Einherjar are now summonable allies, more akin to Elden Ring ’s Spirit Ashes than the recent Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s constant AI companions. Like in Valkyrie Profile, these lost spirits join you in battle once you recruit them, but they function totally different than before. The hack-and-slash basics might feel familiar at first, but that all changes when Einherjar come into play. “All the same, when considering the action games of today, the speed of the action has greatly increased, and players enjoy this faster pace.”Īfter Valkyrie Elysium’s first few stages, when you’ve unlocked everything that makes its combat sing, it doesn’t really feel like any other game. “Considering the original Valkyrie titles in the context of when they came out, they are pretty action-oriented and have a real-time feel,” Kondo says. Square EnixĪs Valkyrie Elysium producer Takahiro Kondo tells Inverse, that made the shift to fully real-time combat the best way to honor Valkyrie Profile for the sequel without just repeating it.
Valkyrie Elysium’s action combat has more in common with its turn-based predecessor than you’d think. The result is an extremely active combat system that still maintains the strategic depth of turn-based games like Final Fantasy. In its idiosyncratic battles, each party member is assigned to one controller button, and choosing which order to activate them in is as important as which weapons and skills you equip. In Valkyrie Profile, you play as Lenneth, a Valkyrie tasked with recruiting the souls of heroes called Einherjar in the lead-up to Ragnarok. Valkyrie Profile was released in 1999, the same year as Final Fantasy VIII, another departure from Square Enix’s traditional turn-based combat. The latest is Valkyrie Elysium, which transforms Valkyrie Profile’s groundbreaking turn-based combat into a full-action RPG that leaves a surprising amount of the original intact. While the publisher is still putting out some of the best games in the genre, it’s also on a streak of bringing real-time action combat to its classic series. Square Enix made its name on the best turn-based RPGs of the ‘80s and ‘90s.
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