When I die... You stay away from me Lenneth!
Very Japanese!
On the other hand, one could also be suffering through derogative, poorly scripted, painfully executed games like Valkyrie Profile Lenneth....
Very Japanese unfortunately.....
"VPL" forces the player to engage in the monotonous adventures of Lenneth, an angel of sorts. who must recruit an army of fallen warriors to confront a powerful source of evil! While this sounds like an intriguing tale of spirits and sorcery, its execution was so flawed, I'm compelled to lodge clipping shears in my temples, just to stay awake!
As soon as I began controlling my first minion... I mean recruit.... It became painfully clear what this game's biggest flaw would be. Valkyrie profile is easily one of the most boring games to ever grace a portable system! At first glance, the graphics are breath taking. The 3d rendered cutscenes are truly a sight to behold, and the characters are well designed.
This is where the all of Valkyrie Profile's compliments end.
As soon as the player begins taking control of the first doomed spirit, you will be lulled to sleep by the horrifyingly terrible voice acting! Characters range from sounding like they're on ridalin, to squealing like preteen boys...
I soon find myself praying for the sweet relief of text....
I WAS WISHING FOR TEXT!?!?!?!
As if the horrid voice acting wasn't enough to cure my insomnia, the dull level design does!
Each area is either compiled of shades of grey, and black, or brown, and dark green. Each one reeks of misery and dreariness, a bizarre design choice in the wake of other Japanese products, like Katamari.
Combat is layed out in which your party of slaves..... SOLDIERS..... attack a selected beast in turn based fashion. Each warrior is mapped to one of your buttons, for example, my skreeching pre-pubescent archer will only attack when I hit triangle. If your party attacks simultaniously, a special attack may be triggered, represented into a period in which you are to mash a button, then watch as swift death embraces your foes! The battle system is certainly unique, however degrades to sheer button mashing with one's own palm. This reveals the next flaw in Lenneth's armor, the system menus are extremely user unfriendly! I had absolutely no clue how to use items, or equip new weapons during battle. It was only when I accidently hit Select that I realized I was looking at a menu screen!
Seriously?!? It's often primary in most rpg's to guide the player through the functions, but VPL apparently thinks helping the player is for (censored), and would rather blind fold you, while tossing the player into a pool of jagged objects.
But even knowing the workings of the menu system couldn't save VPL's final problem.... There appears to be a severe problem with the difficulty curb. After surmounting a certain point in the game, the difficulty increases to the point that normal enemies can withstand several special attacks, and still retain 90% of it's health! This completely halts player progress, as well as levelling progress, forcing the player to constantly visit the same sleep inducing areas over.... and over..... and over again!
For what it's worth.... The game is playable.... And considering the only purchasers are going to be fans of Japanese rpg's, my complaints are all for naught.
It doesn't take a horror movie to make me fear death... I just need to play this game to understand how (censored) death really is!