Don't understand what makes Valkyrie Profile good? Is it just me, or is appreciation of the artform in jeopardy in this modern era of structured, logical, businesslike thinking? It's not possible to quantify the spirit of a game, no matter how you try. But some of the reasons I liked it:

- Quality writing. Lenneth as a protagonist is quite developed and is among my favourite female characters in all of gaming, let alone RPG leads. She's strong and dignified, yet vulnerable and relatably human at the same time. The romance doesn't feel forced, and despite its importance, isn't the focal point of the plot. At the same time, she isn't afraid to stand up for her beliefs and convictions, and will fight against the gods, but even then it feels like a natural extension of her character, not because someone had to fulfill an arbitrary requirement of "strong female".

Not only this, but _every_ recruitable character has their own backstory, and it's not simply a blurb you read on a page (hi VP2) but you actually see it play out before you. In some cases it is quite short and yet others are expanded upon in supplementary materials (see: Lawfer, Belenus) yet most of them are compelling and touching in their own right. I'll be honest, I shed a tear or two watching Yumei's story. And these are just side characters!

- Originality. The platforming format was something quite new at the time, and while VP2 continues in that regard, in my opinion the simplicity of VP1 was more enjoyable for me than having to remember what bonuses and penalties are present in each room, and which part of the enemy I have to hit to harvest materials, etc. In addition, the progression of time and the period/chapter system was different for its time, and gave a sense of freedom, albeit limited in scope.

- Soundtrack. I stand by my guns when I say that Star Ocean 2 and Valkyrie Profile 1 are the best OST's that Sakuraba has ever produced. Some will say Baten Kaitos, but meh. To each their own. It shows that he can do more than synth-heavy prog rock as there is a wide variety of genres, and some are quite emotive.

I don't know, I just felt like VP2 was trying too hard somehow. It was a great game but at the same time it couldn't see the forest for the trees, if that makes any sense. Maybe I'm biased, having grown up in the era of gaming that I did, but I feel that way about a lot of modern titles. There are a few exceptions (Xenoblade, Bravely Default, Persona 3 & 4) but exceptions is what they are.

Anyway I know this is a topic for SO5, but I'm highly disappointed as it looks garbage and generic compared to what it could have been. Even Tales is starting to falter a little as seen with Zestiria, as one of the last bastions of console-based JRPGs I hope they manage to recover from it, otherwise the future of my (for some reason) favourite genre is looking very uncertain right now.

@lostn: I don't think age is the only factor. I'm the same age as the other guy, and played it on release - and completely fell in love with it, it was my gateway RPG to the genre. Mario and Duck Hunt was more when I was like 5 and 6. I can still remember crying after losing my 300+ hour save file where I was trying to max out everyone, I drew coloured charts and everything lol. I could never sell most of my friends on the appeal though, and listening to their attempts at reading was painful :/

Pretty sure I was also fortunate enough to play Metal Gear Solid around a similar timeframe... though I was also a massive Crash Bandicoot and Gran Turismo fan. We lived through a pretty golden era in gaming,. come to think of it - or is it only said to be "golden" now due to the way we look back on it?

Also at the earlier poster, please don't tell me that the gameplay between even FFVII and IX is the same, to say nothing of the other titles, when it clearly isn't. They just all use ATB-based systems, that's all.