The announcement of this game in March of last year was truly a surprise to me. First because I wasn’t expecting this “dormant” franchise to get a new console game I could play and secondly for the kind of game that it was going to be.
Then again and, despite the original games being more “orthodox” JRPGS, this series has had a track record for being quite inventive gameplay-wise so, perhaps, turning its latest iteration into a full hack n’ slash game wasn’t so out of character.
We shall see if the change paid off in the review below.
I already called this game a hack n’ slash but it could still be argued that, because of its RPG elements, this could be classified as an action RPG. However, those elements aren’t very deep and, in this day and age, all games have some level up mechanics and they’re not considered RPGs. I think that Valkyrie Elysium is more of a Drakengard than a Star Ocean (to compare it to other “Squenix” franchises).
The fighting is clearly the center of the game experience and it has been developed to be decently deep and feel great on your hands. Combos are really easy to pull off but they’re satisfying thanks to the responsive controls and the attractive animations of each weapon moveset. You can block and evade attacks and vary your own with magic of different types to take advantage of the elemental weaknesses of your enemies.
The element that spices this game’s combat system references the older titles of the franchise and it’s the use of your “Einheriar”. Souls of slain warriors that you can summon and make them fight alongside you for a limited time. Each are also linked to an element that is imbued on their attacks and also your weapon while they’re active. Their use adds a strategy layer to the otherwise frantic combat which is very welcome.
These Einheriar also come into play at opening paths in the game’s levels. You can, for example, use the one with the frost element to get him to create a frozen path above the water to cross a river. These exploration puzzles aren’t really that common in the game but it offers a little variety to the traversal among all of the fighting.
With the legacy of the Valkyrie franchise on its back, you may expect Elysium to feature one of those epic stories that you’ll remember for many decades but that isn’t quite the case. It’s not a bad story at all but it’s on the simpler side and certainly “archetypal”.
You’ll be playing as Nora, a valkyrie summoned by Odin with the little power he still has to roam the world in the preface of Ragnarok to purify all human souls stranded on Midgard in the hope of saving it.
Characters are found, Einheriar are recruited and also a few twists and turns in your mission that I definitely wouldn’t want to spoil and that I fear that, if I “foreshadowed” a bit, you might guess by the (mis)fortune of this being such a simple story.
I can’t complain about the looks of Valkyrie Elysium. The environments might feel a little empty but it also could be argued that it’s fitting considering the game’s backstory. More importantly, the game has a great artstyle that gives it a very peculiar look. The color palette features mostly muted colors which is quite unique in this day and age and I just loved the character designs and the varied architecture of the different kingdoms.
However, there’s quite a big catch present in the technical department. While the game runs smoothly most of the time, big slowdowns can (and will) happen during encounters with big crowds of enemies. Situations common specially in the later chapters of the game.
On the audio department I’m happy to report that I’ve just discovered a new great soundtrack to obsess over. The most melancholic themes hit the hardest with this beautiful instrumentation. The voiceover work is overall very good but the actress playing the main valkyrie gave her a lisp? I don’t know if it was an attempt at making a nordic-sounding accent or something but it came out weird. Either way I think that it’s an unimportant detail.
Things I liked
- Combat: With a healthy array of enemy types, a good amount of weapons each with their own particular movesets plus all of the magic attacks that you can learn and the summoning of your allies… the fighting in Valkyrie Elysium is actually pretty deep. The best of it however is its “game feel”. The controls are tight and responsive and the attacks feel all adequately punchy. You’ll have a great time fighting.
- Soundtrack: Although not all of the tracks are equally as inspired (some battle songs feel slightly generic), most of them are absolute masterpieces. If there’s one thing I’ve kept from Elysium after completing it, is going to YouTube to listen its OST over and over again. Motoi Sakuraba has done it again.
- Flashy: I mean this quite literally. I think the best element of this game graphically were its particle effects. Something simple like the sparks of your weapons in action but, above all, the magic casting. Colorful rays and sparkles flying all over, filling the screen and, honestly, looking amazing. It makes the great-feeling combat also look great.
- Writing: Compared to other Valkyrie games, perhaps the story isn’t the most original but at least is cohesive and it’s revealed at a good pace. My praise for its writing however alludes to the effort that was made to flesh out the characters that you’ll encounter throughout that story and the detail put into the lore to build up its interesting fantasy world.
- Length: A regular play-through of Valkyrie Elysium will take you from 10 to 15 hours. That isn’t impressively long but it’s enough to satisfy while still being short enough so that the hack n’ slash-y gameplay doesn’t get repetitive. If you want more than that, the game does have multiple endings to chase and an extra campaign that unlocks after finishing the main one.
Things I didn’t
- Performance: This isn’t a problem on early chapters when you don’t have access to the most outlandish magic attacks and enemies appear in lower numbers but, as the game increases its “intensity”, you’ll start experiencing issues with this game’s performance. In the most frantic encounters the framerate will get noticeably choppy. Especially disappointing for a title that isn’t exactly in the vanguard of graphical fidelity.
- Environments: Graphically they look okay and they are indeed quite big but the design is just so uninspired. The developers seem to have built empty open cities and fortresses to then just sprinkle random roadblocks and turn them into a mostly linear maze you have to navigate through. It breaks any kind of verisimilitude for these fantasy kingdoms.
Things that eh…
- Cheap: Square Enix is a pretty big gaming company. They’ve developed and produced many AAA experiences that are the top of the line in terms of production values and/or scope. Valkyrie Elysium isn’t one of those. This is a AA game at most and is very easy to see. That isn’t necessarily bad, there’s space in the gaming market for games of all sizes and budgets but perhaps their price should match appropriately.
Who’d like this?
Playing through Valkyrie Elysium brought me back memories of my time with Scarlet Nexus. Like with that one, I did enjoy its core gameplay (mainly the combat) but the game does have many flaws that I think keep it from reaching its true potential.
For that reason and, while I overall enjoyed my time with it, I can understand why this title didn’t get glowing reviews on release. I can recommend Valkyrie Elysium but at a lower price-point that would fit its AA scope better.
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