Valkyrie Elysium was a pleasant surprise and is an interesting game too. On one hand it is a lower budget, action RPG, published by Square Enix and is part of the Valkyrie franchise. On the other hand it is a, sort of, character action game, with some quirks, developed by Soleil, that has a shorter than expected run time.

The first thing you’ll notice is how this game looks. It has some beautiful art work but is lower budget and looks kind of bland at first. However as you progress through the game and visit more areas you begin to see a lot of beauty in this dying world. The character, boss and enemy designs are good, even if the enemies are reused too often. Fighting mostly looks very flashy and smooth. I ended up enjoying the look of this game quite a bit and think it creates the right mood and atmosphere. It has a pleasant soundtrack that fits the world and tone of the game too. Everything worked pretty smoothly for me but there are a couple of visual issues. Sometimes when there is a lot going on, the screen is just a mess of things with too much happening. Then there is the camera, do yourself a favour and never go near a wall or corner. This camera was never meant to work in tight spaces but for some reason there are indoor fights.

Valkyrie Elysium’s story starts off kind of bland too but thankfully begins to pick up once you start meeting some of your companions called Einherjar. These companions are a highlight and bring some much needed heart and personality to the game. It’s really worth doing their subquests and viewing their memories. I wish I could say the same about the rest of the subquests but they really don’t add much and aren’t worth your time, outside making you stronger. The world, lore and story build as you progress but it doesn’t truly get going until the last third. You play as a Valkyrie working for Odin and you are tasked with trying to save the world. I won’t say more than that but it does get more complex and I enjoyed it. There are also multiple endings with a true ending. It’s all worth seeing not just for the story but the fights too. If you enjoy the story and characters at all then push through to the true end, I recommend it.

The gameplay, despite a good tutorial, yep you guessed it, also starts of a bit bland before getting really fun. Making your way through locations is very straight forward. Areas are linear with some side areas/paths to find collectables, items and extra fights. Occasionally your Einherjar with have to use an ability so you can progress and there’s some basic platforming. There is your usual RPG stuff – numbers go up, skills to unlock, multiple weapons to use and gain proficiency in, runes to attach to those weapons for different increases and items to use. It could have maybe used some puzzles and more complex platforming but on the other hand this game knows what it’s about and that is the story, characters, atmosphere and combat.

Combat in this game probably surprised many that bothered to learn it and experiment a little. It blends RPG stuff with hack n slash. You have to cast magic of different elements, summon the right Einherjar and use the right weapon to hit enemy weaknesses. Do this enough and they’ll be crushed (staggered) and you get much quicker kills. While doing this you need to be hacking your way through enemies with somewhat basic combos and moves. You’ve also got a soul chain which works like a grapple gun thing that pulls you towards enemies. There’s a bunch of important skills and upgrades to unlock and put to good use like chained attack, soul burst (charged attack), counter, parry, quick evade, double evade, precision guard, ranged attack, soul steal, reversal, automatic summons, finishers and stat boosts. Combine this with the fact that you can also do a lot of this in the air too, seriously, summons, and magic, combos and soul chain in the air. You can jump up hit a combo, and then jump again because you get a double jump, hit another combo, fling yourself to the next enemy and keep those attacks coming. You’ll be ripping yourself around from enemy to enemy, whether on the ground or in the air, dodging attacks, while not forgetting to also be using the correct magic and summons and raking up huge hit counts. The game rewards you for keeping up your pace up and being aggressive. Attacks refill your magic and killing enemies will give you drops that refill health and soul for summons. It works well and is damn fun but it’s not without some issues.

I already mentioned the camera and that the screen can get too busy at times. The difficulty is too easy right up until it’s suddenly not. The regular enemies are often too easy to get through but then a boss or special fight will happen and all of a sudden the game demands you know what you’re doing. This makes for uneven experience with things getting tiresome after too many waves of normal opponents and has you constantly wanting those more interesting fights. It could be worth playing on hard difficulty if you’re really comfortable with this type of game. The items are useless most of the time as they just aren’t needed and you get penalised for using them. Also the game gives you so much to use against your foes that it would be nice to be able to have more things equipped at once. It’s still a great time though for about 15 to 20+ hours depending on how much you choose to do. You can enjoy it even longer than that with replays, plus there’s also been a free update with more content. Hilde’s vengeance is a side mode for one of the characters, Seraphic Gate offers some extra challenges and there is a new harder difficulty too.

I think Valkyrie Elysium could strike a very sweet spot for many people. It’s an action RPG without the length and some of the time wasting stuff. It’s sort of a character action game without being as full on and with a longer run time then what those games usually offer. Its story and gameplay are enjoyable once they get going and the soundtrack and visuals tie everything together into a worthy package. It’s also likely to be very reasonably priced by now too. I think Valkyrie Elysium does enough right that I would consider it a hidden gem and I’d recommend giving it a chance.

7.4/10