"A great game fueled by an amazing battle system"

People might know Valkyrie Profile as the game that became too rare too find and too expensive to be purchased. However, those who actually had the pleasure of playing it had immense praise for a game that many do not even know about. Six years after that game was released, tri-Ace finally gives us a sequel: Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria. The result? An immensely fun game with an amazing battle system.

The game tells the tale of Alicia, a girl who shares her soul with Silmeria, one of the three Valkyries. Because of Silmeria living inside her body, Alicia is banished from her home in Dipan. Eventually, the focus on the story shifts to Dipan's defiance of the gods and their punishment. Alicia finds many friends, and they become entangled in the struggle between Dipan and the gods. From betrayal to despair to desperation, Alicia and her group fight many emotions as they progress through a plot that gradually becomes more interesting as the game advances. To be honest, this game is actually a prequel to the first when it comes to the plot in the sense that the events of this game take place before the events of the original Valkyrie Profile. However, as the plot progresses, knowledge of the events from the first game becomes more important in understanding the story in its entirety.

Alicia's world contains highly detailed backgrounds and a realistic look. The characters themselves are very well done, and the environment as a whole is breathtaking. The details are very sharp, and a simple walk through a dungeon shows that the designs in this game are amazing. As far as the Playstation 2 is concerned, this is easily one of the better looking role-playing games out there.

Motoi Sakuraba, the same composer who gave us the soundtrack of the original Valkyrie Profile, delivers once again in Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria. The music is appropriately placed throughout the whole game, and none of the tunes lack in quality. Some of the songs can get a bit boring, and there aren't many memorable tracks; however, the music in this game does its job. It maintains high quality and improves the setting. The voice acting is well done as well. The main characters' voices suit their personalities for the most part.

Many fans of the original Valkyrie Profile hoped that change to the battle system would be minimal, and with good reason. The first game featured an action-filled turn-based style that focused on combos. At its time, it was very innovative, and many ranked it highly when it came to role-playing game battle systems. I myself thought that the battle system couldn't get much better; if there was too much tweaking, it could be ruined. However, tri-Ace proves me wrong once again by following up a great battle system with one that's even better.

The main change in the combat is that instead of being fixed in one spot and trading blows with an enemy, the player is on a map. He is free to move around the map, but so are the enemies. In fact, if the player moves, the enemies do as well. However, the fact that the enemies stop when the player does ensures that the battle system is not completely real-time. A neat addition to the free movement in battle is the ability to dash. When the player dashes, the enemy doesn't move. Thus, positioning becomes important.

Once positioning is set, the damage can be dealt. Enemies as well as characters have a range. When the player moves so that an enemy is in his characters' range, he can attack by pressing the corresponding buttons of his four characters. However, if he moves his characters into the enemy's range while the enemy is ready to attack, the enemy will attack the player's characters. When the two sides start dealing damage, the battle system progresses just like the original's: the player controls his characters so that they attack in unison and form a nice combo. As they attack, they charge a gauge referred to as the heat gauge. Once the heat gauge is full, the characters can unleash special attacks called Soul Crushes depending on how they're equipped. After the round of attacks by the player ends, the enemy attacks if the characters are in its range. If not, the battle continues as before. What's to stop continuous attacking? Well, to prevent button mashing, there is an AP gauge. Attacks, dashes, and item usage deplete this gauge, and once it's empty, the characters can't do anything until they recover it.

The ranges add plenty off depth and strategy to the battle system. The player must try to dash into a favorable position outside the enemy's range, one example of which is the back. By using dashes and certain attacks, the player can remain out of the enemy's range. However, if the player insists on constantly attacking and not taking advantage of the free motion and dashes, he will most likely struggle. These strategic elements, missing from the first game, give Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria a memorable battle systems that is easily one of the best in role-playing games to this day.

Also, there are items which can affect an entire party of characters or enemies depending on where they are placed. These items, called sealstones, can also make a huge difference in battles. They can greatly affect attributes of either enemies or characters enough to turn a battle from a near impossibility to a manageable situation. They are yet another feature which the player has to think about before running into battle.

One more feature that can add depth if used by the player is the ability to split up the party. The group can be split into two smaller groups, but only one can be controlled at a given time. While this tactic is not useful for every battle, it can help in some strategies involving multiple opponents or surrounding a foe.

With the depth to the battle system comes some difficulty, however. First of all, there is a learning curve, and the game makes that clear starting at a certain point. Also, if the player is unwilling to use strategy to stay out of the enemy's range, chances are that bosses (and some random enemies) will prove to be a real challenge. Many enemies in this game have highly damaging attacks relative to the characters' HP totals; this was meant to encourage the use of strategy. No, the player doesn't need to go out of his way to power-level at all. With a proper strategy, an enemy will go down to a severely under-leveled party. This works in reverse as well. Even a party well ahead of the leveling curve can be defeated if the player decides to button mash. Some may see this as abnormal difficulty, but it is what makes the battle system truly spectacular.

Upon walking through any given place in this game, the player notices a 2D side-scrolling approach to exploration. The characters themselves are in 3D, but the player moves on a 2D plane while exploring. Also, Alicia can shoot photons to freeze an enemy in place. If she shoots a photon at a frozen enemy, she and the enemy will switch places. Sounds simple, right? That method is used in many of the game's dungeons in the form of puzzles that the player must overcome. Many treasures that seem impossible to obtain require a bit of thinking to reach. The ability to slide from Valkyrie Profile is not a feature in this game, but the dungeon exploration remains a strong point.

While Valkyrie Profile featured a dungeon crawling system of exploration and travel, this one follows the flow of more traditional role-playing games. In other words, there are towns at which the player can shop, dungeons to explore, and a world map that contains all these places. The flow from towns to dungeons is similar to the type of flow found in many other role-playing games. The world map contains many places which the player can choose to visit. For the most part, there is no need to travel through any extra field or dungeon to get from one place to another. Also, there are no random encounters. Like the situation in Valkyrie Profile, the player sees the enemies on the screen and decides whether or not he wants to fight. Most fights are avoidable by the use of using photons to freeze the enemies.

Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria offers a lot of extras for those who enjoy it. Throughout the main game, there are many optional dungeons for those who wish to enter them. After the final save point in the main game is reached, there is a massive dungeon that features bosses that dwarf the final boss in difficulty. Playing through the game and all the optional dungeons can easily take a player forty to sixty hours. However, that's not all; if the player really enjoys the game, he can start a new game after the final boss. The difficulty automatically increases so that the next playthrough is more challenging. How many of these difficulty levels are there? Three? Four? How about fifty?! I don't know if anyone would be willing to get that high, but it's there for those who would…

For those who want a game with a great battle system, they cannot go wrong with Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria. While it may not be the strongest where plot and characters are concerned, this game's battle system alone makes it more than worthwhile. While it may have some minor flaws, Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria is a great game for fans of the role-playing game. Overall, it earns a score of 8.5/10.

There were six years between the two installments. Six long years that tri-Ace left Valkyrie Profile without a sequel. Now that it's finally here, it does not disappoint. With the questions left unanswered by the ending, we can only hope that tri-Ace doesn't make us wait six more years for another one…

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/16/06