Product Description

The origins of a cult classic are revealed in VALKYRIE PROFILE: Covenant of the Plume, the third entry in the critically acclaimed VALKYRIE PROFILE series. Development studio tri-Ace returns to craft a gameplay experience that boasts a captivating storyline with ties to Norse mythology and a familiar yet refreshing battle system enhanced with deeper strategic elements.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4759 in Video Games
• Brand: Square Enix
• Model: 90827
• Published on: 2009-03
• Released on: 2009-03-17
• ESRB Rating: Teen
• Platform: Nintendo DS
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .60" h x 5.44" w x 5.71" l, .25 pounds

Features

• Brand new Storyline Perspective - Follow Wylfred's darker story of seeking his revenge on Lenneth Valkyrie
• New Gameplay Dynamic-Sieges - Experience how the characters actively support each other in Sieges and gain greater skills and fighting advantages in the Active Formation system
• New Attacks - Soul Crush, powerful attacks that can be performed when players max out their attack gauge, and Overkill, attack enemies once they are defeated to accumulate Sin
• Ultimate Replayability - Discover the numerous possible story endings as you determine the fate of your allies in order to seek vengeance for Wylfred's father

Amazon.com Product Description

Discover the origins of a cult classic of the role-playing genre in Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume. The third installment in the critically acclaimed Valkyrie Profile series, within its single player action, which unlike earlier releases now expresses action from a human protagonist's perspective, players on the Nintendo DS experience a captivating storyline with ties to Norse mythology and a familiar yet refreshing battle system enhanced with deeper strategic elements than ever seen before. Classic stats and leveling. View larger. Strategic group combat. View larger. Maximum damage via new attacks. View larger. The Story Wylfred was only a boy when his father was killed in battle and the valkyrie Lenneth claimed his soul. Although this is the ultimate glory for a warrior, it also sealed the fate of Wylfred's family. Adrift in a dangerous world, without his father Wylfred's family soon experienced the ravages of poverty and eventual tragedy. Embittered by these agonies Wylfred's journey to manhood was fueled by dreams of revenge against the valkyrie, but it is not until he agrees to a bargain with Queen Hel for the 'Destiny Plume,' which was shed from Lenneth's wings and found near the corpse of his father, that he is given a chance to exact it. But to stand against Lenneth he must, like his father before him, become a warrior worthy of the attention of the gods and their messengers. The world around Wylfred is aflame with the chaos of war, which is just the situation that he needs to accumulate the glory that the gods desire and draw the attention of the valkyrie. To the valiant she comes, and so to the battlefield he goes. Destiny awaits. Gameplay Gameplay in Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume revolves around players, in the role of Wylfred, engaging in a series of strategy/role-playing quests and battles throughout the land designed to level up your character. Through in-game conversations with the 20+ available allies, players assemble a group of up to four members to engage in these battles, as well as gather items and upgrade inventory for each when and where available. Once an enemy is engaged, action is turn-based, with the members of your quest possessing limited movement indicated by colored squares. Although individual characters can feasibly carry out successful attacks, battle is designed with group combat in mind, so positioning of your team within ideal striking distance of an enemy during a single turn is important. Attacking as a group not only yields more hits as each team member strikes in turn, but if timed correctly these successive blows max out a player's attack gauge, unleashing Soul Crush, powerful special moves that quickly finish off enemies with startling force. This overwhelming power is measured in Overkill and equated as Sin. Building up as much of this as possible is important due to the deal that Wylfred makes with Queen Hel, which stipulates that each progressive battle will entail a set amount of Sin. Battles won without generating the necessary amount of Sin result in a penalty of much more difficult future battles. An additional game feature that allows for maximum damage which should be strategically planned, is the careful use of the Destiny Plume. Players can grant the plume to an ally, which instills unstoppable power in that character for a limited time and assigns special abilities to Wylfred which he retains, but at the cost of the ally's life for the remainder of the game. To be mortal is to suffer, but are the gods beyond suffering a mortal's revenge? It all depends on your choices in Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume. Key Game Features: Brand New Storyline Perspective - Follow Wylfred's darker story of seeking his revenge on Lenneth Valkyrie. New Gameplay Siege Dynamic - Experience how the characters actively support each other in Sieges and gain greater skills and fighting advantages in the Active Formation system. New Attacks Soul Crush - Powerful attacks that can be performed when players max out their attack gauge. Overkill - Attack enemies once they are defeated to accumulate Sin. Ultimate Replayability - Discover multiple possible story endings as you decide the fate of your allies, with results that will change the course of the game. Dynamic Dual Screen Presentation - Experience a beautifully rendered 3D world. Seraphic Gate - Battle formidable foes as you recruit new allies in an unlockable bonus dungeon. Over 20 possible allies to enlist.

Customer Reviews

Square-Enix went cheap on the localization, and the game is not fun
First of all, the Japanese version included 60 MB of voice data, including extensive voice overs for story events and battles. Square-Enix has removed all voice overs for the story events, and replaced it with NOTHING. They even deleted the original Japanese voices, so no voice overs are available for the story events. All because they didn't want to pay a little extra to record additional lines from the voice actors they had already hired to narrate the battle voices. You can consider this version of the game to be INCOMPLETE.

The gameplay is rather tedious. There are no dungeons or platforming elements as in VP1. Instead, they have been replaced by a series of isometric maps on which the enemies and 4 of your characters move one-by-one, similar to games like Final Fantasy Tactics but not as fun. Each time one of your characters comes into contact with the enemy on the map, the game cuts to a separate battle screen and a battle in the style of VP1 occurs.

Each story battle has a sin meter that you must fill to 200% in order to win good equipment and items. This mechanism causes the difficulty level to snowball in one direction or another, either becoming nearly impossible or too easy. For example, if you miss 200% sin in one battle, you miss the good items/equipment that will help you win the next battle and fill its sin meter. So you miss another sin requirement and the game becomes progressively more difficult until it is nearly impossible. The opposite occurs too, where each completion of the sin meter makes the next sin meter and next battle progressively easier, until there is no challenge at all. Thus it is so important to get 200% sin in each battle, that you end up resetting and restarting the battle for every small mistake and instance of bad luck that causes you to miss the sin requirement.

Lastly, the story is short but reasonably interesting, and includes 3 different paths. The music is decent but repetitive, and frequently recycles tunes from VP1. The graphics are not ugly but they lack the beauty and style of previous VP games, instead resembling a standard SNES game circa 1995. I would only recommend this game to huge fans of the Valkyrie Profile series, who must know everything that happens in that universe.

Man, I'm loving this one
The new entry into the "Valkyrie Profile" series (a series which I have always loved, and have been fortunate enough to acquire) has a few departures from the others. Rather than standard RPG battle fare, the new game has moved to a strategic front, in the vein of "Vandal Hearts". But does it work?

Oh yes.

The fact is, "VP" gets it right. Great story, great interface, great extras. Let's begin:

The good:
1) Story: "VP" has always had great stories (OK - the time travel nonsense of VP was a little annoying, but let's ignore that for a moment). Here, it is no different. The "protagonist" (dark hero?) is a young hero named Wylfred, whose goal in life is to destroy the Battle Maiden Lenneth for taking his father after death. He is granted the ability to take his revenge from the goddess Hel in the form of a destiny plume (more about this later). Yet, giving over to his revenge can have dire consequences for the young hero, while playing the good guy could cost him his soul.

2) Battle mechanics: a home run. The battles are standard strategy fare. Positioning will increase your success (in this game, it is your position with respect to both your allies and enemies which allows for bonuses to attack, more treasure won, etc.). In addition, each battle has two big extras.
a) In each battle, Hel asks for a contribution of "sin," which is measured by the amount of overkill you dish out, together with your willingness to sacrifice your comrades for your darker purpose. If you meet the sin criterion, Hel will reward you with items and power ups (and the more sin you acquire, the more and the better of items you will receive). It can be difficult to meet her requirements solely by beating down your enemies, however, which leads to...
b) the destiny plume. In any battle, you may use the feather of the Valkyrie to power up one of your allies to insane levels, ensuring your victory. In addition, powering up your ally will also give to you special tactics to use in future battles. The catch? After the battle, your powered-up ally dies. Forever. Moreover, as you use the plume, your own state of mind will alter, affecting later story choices and allies you can receive. Of course, it also affects the ending of the game.

3) Story branching - the story moves along many paths. You will see the first choice of paths very early on, but there are others. All in all, replayability is very high with this one.

4) Difficulty and strategy - you need to think for this game. Sometimes, you might eschew a stronger weapon for a weaker one with a powerful "soul crush" attack. Sometimes, you might position allies without attacking in order to receive benefits in later attacks (or protect yourself from vicious counter attacks). This game is not easy, but wow, is it fun.

5) Music - Most of it is classic "VP" fare. If you own the original "VP" for the PS1 (or possibly the remake on the PSP, although I've never played that), you'll immediately recognize the tunes.

The bad:

1) Graphics. While the cut scenes are a joy to behold, the graphics themselves are standard sprite fare. Since towns are nothing more than static screen shots, I would have liked a little more done for the battles themselves.

But that's about it. The voice acting is solid, but not spectacular (and the distortion from the DS speakers rears its ugly head). But all in all, this game is a blast. Best of luck!

This game is hard
This game is a lot of fun but it is very difficult. It took me a few hours to get the hang of the battle system and by the time I did I realized I needed to start over in order to have any chance of beating the game. I've played about 15 hours worth so far and it's still a lot of fun. One wrong decision can result in a Game Over, so every move counts.