Finished Valkyrie Elysium at 33 hours, obtaining all 4 endings, and completed every single side quest they have to offer. As well as the post-game mode Hilde's Vengeance.
I don't think it's honestly a bad game as people like to make out of it. It's a very solid linear action game resembling the PS2 era. The gameplay loop is pretty fun with a variety of weapons and magic you could use to input various combos and you can unlock more inputs as you upgrade each weapon.
You can also get stronger with three skill trees that increase your attack, defense, hp, arts and soul gauges as well as unlocking technical moves such as quick evade, perfect parrying, counter-attacking etc.
The addition of Einherjar and each one of them has thier own element and assist you in battle add depth to the game by attacking enemies based on thier elemental weakness.
The overall story is severable. The plot is quite simple, as essentially you're are a Valkyrie created by Odin to collect souls in Midgard in order to save the world but as you progress the game, there is more than what meets the eyes.
I say the highlight is how Valkyrie slowly develops over time as she encounters more Einherjar that was once human and still maintains thier humanity even after death. The Einherjar in general, while not very deep and developed characters, they have lively enough personalities that are severable enough to carry throughout the game.
The endings can range in satisfaction but I think the true ending, as intended, is the best ending since it's the only ending that wraps up every plot point that was ongoing in the game and has some pretty nice final bosses.
That said, the more I played Valkyrie Elysium, the more it become very apparent it's a game with a very limited budget. You're always revisiting areas in side quests and even during the main story, there is a lot of backtracking.
Plus the game is filled with some technical issues during cutscenes like the lip-syncing is off. I even experience some slowdowns during combat, quite a lot of the time the framerate would drop.
And while I did not mind this, it's worth noting some people may not like how linear and repetitive the game is by nature. The overall flow of the game is you're at Asgard selecting a mission or talking to the few people there, you battle your way through, you find souls that will give you a sidequest (to be completed after you're done with your current mission), you complete the mission and rinse and repeat.
My biggest complaint however is...the game just feels empty and dead. To my understanding, the Valkyrie Profile series and Norse mythology, in general, were never overly populated a huge point of the game is purifying a dying world. But considering there are only 10-11 people in total in the game, excluding wandering souls. The game feels like it missing a lot of needed life.
It just feels like more could be done with the game's story such as more people at Asgard to receive quests, for example, to counter the emptiness of Valkyrie Elysium.
For better or for worse, Valkyrie Elysium stays true to the heyday of low-budget Japanese action games from the sixth generation. Those that are looking for deep world and character interaction will be very disappointed but all and all, I appreciate Valkyrie Elysium for what it is, a fun action game with great combat with a solid enough story that doesn't overstay its welcome, even if I believe more could be done with the Norse setting in Elysium if the game was allowed a bigger budget.
I don't think it's honestly a bad game as people like to make out of it. It's a very solid linear action game resembling the PS2 era. The gameplay loop is pretty fun with a variety of weapons and magic you could use to input various combos and you can unlock more inputs as you upgrade each weapon.
You can also get stronger with three skill trees that increase your attack, defense, hp, arts and soul gauges as well as unlocking technical moves such as quick evade, perfect parrying, counter-attacking etc.
The addition of Einherjar and each one of them has thier own element and assist you in battle add depth to the game by attacking enemies based on thier elemental weakness.
The overall story is severable. The plot is quite simple, as essentially you're are a Valkyrie created by Odin to collect souls in Midgard in order to save the world but as you progress the game, there is more than what meets the eyes.
I say the highlight is how Valkyrie slowly develops over time as she encounters more Einherjar that was once human and still maintains thier humanity even after death. The Einherjar in general, while not very deep and developed characters, they have lively enough personalities that are severable enough to carry throughout the game.
The endings can range in satisfaction but I think the true ending, as intended, is the best ending since it's the only ending that wraps up every plot point that was ongoing in the game and has some pretty nice final bosses.
That said, the more I played Valkyrie Elysium, the more it become very apparent it's a game with a very limited budget. You're always revisiting areas in side quests and even during the main story, there is a lot of backtracking.
Plus the game is filled with some technical issues during cutscenes like the lip-syncing is off. I even experience some slowdowns during combat, quite a lot of the time the framerate would drop.
And while I did not mind this, it's worth noting some people may not like how linear and repetitive the game is by nature. The overall flow of the game is you're at Asgard selecting a mission or talking to the few people there, you battle your way through, you find souls that will give you a sidequest (to be completed after you're done with your current mission), you complete the mission and rinse and repeat.
My biggest complaint however is...the game just feels empty and dead. To my understanding, the Valkyrie Profile series and Norse mythology, in general, were never overly populated a huge point of the game is purifying a dying world. But considering there are only 10-11 people in total in the game, excluding wandering souls. The game feels like it missing a lot of needed life.
It just feels like more could be done with the game's story such as more people at Asgard to receive quests, for example, to counter the emptiness of Valkyrie Elysium.
For better or for worse, Valkyrie Elysium stays true to the heyday of low-budget Japanese action games from the sixth generation. Those that are looking for deep world and character interaction will be very disappointed but all and all, I appreciate Valkyrie Elysium for what it is, a fun action game with great combat with a solid enough story that doesn't overstay its welcome, even if I believe more could be done with the Norse setting in Elysium if the game was allowed a bigger budget.