izigame.me

Disgrace to the Valkyrie Profile series. Decent as an action game, but literally terrible in everything else.
Pros:
- Combat system can be fun. Moderately fast paced combat. In comparison to other popular titles, it's just a little bit faster than Kingdom Hearts 2 + 3.
- Enemies have different elemental and weapon weaknesses, offering a different feel/somewhat different playstyle.
- Has two different energy pools to diversify the management of summons (Einherjar) vs. arts (Standard "MP" bar for spells).
Now for the cons, and holy hell.
- Poorly balanced combat system. It is either too hard, or too easy (Judged on the hardest difficulty, "Valkyrie" mode, for my first playthrough)
- There was nothing wrong with the original Valkyrie Profile combat system. VP2 had arguably one of the most unique and enjoyable "Turn based" + combo systems ever designed (if it can even be counted as such). There was no need to drop it.
- Despite carrying on the Valkyrie logo and alluding to its legacy, it has nothing to do with the VP core games.
- Empty world. It's essentially an instance based dungeon crawler with no real world to conduct any worldbuilding of any sort, all under the sad excuse of being post Ragnarok -- and crapping on the legacy involving Ragnarok laid out by VP1 and VP2.
- Script is horrid. No achievements are earned. Everyone agrees with you. Villains are one dimensional. No character development (Even party members go from "I just met you" to "we're basically best friends now" instantly). Plot is predictable.
- Useless perfect guard mechanics. The parry and perfect guard windows are poorly designed vs. enemy animations/cues and trigger windows too short for average players until endgame upgrades.
- Poorly balanced weapons. In terms of damage, literally everything is worse than the 1st sword. Weapon weaknesses barely help in this regard. A certain "2 handed" sword has some utility in the nature of how its soul chain attacks behave, and the rapier offers fast MP regen before you get more party members, but everything else is a general DPS loss with hardly anything to offer in terms of utility.
My personal thoughts:
If I had to guess, someone tried to copy the gradual humanizing of the Valkyrie in VP1 (Lenneth), but thought they could skip all the exposition and drama. This is one of the worst main characters I've ever played through, ever. It's insulting to think this has the audacity to share the VP logo -- both of which were masterpieces for the PS1 and PS2.
As for the actual gameplay? If you're fine with just action action action, sure -- it can be a pretty fun game. I played my first playthrough on the hardest "Valkyrie difficulty" so I can say in confidence that all levels below will have a difficulty that matches your ability.
As for Combat + Valkyrie difficulty itself, it's both too hard and too easy at the same time. Hint: you get 1-2 shot regularly. commit to a single target for more than a few seconds and you'll be hit by something else that kills you. As for the kind of player I am, I was the guy capable of solo carrying a party in action MMO raids where your i-frame time was 0.1 seconds vs bosses with massive hitboxes (later bumped to 0.3 secs). Chapter 1 and 2 were a nightmare to even me. So unless you're somehow one of those sweaty quick-thinking-fast-reaction types like myself, do yourself a favor and skip the Valkyrie difficulty.
But here's the thing: After Ch1 and 2, you get your first Einherjar as a summon. A single party member to divide the aggro makes the entire game a cakewalk. After the 2nd party member, you basically have infinite MP because they recharge your Arts gauge (MP for spells) with their hits as well. And after you unlock a certain soul chain attack, you have infinite summon guage because it restores that gauge on hit.
And then we have the defensive utilities. Until you hit the final set of upgrades, perfect guard and parry are basically useless. Enemies will 2-3 shot you for about half the game until your HP bar grows, so the extremely unforgivable Perfect Guard + parry trigger window is too punishing at Valkyrie difficulty. Dodging, Jumping, and switching targets to interrupt enemy attacks is the most efficient way. Spammable soul chain makes guarding a pointless mechanic.