Valkyrie Elysium is the fifth installment of the Valkyrie series published by Square Enix, but this time developed by Soleil, who brought us Ninjala and Samurai Jack: Battle Through time. With a new developer, Valkyrie Elysium plays a bit differently from its predecessors, playing as more of a hack-and-slash. The Einherjar are also present but act on their own and are directed rather than controlled.

Some people don’t mind change, but others will find it a dishonor to the previous titles. I’ll do my best to give honest feedback on my time playing and see how much I enjoy it., and although there are previous titles, we shouldn’t compare them too much as it is not a remake but its own game, therefore does not need to follow beat for beat the same gimmicks.

The opening title makes clear the general gist of the story. The forces of Fenrir are fighting against Odin’s forces. Odin and Fenrir both suffer injuries in their fight, leaving them weakened as the threat of Ragnarök looms ever closer. With this everything-ending event on the horizon, Odin creates a new Valkyrie, Nora, the Player Character, to help purify the souls that have been tainted and find worthy souls to lead to Valhalla and restore The All Fathers’ powers, so that he may then restore the world that is dying.

Along the way, you will catch feelings, and question your existence and your place in the world. Are you the bad guy? That sort of stuff. Or at least that’s how it should be, but it just falls short of that sort of engagement. It wants to be dramatic. It wants you to feel something.

The issue is that it’s there the whole time, but it always feels out of reach. It’s always missing something at crucial moments, like pacing. It drags on so much that by the time the hard-hitting emotional parts start, you are too confused to recognize that it happened because they stretched the moment too long. The first half of the game is just forcing your way through enemies without any hooks or story beats to sink your teeth into, and the more interesting parts are read in character’s bios rather than in-game.

The saving grace is the gameplay, mobility, action, abilities, weapons, and combo chains, which alleviate some of the stagnate repetitiveness of the first half of the game. The mechanics of the game are easy to use and fairly responsive, but can sometimes be hard to control due to the hack-and-slash chaos, however, the more you practice the combos and the more technical aspects the more fluid it becomes. There is an array of weapons to find, changing up the playstyle to suit you, you just have to acquire them first. Lucky for me, you find a rapier rather quickly, and this is my weapon of choice.

Magic abilities can be utilized to exploit the elemental weakness of enemies and make them easier to dispatch, but only four can be used at a time. The Einherjar are back and can be summoned to help in combat, but you can not directly control these spirits. Instead, you can point them in a direction and say go. They also make a good distraction against harder enemies.

Now, when it comes to the graphics and visuals of Valkyrie Elysium, I am torn, because, for the most part, it is great. The character models and enemies look fantastic, and the landscape, buildings to trees, and bushes look good. I know this is meant to be during the end of the world, but it just seems like they did all this great visual artwork and washed it in a bland, sad grey. Even Asgard seems dull, which takes away from the beauty, and there is a distinct lack of any NPCs filling the world.

More emphasis could have been placed on the world you travel through, but it all tends to look the same after a while. The art style gives me Nier Automata vibes with the character designs, reminding me of one of my favorite anime, Granblue Fantasy, so top marks for that. The camera angle, especially in fights, can become a little frustrating. Sometimes there are points at which you lose all visuals because the camera is stuck inside a wall or pillar.

However, the music is a beautiful harmonic with different styles sort of meshed together, and I can not forget the entrancing hymn woven in. I swear, sometimes I hear the classic JRPG music move to a more Spanish guitar picking. It’s unique and I love it. As good as the music is, for the most part, it only sometimes fits, though it does not quite fit the mood or the situation in my opinion as a gamer, not a music specialist.

The sound effects are all great as well, but I love the sounds games make for rapiers, and this game is no different. It just sounds so clean and sharp. I sat for ages just doing combos over and over to listen to it.

So that is it. Overall, it is not a terrible game, and if you don’t try and compare it too much to the previous Valkyrie games, it does stand on its own. I do not believe it will be for everyone, Devil May Cry and newer Final Fantasy game lovers will probably like this. There is nothing groundbreaking or new that makes this stand out, but it is fun, and if you can sort through all the information and pick out the important parts, there is a good story there. There is a lot that was done well, but areas it fell a little short. Still, I think it is worth a look, and if you can, try the demo to see for yourself.

Written by: Adam Brasher