2022 saw the release of a lot of lesser-known RPGs in its latter half that piqued my interest, including Soul Hackers 2 and Star Ocean: The Divine Force. Another one on my radar was Valkyrie Elysium, which hooked me with the premise of playing a Valkyrie in Norse mythology, especially after falling in love with God of War in 2018. Without a mainline entry in the Valkyrie Profile series since 2009, how will this entry fare after a decade?

Valkyrie Elysium has a fairly standard combat loop. You traverse a decently-sized map and enemies will spawn every 30 seconds or so after moving forward. Basic fodder will collapse after just a few hits, but you’ll also have to account for airborne foes and ones with ranged attacks. Your Valkyrie has a nice amount of variations between the two slash buttons, and different weapons allow for different scenarios to be approached to suit your playstyle. Prioritizing baddies is essential and there’s a fair amount of challenge in encounters to demand variety.

Sadly, there’s not much to separate each combat encounter from the previous one. There are only a handful of enemy types across the game, and many are just slightly-altered ones that you’ve already faced. As you progress, you’ll unlock abilities you can summon to give you an edge, as certain enemies are weak to certain status effects. Bosses are also fun but tend to be a little too spongy. Specifically, they take a ton of hits before they go down, even if you exploit their weaknesses and get them stunned for a few seconds. Upgrading your Valkyrie is a slog, too, as chests across the map that you have to go out of your way to find offer pittances compared to what you earn in combat.

Apart from the gameplay, Valkyrie Elysium seems to be lacking a bit of polish. It feels like the PC port stems from the PS4/XBO version of the title, as the pop-in is positively atrocious and an immediate immersion-breaker when you see grass spawn a few feet in front of your Valkyrie. In addition, the cel-shading across most objects clashes with the realistic presentation, looking a little jarring on just about every screen. Thankfully, the game runs at a steady, high framerate so the combat still shines when it isn’t repetitive.

It’s certainly a challenge to play this game after experiencing the immaculate story within God of War: Ragnarok, but I went in with an open mind toward this long-standing franchise. Unfortunately, the story doesn’t have much of a grab. The Valkyrie you play as is unnamed, steadfast in her duty, and spouts the same lines of dialogue in every other fight. It’s tough to get invested in the game across from its satisfactory combat.

Valkyrie Elysium is going to be hard to recommend for anyone that isn’t a Valkyrie Profile/Norse mythology fan, as while the combat is nice in spurts, it’s abundantly an underwhelming affair. Howlongtobeat places the game at 12 hours to beat, so a $59.99 price tag is quite daunting, as well. If you’re still on the fence, I’d advise looking more into the gameplay so you get a feel for Valkyrie Elysium‘s loop and see if it’s worth the investment for you.

A PC review copy of Valkyrie Elysium was provided by Square Enix for this review.

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Valkyrie Elysium

59.99

6

Score

6.0/10

Pros

• Combat Feels Good
• Solid Challenge in Difficulty

Cons

• Poor Graphics
• Ho-Hum Story
• Seriously Repetitive