Valkyrie Elysium review: Give us Valkyrie Profile!

By bbayle – Posted on 03 Oct 2022 at 16:45

2008. This is the date on which the last installment of the Valkyrie Profile license was released. And again, according to some, we could almost not consider it as a real episode of the license: Covenant of The Plume is a prequel to the original episode, released on Nintendo DS only. Simply put, we haven’t had a sequel to the Valkyrie Profile story since 2006 and Silmeria, which released on PS2. So when Square Enix announced a new Valkyrie game, fans started to rejoice… Before finally finding that it would not be a sequel. Or a new Valkyrie Profile, after all. However, we wanted to give the benefit of the doubt to this new opus, which will perhaps serve as a snack while waiting for the arrival of the long-awaited sesame? After all, the story of Valkyrie Elysium has something to remind us of that of other Square Enix successes: like the NieR series, Elysium did not benefit from a big budget, and offers exclusively action / RPG gameplay, at leagues from the genesis of the series. So why not after all?

Ain’t Tri-Ace who wants

The first problem we encounter when playing Valkyrie Elysium is a real lack of finish. From the start of the game, we understand that the complex scenario and the particular sustained language of the Valkyrie Profile games would not be part of it. The narration is fairly agreed upon from the introductory cutscene, and will ultimately remain so throughout the software. This is where the shoe pinches: if the Valkyrie Profile games are so popular, it’s for two things. First, the ruthless old-school tactical/RPG gameplay that requires a lot of preparation on the part of the player, and the dark storytelling with twists and turns. Qualities widely put forward when Tri-Ace took care of the license, for Valkyrie Profile, Silmeria and Covenant of The Plume. Soleil, the studio in charge of Elysium by Square Enix, cannot claim to have real experience in this area: it is mainly known for Ninjala or for a Naruto game which did not mark many people.

Giving the lead on a license as legendary as Valkyrie Profile to a studio that has not yet proven itself was very ambitious, and if we take this fact into consideration, Soleil is not doing so badly in the end.. After all, the fights are lively and dynamic, the story certainly boring but well brought and the graphic style rather pleasant. In fact, we are here on an extremely classic action / RPG that does things well, but which does not stand out in any way from the competition, and which pales in comparison to its heritage.. Not to mention the few flaws in the game that can make the experience particularly hard to swallow: there are numerous camera bugs that sometimes make the action difficult to grasp in the middle of combat, various framerate drops at critical moments, and levels not well inspired in their construction.

Shadow of Valkyrie Profile

Technically, the game is picking up, and struggling to turn despite the intrinsic power of the PS5 on which we were able to test the software. Suffice to say that it might have been better to wait a bit before releasing it? Especially since Square Enix did not necessarily need this release for this already busy end of the year, with games that directly compete with Valkyrie Elysium: the port of NieR Automata on Nintendo Switch for example or the new Star Ocean planned for the end of the month, moreover developed by Tri-Ace.

Valkyrie Elysium is the story of a disappointment. Disappointment not to have commissioned Tri-Ace on the project. Disappointment that this isn’t really a new Valkyrie Profile. Disappointment that the Soleil studio missed out on what was the essence of the series. Disappointment that the finished product offered to the player is not really. Finally, a potential disappointment: if this Valkyrie Elysium does not perform well in terms of sales, we are probably not likely to discover a new Valkyrie Profile game anytime soon…