Valkyrie Elysium
MSRP $59.99
“Valkyrie Elysium delivers an average action experience that fails to revive a classic RPG series.”
Pros
Beautiful world
Decent fight
Cons
Extremely primary story
Cardboard characters
Lack of depth
No exploration
Square Enix has been on a roll recently on the subject of reviving dormant franchises and remaking its classics. That course of kicked off in earnest with Final Fantasy VII Remake, however the firm has saved issues transferring since then. There’s been a brand new Front Mission right here, one other Star Ocean there, and now an addition to the Valkyrie collection with the latest launch of Valkyrie Elysium.
The inherent bother with this new initiative is that these tasks need to stay as much as all of the expectations and nostalgia its gamers nonetheless strongly really feel. In the case of Valkyrie Elysium‘s original predecessor, Valkyrie Profile, that’s an excellent bigger downside as a result of its cult traditional standing. The distinction between these two isn’t simply the generational hole or gameplay adjustments, however the lack of effort and innovation that Valkyrie Elysium brings to the desk in a world the place we’ve seen Japanese role-playing video games and motion integration perfected time and again.
Simplistic story
The largest weak spot of Valkyrie Elysium comes from its very simple story, which boils all the way down to “Ragnarok is coming. Go fight and save the world.” You play as Nora, a brand new Valkyrie who has to finish this activity as ordered by Odin. She follows this command till a predictable plot twist that you just’ll see from a mile away turns her in opposition to the all-father.
Everyone has a character constructed out of cardboard, together with the journey’s foremost hero, Nora Valkyrie. There had been no narrative hooks for me to get invested in, which made me really feel like many of the growth consideration went to the fight and visuals as a substitute. That wouldn’t be an issue if this was a completely fleshed-out motion romp, nevertheless it struggles to ship in that division too.
Average motion
When going into Valkyrie Elysium, all I might take into consideration was how far JRPGs have come as a style. After tackling video games like Final Fantasy VII Remake, Scarlet Nexus, and Tales of Arise, I might solely think about how Elysium would comply with of their footsteps and ship an motion expertise for informal and hardcore gamers whereas completely meshing with the role-playing style. This is the place Elysium actually struggles.
Valkyrie Elysium took all of the depth I hoped to seek out in a contemporary action-RPG and threw it to the aspect in favor of one thing that feels even emptier than what many anticipate from one thing like a Dynasty Warriors sport. From a gameplay standpoint, it’s a naked expertise. You’ll discover no dodge cancels, bounce cancels, big combos, or superior techniques right here, making its fight a little bit of a button mash-fest.
The simplistic method to fight feels prefer it’s solely constructed for one viewers. Sure, gamers who need to flip off their brains and hit buttons might be fulfilled, however that’s about it. Even so, these gamers will nonetheless run into some points. The purpose you may’t cancel an motion is as a result of you may’t act out of an assault string. Once instructions are enter, Nora will full that combo. That’s additionally why you may’t dodge out of hazard throughout an assault on enemies like you may in a Bayonetta or another extra polished motion sport. Instead, you’re restricted to protect canceling, which is a fantastic, albeit extra boring workaround that performs into the central difficulty of Valkyrie Elysium.
Most enemies are brainlessly simple to combat.
After enjoying by means of the sooner items of the sport in its demo, I hoped that as I unlocked extra capacity bushes, weapons, Einherjar (help assaults), and spells, these choices would open up extra. That simply wasn’t the case. Instead, the sport’s fight principally focuses on exploiting enemy aspect weaknesses.
Apart from making boss life bars soften sooner and freezing them to make a simple expertise extra easy, that method felt pointless. Most enemies are brainlessly simple to combat. I might simply mash assaults with no thought except I wished so as to add a little bit of flash to maintain myself entertained. I see a lot potential right here, however the finances nature of the title actually exhibits, which shouldn’t be the case.
A gorgeous world wasted
If nothing else, Valkyrie Elysium does excel on an inventive degree. In each fight and exploration (I exploit that phrase very loosely, as there’s not a lot to be completed), I can’t deny the visible aptitude on show. Everything from lightning hitting demonic enemies to the solar peeking over a destroyed citadel brings a painting-like magnificence to the world. It’s an artwork model constructed out of limitation, because it’s masking a finances look, nevertheless it does it properly.
I can’t assist however really feel that every one of that magnificence is squandered, as Valkyrie Elysium is all dressed up with nowhere to go. The first map of the sport had me wandering aimlessly for a bit round an identical buildings with no actual landmarks to latch onto. That was adopted by tons of linear ranges that I needed to revisit time and again throughout subquests. This isn’t a typical JRPG expertise the place it’s essential discover the world, however a extra linear one which performs into its general lack of choices and finances nature. It doesn’t assist that a variety of its ranges are simply made up of darkish hallways with nothing to take a look at inside them.
Valkyrie Elysium could be categorized as a missed alternative. There’s a normal feeling that it didn’t get the time or consideration the collection deserved, with the most important disappointment coming from its motion. After the discharge of so many nice video games that do what it tries to take action significantly better, it’s exhausting to advocate it amongst a crowded subject. Games like Scarlet Nexus and Tales of Arise simply combine motion fight and the JRPG method significantly better, which makes Elysium really feel dated. Elden Ring decorates and tells a narrative by means of its world in methods I want this sport even tried.
Unlike these titles and former entries in its personal collection, Valkyrie Elysium tries to play it too secure. An absence of effort leaves the sport feeling like a kind of fully common titles that had been fashionable within the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 period. And that’s what stings probably the most. It isn’t a horrible RPG by any means, however an completely OK one when you’re simply trying to mash some buttons and do completely nothing else.
Valkyrie Elysium was reviewed on PS5.
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