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Tuesday, July 28, 2009
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Game Title: Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume
Platform: Nintendo DS
Genre: Strategy RPG
Developer: tri-Ace
Summary: The Valkyrie Profile series have always been based around the norse mythology of Gods such as Odin, Freya and other beings such as Valkyries which the series title is named after. The main character of this game is Wylfred whose father's soul has been claimed by a valkyrie after being slained on the battle field. This resulted in his mother losing her sainity and the death of her sister. Thus Wylfred has held a grudge against the valkyrie and has set out on a journey to get his vengence.
Graphics: As expected from both tri-Ace and Square Enix, the graphics were well done and stunning. Although compared to the other Valkyrie Profile games this may lose out in terms of graphics, but from my point of view I felt that this game has made pretty good use of the DS's capabilities and it is one of the games with good graphics for a SRPG on the DS. The effects shown during battles gives player a more enjoyable time as there are able to "feel" what their characters are going through when they attack or when they get damaged.
Music: Throughout all the games I've played, the Valkyrie Profile series is one of the many whoses music I would tend to remember. Although it's not as memorable to be compared to games such as Final Fantasy VIII and Xenogears, but I am still able to remember it to some extent. This game is no exception, the music that's played during battles allows me to focus more on the battle and when out of battles, the transition of music allows me to understand the characters more, on what their situation is and why are they reacting in their manner.
Story: The game starts with players stepping into the shoes of Wylfred who has become a mercenary in order to become stronger and thus being able to meet the valkyrie who claimed his father's life. Later on, Wylfred is recruited by the mistress of Niflheim, Hel, to join the Convenant of the Plume, where he has to gather Sin in order to engluf the Destiny Plume with Sin. Once the Destiny Plume has been fully engulfed, Wylfred would be able to recieve powers strong enough to defeat the valkyrie and even rebel against Odin.
Gameplay: The base gameplay is similar to other SRPGs out there such as Final Fantasy Tactics but this game has some additional features. One of the major additions is the Destiny Plume and the Sin guage. Players are encouraged to overkill enemies in order to rack up Sin points, which they have to offer to Hel at the end of the battle. If they harvested more than enough Sin, they would be rewarded with much better equipments and items as compared to racking not enough Sin. If players do not meet the Sin quota for too many battles, evantually Hel would summon monsters to come after the players.
Another feature that seperates this game from other SRPGs is the traditional Valkyrie Profile battle system. Each character is mapped onto the buttons on the DS(A,B,Y,X), each character is given a certain number of attacks based on their equipment and they player have to try to chain as many combo on the enenmy in order to raise their battle guage and perform Soul Crush attacks.
Conclusion: For people who are fans of the Valkyrie Profile series I would strongly reccomend this game as it makes a fine addition to the already popular series.It would also appeal to people who likes strategy games and yets wants a twist from the common SRPGs out there in the market. This game requires players to think and time their commands in order to do more damage and get more Sin points. There's also some replay value to it as it has multiple endings and players, myself included would play through multiple times just to see all of the endings.