After revisiting Valkyrie Profile with Elias, I think I've identified what makes it feel a little underwhelming to me.
1. Truncated characters: Most of your party members are people who have no real story or flavor outside of what their sad story paints. Which would be fine, except...
2. The mechanics make it so that most characters feel samey. The fighters have some peculiarities to their moves, the archers can shoot the enemy back row, and the spellcasters cast spells, but otherwise, most of them *feel* the same.
The fighters don't have any moves beyond "hit the enemy in melee a bunch", the archers mostly just have weak variants of the one move, and every spellcaster can learn every spell in the game, with minimal difference in competence.
Now, it's true that there are special moves to distinguish at least the fighters and archers. But truth is, most special moves don't get to fire in regular battles, and often can only be used once or twice, practically speaking. Also, all spellcasters have their (good) special moves locked behind specific rods and, more damningly, share the EXACT SAME special moves. Argh!!!
3. The levels are too sparse in events, fights, and places of much significance. They feel more like hollow theme parks than dungeons. It doesn't help that the controls for jumping the valkyrie around are so clumsy.
4. The game has too many poorly calibrated moves, magic demolishes most encounters easily and is very freely spammable. Further, the spellcasting crystals are both incredibly overpowered and easy to get with just a little bit of alchemizing.
I like the game a lot, and still think it's quite cool, but...yeah. There are definitely some serious shortcomings.
1. Truncated characters: Most of your party members are people who have no real story or flavor outside of what their sad story paints. Which would be fine, except...
2. The mechanics make it so that most characters feel samey. The fighters have some peculiarities to their moves, the archers can shoot the enemy back row, and the spellcasters cast spells, but otherwise, most of them *feel* the same.
The fighters don't have any moves beyond "hit the enemy in melee a bunch", the archers mostly just have weak variants of the one move, and every spellcaster can learn every spell in the game, with minimal difference in competence.
Now, it's true that there are special moves to distinguish at least the fighters and archers. But truth is, most special moves don't get to fire in regular battles, and often can only be used once or twice, practically speaking. Also, all spellcasters have their (good) special moves locked behind specific rods and, more damningly, share the EXACT SAME special moves. Argh!!!
3. The levels are too sparse in events, fights, and places of much significance. They feel more like hollow theme parks than dungeons. It doesn't help that the controls for jumping the valkyrie around are so clumsy.
4. The game has too many poorly calibrated moves, magic demolishes most encounters easily and is very freely spammable. Further, the spellcasting crystals are both incredibly overpowered and easy to get with just a little bit of alchemizing.
I like the game a lot, and still think it's quite cool, but...yeah. There are definitely some serious shortcomings.
Comments
Post a Comment