Game Title:	VALKYRIE PROFILE: LENNETH
Developer:	tri-Ace
Publisher:	Square Enix
Release Date:	22nd December 2022
Platforms:	PlayStation 4 / PlayStation 5

VALKYRIE PROFILE: LENNETH, mainly known as the 1st Valkyrie Profile game, finally got a PS4/PS5 port based on the PSP Version that was released in 2006.

The game originally was released on PlayStation 1 back in 1999, 7 years later it got a remastered version on PlayStation Portable.

Since then, people can only access the game if they have either the PlayStation 1 or PSP Version as Square Enix never released the game on the PSN. But all of that changed when Square Enix announced the newest game in the Valkyrie series, which is Valkyrie Elysium. At the same time, they announced that Valkyrie Profile will be getting a PS5 port and is part of the Digital Deluxe bonus, also the bonus for Japan’s Collector’s Edition.

You can also buy it separately on the PSN for $19.99.

First of all, I must mention that this game is the direct port from the PSP version, not the iOS / Android version, so don’t expect the newly upgraded illustrations in this PS4/PS5 port of the game.

To be honest, I first played the PlayStation 1 version a long time ago, back when I was in Elementary School. I don’t really remember the story, and also I think I have never finished the game with Ending A or what is called as the True Ending to the game.

Story

The story of the game is a little bit simple. The game is based on Norse Mythology, during the war between the Vanir and the Aesir.

You are playing as Valkyrie, a loyal servant to Odin. You are tasked by Odin & Freyja to pick worthy souls who among them become part of Einherjar and train them, to prepare them for Ragnarok. This is basically what you are going to do on the whole 8 chapters of the game.

You’ll be seeing a series of stories of people who are worthy to become Einherjar. Most of the time the story will be about how they die and Valkyrie will come and give them a second chance to fight for Odin as Einherjar.

The end game of the game will be collecting enough Einherjar to be sent to Valhalla for the war with Surt. This is basically the main story of the game and what you will get if you play the game “normally”.

If you remember, when you start the game, you are given 3 difficulty choices, and Ending A is only accessible in Normal / Hard difficulties. However, you will only get the most story out of this game only if you play with Hard difficulty. (If you are playing on Hard Difficulty, you will be able to recruit every character in the game.

To get Ending A, you need to do specific actions within the time limit of the game. To be honest, this is almost not possible if you play the game blind & without any guide. But unless you are on the Ending A route, there won’t be much of a story in the game, other than the Einherjar recruitment story.

You will get more in-depth about Valkyrie’s origin, and also what happened prior to the event of the game that leads to the birth of Valkyrie. It is really hard to talk about it without doing any spoilers, but I’ll do my best not to spoil anything.

By going for the A Ending, you will notice that there is a special Einherjar in the game, namely Lucian.

The game will give you a hint about Valkyrie’s past and why Lucian is a special Einherjar here and there in the game. My advice is for you to go for the A Ending using a guide to get the most out of the story.

The Ending A Route by all means is not that great, but it gives a better twist to the plot of the game and an in-depth of Valkyrie’s personal story. But overall it doesn’t really change the whole theme of the game. Valhalla is still in the war between Vanir & Aesir, and Ragnarok is still coming. But some of the events will be changed due to the action you took to get Ending A. Also, the story feels more complete if you finish the game with Ending A rather than Ending B or C.

So do your best, and try to get Ending A to get a complete experience of VALKYRIE PROFILE: Lenneth.

Gameplay

The gameplay is divided into 2 parts. The first part is like what I explained in the story part, it will be the story mode where Valkyrie recruits worthy souls such as Einherjar to help the with the battle in Valhalla.

You are given a limited amount of periods per chapter. You can use those periods to find new Einherjar or clear dungeons. The game will automatically move to the next chapter once the period reached 0. Basically, everything needs Period. Visiting town needs 1 period. Entering dungeon needs 2 periods, and also “Spiritual Concentration” will use 2 periods peruse. You will need to use that to find your next destination, whether it’s a new Einherjar or a new dungeon to clear.

Freyja will share with you the requirement of the Einherjar Valhalla need after clearing each chapter.

Basically based on the requirement, you can figure out which character you want to send. You just have to make sure they have the minimum Hero Value needed, also have the required skills as well.

You will then be able to see if the Einherjar you sent to Valhalla did a great job or not after finishing every chapter.

If they actually died based on Freyja’s report, that means you sent someone who isn’t compatible with what they are looking for and don’t have the required skills or enough Hero Values.

The second part of the gameplay is focusing on clearing dungeons and defeating bosses to reclaim artifacts. Basically, the dungeons are combinations between platformer and also puzzle games.

Some of the dungeons require you to think A LOT to be able to clear the puzzle so you can move forward. Also requires you to have a platforming skill as well (lots of jumping in the dungeon).

This is where the new features of this port shine. There are 2 new features on this PS4/PS5 port, which are “Save Anywhere” and “Roll Back”. This feature makes a great difference from the old version of the game. Some of the dungeons are really long with only several save points, not to mention the puzzle that will take a great amount of time to figure out without any guide. Now that you can save whenever you want, you can stop anytime you want, and continue the game immediately from your save.

Also with the difficulty platforming + the bad movement because it’s an old game, Rolling back saves a lot of time if you fall into a trap or took the damage from the treasure chest’s traps.

Now we go into the battle system.

You will have only 4 peoples that can use for battle. Valkyrie & 3 Einherjar. Each character can be moved based on their position, just like the Square, Triangle, Circle, and X buttons.

You need to build your meter just beside the Enemy HP, once you reached 100, you can unleash special attacks.

Basically, you need to find the right combination of which Einherjar works best with which Einherjar. And not just that the order of the attack as well. Like who attacks first to make the combo linked and increase your Special Attack meter.

You can place 3 characters in the front and 1 character in the rear. You can only place archers or magicians in the rear.

It’s really fun to test the characters for you to use, but also you need to remember that you will need to send some characters to Valhalla as well to fulfill the requirement. So make sure your party members aren’t those who you will send to Valhalla, because once you send them over, they are out of your party forever.

One thing that I hate the most about this port is that there is still no feature for us to skip the Great Magic animations. I think I spent 1/3 of my play time watching the Celestial Star FMV.

Graphics & Performance

In regards to Graphics, I need to mention that this game is a port from the PSP version. Which means it is based on the PSP version with increased Resolutions.

As you can see from the comparison above, while the dot pixel remains the same, the character’s illustrations are in HD Images for the Mobile versions. This is not the case with this port, as they are using the exact same assets as the PSP version. I wished that they could have used this new character’s images for this version, just like what they did with Star Ocean First Departure with the new artwork. It could be better, but hey, at least it’s playable on current-gen consoles.

With the performances, It’s working great in 60fps. Everything is smooth, although my game did freeze once or twice when I was trying to use the Rollback feature. It’s not really game-breaking or anything as I can still close the game and restart the game. But I think there are specific times in the game when you can’t open the Roll Back menu. Like when it’s in a loading screen in/out of battle or when going to a different screen. Not sure what triggered that, but it happened.

Sounds

One thing that I have to say is that the Sound in the game feels like compressed audio. The volumes are low and sometimes it sounds muffled as well. Other than that, the BGM & Sound Effects are still as good as it was back in the day.

It’s great they are keeping the originality with the PSP version of the game, but I feel like they could have done something to make the game better, just like with the characters’ images and also the character’s voices.

The Verdict: Recommended

It’s actually really hard to say, but I will go with “Recommended”.

This port still feels like a quick money grab from Square Enix, because what they did is just increase the resolutions without fixing the textures, which makes the game looks not so good because basically, it’s just a stretched version of the PSP one. And not to mention the low-res audio of the game.

The game is one of the legendary RPGs back in PlayStation 1 era, but the story itself isn’t that extraordinary. Although the battle system still shines after 20 years and some RPGs also have a battle system based on this game.

Then again, as an RPG this game feels really unbalanced as well. In the last few chapters, you will learn that higher stats and higher levels don’t really help you as the enemies will be making absurdly massive damage and most of the time you will be killed by 1 attack or magic from the enemies. It will definitely stress you out if you are a casual player. Believe me, you will be playing only with Guts & Auto-Item when you reached chapter 8.

If you ask me to play, there are other RPGs that have a better story and better pacing as well. But this is where the Magic of Nostalgia works.

People long for this kind of good old pixel game. I for one am one of those people who found the game too hard and too stressful back in the day, and never really got the chance to see the true ending of the game. Now with all the new features like Save Anywhere & Rollback, I finally got my revenge and finished the game completely this time. I really recommend you play the game using an online guide to ensure getting the A Ending Route.

If you are someone like me who never really finished the game completely, now is your chance with all the new features which give great Quality of Life. Like seriously, playing in Celestial Castle, if you fall off the platform you will be outside the castle and have to replay the whole dungeon from the beginning again, also it makes you waste 2 periods for nothing. But with the new Rollback features, it saves you the trouble of getting a headache and the stress of making a mistake when playing this game.