Once tamed, this masterpiece will rank up as one of your Top 5 RPGs. Period.
This game is, by all means, VERY hard. If you can fully complete it, you are worthy to be called a RPG master. I'm not joking, it's that hard.
Important note : NEVER, NEVER try to cheat in this game. Whether it is an Action Replay, Gameshark, Codebreaker or else, the game will ALWAYS freeze and will also corrupt your other saved games on Slot 1 and Slot 2, making them unplayable. It is VERY well protected and NOT worth the trouble.
That being said, let's get on with the review !
-=STORY=-
The game's story is quite appealing. You play as Alicia, princess of Dipan. Her body is sharing two souls : Alicia's and Silmeria's. Silmeria is a Valkyrie who was reborn in Alicia's body after leaving Asgard, the land of the gods.
The main goal of the story is to retrieve the Dragon Orb, source of Midgard's power. With it, Silmeria is planning to crush Odin and restore peace. Unfortunately, it will not go this way as many opponnents will get in her way.
Halfway through the game, you might think that the story is getting dull and repetitive : do not stop because of this. Without revealing any spoilers, I can assure you that it'll change in a quite drastic way. Expect suprising twists and enemies you never suspected : the game's plotline is very rich, more than most RPGs.
It truly deserves a 9/10
-=GAMEPLAY=-
VP2's gameplay is what makes me proudly say that it is my all-time favorite RPG.
You move Alicia in a sidescroller way : only left and right. You have the ability of shooting photon particles which, upon hitting an enemy, freezes it. When you shoot it a second time (while still being freezed) you will switch place with it. The game homes a bunch of very complex puzzles with this.
There's also the Einheirjars. They are lost souls which Silmeria can call back in battle. You will find Relics in dungeons and through them the ability to recruit a new team member.
Secondly, there's the Sealstones. Each dungeon is home to different Sealstones. They are items that boost your whole party's attributes. They will either affect the enemies, the whole area or your party solely.
Thirdly, the skills come into play. Skills in this game are unlocked by equipment combinations, NOT by level. Unfortunately, all of my attempts at explaining this process through words gave me a headache and simply took too much room. I'll simply leave it at : MAKE SURE TO LEARN THE MOST SKILLS AS YOU CAN. It's one of the keys of being successfull in this game.
Getting the right combination of einharjars, sealstones and skills will guarantee victory in the main game.
The last gameplay point I'd like to review is how you fight in VP2. The fights are very cool. It's no real-time, but it's not turn-based either. Basicly, you have an AP meter which goes down with each attacks. You will have to set each party members to an according button (ex.: Alicia on Cross, Rufus on Square, Dylan on Circle ect.). Upon defeat, you will generaly receive a big chunk of EXP which will be divided by the number of party members present. So, if you have 4 party members, it'll be equally divided in 4 and given to them. So yeah, soloing is the best option for training here.
All of those well-thoughts gameplay points deserve a perfect 10/10. Nobody could complain about them.
-=GRAPHICS=-
Valkyrie Profile 2 is a beautiful game, in each and every parts of it. Textures are usually very crisp, same goes for the incredible particle effects (Blinding Blaze, anyone?). The bloom is sometimes a bit pushed in some areas, but not to the point of being blinded by it. The fog is still very present, but very well balanced.
However, a few shader effects sucked. Especially the rain in Crawsus, you might get a headache out of it... looks like your TV snowing. Also, the models in the cutscenes are badly animated. This happens a lot with RPGs in general, don't ask me why. The characters will sometime look like stick figures... and the horrible lip syncing will sometimes get on your nerves.
Still, it's one of the most beautiful games for PS2 and its graphics are well worth the 9.5/10 for it.
-=SOUND=-
Motoi Sakuraba doing the soundtrack. What more could you ask? He's my top favorite video game music composer. Once again, he delivered an outstanding score which suits the game perfectly. Musics like ''A Motion of Finishing Blow'', the game's fight theme, or ''Disturbing the Doubtful Sleep'', the Palace of Venerated Dragon's background music, will probably never get old on your ears.
The sound effects are also very good. Nothing much to say here though, they are just well done. One complain though : after a while playing and broking a lot of enemy parts, the game's sound engine may start to mess up a bit. If this happens, I'd recommend rebooting your PS2.
Incredible soundtrack and good sound effects : 10/10.
-=LASTING APPEAL AND FINAL NOTE=-
There's always a new strategy to use. There's always a new way of mixing up your sealstones, equipement and skills to get stronger. There's always the bonus dungeon at the end of the game which contains the game's toughest challenges. Seriously, VP2 is not lacking lasting appeal... it's up to you to get entertained.
I give this game a 9.5/10. It's not a perfect score, but it's dang close to it. It is my Top RPG and will probably ever be.
Thanks for reading ! =)