Valkyrie Elysium Review

ign.com:

Reviving a much-loved series can be a gamble. Stick too close to the original, and the project can feel like a retread. On the other hand, reinventing it completely can alienate stalwart supporters. Over a decade after the last chapter of Square Enix’s Norse-themed JRPG series, Valkyrie Elysium departs from its predecessors’ turn-based roots in favor of a new action-heavy, hack-and-slash direction. In that transition, Elysium has established a fun and flashy combat system but sacrifices part of what made the original PlayStation game memorable: a focus on the characters and worldbuilding.

In many ways, Valkyrie Elysium feels like a Square Enix take on Falcom’s Ys RPG series rather than a return to Valkyrie Profile’s original PlayStation-era DNA. And in the way that modern Ys feels somewhat like a throwback to the PS3-era of games in terms of the structure of their worlds, combat, and progression, so too does Valkyrie Elysium. Although I’m largely satisfied with the action it serves up, Elysium is far less successful at establishing an intriguing tale.

The obedient and straight-laced deity warrior known as Valkyrie meets with her creator, the All-Father Odin, before each chapter. Their base of operations is the opulent yet sparse Asgard, which looks wonderful, but is very small with little to do besides choosing the next quest. Once she descends to the mortal realm of Midgar, the environments are much larger than Asgard. Unfortunately, the regions of Midgard, while more expansive than the godly domain, are far less fun to look at. The locations you visit are vacant of activities and life, offering an overly linear path to adventure down with little else to seek out. That’s not to say there aren’t plenty of crates to smash