Don't be dissuaded by the dated graphics. This game is a lot of fun, and has one of the most unique stories of any RPG.
In this era of texture-based graphics and full orchestral soundtracks, Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth definitely looks and sounds dated. The music is decent adventure-style fare, and there’s a little bit of spoken dialogue which is handled adequately. Apart from the CG animations added in for the re-release, the whole game is a sprite-based 2D affair. Put bluntly, it's a PS1 game, and it looks like one. That's not to imply that the game is ugly. Characters and monsters are convincing although they do have very limited animations. The environments are elegantly detailed, and convey plenty of atmosphere. However if you aren't ready for a more old-school look, you may be turned off. It's a very good case for the strength of the plot development then, that this game is so gripping.
As is already apparent from the title, the game revolves around the pantheon of ancient Scandanavian gods and goddesses. Don't worry if you're not up on your Norse mythology though, as it's not necessary to follow the plot. Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth tells the story of the titular battle maiden as she searches through Midgard (land of the living) for Einherjar (heroes) to recruit for the impending battle of Ragnarok (end of the world) in Asgard (land of the gods). It seems that Odin, king of the gods, has forseen the coming of Ragnarok, and needs brave warriors to win the final battle. Lenneth's job is to scour the land for mortals near death to send off to help Odin and his Aesir army.
This plot/game mechanic is one of the novel points about VP:L. Since your goal is to provide able warriors for the battle in Asgard, you need to ship off your party members at regular intervals. So although you’re going to want to send the most powerful heroes off to aid the gods, you need to also make sure that your active party is strong enough to survive the dungeons on Midgard. Moreover, unlike almost every other RPG to date, the tales behind your characters are universally grim. Since the valkyrie comes only to take mortals into the afterlife, you'll get a brief look at the final moments of each character's life. All of them are bittersweet at best, downright miserable at worst. After you dispatch your soldiers to Asgard, you have the option to check up on their progress in between chapters. Although there’s no interaction to be had, it’s fun to see how your choices have affected their performance in the war. These little interludes also provide more insight into your heroes’ personalities.
Lenneth's personal story is mostly a mystery, and another unique aspect of the game. There is a prologue that you can view before the game that alludes to Lenneth's origins, and visiting certain optional locations throughout the game reveals a little more. To get the entire story, those choices need to be made under very certain circumstances and only at the right time. Doing so properly makes the difference between seeing the standard ending and the complete "good" ending. Getting to that good ending is a difficult task, but one worth taking for most gamers.
All this training and plot revelation is broken down into eight chapters. From the world map, Lenneth can perform spiritual concentration, which reveals both worthy souls near death and dungeons where the restless undead roam. Each chapter contains 24 periods, and concentrating, recruiting new members, and visiting dungeons all consume periods. Although it may seem restrictive, in practice you probably won’t ever find yourself short of time. In fact, even on the hard difficulty level (which features more dungeons) you’re going to find you have plenty of spare time to kill running through dungeons for experience. This ends up being the greatest weakness of the game. Of course there’s only going to be one dungeon in each chapter that provides the kind of experience you need to develop your heroes, so in all likelihood you’ll be racking up a lot of mileage on the same turf. By extension, this also relieves any pressure in deciding to keep or transfer troops to Asgard; there’s more than enough time to train any of the heroes you gain. The dungeons tend to be on the large side as well, making roughly 35-40% of your time in each chapter spent in the same place. Most RPGs have some measure of repetition involved, especially when looking for secrets, but VP:L may test even the most tolerant gamer’s patience.
The semi-real-time combat engine alleviates some of the tedium of going through these places over and over. Each of your four active party members is mapped to one of the four face buttons, and pressing a button causes that character to immediately launch their attack. If enough attacks connect and the combo dial fills up, you’ll be able to launch super-powerful finishing strikes. These finishing strikes can also be chained to unleash tremendous amounts of damage on foes. By timing your strikes to juggle opponents in the air, you can cause the enemy to drop crystals which boost experience gains. Smashing an opponent who is on the ground will cause them to drop orbs that reduce the wait time necessary to use finishing strikes. Altogether, there are many tactical considerations to combat, and boss battles require you to make efficient use of every character to win.
As characters gain levels, they receive capacity points which are used to develop their skills as well as temper their personalities. You see, only the boldest heroes are fit to serve in Asgard, and Freya (Odin’s consort and your liaison in Asgard) has certain demands of the Einherjar who are sent. By spending capacity points to mitigate their faults and enhance their strengths, your heroes will become more valuable to the Aesir. The extensive list of skills that can be purchased with capacity points makes building your party quite compelling as well. Dump a hundred or so points into certain skills, and the difference in combat becomes quite apparent. Taking a newly-found hero and training him or her into an unstoppable fighting machine is a real joy.
The bottom line is that Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth is a departure from what you’d expect out of a turn-based RPG, let alone one by Square-Enix. Yes, it’s rather old, and yes, it can be monotonous. However if you can see past the flaws, you’ll find the good outweighs the bad by quite a margin. Between the gratifying character building and the mysterious storyline, this game is sure to appeal to any RPG fan.