Valkyrie Profile 2

[Starslasher]

Oh, that's not what i meant, RoC. Well, it doesn't matter, since i already defeated that monster that was carrying a sealstone. And This barrier thingy sealstone might help out later. But thanks for answering the questions, really appreciate it.

EDIT: Okay, well, i'm 98% done in the Serpahic Gate Map, and 56% of the treasure is mine.

I did finish the game, and here's my review:

PLOT: You are Alicia, the exiled Princess of Dipan, whose King is planning to battle against the Gods, to seek independance from the hands of Odin. Alicia has the spirit of Silmeria, the youngest of the three Valkyries, to help her, Rufus, Dylan, Lezard, Leone and Arngrim seek the Dragon Orb, an item essential for the well being of Midgard itself.

The pace of the game is very uneven, to start off. Chapter 1 hardly lasts an hour, chapter 2 is about the same, but Chapter 3 can take more than 20, then Chapter 4 a couple of hours, and so forth. But when it comes to the latter part of the game, things become much more exciting and interesting.
And Alicia is becoming one of my favorite characters, since i really liked seeing her development throughout the game.

Rating: 9/10

GRAPHICS: It has beautiful graphics, and nothing else more to say on that, actually. It can look a bit confusing when you converge all of your attacking characters and special effects, but that is pretty trivial. i think that the overall view in battle could be a bit larger though, and should give the ability to use the bird's eye view. But the camera angle still was pretty flexible.

Rating: 9/10

SOUND: This is a great weakness for the game. I have no problems with the voice acting or music. but the greatest problem, that aggravated me, was that you cannot control the volume of the music for the voices. When i try to listen in on the beginning dialogue with two characters (e.g. Celes and Adonis), then the rest of the dialogue will be drowned out entirely as the music goes into crescendo. And you will most likely never hear the end of a person's comments after they perform the Soul Crush. that really needed to be worked on.

Rating: 6/10

GAMEPLAY: It is pretty much the same as the original system in Valkyrie Profile 1, but in 3D. This gives you the chance to escape and attack again with them attacking you, but you can also be surrounded by the enemy and be overwhelmed. So that balances things out.

I am disappointed, i confess, with the fact that only the main and certain special characters will have more unique attacks and Special Attacks, while the rest of the einherjars will most likely have the same attacks and will all have the same Soul Crush that corresponds to their class. It's hard to find the individuality in the einherjars that i immensely enjoyed in VP1. But i still enjoy it.

Raintg: 8/10

OVERALL: 8.5/10

I really wanted this to be the best game of all time, but there were a few things that hinder it from that spot. VP1 still rocks!!
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Guardian of Greenhill & Devoted Protector of Oulan



Bork! Bork! Bork!

[Sialeeds]

Sorry it may be stupid but I didn´t wanted to read that wonderful review because I was scared to maybe read some spoilers.I just wanted to ask if somebofy could tell me some improvements of Silmeria and if there are any similiarities to Lenneth.

thanks :wink:

[Firefly]

[Equus]

One minor difference from the first game that stood out for me is the characterizations of the Eiherjar. Since you don't recruit them, as in the first game, I didn't get quite as much of a sense of background and character to them. There's a little bit when you first get them, and there's a background in text version in their status screens, but I kinda missed the more engrossing story elements from the first game. This is, of course, just my personal opinion, and doesn't refer to the "story" characters that you have throughout the course of the game.

OK...that doesn't count as an improvement or simliarity, but it's one of the things I've kinda been thinking about since I finished the game. ^_^
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I can run faster scared than you can mad.

[St. Ajora]

Valkyrie Profile Silmeria is pretty much a stand alone game in terms of the two. If you're going into it thinking you're going to get Lenneth, then you need to re-evaluate your expectations. Silmeria is much more fluid and story-based, whereas Lenneth seemed more gameplay oriented with a few tie ins to keep it all together.

The difficulty is also kicked up a lot in Silmeria. It won't be a game that you simply coast through. There's some thinking involved. Not that Lenneth was a no brainer, but it was pretty forward on how to set everything up.

[Son of Liberty]

Now that the thread is still safe, I would like to know some players about their opinions of Motoi Sakuraba's musical efforts in Silmeria, especially compared to its predecessor.

I personally think it's his greatest musical achievement so far in his career, it's nothing like his previous scores, like Star Ocean and Tales Of series. He decided to use some instruments that he brutally overused sparingly, composing mainly for strings. But I also thought the music was underused in the game.

So, what do you guys think?

[Firefly]

I never played much attention to the music, let alone who made it, but I must say the music is 10x better than VP1. If he wrote the music for Star Ocean 2, then I will say that I think Star Ocean 2 had a better musical score than VP2. VP2's music, while good, never struck me as something awesome. It always seems too low or in the background. I do like the battle theme though ;)
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[red stuff]

I never did finish this. I got to the last boss and got decimated, and realized that I simply didn't have the patience to grind for levels/skills. The story was getting pretty stupid at that point so I figured the ending wouldn't be worth it anyway.

Seems like the original VP is still the only Tri-Ace game I could actually bring myself to finish.
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But was surrounded!

[Starslasher]

Well, ironically, I was able to finish this game with the clearing of the Seraphic Gate, but i didn't with Valkyrie Profile 1, even though i had it's game guide from Enix/Tri-Ace. It was mostly because of i didn't have the time back then, and i just got the PS2 and was hooked on those games.


To answer your question, Son of Liberty, the music was okay. There were a few good tracks, especially the final boss music. The rest was so-so. But my omly complaint about it is that it drowned out the voices of the the characters, especially when i wanted to hear them talk. But i of course understand that it was of no fault of Sakuraba.
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Guardian of Greenhill & Devoted Protector of Oulan



Bork! Bork! Bork!

[St. Ajora]

oh god, I don't know how anyone can praise VP2's music over VP1. It was nothing but filler music.

Valkyrie Profile and Star Ocean are BEAUTIFUL. They have full, rich, orchestrated tracks that just sing to your soul and are well beyond your usual video game music. I frequently choose those tracks to serenade me while I do yoga :P

[The Chizen Star]

I agree about VP1 and Star Ocean's music. Beautiful, they are. My question is; Why didn't Sakuraba compose more music like that for the current-gen tri-Ace games?
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[Son of Liberty]

[Stev]

2 not equivilant to 1.

[Starslasher]

And what do you mean by that, Stev? Do you mean that Silmeria was better/worse than VP1?
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Guardian of Greenhill & Devoted Protector of Oulan



Bork! Bork! Bork!

[Stev]

omg silmeria was just not as good as lenith.