A much more conventional followup, Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria disposed of the original's loose world progression and adopts the worst traits from 00s era JRPGs: Doll-faced characters, muted aesthetic, hyper-cinematic/melodramatic, dialogue bloat, massive empty areas, etc. In fact, many aspects of the debut feel half-baked here, from platforming to recruitment, to dungeons and (especially) its action-leaning battle system. Now taking movement and positioning into account, combat more so revolves around maneuvering past enemy vision cones than combo mastery, compounded by awkward collisions and egregiously slow pacing. It succeeds only in its hyper-complex system mechanics, that pairs gear combinations with skill mastery and crafting that marked an importance on farming enemy loot. A deep set of systems and details without engaging combat to take advantage of it.