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Valhalla Knights
Publisher: XSEED / Marvelous Interactive
Developer: K2 (Japan)
Genre: RPG
Release Date: April 17, 2007
Platform: Playstation Portable
Reviewer: Eric
This is the kind of game that would be perfect on the PSP. Valhalla Knights
is the perfect game for the PSP. I keep saying this, but deep down this is not
the case. RPGs are the perfect kind of game on the road. Still when you play
Valhalla Knights it does not seem as satisfying as you’d hope.
 I am not the biggest fan on the new kind of role playing games with the action
battle systems, but I always thought that kind of battle system would be perfect
for portable consoles. When I went out on a limb and purchased Valhalla Knights
I was so happy with the game. After thirty minutes I seemed to be forcing myself
to play the game.
Valhalla Knights battle system plays just like Final Fantasy XII. Move your
character around and attack, simple and fun. That fun will soon turn into
boredom because there are two attack options for melee attacks, button one and
button two. If that doesn’t help, in order to use magic you’ll have to go to
another screen to pick it, which isn’t all that fun. Yeah Final Fantasy had you
doing this, but Valhalla Knights battles pretty much come to a stop when you
want to cast magic.
If you ever want to get new characters you have to hire them. Each time you hire
somebody you’ll have to create them, which is the same process you do when you
start the game with your main character. I highly recommend getting a healer
right away, if you don’t then you are in for a real treat. Valhalla Knights is a
hard game when you start out, don’t make the same mistake I did and die after
ever other slime battle.
Let’s get back to the battle system. Even though it isn’t extremely complex it
is fun, only to a certain point though. If I had to explain the battle system a
little more I would have to say it plays like Final Fantasy XII and Diablo II.
Depending on how you feel about Diablo II’s mindless clicking. I tend to play
this game in spurts, playing this game for more than an hour it will start to
get boring.
Now that we have the battle system part done let’s talk about the story.
Valhalla Knights is not going to win any awards with its story. Out of the blue
you are in the middle of a fight with a dragon. The character you are at this
time is Rastul, who seems to be a pretty important guy. All of the sudden you
wake up at the inn with your character creation. To top things off he has
amnesia.
 How many games do you know of that have leading characters with amnesia?
Thankfully the inn keeper took care of you, but he gives you a nice bill, which
you pay off with the games first quest. What a way to start off a RPG, don’t you
think?
As time progresses you can pick up two other jobs per character, which is really
nice. More or so this part of the game brings a whole new meaning to it. With
the different options with your characters you can spend hours building unique
characters. Depending how you go with your characters you are given the chance
to upgrade to special classes.
In town there isn’t a whole lot to do. You have your basic shops, most of which
never seem to get good enough things to buy for the longest time. The main part
in town is the guild shop, where you make your characters and pick up quests.
Valhalla Knights revolves around quests; however the first quest of the game can
turn out to be more trouble than it’s really worth.
Quests descriptions in Valhalla Knights are a killer. You literally need to
figure out the whole quest for yourself because the game fails with its
descriptions. The first quest alone can take eternity to figure out. Valhalla
Knights has you figuring out puzzles for quests. Literally, you will have to
shut your PSP off (to save battery life) and think about the quest description.
What were they thinking?
 Another part that boils my kettle is the map. I don’t care that I have to fill
in the map, but there is no indications for certain points. All I see are the
enemies (red dots) and treasure chests (yellow). Where are the way points? How
about where I need to complete quests at? I have to run around for God knows how
long to complete these impossible puzzle quests.
Equipment in the game seems to do nothing more than change to looks of your
character. Whenever something is equipped there are no stats any where that go
up. I have no idea if I am missing something yet again in this game. It is so
nerve wrecking to have to deal with crap like this.
It really seems like there is nothing good about this game when you think about
it. That’s where you are wrong. Valhalla Knights is one of the few PSP games to
load one time in the beginning and then everything else is so minimal, you’ll
think you were playing a cartridge game. Two huge thumbs, this part of the game
will make you forgive one or two of those bad things.
Final Verdict
I honestly can’t say I completely hate Valhalla Knights. The battle system,
story, horrible quest description…well there are a lot of bad things about this
game. If you can find this game for twenty dollars or less then I say pick it
up. Valhalla Knights won’t revolution RPGs on the Playstation Portable, but it
is better than a few others.
Rating
6.50 out of 10
Valhalla Knights Trailer
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