‘Valkyrie Profile’ Review (Nintendo DS)

What is it about Asgardian stories where people speak in Shakespearian metaphor, while using words like “sire” and “aye,” that makes them so darn compelling? Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume is the latest addition from Square Enix to the Nintendo DS RPG library. It boasts a tragic tale that any fan of mythology, Vikings or Medieval chivalry will immediately want to dive into. If you’ve given up on Thor comics and just wish the stories would return to the glory days, then, methinks, Valkyrie Profile may be the digital alternative you’ve been yearning for.

The heart of Valkyrie Profile is it’s utterly sad tale of Wylfred, a warrior who lost his father to battle. Without a father to provide for the family, Wylfred’s sister eventually died of starvation, while his mother was left a pitiful wreck. Now, Wylfred’s out for blood, and he wants the Valkyrie Lenneth, who called his father to arms, to suffer the same fate his family suffered.

From the moment you enter the world of the Valkyrie, you will immediately be drawn to Wylfred’s somber tale. He’s not your typical fantasy hero. Wylfred is not on a mission to save the princess, the world or anything else for that matter. No. Wylfred is all about one thing – revenge. And, he’ll sacrifice anyone’s life along the way to getting accomplishing just that. Even though this may seem like a self-absorbed character, he’s really not. He’s conflicted at every turn, always arguing against killing and the mercenary way of life. The fact is, Wylfred believes he fights for a higher purpose – the honor of his family.

The game employs crisp sprite graphics with vivid colors. The backgrounds settings are all intricately detailed on a 3D style chess-board backdrop. You definitely get a sense of the world you’re in. Also, as you build up fight statistics your characters will periodically perform Soul Crush attacks, which are stronger focused attacks that are a visual treat.

Throughout the game, you’re forced to kill as much as possible despite your own moral integrity. This is humorously enough referred to as sin. Each match has its own sin tally that you’ll have to meet. You can accomplish this by performing Overkills, which is attacking an enemy as much as possible after their health bar has already reached zero. The problem here is that this can prolong games, as you won’t want to simply kill an enemy and lose out on the Overkill. If you do win an entire battle sequence without making the necessary sin requirement, the game will force you into a very difficult match that is almost impossible to win by “normal” means.

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The game is called Covenant of the Plume for a good reason. You are given the plume after making a pact to kill the Valkyrie. Unfortunately, this comes at a severe price, which is sin. If you don’t sin enough the Plume will require the life of one of your comrades. And, just to play with your emotions, you can only sacrifice a comrade’s life after they have become your friend. Only then will the covenant be satiated. Invoking the Plume gives you added abilities to fight through those extremely difficult engagements. Just remember, whomever you decide to sacrifice will never return to the game again. Depending on who you end up sacrificing throughout the game will result in one of the different story endings.

The DS Dual screen keeps the fighting on the lower screen, while the top screen will show your character breakdowns. Your party can have a maximum of four party members, each of which can be assigned to a button of your choosing. Each battle is broken down into two phases: an attack phase and a counter phase. When you attack your positioning in relation to your own party as well as where you are in regards to your opponent will have a significant impact in how the battle plays out. This is really cool since you can create some great combos and get attack multipliers based on where you are in relation to your opponent. If you’re behind the enemy when attacking you’ll deliver stronger attacks and can stun them before they have a chance to counter. If none of your comrades are close by you’ll go into battle alone. The good thing is that you can position your spellcasters or distance fighters far back, while having Wylfred in the lead to deliver the final blow. Or, you can create stronger team combos by surrounding your opponent. Thus, you’ll be able to make your sin tallies happen more easily.

Unfortunately, your enemies aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed. Several times it seemed like a few of them just had one too many tankards of ale. Instead of closing in for the kill, they decided to hang back and take a break. Maybe, the enemies have a fatigue meter that no one knows about, or they are just all around nice guys. But, whatever the case, it gave me a chance to revive and heal team members before committing a few deadly sins.

The Voice-Over was good in the sporadic moments where it was employed. I could, however, have done without the excessive rhyming in the cut scenes. Thankfully, those weren’t all voiced. After a while, it reminded me of Tom Bombadil in Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. The music is good, but doesn’t do much to separate it from other RPGs. After a while, you probably won’t even realize the music is there. And if you feel like turning off the sound completely you won’t be missing much.

Unlike most RPGs, playing through the game again to see the alternate endings isn’t tedious. In Valkyrie Profile, when you start over you can maintain the same stats from your prior game - making the game a quick play through.

Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume is a nice addition to the DS RPG library that will make you want to sin again and again. The game is somewhat short, but alternate endings make this one RPG worth the runback. Valkyrie Profile suffers from poor enemy AI at times, but it’s not too much as to make the game overly simple. The sin requirement alone will add a level of complexity to counter-balance the poor AI. This may be a turnoff to some gamers, but it does create a nice dynamic that plays into the overall Covenant of the Plume tale.