened your Seal Rating during certain chapters to receive the "A Ending", the 3 final bosses on Asgard Hill have an extreme advantage against you (As much as I'm ashamed to admit in this review, I wasn't able to defeat Bloodbane and reach the true final boss, and had to resort watching the ending via YouTube, despite cutting down every single boss and enemy I had encountered with relative ease--except the Mandragora in the Forest of the Elves. Oh, GOD, AVOID THE MANDRAGORA! RUN or use a Tome of Alchemy if you encounter them!)

All in all, rent this game before you buy. The original PSone version certainly isn't worth a price tag the size of friggin' Jotnar (a little Norse Mythos geekery for you guys). You might consider playing the prequel for the PS2, Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria instead. That game too, has its rough spots, but can be enjoyable nonetheless.

For those of you who are Square-Enix fans, looking to play the good 'ol classics of Enix and Tri-Ace, I recommend Star Ocean 2 (which is being ported to the PSP with major improvements). It's a real blast!

NOTE: *If any other reviewer can shed light or correct me on some of the things I've said about story elements or characters, I would be greatly appreciative and edit my review accordingly.*

Ok, but very slow going

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 6
Date: January 19, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I really like the action part of this game, but the parts that you have to go to so it can tell the story move really, really slow. I wish there was a way you could speed up these portions.

annoyed

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 8
Date: May 06, 2007
Author: Amazon User

this game seems very fun but i cant even figgure out how to get out of the first dungeon ive tryed multiple times and now its just anoying the first dungeon shouldnt be difficult well at least not so hard to where you cant get out anyway it seems like a good game but is hard really hard and the way its set up its hard to cheat by looking at a game guid too lol the graphics are pretty amazing during cut seans

It'll Keep You Busy

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 12
Date: November 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

All in all, it's not that fun of a game. There's no real story line to it, and a lot of the mechanics are so complex that it's not even worth it. The good news is that it goes on forever. If you enjoy aimlessly walking around in dungens beating up bad guys with no real goal, then this is the game for you. I've got almost 20 hours of game play on it and I'm only about half way through, but I've accomplished next to nothing, and I couldn't tell you the names of more than two characters (due to the lack of story). There is an overwhelming number of characters, which could be good or bad. If you like leveling up characters and collecting countless numbers of items and weapons, than buy this game. For most of you, I wouldn't buy it unless you have already played a Valkyrie Profile game and know for sure that you like that style of game because this is no ordinary RPG.

Square Enix, I expected more from you!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 10
Date: September 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

this game has a 25 minute introduction or story. Square Enix was really creative and the stories are so good! However I do expect them to put something like "Skip Intro" cause impatient people could really get mad at the stories! I, however only get a game every five months so I am fine with that. This is only a minor flaw. Another flaw is that when you want to look at the map or statistics, you have to wait 5 seconds until it appears. Very annoying, but again a minor flaw. This game depends on how much you like to battle the same creatures over and over and over again! It get very boring after awhile. You have to train those dumb spirits and sometimes you just want them to level up quicker. This game gets very boring after awhile and you will want to ditch the game as well as the characters. There is not much action and you have a limited amount of monsters to battle.

1.0 ~ 3.5----- terrible
3.6 ~ 5-----bad
5.1 ~ 6.5-----average
6.6 ~ 8-------good
8.1 ~ 9------great
9.1 ~10------must buy excellent!

graphics- 9/10 great
sound -9/10 some voice acting but great
fun - 5/10 depends on how patient you are and how you react to battling the same monster over and over again
average- about 8

my grade- 7 good

Valkyrie Profile is Back

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 59 / 62
Date: July 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

A lot of people haven't played the original Valkyrie Profile. Check around here and you'll easily see it going for more than $100. It's ridiculous to pay that much. Greedy gamers and collectors are like that, and they know some consumers will pay. However, if you're not up for collecting the original copy, you could easily shell out the money for this version. It's basically a port of the original Playstation version with a few tweaks here and there. It beats paying some greedy collector over one-hundred dollars, doesn't it? Valkyrie Profile is a unique RPG experience that if you missed six years ago, now you'll have your chance to play it.

Players of the original often express their love affair with this game and it isn't entirely hard to see why. Our main hero, Lenneth, is a Valkyrie. Lenneth serves Odin, the leader of the Gods. In the world of Asgard, a sacred war has broken out among the Gods. Odin needs brave souls from humans to form an army to fight. It's Lenneth's job to go to the mortal world of Midgard and find the brave souls of humans to send to Odin.

The game spans eight chapters to get you through the game. There is a time limit, however. Everything you do from resting to trumping through dungeons takes time. If you're feeling very brave and gutless, you could rest for all eight chapters and then take on the final boss. Your average gamer, however, doesn't want to do that, and so you just might opt to go and find those souls. You can recruit up to fifteen souls (despite that you probably won't need all fifteen), and only three can enter battle at a time with Lenneth.

As you crawl through dungeons, you'll get the feel of playing some kind of action/adventure game. For one, you'll go through dungeons running around, jumping on platforms and shooting ice-crystals, which can also be used to make platforms. Sometimes it just feels weird but you'll quickly adapt to it. Sometimes crawling through dungeons feels like a pain because some of the controls are so awkward. Each dungeon is also crawling with monsters. Battles are contact-based so if you touch a monster you'll be hurled into battle where you'll control each character with the use of the buttons on your PSP. Each button controls one character. The battle system feels refreshing and original at times. It also calls for a bit more strategy. By timing button presses you can string together combos, and you can also use magic by pressing the select button in battle. You won't use magic often (and pressing the select button to use magic just feels weird), and stringing together combos is usually enough to thwart any opponent.

Experience points are divided among your characters how you see fit. You will, of course find it better to spend them on your current party. Although, you might want to consider spending some experience points on your outside souls because Odin will be wanting strong souls. Not weak ones. Depending on how you do this may also affect the ending of the game. To get the better ending you will have to send Odin strong souls. There are a multitude of endings for you to get as well. Seeing as how on average it'll only take you twenty hours to complete the game, going for the different endings is pretty worthwhile.

The best thing about Valkyrie Profile is the music. Some of the best I've heard in an RPG before. The soundtrack, beautifully conducted, is what makes this game really worthwhile in the end. It always has the right music at the right time.

Valkyrie Profile also has multiple endings and diffculty levels. Your actions make a difference in the ending you get. Even better, some endings and souls can't be obtained unless you're willing to play on different difficulty levels. This brings Valkyrie Profile's replay value way up.

There are a couple of things that keep Valkyrie Profile from being as fantastic as other RPGs. For one, the story, while fantastic, is very slow. A lot of cutscenes are long and spend a lot of time talking and rehashing conversations that have already taken place. Some cutscenes have voice acting. Some voices are really good, sounding just the way you want them to sound. Others sound a little too over-dramatic and over the top at times. Still, for what it's worth the voice acting is perfect.

However, my biggest gripe with the game is how the recruiting system works. I didn't play the originl Playstation version, you see, and the game does a horrible job at explaining how to recruit souls. They do a horrible job at explaining how to organize and manage your party. In other words, the learning curve to this game is pretty steep. You may need some outside help to get you going. By the time you yourself learn the bells and whistles of recruiting, you'll come to see that your team isn't nearly as good as they could be. Luckily though, once you get it down you can really make a power house team. I just wish that they had explained it better.

The game also takes a very long time to load. Several PSP games suffer from this, but Valkyrie Profile suffers a great deal from it. It takes a few seconds to open the menu and to get things going within the menu. For example, the game has to load every time you equip a character, use an item, etc. The load times are horribly long, but they stack up really quickly, especially with how much you're in the menu. To accompany the often annoying load times, you'll also be faced with slowdown at some parts. So while it's a port it isn't a fantastic port. Some of the mechanics didn't make it over to the PSP all that well. Still, it beats shelling out more than one-hundred dollars from a greedy collector.

Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth is a fantastic experience for those who want to re-experience it and for those new to the game itself. It's not as good as the Playstation original, and it may be another port for the PSP, but it's still an overall rewarding experience.

On the Positive Side
+A port of one of the Playstation's most sought after RPGs
+Engaging and perplexing storyline
+Great Gameplay Mechanics...
+Fantastic Soundtrack
+Multiple endings and difficulty levels make for replay
+The games short length also makes for replay value
+Beautiful Artwork

On the Negative Side
-Long load times
-The gameplay mechanics don't get an in-depth explanation making for a steep learning curve
-Long drawn out cutscenes make the pacing of the story really slow

A moving story.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: August 09, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Graphics: 7/10.
Well, we are talking about a PS1 port. So don't expect much here. But the new CGs are nice, and even the old PS1 sprites are actually pretty nicely animated. And the super/special moves (PWS) are rather nice, too.

Sound: 6/10.
The dialoguing is very annoying at first. It's very much apparent the moment you start up the game, when you have to go through the prologue. Once you get used to it, it's not bad. The sound effects seem a bit primitive too, but again, this is a rather old game. Btw, as the fans will quickly note, the game uses the same voice actors as Pokemon. :D

Gameplay: 7/10
It's an interesting mix of platforming, puzzles, turn based and real time combat. Personally, I did not enjoy the platforming part. That genera was never my favorite, and the PSP's diagonal insensitivity makes some of the jumps a pain to do. The combat is rather fun and original. But after about mid game, your characters are so over-leveled and over-equipped, almost all of the battles except for a few boss battles become trivial.

Replay: 8/10
There's a lot to do here. And the chances are, that on your first game, you've missed out the "A" ending, the true ending. The standard "B" ending is pretty mundane. And there are quite a few characters in the game, and you probably will not get to explore all of them until you replay the game. Personally, I'm a story driven player, so once I know the plot, I have little interest in replaying the game, but I think many players don't mind going through the story again- and for such players, the replay value should be fairly high.

Story: 9/10
A most excellent story. The many characters that you come across have rather poignant stories, and you learn that each of them, are small reflections of your main character. The plot is weaved very nicely, although it is somewhat slow in the beginning. My only negative that's keeping this from being a 10/10, is the very last scene- it somewhat left me unfulfilled. But I hear that's a matter of opinion.

Great remake, but where's the fast forward! My kingdom for a fast forward button!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 09, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Great remake, but where's the fast forward! My kingdom for a fast forward button!
This was a great game! The cut scenes were a nice touch that helped draw in the player into the story line, but would someone please give me a Fast Forward/Skip button. I understand that the makers of the game want you to get involved and appreciate the storyline, but without a fastforward/skip button, this game game has a limited replay value. I have already played through the game once, and now that I am running through it again, I am going insane! The long cut scenes, and the seemingly endless, "next" clicks were fine the first time, but come on! For a game that has 3 different endings you would figure that the developers would give you a break!

OK, now that I have said that, lets get back to the review. The character development and use of magical items, while definitely not unique, but they helped flesh out the fight scenes. The combos and skills moves made the game interesting and kept me coming back. While I would have liked to see the graphics slightly change when different equipment was used (swords, helms, etc) the combat and special moves graphics were definitely nice.

Should you buy? Sure if you like RPG's the game is definitely a buy, but be fore warned...be prepared to read, and read, and read, and click and click and click, before you even get to your first fight scene, and even then expect to much of the same long before you get to do things on your own.

Good game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 11, 2008
Author: Amazon User

althought the graphics are a bit lame at times and the voices can make you want to kill your self the game over all is a great buy for the hardcore rpg player the cut scenes are nicely done and the story is very deep it starts off a bit slow but give it time and you wont be able to put it down.

Review Page: 1 2 Next 

Actions