A pretty great game bogged down by the platform it's on and a nonexistent budget.

I fully enjoyed playing and completing route C of this game, which was my first choice. Though to really beat the game you must complete all 3 endings, A, B and C. The story plays out differently in each route, at times giving you further insight on events seen in other routes or ones that occurred before the beginning of the game. You also recruit entirely different characters to your party. So why are these replays what brings down the game for me?

When replaying the game you maintain all of your equipment and consumables plus Wylfred maintains the skills you gain from sacrificing allies. You'll also notice that nearly every map is straight up reused but with a tweaked starting position and/or enemy types. It's not remotely challenging and it feels very tedious but I didn't want to leave the game unfinished and was interested in seeing the true ending.

For me this was worthwhile, I loved seeing Wylfred's story unfold. He's definitely one of the most fleshed out and interesting characters in the series. That said I don't find the political story going on as a backdrop too interesting, it's cool to see and understand why events happen through the different route perspectives but this ultimately was already seen and done better with the einherjar stories in previous titles.

As for the actual gameplay, it's fun and a smart way to make Valkyrie Profile into an SRPG. Though due to the nature of the routes discussed above it's not much fun after your first route, besides the seraphic gate. The original combo system is maintained and now combined with grid movements and formations that'll determine how you want to approach and how you want to attack.

Enemies still drop exp crystals when you juggle them but now the purple orbs drop from hitting stunned enemies, which you can achieve by hitting them from behind or sometimes the sides. The orbs in this game directly add to how many attacks the character who earned them can do in their current string. Personally I didn't abuse this much and chose to stick to surrounding enemies and abusing the siege bonuses you get from doing so successfully. Soul crush/PWS is back in this game too, but like in VP2 you need weapons that have it enabled to use them.

A totally new mechanic added in this game is the destiny plume, in which you may sacrifice a party member permanently in return for making them extremely strong and unkillable for the rest of the current battle. This will also net a new ability for Wylfred and each playable character you can sacrifice has a unique one to gain. How many times you use the plume will also affect your route. The other new mechanic is the sin gauge. Every battle has a sin requirement, you gain sin by overkilling enemies and how much you get is determined by how much damage you overkilled them by. If you can net double the sin requirement in a battle you will get fantastic rewards, basically serving as the equivalent to fulfilling Freya's einherjar requests in VP1. Failing to meet the requirement will net you a harsh punishment in the next battle.

Last but not least the seraphic gate is back for the post game once again. It's great in this game, funny dialogue as always and I found it refreshing that you're forced to start with no items, equipment or skills. You go through the entire mode (around 20 battles) starting fresh but you can pick anyone from the three routes and you'll recruit exclusive characters as you progress as well. There's no sin requirement or rewards so you need to make do with hidden items, the limited money you earn and what enemies drop to make it to the end.

Overall I enjoyed my time with this game as the gameplay is well designed and fun. The game not having much of a budget is certainly to blame for the "different" routes being mostly reused content gameplay wise. More map variety or more clever map design would go a long way in fixing this. That said Wylfred's story is definitely a highlight within the series and it was worth some tediousness to see its best moments.

Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume is a pretty good SRPG, even if it's rocking a budget of about $30 of Costco store credit.

The story was good in my opinion. The concept is incredibly cool, but the execution could have been stronger, especially when compared to that of Valkyrie Profile 1 and 2. The game follows Wyl's quest for revenge against the Valkyrie, who he blames for the death of his father and subsequent destruction of his family. His journey for vengeance (aided by the Goddess of Niflheim, Hel) is set against the backdrop of political turmoil and a brewing major war in the world of Midgard, which to me was reminiscent of Final Fantasy Tactics, and I'm a big fan of FFT. Speaking of FFT, the dialogue also incorporated more of a "ye olde English" style, which was cool.

Wylfred also carries the Destiny Plume, an extremely important item gifted to him by Hel, which allows him to sacrifice his allies. In addition to its effects in gameplay, it also has a large impact on the plot and Wyl's fate. I thought this was pretty damn cool. Unfortunately, similar to FFT (and VP1, for that matter), the possibility of losing allies permanently severely limits any possible story relevance, development, and even dialogue they can have. At the very least, Wyl himself appreciably develops and grows throughout the game, affected by how many times you invoke the Destiny Plume. If you use it enough, Wyl's voice lines in battle even change and become a lot more savage. You'll have to play through the game three times to experience the entire story, but playthroughs are short (I got all three endings in 25 hours), and each path is very different from each (both in allies and story content), so it's a painless process.

The combat, on the other hand, was surprisingly a lot of fun. It's pretty much what you'd expect if you crossed Valkyrie Profile and Disgaea's gameplay systems. It's mostly standard SRPG gameplay; ally and enemy teams take turns moving about a grid, attacking, using items and moves, etc. It gets pretty unique when you actually engage an enemy, as nearby allies can also attack and combo enemies, à la Valkyrie Profile. You can juggle enemies for crystals, knock them down for combo extending gems, and charge the Soul Crush gauge, etc. Positioning matters to an extent as well, as certain formations result in "sieges" that will boost your attack and provide other benefits.

As per your contract will Hel, you also have a Sin gauge to fill up during battles. The more you overkill enemies, the more Sin you gain after defeating an enemy. If you meet the target Sin that Hel wants, you get rewards, and the quality of the rewards increase if you go way over her goal. If you fail to meet the goal, she'll send extremely tough Realmstalkers into your next battle. In addition, you also have access to the Destiny Plume. Using the Plume allows you to sacrifice an ally, which greatly boosting their parameters for the duration of that battle and activates a game changing tactic (ranging from paralyzing every enemy to making yourself immune to physical damage). Wyl will permanently gain access to a slightly weaker version of the tactic, too. Of course, that ally will permanently die after the battle, and you'll incur other story penalties the more you use it. I never really got tired of the combat throughout the entire game, even after two NG+ playthroughs and the Seraphic Gate, so it's great in my book.

CotP features a fairly good OST too. It consists of about 50% all new tracks, and 50% remixes of music from Valkyrie Profile 1, all by Motoi Sakuraba. The music is all well and good, but it suffers a bit thanks to the DS' weak soundchip. There's nothing that'll make you want to turn the volume down, though. I'd recommend listening to Sakuraba's CotP arrange album after playing the game, too. There were some real bangers in there.

All things considered, Covenant of the Plume is a great game. While it's definitely not as good as VP1 or 2, it's absolutely worth playing if you're a fan of the series. Can't wait for Valkyrie Profile 3: Hrist to come out though :)

Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume applied the series' techniques to a tactical RPG blueprint, merging its chain combo battle system with encounter cut-ins while rewarding smart unit placement via unison attacks. The missions were unique in translating existing Valkyrie Profile features (overkill, transferring) into success conditions that could alter story paths, but are otherwise standard fare. Its story treads familiar ground despite the change in perspective, but what really sets this apart is the over-the-top discourse that takes a few dark turns.