A little gem that seems to hit nearly everything right. A beautiful tale of adventure and romance.
Story:
A strong-point in all Vanillaware games, the engaging experience that is known as the story. The player starts out as a little girl at the beginning, and more interestingly, you control the girl to pick up a book on the ground. This is how the game itself is represented as, a book, specifically called Valkyrie. (There are 7 different books with 5 that correlate with the number of main characters, and the 2 last books involving all 5 characters, which conclude the game.) With this, you are given the title "Valkyrie: Prelude Act 1" then quickly shown a battlefield and in control of a young woman named Gwendolyn. The story starts as Gwendolyn and her sister Griselda lead their army againsts the Fairies for control of the Crystallization Cauldron. Quickly after the battle begins, Griselda is killed and hands her Psypher Spear to her sister Gwendolyn and laments at her death, hoping this would show her worth to King Odin, their father. (This is a recurring element specifically towards Gwendolyn, as she attempts to prove herself to her father through difficult challenges such as killing the Dragon Belial in the story, in hopes of his affections.) Following this she encounters Vanir's most powerful warrior: Oswald the Shadow Knight, and after a quick defeat, Oswald retreats, sparing her life. She then fights through many mobs until a certain point where we are back to the kingdom of Ragnanival, Gwendolyn's home, as she reports to King Odin of his daughter's death.
The setting of the game is called Erion. This world is composed of eight major regions surrounding a body of water, with three of these regions being the main powers of the land and at war against each other: Ragnanival, the northern icy region that is home to the Berserkers and Valkyries and ruled by the Demon Lord Odin, Titania, located east of Ragnanvial that is home to Humans and ruled by King Edmund, and Ringford, the southern forest that is home to Fairies and ruled by Queen Elfaria. It is initially unknown how this conflict arises until the player goes through the different books portraying the main characters.
As said earlier, there are 4 other characters involved to play as: Oswald, the said Shadow Knight and the strongest warrior of Ringford, Cornelius, the prince of Titania turned to Pooka (anthropomorphic Rabbit creature), Mercedes, princess of Ringford in line for Queen, and Velvet, the princess of a ruined kingdom. All these characters have some sort of relationship with one another. As you continue through each of their scenarios, the player begins to learn about the history that started this conflict between nations. A Mad King, the Three Wise Men, a Forbidden Love, and a prophesied Armageddon, that would lead to everyone's apparent end. With the many playable characters, we are given different perspectives of the conflict, the player given a role as the audience in the many tragedies that happen, enthralling us players with the grandest of stories.
Game-play:
As what Vanillaware is notable for, the game is represented in artistic 2D. The game itself, your character's playing field is determined with the left and right sides of the field joined together to form a circle. The character can run in one direction and always return to the starting point after a few seconds of movement. A map above the screen shows the location of the player, enemies (some can fly so you will have to jump/look above to find the enemies), and objects on the level, while a smaller map shows the position of the player in the circle and exits in the level. The combat system could be compared to that of an old-school 2D beat'em up, as certain amounts of mobs are spawned in the area, and repeated in the next until you hit player friendly rooms that contain item shops or boss fights. The difficulty and type of room is represented on the map whenever the player gets into an exit.
An interesting element in the game is the "Power Bar", a representation of actions the character can preform. If the power bar becomes empty, the player will be fatigued and unable to move until said power bar refills, which adds strategy to the game as the character stands open to attacks during this state. Magic also plays a part in the combat system but these can only be used through absorbing Phozons from defeated enemies and other sources (Phozon Butterflies, plants, etc.). As the weapons absorb more Phozons, this will provide the player with increased power against enemies, doing more damage and gaining levels that provide new magic for the player's use. Magic however requires the use of a certain amount of Phozons, and after each use, will zero out, prompting the player to obtain more.
As the player continues through the game, there will be times during battles that items will drop, and specifically seeds. A very unique element for the player is the ability to plant said seeds at any location in a level during battle. To grow these seeds, they need to absorb a certain amount of Phozons around the area as enemies are killed, which they absorb automatically. When fully grown, they provide food and other items that the player use, and as food is eaten not only restore hp but give experience towards the hp bar itself. The plant of course will then disappear after taking everything from it.
Alchemy is also introduced at a certain point in the game. These create helpful potions for use in battle. Potions can provide many offensive and defensive abilities such as Napalm and Elixir. Specific potions can be created through recipes that run from A-Z, each needing different Materials and items, mostly Mandragoras. (Plant creatures that jump out on the field that the character must attack in order to obtain.)
Overall:
As stated earlier, the story is of the greatly unique, but very convoluted, thus, difficulty is involved. Though just because of it's intricate story, does not mean that it's a stain to the game itself, as the player is engrossed at every twist and turn the game throws at you. It's a rare flow that could be compared to that of the Kingdom Hearts franchise, but all into one game. Each character has his/her own prospects, that give them a sense of individuality. This is vastly important because of how it successfully leads to the inability of each character outshining one another, which many game companies tend to miss when creating a game that has more then one protagonist. The game-play as well is unique to it's story, respectively correlating with the myth's and legends that fantasy gamers will enjoy when playing this game. Though it can be considered repetitive, the multiple playable character's one can use completely masks that complication, with how they are played differing from the last, thereby giving us a beautifully woven coat, that if worn correctly, gives us a wonderfully alluring experience of warmth and comfort.