Valkyrie Elysium

Overall, Valkyrie Elysium is a great, although rough around-the-edges, action RPG, whose biggest strength lies in its dynamic combat system and in the charisma of some of its characters.

Essentially a character action game, Valkyrie Elysium does little to worry the heavy hitters in the genre such as Devil May Cry or Bayonetta. But while many of its components are simply adequate, its frenetic combat elevates it from mediocrity. There’s great fun to be had here, summoning Einherjar, using your Soul Chain to zip around the battlefield and making use of more advanced skills to decimate your opponents. Ultimately, it’s not going to set anyone’s world on fire, but it’s definitely worth spending some time with.

It may feel lackluster but once players enter the fray Valkyrie Elysium’s exceptionally designed combat mechanics make for a fun action RPG that doesn’t quite live up to its franchise’s legacy.

While the combat to this Valkyrie Profile action RPG spin-off is top notch, the rest of the game ranges from mediocre to merely serviceable.

Valkyrie Elysium is a very fun game with a mildly-intricate combat system that allows for plenty of satisfying moments of pulling off long combos to create a visual feast. Its narrative is lacking but the core characters are charming enough that by the end you can't help but almost feel attached to them all, as you've fought your way through to whichever ending you've chosen. If it weren't for the fact that you're constantly having to make everything work in spite of a camera and lock-on system that feels against you specifically, it would be a much easier game to recommend.

The combat of Valkyrie Elysium certainly makes it worthwhile to play at one point, but if you’re looking for a game that feels entirely there, well this probably isn’t it. There’s fun to be had with the gameplay, but the story, the lack of location and enemy variety, and dated mechanics really pull the whole experience down. What should have been a refreshing take on an old IP, ultimately feels like a half measure.

There's something distinctly old school about Valkyrie Elysium, and we don't mean because it's part of a long-running franchise; a series that started with the turn-based JRPG Valkyrie Profile way back in 1999. This is a game with an almost PlayStation 2 style design philosophy, for better and worse, and what you're here for will determine whether that dated approach is appealing or not.

An occasionally inspired attempt to reinvent the Valkyrie Profile series, but a weak narrative and a dispiritingly empty game world drain the enjoyment from what could’ve been a fun action role-player.

Valkyrie Elysium's mediocre action-RPG gameplay and threadbare story and characters wear out their welcome long before the game wraps up.

Valkyrie Elysium is a disappointing, befuddled, and mistimed return for the Valkyrie series. Its Einherjar-supported combat system only takes the game so far when it’s saddled by an underwhelming story and artificially extended by crude level design. It falls into the trap of chasing trends, turning classic JRPGs into action games and copying other successful titles like Dark Souls without adding much new to the genre, when many fans would have been more than satisfied with an updated version of a standard Valkyrie game. While the main Final Fantasy series took a while to convert its audience ...

“Valkyrie Elysium delivers an average action experience that fails to revive a classic RPG series.”

This 15-hour trip through humanity's end of days will leave you envying the dead.