Since most people mention Vagrant Story and Valkyrie Profile together, should I pick it up as well?
The reason most people list these together is not because they are terribly similar (they are very different games), but because both came out in the twilight years of the PSOne, both benefited extremely well from the knowledge of the hardware, both start with a V, both are made by extremely famous Japanese developers with influential track records, both fly in the face of RPG conventions and do things they’re own unique way and both are utterly brilliant, deep, multi-faceted games.
If you’ve never heard of Valkyrie Profile, it concerns the travails of a valkyrie of Norse legend named Lenneth who is charged with gathering the souls of fallen warriors in order to prepare for the last battle, Ragnarok. The game is divided into many chapters, in which you have a certain amount of blocks of time in order to search for fallen warriors, recruit them and train them. Going into a town or a dungeon or searching for the heartbeats of warriors soon to die each takes a different amount of time initiate, but there is no ticking clock, it works more like a turn thing. So there’s a great deal of a sense of impending doom and tension, while at the same time the appeal to think up great complex strategies.
The main strategy is dividing your earthly fighting force for training purposes and trying to please Odin by sending up strong fighters and this trickles down in all sorts of ways. Who you send and how powerful they are when you send them affects the Ragnarok war as you get reports after each chapter on how it is going. As you fight with your warriors, you earn points to improve them in ways that are more than just about fighting prowess, making them less impulsive, or more courageous, giving them more charisma, etc. Also, as you search nests of monsters to fight against, you don’t really buy things in this game as much as you “earn” materilization point with which to procure miraculous items, weapons and armor and such from heaven and equip with, or you find it in the dungeons.
The game’s action takes place in a 3D world map, where you fly around as the valkyrie searching and a 2D system very reminiscient of Symphony of the Night, with light platforming and action/puzzle elements. The battle system is totally unique, assigning each of a party of four characters to one button on the PlayStation’s controllers face. Timing and combos are very important and what seems simple at first becomes incredibly multi-faceted, diverse, devious and deep as you play farther into the game with monsters that will tear you alive should you simply try to deadbrain through them. At the same time, battles are quick and tense, again, giving you all the time you need to plan, but having the tense elements of an action game without being an action game, if that makes sense.
Almost everything about this game is unique when compared to other RPGs, even the towns, which are not your conventional bases where you buy weapons, items and talk to people. The game has a gorgeous 2D engine and I’m unsure as to how the voice-acting turned out in English, so maybe someone else can help you with that. Nevertheless, the soundtrack is also wonderful. There’s little about the game that isn’t.
It may sound like I’m riding a hype train here, but really this is One of the Greats. Again, it demands that you do not play as you would your average RPG with your normal expectations, and yet, its terribly replayable, especially since you are unlikely to discover an absolutely terrific and clever plot twist the first time around – the plot is mostly in the background BTW, gameplay remains supreme, but what there is of it is better than most other games or RPGs, same with Vagrant Story, which has extraordinary writing.
I hear it quite rare in the US, which is a shame, but if you can get your hands on it, its most likely going to be worth the money for you.
To quote the game, it is an experience that “shall be engraved upon your soul.”
Done. I’ve also been told to try Suikoden III and Shadow Hearts, are good?
:twisted:!
Trust me bud, I’m terribly biased when it comes to Suikoden III. I not only greatly enjoyed the first two games, but I’ve always loved the Chinese novel these games were based on AND its one that was a great part of my childhood. On top of that, the third game came out at an extremely emotional time in my life AND was given to me by a best friend as a gift. I can talk about Valkyrie Profile calmly because its a cool game that I had lot of fun with and is one of the best RPGs on the PSX, but this is one of my favorite games ever and I have an adoration for it that borders on the psychotic. I’ve spent something like 300 hours playing it and have written a FAQ that’s over 200 pages on it. Perhaps you ought to ask someone else. ;)
Shadow Hearts is alright. Its a kind of confused game though and if games with lots of forced cutscenes and nonsensical plot direction aggravate coughFFcough you, this might not be your cup of tea. The battle system is decent enough, but neither terribly tactical nor very deep; its also rather slow. There is a great deal about that is unique, including the horror Victorian setting and the odd mechanic of the Judgement Ring, which tries to add some physical coordination to enhancing things, and it does have some great polish (the writing and the attention to detail in the menu, as well as the very flipped out Silent Hill-esque monsters are neat). It definitely takes after Final Fantasy somewhat though and is made by some ex-Square staff to boot. But hey, I think I remember getting the good ending involved something about a porno magazine, so that’s something.
Oh, and send me some Option 2s, Yes! mags and what ever magazine you get your into in!
Huh?! What on earth are you talking about? :/
-Kitsune
