Valkyrie Elysium is one of the most 6/10 games I've played in awhile. I wanted to find an underrated hidden gem, future cult classic of a game something like NieR was back in the 360 days, but Valkyrie Elysium just isn't one to me. It is perfectly ok in almost every regard (and less than ok in some), but nothing more. No part of the game stands out to make it exceptional, almost everything it tries to do you've probably seen other games do much better already and that's fine, it's far from a bad game. It's just the definition of mid to me.
The plot starts out very slow and pretty uninteresting for almost 75% of the game. It's just "Go here, fight undead and purify souls because Odin said we have to do this to save the world" and while there is a lot more than meets the eye to this world and its lore, almost all of it is crammed into the final 3 hours of the game to where it just feels tacked on, convoluted and rushed. Reminds me of how Kingdom Hearts III was. I like most of the concepts and ideas presented, but think the execution left a lot to desire. Gotta say I'm not a fan of how the writers take so many creative liberties with Norse mythology and butcher some of its characters and concepts though mixing it with OC anime bullshit because at that point you're better off just making your own mythology.
During the journey Valkyrie slowly meets companions in the form of spirits who she turns into her chosen warriors known as Einherjar and all the Einherjar have stereotypical archetypes we've seen in J-RPGs before, the cunning rogue pretty boy, the gallant knight, the headstrong girl, the shy girl etc. However while they're quite stereotypical, all the characters are still quite charming and their interactions with Valkyrie provide some good character development as they help Valkyrie to appreciate and value humans more.
The combat is definitely the best thing about the game. It's like DMC, but with a much heavier emphasis on magical attacks and support from summoning your Einherjar to exploit the enemy's elemental weakness. My only problem is the actual weapon switching isn't nearly as fluid as DMC and you can't do it mid attack so it breaks up the pacing of combat and almost makes switching weapons pointless a lot of times to me. Also maybe this is just because I was playing on a harder difficulty (Normal was too easy when I started the game on it) but a lot of enemy's just felt overly damage spongy.
Boss fights were another highlight because while they were also overly spongy for my liking, the designs were cool and the fights were well choreographed and provided a decent challenge. Motoi Sakuraba's OST was also pretty good. The ethereal and atmospheric style of music really complimented the dreary and lifeless world.
Speaking of lifeless world, Valkyrie Elysium definitely shows its budget because the world really is lifeless. There's barely any side NPCs, all the side quests you do get feel relatively pointless and tacked on plus they reuse previous areas of the game, all the level design is essentially completely linear and corridor like with barely anything to explore or find off the beaten path besides a handful of treasure chests with potions in them and that's not even mentioning the outdated textures and lip-synching problems.
Valkyrie Elysium is at this weird crossroads where it doesn't know if it wants to be a character action game or an action RPG and a lot of the design choices clash with each other because of that. It has the foundations for a solid combat system, some good bosses and nice atmosphere and music too, but when the narrative and characters are underdeveloped for 75% of the game and then overly rushed and convoluted in the last 25% and the game is so short as it is with little to offer outside of the main story aside from a handful of fetch quests which reuse locations you've already been to...I just can't really recommend this game to anyone when you'd just be better off spending that time playing DMC or NieR instead.
The plot starts out very slow and pretty uninteresting for almost 75% of the game. It's just "Go here, fight undead and purify souls because Odin said we have to do this to save the world" and while there is a lot more than meets the eye to this world and its lore, almost all of it is crammed into the final 3 hours of the game to where it just feels tacked on, convoluted and rushed. Reminds me of how Kingdom Hearts III was. I like most of the concepts and ideas presented, but think the execution left a lot to desire. Gotta say I'm not a fan of how the writers take so many creative liberties with Norse mythology and butcher some of its characters and concepts though mixing it with OC anime bullshit because at that point you're better off just making your own mythology.
During the journey Valkyrie slowly meets companions in the form of spirits who she turns into her chosen warriors known as Einherjar and all the Einherjar have stereotypical archetypes we've seen in J-RPGs before, the cunning rogue pretty boy, the gallant knight, the headstrong girl, the shy girl etc. However while they're quite stereotypical, all the characters are still quite charming and their interactions with Valkyrie provide some good character development as they help Valkyrie to appreciate and value humans more.
The combat is definitely the best thing about the game. It's like DMC, but with a much heavier emphasis on magical attacks and support from summoning your Einherjar to exploit the enemy's elemental weakness. My only problem is the actual weapon switching isn't nearly as fluid as DMC and you can't do it mid attack so it breaks up the pacing of combat and almost makes switching weapons pointless a lot of times to me. Also maybe this is just because I was playing on a harder difficulty (Normal was too easy when I started the game on it) but a lot of enemy's just felt overly damage spongy.
Boss fights were another highlight because while they were also overly spongy for my liking, the designs were cool and the fights were well choreographed and provided a decent challenge. Motoi Sakuraba's OST was also pretty good. The ethereal and atmospheric style of music really complimented the dreary and lifeless world.
Speaking of lifeless world, Valkyrie Elysium definitely shows its budget because the world really is lifeless. There's barely any side NPCs, all the side quests you do get feel relatively pointless and tacked on plus they reuse previous areas of the game, all the level design is essentially completely linear and corridor like with barely anything to explore or find off the beaten path besides a handful of treasure chests with potions in them and that's not even mentioning the outdated textures and lip-synching problems.
Valkyrie Elysium is at this weird crossroads where it doesn't know if it wants to be a character action game or an action RPG and a lot of the design choices clash with each other because of that. It has the foundations for a solid combat system, some good bosses and nice atmosphere and music too, but when the narrative and characters are underdeveloped for 75% of the game and then overly rushed and convoluted in the last 25% and the game is so short as it is with little to offer outside of the main story aside from a handful of fetch quests which reuse locations you've already been to...I just can't really recommend this game to anyone when you'd just be better off spending that time playing DMC or NieR instead.