Valkyrie Profile 2 – Silmeria – Review

Great story overall and epic in scope. I did get a bit burned out playing the first three chapters as they were slow. You were going from dungeon to dungeon to figure out the location of a very important item. Nothing much else was occurring during that time. At last, at the end of Chapter 3 the game kicks into overdrive and it was just oozing with great story. Numerous and unexpected twists keep it fresh and entertaining.

As to what the story is actually about I do not care to indulge into it because I do not feel like breaking it down, it is beyond me at the moment. Just know it was a fantastic from beginning to end.

Alicia is cool. Rufus is cool. Everyone else is okay. The many Valkyries you meet are very hot and just as enjoyable to watch and to play as.

The last baddy, who you might think it is but actually is not, was as good bad guy. He is not just some random person you have never seen before pulling the strings in the back. Rather, he has been with you since the beginning so he makes you want to kick his ass for being such a jerk, how all successful bad guys should make you feel.

Visuals

This game is beautiful. Words won’t even come close to the work that was put into developing the visuals of this game. Buy it and see for yourself.

Music

Equally as engrossing as the visuals, the musical score is a feast for the ears. Music fit perfectly and was not some half-assed, uninspired orchestrated nonsense I have been hearing a lot lately.

Voice Acting

At first I was not too keen on the voice acting as I was not sure if what I heard was good or not. As I kept playing and more ingame cut-scenes kept rolling I began to understand this was some pretty serious voice acting. It did not feel cheesy at all, nor did it have that over-the-top feeling. The VA was simply perfect, one of the better voiced games I have heard in a long time.

There was a small technical problem as you would hear the game loading each line one by one. A conversation was not as smooth as you would hope. You would be hearing the disc spinning and at the same time watch on screen a short delay and stuttering. It was pretty apparent during some cut-scenes, but it was a minor problem at best.

Battle System

A very cool battle system, a nice healthy button masher if you want to turn it into one, but you will quickly find yourself loading from your last save point as you die over and over again. A nice arcade like feeling to the battle system.

When you enter battle you are transferred to a battlefield. You are given 100 Action Points (AP) and every attack you use consumes action points and what not. Thus the element of strategy and timing all take play as you time the attacks of your characters to get the best possible damage and combo potential while conserving AP for the next plan of attack. Going through all 100 AP points leave you pretty much open to a counter-attack and you will pay if you did not plan ahead. If you get swarmed by monsters you will not be given time to recover as they will keep getting their turn to attack before you do and you sit there screaming at the screen waiting for your turn.

Positioning is also very important as breaking off certain parts of an enemy will gain you loot dependent on whatever part you aimed for.

The game is very easy if you have half a brain and do not button mash like a complete moron. If your brain is actually working you won’t have any problems with the game’s initial learning curve.

Overall

Valkyrie Profile 2 does a lot of things right as its story and unique and engaging battle system help to place it on the top.