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Valhalla Knights 2 Review for PlayStation Portable (PSP)

Valhalla Knights 2 Review for PlayStation Portable (PSP)

What Do We Adventure For?

Trudging through cavernous dungeons with a party of heavily armed adventurers on a mission to kick some monster tail and amass glorious treasure is an undeniably well-trodden aspect of RPG gaming history. It remains such a staple that, even after playing dozens upon dozens of dungeon crawlers of varying quality over the years, enthusiasts are still content to put up with the same old concepts with only a mildly fresh coat of paint slapped over it. At least that’s the unfortunate premise Valhalla Knights 2 banks on.

Valhalla Knights 2 screenshot

Nowadays, players are asking for a little more than “oh look, a dungeon full of dangerous beasts and sparkly treasure; here’s a sword and a magic potion; go to it.” Valhalla Knights 2 provides the sturdy framework for a good action RPG adventure, yet it never goes very far beyond the basics. Instead of a gripping journey full of vibrant characters and stimulating conflict, it delivers a gray, menacing dose of dull grinding punishment. There are signs of life in the game design, but it’s not enough to make up for the reality of how uninspired this sequel feels.

Forgoing continuation of the previous story, which involved a young hero with amnesia roaming a strange land in search of his memories, Valhalla Knights 2 opens with the malevolent Goddess of Judgment raining hell upon the realm and unleashing a horde of evil creatures across the land. Before the world can be crushed completely, the Witch of the Crystal sacrifices herself to hold the Goddess at bay and give humanity time to grow strong, rise up, and eventually destroy the Gods. Years later, your orphanage is mistakenly torched by a zealous group seeking to eradicate followers of the Goddess. As a result, you embark on the path of becoming a Latroci – a warrior sanctioned by the government – in hopes of finally slaying the malicious deity yourself. It’s a neat concept that gets lost in the shuffle of the game’s tedium.

In rolling up your character, you can initially pick from five different races (humans, dwarves, halflings, elves, and Akatoki – a race of kung-fu specialists) and a basic range of classes (fighter, mage, priest, thief, and monk). Additionally, several cool further races and specialist classes can be unlocked later in the game. After personalizing your appearance by picking a gender, face, and hair type, you’ll divvy up stat points. Then it’s off to the bare-bones hub town where you’ll stock up on goods, grab some missions, and venture off into the vast dungeon beyond to get a start on the day’s grind. You’ll be doing lots of it.

Valhalla Knights 2 screenshot

Valhalla Knights 2’s dungeon environments aren’t particularly exciting in terms of detail or design, but the monsters and characters are nicely animated both in battle and while meandering the realm. It’s also good to see every nuanced change in equipment reflected in each character. Overall, the visuals aren’t revolutionary; they get the job done with limited flair and pizzazz.

While some missions connect to the story, far too many turn out to be menial tasks such as slaying a certain number of an arbitrary type of monster or talking to a specific person in town. This really bogs down the adventure. Roaming the mazelike dungeon – which connects to other dungeons, which connect to other dungeons, and so forth – is fun at first, but you’ll be traveling much of the same terrain over and over again. Slaying scores of monsters early on is a necessity in order to gain items and precious experience. However, more often than not, you’ll be the one at the receiving end of the slaying – at least in the first stretch of the game. Prior to reaching the point where you can recruit additional party members, you’ll find yourself well acquainted with death. Death, it turns out, completely sucks; you’ll have to fork over half your gold each time you get a dirt nap.

Valhalla Knights 2 screenshot

Things get more interesting when you’ve collected enough gold to populate your party with up to five other adventurers. Each character can have up to two sub-classes, which is an interesting touch, and you can select which character you control at any time. There are literally tons of new items, spells, weapons, and abilities you’ll pick up over time, so eventually your small band of warriors should be able to do some sizeable damage.

Valhalla Knights 2 screenshot

Combat itself is somewhat compelling. You’ll deal extra damage by approaching you’re foes from the side or from behind when traveling in the dungeon. Encounters then open up into real-time six-on-six hacking and slashing. Only one party member is controlled personally, but the rest can be assigned various action styles. Each class has its own advantages and special abilities that can be called on to help, but having a solid healer in the party is an absolute must. When you get to the fighting, you’ll all run around in an open area flailing around and occasionally firing off a special attack or two until the group prevails or is mauled beyond recognition by you’re snarling enemies. When you’re sitting down for a few hours of grinding, you’ll soon care less about the finer points of battle, since the same effect can be achieved by using the R trigger to target a nearby foe and mashing the attack button.

The difficulty curve in Valhalla Knights 2 is very steep. Even leveling-up doesn’t seem to make a major impact on your success, unless you spend significant time on it. You can easily toil away in the dungeons for hours without really having a sense of making much progress. This is due in-part to the high level of challenge and the fact the central hub town where you’ll save, upgrade equipment, gain new quests, and engage in other crucial tasks forces you to tread back and forth between the same turf ad nauseam.

Undoubtedly, there are quite a few aspects of Valhalla Knights 2 that action RPG fans will find very appealing, but it ends up being a wash when you look at the game’s numerous faults. In short order these issues wear what little fun is to be had down to a dull point. There are definitely better games to play, if you’re looking to dig into some deep dungeon crawling.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 3.3 Graphics
There are some nicely detailed aspects, but there’s not much to impress here. 3.0 Control
Combat controls work OK but devolve into button mashing just to get through them. It’s hard to pull of special moves without getting whomped. Also, turning the camera when navigating the dungeon is a little wonky. 3.2 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Lots of repetitious music. Some cool sound effects. 3.4 Play Value
This game is time consuming without the benefit of being particularly enjoyable. Still, there are some decent RPG elements buried in here. 3.2 Overall Rating – Fair
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

  • The epic adventure continues: An original story penned by the scenario writer of Final Fantasy XII, Miwa Shoda.
  • Fully customize your battle party: Increased customization gives each player a unique experience, allowing players to change skills, race, and appearance – over 100,000 possible combinations! Select from more races (Human, Dwarf, Halfling, Elf, Machine, Akatoki, Canine, and different job classes (Fighter, Mage, Priest, Thief, Knight, Samurai, Ninja, Anchor, Monk, Guard and Enchanter).
  • All-new weapons, armors, and magic: Enjoy the vast selection of weapons, armors, and enhanced magic all visible on the in-game character models.
  • Awesome real-time battles: Intense real-time 6-on-6 battles requiring tactical combat strategies and controlling various party members rather than button mashing.
  • Network Play: Connect for two-player Co-op adventures and Versus battles, or trade items and weapons with other players.

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