A decent effort, but Eldar Saga falls short of its potential and ends up being a major disappointment.
The story is formulaic--a meteor shower gives rise to an evil force that plagues the land, and legends proclaim an alliance between the four principal races of the world played an enormous role in protecting the land of Eldar in its time of need. But the alliance is, at worst, a fragile one. When darkness threatens Eldar yet again, it's up to the player to rekindle the partnership between the bitterly-divided factions of Human, Dwarf, Elf and Halfling, and answer the call of the savior. The game is divided up into two chapters. Interestingly enough, you can choose either the first or second chapter to start the game with--only the latter allows you the full customization of your character as opposed to being limited to a generic male hero of the first chapter. There's an excuse for that--if you start off with the first chapter, you'll eventually come to a crossroads as to which woman you will marry and have offspring with, and that ultimately determines not only statistical growth, but also the race for your character in the second chapter. Compared to the diverse customization options found in the PSP games, these kinds of restrictions are disappointing, especially considering that character creation was one of the key draws that made Valhalla Knights so appealing.
The combat system deviates away from traditional turn-based fare of the PSP games, emphasizing instead on real-time battles. Fighting is disappointingly bland and slow, with only two attack buttons. You'll often run into trouble getting your hits to connect unless you rely on the targeting system--which helps to some degree but greatly restricts movement to a crawl. The Wii Remote and Nunchuck controls are somewhat awkward especially when you're managing items, but you can use the Classic Controller which, in my opinion, works the best.
De-emphasizing the robust party creation system of the PSP games, Eldar Saga is dependent on a mercenary system--limited to only one character partner. You can customize your mercenary's items, equipment and AI behavior, but not their skills or abilities. Mercenaries are helpful in many situations, but in terms of AI intelligence, they're not very smart. In many cases, they cannot climb ledges on their own, and they blindly engage in melee combat against enemies twice their size and number which stupidly gets them killed. Worse still, hiring some of these lamebrains costs money, and you'll meet new ones throughout the duration of the game. Of course, if CPU allies aren't your thing, you can find a friend using Nintendo's Wi-Fi and Friend Codes to adventure with you. However, this is also limited to just two people, and there's no way to form six or four player teams. When you think about what made Valhalla Knights for the PSP so endearing, you're confused as to why Eldar Saga fails to offer any opportunities whatsoever in building entire parties--CPU, online, or otherwise. So don't be fooled by the claim that you can form "formidable battle parties"....because you can't.
As is the case with the PSP games, Eldar Saga's got central hubs (towns and cities) for you to purchase supplies, armor and weapons, as well as sign up for individual quests. Quests are few and far between, but in retrospect, they help you in character growth and story progression. You can warp inbetween dungeons, areas of the world map and other towns, but it costs money (at most, 1000 gold) to do so--as if purchasing expensive armor and weapons and hiring idiot mercenaries weren't hard enough on you. You can also change your character's class as well, and you can partake in a variety of different jobs--like a Fighter, Mage, Thief and Bard. Each class has unique abilities that set themselves apart from the others, and it's fun to experiment with them. In many cases, they can help you in difficult spots when most needed. Changing classes also costs money as well, which is unfortunate considering the only hope you have in making any money are successful quest completions or selling off valuable items you'll find during your journey.
Weapons can also wear down their durability and break, forcing you to purchase Sword Oil or visit blacksmiths to get them repaired. The problem with this is that durability often wears down rather quickly especially when you're fighting monsters that either respawn at a startling rate or constantly approach you in groups. You can run from enemies, but you forfeit any chance of character growth unless you spent time beforehand cultivating your characters to god-like affinity. Expect to grind an awful lot and distribute the necessary attribute points if you hope to live another day, or breathe another minute.
Graphically, the game doesn't really push the potential of the Wii console, but the environments are nice enough--if a little moody. The music is quite good--composed by Motoi Sakaraba of Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile fame--although it's weird sometimes that dungeon music plays for a little while before it relegates to ambience. In other words, you don't hear enough of it.
Overall, Eldar Saga isn't a bad game--just a disappointing one. If you like action RPGs and have been looking into this game, I would suggest renting it first before coming to a decision of ownership. If you're a fan of the PSP games and were expecting the same experience on the Wii, you're better off sticking with the PSP games--Eldar Saga is nothing of the kind.