Valkyrie Profile: Even more love?

[undamned]

So I'm nearing the end of Valkyrie Profile on PS1 and I'm still just floored by the beautiful 2D artwork. It's like they took the apex of great 2D art from the SNES generation and just got crazy with the more powerful hardware PS had to offer.

My question is now: why doesn't VP get more love for it's 2D awesomeness? People will froth and coo about games like Little Ralph and Princess Crown (not that those aren't amazing in their own right), but I don't think I've ever heard VP come up apart from discussions about RPG's, when in fact the scope of it's awesomeness reaches well beyond the RPG realm and into 2D gaming at large.

Does anybody else see VP this way?
-ud

[Ganelon]

Has anyone actually mentioned that The Adventure of Little Ralph a good example of 2D? Besides some neat lighting, I think it's barely better than Soccer Kid and worse looking than Rayman, Lomax, or Astal.

The fact is that great looking sprites with limited animation and backgrounds are generally neglected. Final Fantasy VI was one of the earliest SNES games that used all 256 colors in its background palette yet nobody cared at the time. VP is sort of like Tales and SRW; great looking at some points but not really recognized for its visual quality. I don't remember any part of it actually being stunning though. Maybe some example screens would help?

[undamned]

Has anyone actually mentioned that The Adventure of Little Ralph a good example of 2D?

Yeah, alot. If you started a thread called "Best looking 2D platformers of all time" I can guarantee you'd have multiple frothings about Little Ralph. Oh, and good call on the Ray Man. I totally forgot about how great that game looks!

I don't remember any part of it actually being stunning though. Maybe some example screens would help?

Not that you'd want to (maybe you would!) watch all 17 hours of this playlist, but it should provide a good sampling for you (and a darn good review of the game, for that matter. I thought I'd be bored out of my mind watching a replay of a game that long but the guy really does a bang up job):

Let's Play Valkyrie Profile *COMPLETE*

-ud

[CMoon]

I think Valkyrie Profile doesn't get more love is because nobody has a copy. If there was an affordable copy, I'd pick it up.

[sven666]

played about 3hours into it, way too slow paced for my liking, is it worth sticking with it?

[BulletMagnet]

I think Valkyrie Profile doesn't get more love is because nobody has a copy. If there was an affordable copy, I'd pick it up.

Well, there's the PSP port, if that counts.

[CMoon]

Is that the SAME game, or a remake? Eh, sort of defeats the point of wanting to see beautiful 2D graphics on a big screen.

[Ganelon]

The PSP version is still just $30 new. I have both versions myself; still think the anime looks far better than the CG but other than that, it's the same. Slow-paced? Well, the whole game consists of character stories and dungeon crawling. A lot of maintenance is necessary to get the A ending; pretty annoying hassle really. Again, I know there are some detailed backgrounds but I just don't recall any stunning graphics from the game.

[undamned]

played about 3hours into it, way too slow paced for my liking, is it worth sticking with it?

It just depends on your attention span. If you want something that constantly throws you into the action, you will probably be bored by all the story and stat maintenence, as mentioned by Ganelon. I'm not a huge RPG fan (I think the only non-action RPG I've ever made it through was Luner:SS) but the interesting characters/story and cool platform style dungeons have kept me going.

And as far as the stat maintenance, it's in lieu of requirements set forth by the gods, so you are basically character farming and then sending them off to Valhalla to fight (at which point you can no longer use them for dungeon levels). If the maintenance were merely for keeping your party from dying constantly, I'm pretty sure the annoyance would outweigh the enjoyment (which thankfully is not the case).

Is that the SAME game, or a remake? Eh, sort of defeats the point of wanting to see beautiful 2D graphics on a big screen.

According to this guy, the English PSP ver. is based on the JP PS1 ver., which lacks some of the glitch fixes and functionality improvements which were put into the English PS1 release.

Again, I know there are some detailed backgrounds but I just don't recall any stunning graphics from the game.

Maybe you missed this the first time, but here's some good reminding material:

Let's Play Valkyrie Profile *COMPLETE*

-ud

[KindGrind]

VP for the PS1 is a time-consuming game for sure, with lenghty dialogs and backstory. Yet it's very, very beautiful to look at and quite moving throughout. The dungeon crawling is more of an acquired taste, but maybe that's just me.

[gundamalpha]

I haven't got the time to play this game on PS1 yet.. the free roaming part puts me off as I prefer linearity in my JRPGs other than a few optional bosses.

[Koa Zo]

played about 3hours into it, way too slow paced for my liking

same here.

I also felt the platform jumping controled very poorly.

[Cthulhu]

I enjoyed the game but I didn't go ga-ga over it. The art sure was pretty though. I've kind of put it in the same category as Odin Sphere - amazingly great 2D artwork with gameplay that works well enough to make the game fun to play but isn't quite great.

[Matsunaga]

I got the PSP version, I don't find the game to be all that good. I put a lot of time into it, and beat it, but the whole time I was pretty bored.. I kept waiting for it to get good, because I had heard such great things. Unfortunately, it didn't live up to the hype, for me.

[Elixir]

I know that the game introduced a few key elements into the RPG world such as simultaneous combos, the open ended story and so on, but I never ended up beating it. Thing is, you pretty much have to follow a guide and choose specific items to keep if you want the most out of the game.

[Ganelon]

I know that the game introduced a few key elements into the RPG world such as simultaneous combos, the open ended story and so on, but I never ended up beating it.

I'm glad to say it introduced neither of those. Tales of Phantasia already had simultaneous combos with your teammates and Ultima IV was already well known for its freeform story (or even Legend of Mana right before VP was released), etc.

[professor ganson]

The thing that turned me off to the game (PSP version) is just how much of the time I was NOT playing, just watching various cutscenes or whatever. I haven't given up on it entirely, but I'm definitely going to play the DS's VP first.