Stalagbites are when the cave is actually a giant sand worm and you're about to be chewed up and digested. But for some reason BIG SPELUNKING doesn't want to talk about how 84% of all "cave" related deaths aren't cave related at all.
Whenever you make Lenneth get all artifacts but manage to keep your evaluation high i just imagine Freya nagging Odin to punish you and he just:Honey, let the girl be, what if she nab some artifacts, her einherijar are superb, let her be, when i was her age i also nabbed everything not nailed to the ground. By the way, send her these artifacts,she earned them.
One thing I found curious is that on the way to ending A, you can satisfy all of the requirements but there is one late game event and dungeon that you CAN NOT SEE, that adds a lot to the overall plot but locks you into ending B. I remember getting screwed that way on my first attempt XD Edit: I'm miss remembering this for the second time lol. You can not FINISH the Palace of the Dragon or you get locked out of ending A.
@@camendiv i mean, that was late 90s, where you could buy 1 game every few months so you would milk whatever you could of what you got, so its a fair assumption that one would play VP multiple times.
@@retroshark8 It's the former Kingdom of Dipan. As a bonus, the sequel is based around those events where you play as Princess Alicia, the human incarnation of Silmeria. As for why I call it a "sequel" and not a "prequel", I'll let you figure it out.
@@camendiv I know of this dungeon, but it doesn't lock you in an ending B(I know since I completed it and still got ending A, actually I entered it more than once.)
It’s amazing that MGS1 had shockingly decent acting for the time, and that came out in ‘98. And two years before that in ‘96 was the original Resident Evil with its legendarily bad VA. And even before that, back on the SNES in ‘94, Super Metroid of all things had one single line of voices curtesy of Dan Owsen. “The last Metroid is in captivity. The galaxy is at peace.” It’s really wild when you think about how many console games had voice acting back in ye olden tymes.
I will be buried with this game. I played it at release, on a whim, a 13-14 year old who saw it behind the glass at a Walmart or wherever, and somewhere along the way, lost it. Traded it in. Something reprehensible. But as a 36 year old, did my best to redeem myself: paid about $400 on eBay for an incomplete, manual-less copy to grace my shelves again. This game means so much to me and I can’t explain why without citing every aspect of it: the music is peerless; the battle system is streamlined but there is so much depth “under the hood,” as you say, that you can get lost in the euphoria of improving these literal lost souls; the story of the world is shown to you, but there is also so much more implied, like Brahm’s Castle or Dipan. I was disappointed you didn’t approach Seraphic Gate, a challenge you *CANNOT* best without finishing the game on the hardest difficulty, nor the audio library, which is completely open and 100% unlocked from the jump, as if Tri-Ace knew, You’re gonna want to listen to this music while you sleep, bitch. I didn’t imagine you’d ever cover VP and I’m glad you did. You’re a fun watch and you did the game justice.
Damn,I tried vp2 but the progression got really awkward and feels like everything is too powerful after the lava golem. I should grind a little, but im not much into it. Vp 1 got harder in lezards tower but it was because i was not using offensive comsumables
VP2 is just as awesome imo. Convenant tho is impossible. You need overkill to keep going, but you can't at early game because you're still weak, so a sacrifice is required, means now you're even weaker because you lost a party member, meaning less overkill, meaning more sacrifices, and when you notice you're stuck and can't progress because you're outnumbered, out leveled and can't do shit anymore. Still love the game.
@@VixYW It's the basic idea tho. You're forced to sacrifice many of your party members, get the bad ending, then play the new game+ to at least fare better since you get to keep the abilities you obtained from sacrificing your friends, and this time you won't have to sacrifice them since you already have their ability. Thankfully it does have a somewhat branching story paths, so subsequent play isn't as much of a chore to read through. Tower of Lezard Valeth is optional, so I kinda get why it's harder than the rest up to that point. Not to mention that you may need to finish it on your first try if you want to get the good ending. Damn those dragon bone soldiers that can possess other enemy when they die... But there's no way of knowing that and make preparation in advance without reading a guide somewhere, or if it's already your subsequent playthrough. Without guide, I don't think I would ever know that there's an item there that could make Lezard's boss battle very easy, as well as trivializing up to 3/4 of the fights in the entire story mode...
This was one of the first games that actively taught me Empathy the more i think back on this game. Because Lenneth's character is trying to understand people in their darkest and final moments it really makes you think about people in your own life. This game will always be a gem in the PS1 library and i can't wait to replay it on PS4 and try the new Valkyrie Elysium.
@@cookieinhaler Not exactly a reboot since the storyline is way before the time of Hrist, Lenneth, and Silmeria. Plus, Odin is still the ruler of Asgard and he was defeated in Valkyrie Profile 2 Silmeria
I love the whole Seal Value thing. Nobody knows what the heck it means but when you do it is so dang cool. It's basically the strength of the mental block Odin has put on Lenneth's memories so she can't remember her past. You can eventually break free from it if you follow a VERY specific path & will start to remember bits & pieces of your past, & that's how you eventually get the best ending.
most people lost the point of hidden mechanics like Seal Value because games in the 90's were made to be played repeteadly, and the easter eggs or secret endings were there to reward those who paid attention and wanted to experiment. nowadays games are mostly one and done, also newer games, or older games are easier to adquire, so the dedication a player can have to a single game is significantly lower, and mechanics like seal level wouldn't fly, secret endings were very common when VP was released.
I remember Valkyrie Profile. I played the psp port of the original game and Covenant of the Plume for the ds. Honestly Valkyrie Profile is probably one of the darkest games I’ve played.
I always loved Valkyrie Profile, for me this is my perfect game of all time. The customization is deep, long stories with complication and meaning that my young high school mind can't comprehend much and my very first cosplay is Rezard Valeth back in 2001! To my side my noble Einherjar!
@@mauricesteel4995 Honestly, that is my headcannon as well. I have always felt that whenever i played the game and seeing how Valkyrie works hard to recruit and make them stronger.
That's right, I thought of something similar. Tharja is a great amazing candidate , although, i remembered there are a pretty great list of JRPG/RPG Female magicians/Sorceresses with great Dumpies.
This is the problem with modern RPG's, they're too simplified. The way Tri-Ace developed over the years is clear by their game development. For example, Valkyrie Profile 1 and Star Ocean 1+2 had just an absolute ton of customization, along with fights that actually required skill, not to mention optional characters that you could permanently miss, allowing you to customize a unique final team... Then Star Ocean 3 rolled around, and it was a fantastic game, but the previous skill system of their last games which had like 50 skills and complex equipment was thrown out the window. There are FOUR skills in Star Ocean 4, and literally 2 of them basically do nothing, because the ATK and DEF skills only affect the intelligence of your AI party members (I'm not joking). Valkyrie Profile 2 rolled around, and had an interesting skill system centered around tile placement, but from what I remember it was very shallow and story gated. Now, they were great games, just lacking that traditional Tri-Ace oomph I grew up with. Sadly, I never got around to Star Ocean 4 (I own it XBOX 360, but the director's cut was on PS3, so as a true fan I just don't have the heart to play it). Star Ocean 5? should be hitting sometime this year, and Valkyrie Profile 4 was just announced, but I just don't have faith in either series anymore. I'll probably end up buying them anyway though. I should really go back and play SO4, even if I have to emulate the Director's Cut.
@@Augoeides32 Honnestly.... I disagree on Valkyrie Profile 1 being a complex and hard game truly, I will admit it look intimidating at first but once you get the basics it's really one of the easiest Tri-Ace game combat wise, and don't get me wrong I absolutly love Valkyrie Profile but there is some balancing issue that get in the way : -One of my first issue is the earlier characters (outside of Mages which is an entirely different case and the Seraphic Gate exclusive one) are the best in the game, like seriously Belenus, Lawfer and Arngrim are just beast and they are in the very first character you get, and I felt very few character if any during the main game could compete with them (maybe Lucian due to his amazing Shining Bolt skill, but Lucian is a bad choice for story reason), sure you can play any character and found success heck one time I played Grey just for the LOLs and while he is definitly a Low tier character he can still work, but really the first one you get outshine the others. -Mages feels all the same, since you can fully customize their spell list the only difference are the base Magic Stat and are extremely OP in this game, also there is a balance issue again Celestial Star is BY FAR the most OP great magic in the game and hence there's really no reason to run any other main offensive spell than Mystic Cross. -Seraphic Gate while I love it as an optionnal dungeon one issue I have is the difference between Final Weapons power, like you can go Bows or Swords with Lenneth and while her moveset is better as Archer, between the Final Bow and the Final Swords there is like a whooping 4000 Attack Power difference which clearly favorise Sword, in fact Spear, Katana and Archer final weapons felt very weak compare to Sword, Greatsword and Wand final weapon which is a shame. -While I personnaly ban these skills cause I wanted at least some challenge, Guts and Auto-Item are 2 OP skills that completly trivialize this game, like it's so bad that there is people that actually think this skill are require to finish the game cause they simply dunno how to play the game without them. And in the fact these skills are so OP that you can just ignore almost all other mechanics, be severely underlevel and still beat the game and even the Iseria Queen just with them, and when 2 skills can carry you through the entire game and post-game that's a balancing issue in my book.
@@nesoukkefka1741 I never said it was hard, I said skill. As in, you can't just mash buttons and hope for the best, you have to actually chain attacks together at an appropriate time, rather just select an attack on your turn like other JRPG's. They mages being overpowered is fine. In the Star Ocean series, magic is basically worthless and just a few hours into any of those games are outshined by Attack Skill spam. From what I remember the mages in VP1, they were squishy anyway, so their power is balanced just fine. Not every game has to be Dark Souls, my dude.
@@Augoeides32 Thing it's not most of the time you could mash your attack however you wanted and still get enough chain for the ultilmate which is where your biggest damage came from. Mages in VP1 really aren't that squishy and place on the back row they aren't gonna get targeted by most attacks anyway, there is really nothing that counter balance how OP they are. Also I don't play Dark Souls so I don't what Dark Souls has to do with this conversation at all.
Here's hoping we'll be seeing some Covenant of the Plume, it's honestly my favourite, despite the edge and depression. Wylfred could honestly be a sass basket every now and then. Also, RIP to ever seeing Valkyrie Anatomia, since that game went up in flames ages ago.
I shudder to think about how Squeenix will mess up Valkyrie Elysium now that tri-Ace is no longer at the helm and even then most of the key staff responsible for the greatest tri-Ace games have already left the company.
Masterpiece. My all time favorite game for many, many years now. I got it on release day for PS1 and it's strategy guide. I was barely 12 years old when it came out in August 2000 in North America. It took me a long time to really figure out the games' mechanics. Its got a steep learning curve, but so worth the time and effort. It really is the perfect game. Long live Masaki Norimoto and tri-Ace!
Im crying seeing this. Me and my late brother played this alot before just to figure out how to get the true ending. We experiment alot with this game and never got bored with it. Its really one of our favorite games, we even memorize lines from greater magic.
This game gave me so many mixed feelings, but ultimately more good than bad in retrospect. While I felt unlocking the best ending and the combat system were kind of shaky foundations, I absolutely ADORE the little vignettes with character recruitments and feeling out the world through the deaths of the characters. Still one of my favorite soundtracks. Curious to see how the next Valkyrie game will go now that it's swinging into a much different genre.
I'm actually glad you didn't mention Indivisible and how they 'attempted to do a spirital successor of Valkyrie Profile"' without actually being faithful to what made Valkyrie Profile good.
I highly recommend play this on hard mode, the only downside is "less exp points" but weapons and artifacts are so broken (specially specters) that you don't need to grind that much.
I loved this game so much has a child!, i only got the A ending after years, when online guides where there, but even so, is still one of my favorite games of all time The music, the characters, freya wipping my ass for being greedy, just perfect Plus seraphic gate was awesome
10:19 Dude, I _loved_ the green knight's combo and hitboxes. Ticked me off at first, but then I realized how much fun the challenge was. Homegirl stayed in my party all day e'ryday.
I have always loved great Pixel art story telling games with great themes. I highly recommend this game then, it will be very worth it. The characters, story, the artstyle, great music mixed with themes are very worth it in my opinion.
Earthbound is nothing, 1 and 3 are some of the best games of all time, but playing 2 makes me feel hollow as I can't care about anything what's going on.
still my favorite game of all time, Some of the abilities only availlable in hard mode totally changes how you approach combat. Stuff like side-switching to dodge ennemies that counter and rock throw to force a guard crush. Its shared DNAs with Fighting Games is just a no brainer for excellence.
Nice vid, there's something about old games that give them a different vibe comparing to modern titles, and I'm not just talking about AAA but the indie scene as well. Indie titles and AAAs aggressively feed of each others trends until someone comes up with something unique and the cycle repeats. With the Oldie it's similar but they try to lean hard into what little makes them unique.
Oldie games had the luxuries of handing a competent story teller a game with a moderate enough budget it just had to sell, not sell millions, so they got left alone enough to make unique ideas with good art. Indie games now have that but microbudgets mean you can't have something like 10 seconds of sakuga animation to illustrate a point, so they feel different (although the sheer volume of indie games makes them insanely creative). AAA... hahahahahahaha. I think mid budget games are making a come back though. THQ seems to be dipping into that space with stuff like Biomutant and the Alone in the Dark remake.
@Sleepy Shut-In I think good AAA games with a point still come out, like God of War Norse and Nintendo games, but stuff that can be more like anime where it has an adequate budget for a hyper specific vision and not too many restrictions is pretty rare.
Oddly enough, this was suggested to me right after I was searching for the game Dark Rose Valkyrie to tell my friend hotcyder to not confuse it from Valkyria Chronicles. Glad to know that there are WAY more rpgs with the word valkyrie to make everything confusing
This was a phenomenal game. Ah you made me go down memory lane. :) I still recall the time I went off track of getting the best ending. It pissed me off so much. Since I was like, "This feels wrong, did I go the wrong direction?" Found out later that I did and had to start the whole game over. I only had a single save slot on my memory card at the time. :( I was playing azure dreams, vandal hearts and thousand arms at the time :)
Jeremy Blaustein translated the game from Japanese to English. He also directed the voice actors. If you don't know, he also translated Metal Gear Solid, Symphony of the Night, Dragon Warrior 7, Snatcher, and dozens more. He's the best in the biz.
Now I remember why I didn't finish the game on PSP. I should give it another try. Also I usually skip reading the names of top patrons but I can never skip "simp GOD" it cracks me up every time.
19:40 The answer to this question is only hinted in-game, but actually explained in a manga outright! Lezard is the Alchemist who set up the Ghoul Powder shipment incident at the very beginning of the game, Lombart was his hireling. When Lenneth sensed the transformation in a Demonic beast and came to Midgard to kill it (And later recruit Arngrim), Lezard watched her fight via a magical artifact and though his plan was foiled, he became smitten with Lenneth.
I've been interested in this game for ages, it's great to see such a fun and in depth look into it. Please review the sequel? And maybe Indivisible too
i was surprised actually, i had been playing this game while discovering old school jpgps then stumbled upon this review by KBASH , all of a sudden. This was a great surprise and a very welcome one. Thankfully he made it.
Stalagmites come from the ground, stalactites hang from the ceilings remembered as it takes might to stand tall and hold on tight to the ceiling, no I don't know why I learned this as a kid but it was the same time Learned how to remember the difference in spelling desert and dessert
Great video you did one of my favorite games justice, I would suggest that people play on hard mode even if it is your first time as you get more characters and dungeons then on normal and the exp orb pays out more letting you level up new characters instantly
The saddest thing about Valkyrie Profile, it never had a true sequel to the first game. It is filled with prequels and spin-offs that nobody asked for.
A childhood friend of mine and I used to play Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria all the time back in the day. Never actually got around to playing the first game though, probably should.
I was told, "Stalactite, hold on TIGHT" to signify they form from the ceiling down when I was in like 2nd grade & have never forgot it. Also remember lads, when stalactites and stalagmites finally meet they're called a column. Also real good review of VP. Found it way back in elementary school on ps1 & has been a favorite ever since. 2 wasn't as fun but still worth playing.
The key differences between modes is the areas you access and the starting level of characters, but virtually does not change the enemies one bit (The final bosses and dungeons are absolutely the same). In hard mode you get access to exclusive areas not accessible in easy or normal mode, that contain much powerful equipment non existent in easy or normal mode. Secondly, if you get access to new character in level 1, you can use certain equipment that gives extra HP and ability points on level up, which means, in hard mode they'll be much more durable and stronger much earlier than in other modes, where they may come at level 30 but with deficits in attributes compared to hard mode. So, as the game progresses, the characters will grow stronger and stronger with better and better equipment. By the end of the game, the gaming experience will be much easier on hard mode. Compared to hard, playing in normal mode with weaker characters and weaker equipment would be essentially shooting yourself in the foot! Normal is actually harder to play! I recommend playing on hard difficulty. Also it has an extra dungeon after the end of the game with more powerful enemies, and you also have access to all characters you have sent plus a few bosses you fought against also as playable characters! This extra dungeon is not accessible in easy or normal.
Before I ever reached the halfway mark, you had me wishing this was on newer systems. Namely the Switch. This has got to be one of the weirdest RPGs I’ve ever seen and it’s pretty much entirely in a good way. Thanks for the spoiler warning, by the way. If there’s any possibility of this coming to Switch (given that there’s a new game incoming, which might re-ignite interest in the series, it just MIGHT), I wanna go in unspoiled
And thankfully, with Valkyrie Elysium the game is going to be re-released alongside it on PS4 and PS4 (Dunno about other consoles.). We need these games to sell well to get more like this game. Same with Star Ocean 6 (Granted I actually have somewhat high hopes that game will be good.). We need a new Golden Era for Tri-Ace. ........... Also Lezard is voiced by Meowth from the Pokemon Anime.
Oh wow this gem made my High School years on PSP. I was on this all the time. I don't remember the good ending being that crazy to get, it's not like Knights in the Nightmare or anything. I feel it was something like, give all the proper Einherjar they need to keep them smiting your ass into game over but be defiant by keeping all the artifact. Or something? Anyways, I thank you for even uploading, such an important part of my babby days deserves a replayyyyyyyyyyyyy!
One of the best GAMES I have ever played. One of my all time favorites, and the 2nd was just as good. TWO solid gems. I hope the new one coming revives this beauty so we can FINALLY get VP3: Hrist! PS - are you gonna do VP2 and VP CoP?
Thank you so much for this video! I really wanted to play this game, but wasn't able to. My brother got a used copy for the psp from his friend, little did we know that the UMD was damaged, so the game would always die after the first cut scene. The game was pretty old by the time we got it, so we kinda just forgot to get another copy. Really interesting to see what we were missing all this time.
This game and Mother 3 are the only games that made me sob like a little baby and I can't exactly explain why for Valkyrie Profile. Mother 3 is pretty obvious if you've played that game and have like... any kind of relationship with your parents at all good or bad. Valkyrie Profile I played as a teenager on the PSP when i was a teenager and kinda realized how truly powerless I was and was really depressed about it. This game just reinforces the powerlessness of being part of an impossibly large cruel system you can properly comprehend as well as Kafka and does it really viscerally. For all that power, getting the nomal ending was just such a kick in the emotinal kidneys as you aren't given vindication or satisfaction about basically anything and are used and functionally put to sleep and god it just hit me so hard. What a game.
You're not going to mention the Seraphic Gate? It's a potentially very long post game dungeon where you can recruit the 3 best characters in the game. It consists of 4 large maps with the toughest enemies and bosses in the game where you can go to max out your levels and find the best equipment and items the game has to offer.
Played the PSP release when I was a kid and was so confused by the INSANE difficulty, especially as one of my first JRPGs. I think I may have played this before I actually knew how to read English fluently, so I can only imagine how much fun I could pull out of the game when it is practically incomprehensible. I couldn't remember the name of this game for years but seeing the font of the title made me jump as it made all of my memories line up.
My ex got this game on mobile (it was the exact same as the original) and I spent HOURS hunched uncomfortably over his shoulder, watching him play. If that's not a testament to this game's quality, idk what is lol Really glad you covered this one! It's so unique and heartfelt yet I never see it talked about.
Seeing that scene where the lover of the mermaid wish for her to be with her parents, in other words wishing for her to drown and die, is such a slap in the face when your as young as the last movie you have watch was the little mermaid.
Stalagmites grow from the ground, stalactites grow from the ceiling.
This has been fun facts prompted by KBash.
easy to remember: the tites are always hanging
Stalagmites “MIGHT” touch the ceiling someday, while Stalactites hold “TIGHT” to the ceiling!
Stalagbites are when the cave is actually a giant sand worm and you're about to be chewed up and digested. But for some reason BIG SPELUNKING doesn't want to talk about how 84% of all "cave" related deaths aren't cave related at all.
Stalagmountains, mountains go up. Stalactitties, titties hang down.
i just remember stalagmites has M in it and it makes the shape of them coming up from the ground lol MMMMMM
Whenever you make Lenneth get all artifacts but manage to keep your evaluation high i just imagine Freya nagging Odin to punish you and he just:Honey, let the girl be, what if she nab some artifacts, her einherijar are superb, let her be, when i was her age i also nabbed everything not nailed to the ground. By the way, send her these artifacts,she earned them.
One thing I found curious is that on the way to ending A, you can satisfy all of the requirements but there is one late game event and dungeon that you CAN NOT SEE, that adds a lot to the overall plot but locks you into ending B. I remember getting screwed that way on my first attempt XD
Edit: I'm miss remembering this for the second time lol. You can not FINISH the Palace of the Dragon or you get locked out of ending A.
@@camendiv i mean, that was late 90s, where you could buy 1 game every few months so you would milk whatever you could of what you got, so its a fair assumption that one would play VP multiple times.
@@camendiv What is the name of that dungeon?
@@retroshark8 It's the former Kingdom of Dipan.
As a bonus, the sequel is based around those events where you play as Princess Alicia, the human incarnation of Silmeria. As for why I call it a "sequel" and not a "prequel", I'll let you figure it out.
@@camendiv I know of this dungeon, but it doesn't lock you in an ending B(I know since I completed it and still got ending A, actually I entered it more than once.)
I remember playing this as a kid and it blew my tiny brain that there was voice acting. I thought it was the best ever just because of that.
I know huh. Didn't know till a bit later that Sega CD had voices in 1994.
It’s amazing that MGS1 had shockingly decent acting for the time, and that came out in ‘98. And two years before that in ‘96 was the original Resident Evil with its legendarily bad VA. And even before that, back on the SNES in ‘94, Super Metroid of all things had one single line of voices curtesy of Dan Owsen. “The last Metroid is in captivity. The galaxy is at peace.” It’s really wild when you think about how many console games had voice acting back in ye olden tymes.
Breath of Fire and Xenogears too
I will be buried with this game. I played it at release, on a whim, a 13-14 year old who saw it behind the glass at a Walmart or wherever, and somewhere along the way, lost it. Traded it in. Something reprehensible. But as a 36 year old, did my best to redeem myself: paid about $400 on eBay for an incomplete, manual-less copy to grace my shelves again. This game means so much to me and I can’t explain why without citing every aspect of it: the music is peerless; the battle system is streamlined but there is so much depth “under the hood,” as you say, that you can get lost in the euphoria of improving these literal lost souls; the story of the world is shown to you, but there is also so much more implied, like Brahm’s Castle or Dipan. I was disappointed you didn’t approach Seraphic Gate, a challenge you *CANNOT* best without finishing the game on the hardest difficulty, nor the audio library, which is completely open and 100% unlocked from the jump, as if Tri-Ace knew, You’re gonna want to listen to this music while you sleep, bitch. I didn’t imagine you’d ever cover VP and I’m glad you did. You’re a fun watch and you did the game justice.
calm down nerd, not every video essay has to be perfect
@@Re_V Sorry, Dad.
@@Re_V ratio
@@Re_V 🤡
@@dumamihd oh no! Some manchild on the internet has more likes than me, how will I be able to recover?
Fucking love this game, man.
Kinda hope to see you cover VP2 and Covenant, they're both also interesting clusterfucks but in different ways.
Damn,I tried vp2 but the progression got really awkward and feels like everything is too powerful after the lava golem.
I should grind a little, but im not much into it.
Vp 1 got harder in lezards tower but it was because i was not using offensive comsumables
VP2 is just as awesome imo. Convenant tho is impossible. You need overkill to keep going, but you can't at early game because you're still weak, so a sacrifice is required, means now you're even weaker because you lost a party member, meaning less overkill, meaning more sacrifices, and when you notice you're stuck and can't progress because you're outnumbered, out leveled and can't do shit anymore. Still love the game.
Covenant is the most evil JRPG I've ever played. You are forced to kill your party off to win a impossible fight. damn
@@VixYW It's the basic idea tho. You're forced to sacrifice many of your party members, get the bad ending, then play the new game+ to at least fare better since you get to keep the abilities you obtained from sacrificing your friends, and this time you won't have to sacrifice them since you already have their ability. Thankfully it does have a somewhat branching story paths, so subsequent play isn't as much of a chore to read through.
Tower of Lezard Valeth is optional, so I kinda get why it's harder than the rest up to that point. Not to mention that you may need to finish it on your first try if you want to get the good ending. Damn those dragon bone soldiers that can possess other enemy when they die...
But there's no way of knowing that and make preparation in advance without reading a guide somewhere, or if it's already your subsequent playthrough. Without guide, I don't think I would ever know that there's an item there that could make Lezard's boss battle very easy, as well as trivializing up to 3/4 of the fights in the entire story mode...
@@spearsage I got frustrated and dropped the game. Never even noticed there was a NG+.
"No mercy for the damned! Thus thou hast no escape from the grasp of catastrophe! Meteor Swarm!"
This was one of the first games that actively taught me Empathy the more i think back on this game. Because Lenneth's character is trying to understand people in their darkest and final moments it really makes you think about people in your own life. This game will always be a gem in the PS1 library and i can't wait to replay it on PS4 and try the new Valkyrie Elysium.
Os Elysium a reboot? 🤔
@@cookieinhaler Sorta
@@cookieinhaler We're not quite sure yet if it's in the realm of spiritual sequel or reboot, i think thats part of the mystery and story.
@@cookieinhaler Not exactly a reboot since the storyline is way before the time of Hrist, Lenneth, and Silmeria. Plus, Odin is still the ruler of Asgard and he was defeated in Valkyrie Profile 2 Silmeria
I love the whole Seal Value thing. Nobody knows what the heck it means but when you do it is so dang cool. It's basically the strength of the mental block Odin has put on Lenneth's memories so she can't remember her past.
You can eventually break free from it if you follow a VERY specific path & will start to remember bits & pieces of your past, & that's how you eventually get the best ending.
most people lost the point of hidden mechanics like Seal Value because games in the 90's were made to be played repeteadly, and the easter eggs or secret endings were there to reward those who paid attention and wanted to experiment. nowadays games are mostly one and done, also newer games, or older games are easier to adquire, so the dedication a player can have to a single game is significantly lower, and mechanics like seal level wouldn't fly, secret endings were very common when VP was released.
I remember Valkyrie Profile. I played the psp port of the original game and Covenant of the Plume for the ds. Honestly Valkyrie Profile is probably one of the darkest games I’ve played.
I mean seriously. When was the last time you played an RPG where the only way people can join your party is if they fucking die.
He should do Covenant of the Plume as well
I enjoyed Covenant of the Plume. Very dark game.
It's been super fun to see your channel grow. Absolutely love your style of videos.
Also VP is one of my favorite old school RPGs, hell yeah!
"It's like Fire Emblem permadeath, except you choose the guy who dies and every else is protected"
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Dude hell yeah, it ain't a JRPG if I'm not crying by the end lmao
Your ending thoughts always bring a tear to my eye. You aim for those heart strings
One of my fave series of all time. Thanks for covering it.
I grew up on this game and to this day it's one of my absolute favorite JRPGs. Happy to see one of my fave RUclipsrs covering it
I always loved Valkyrie Profile, for me this is my perfect game of all time. The customization is deep, long stories with complication and meaning that my young high school mind can't comprehend much and my very first cosplay is Rezard Valeth back in 2001!
To my side my noble Einherjar!
Odin: Please Valkyrie, send your greatest female Magician with the greatest dumpy.
*Tharja from Fire Emblem has entered the chat*
My headcanon is that everytime you summon in FEH a very overworked Valkyrie is watching the character you got die.
@@mauricesteel4995 Honestly, that is my headcannon as well. I have always felt that whenever i played the game and seeing how Valkyrie works hard to recruit and make them stronger.
That's right, I thought of something similar. Tharja is a great amazing candidate , although, i remembered there are a pretty great list of JRPG/RPG Female magicians/Sorceresses with great Dumpies.
*Sends Ricken
Freya: Lenneth, about your performance...
Lord Odin's Wrath is a terrible thing to behold.
Freya when Lenneth sends her Goat Freyja:
THIS BEAST IS AN OFFENSE TO ME!!!
I fucking loved this game as a kid but even with the strategy guide, it was too complicated of a jrpg for my kid brain to fully wrap itself around
This is the problem with modern RPG's, they're too simplified. The way Tri-Ace developed over the years is clear by their game development. For example, Valkyrie Profile 1 and Star Ocean 1+2 had just an absolute ton of customization, along with fights that actually required skill, not to mention optional characters that you could permanently miss, allowing you to customize a unique final team...
Then Star Ocean 3 rolled around, and it was a fantastic game, but the previous skill system of their last games which had like 50 skills and complex equipment was thrown out the window. There are FOUR skills in Star Ocean 4, and literally 2 of them basically do nothing, because the ATK and DEF skills only affect the intelligence of your AI party members (I'm not joking). Valkyrie Profile 2 rolled around, and had an interesting skill system centered around tile placement, but from what I remember it was very shallow and story gated. Now, they were great games, just lacking that traditional Tri-Ace oomph I grew up with.
Sadly, I never got around to Star Ocean 4 (I own it XBOX 360, but the director's cut was on PS3, so as a true fan I just don't have the heart to play it). Star Ocean 5? should be hitting sometime this year, and Valkyrie Profile 4 was just announced, but I just don't have faith in either series anymore. I'll probably end up buying them anyway though. I should really go back and play SO4, even if I have to emulate the Director's Cut.
Agreed. Except Star Ocean 3 sucks ass. Cringe fest. SO4 too.
@@Augoeides32 Honnestly.... I disagree on Valkyrie Profile 1 being a complex and hard game truly, I will admit it look intimidating at first but once you get the basics it's really one of the easiest Tri-Ace game combat wise, and don't get me wrong I absolutly love Valkyrie Profile but there is some balancing issue that get in the way :
-One of my first issue is the earlier characters (outside of Mages which is an entirely different case and the Seraphic Gate exclusive one) are the best in the game, like seriously Belenus, Lawfer and Arngrim are just beast and they are in the very first character you get, and I felt very few character if any during the main game could compete with them (maybe Lucian due to his amazing Shining Bolt skill, but Lucian is a bad choice for story reason), sure you can play any character and found success heck one time I played Grey just for the LOLs and while he is definitly a Low tier character he can still work, but really the first one you get outshine the others.
-Mages feels all the same, since you can fully customize their spell list the only difference are the base Magic Stat and are extremely OP in this game, also there is a balance issue again Celestial Star is BY FAR the most OP great magic in the game and hence there's really no reason to run any other main offensive spell than Mystic Cross.
-Seraphic Gate while I love it as an optionnal dungeon one issue I have is the difference between Final Weapons power, like you can go Bows or Swords with Lenneth and while her moveset is better as Archer, between the Final Bow and the Final Swords there is like a whooping 4000 Attack Power difference which clearly favorise Sword, in fact Spear, Katana and Archer final weapons felt very weak compare to Sword, Greatsword and Wand final weapon which is a shame.
-While I personnaly ban these skills cause I wanted at least some challenge, Guts and Auto-Item are 2 OP skills that completly trivialize this game, like it's so bad that there is people that actually think this skill are require to finish the game cause they simply dunno how to play the game without them. And in the fact these skills are so OP that you can just ignore almost all other mechanics, be severely underlevel and still beat the game and even the Iseria Queen just with them, and when 2 skills can carry you through the entire game and post-game that's a balancing issue in my book.
@@nesoukkefka1741 I never said it was hard, I said skill. As in, you can't just mash buttons and hope for the best, you have to actually chain attacks together at an appropriate time, rather just select an attack on your turn like other JRPG's.
They mages being overpowered is fine. In the Star Ocean series, magic is basically worthless and just a few hours into any of those games are outshined by Attack Skill spam. From what I remember the mages in VP1, they were squishy anyway, so their power is balanced just fine. Not every game has to be Dark Souls, my dude.
@@Augoeides32 Thing it's not most of the time you could mash your attack however you wanted and still get enough chain for the ultilmate which is where your biggest damage came from.
Mages in VP1 really aren't that squishy and place on the back row they aren't gonna get targeted by most attacks anyway, there is really nothing that counter balance how OP they are.
Also I don't play Dark Souls so I don't what Dark Souls has to do with this conversation at all.
Here's hoping we'll be seeing some Covenant of the Plume, it's honestly my favourite, despite the edge and depression. Wylfred could honestly be a sass basket every now and then.
Also, RIP to ever seeing Valkyrie Anatomia, since that game went up in flames ages ago.
I shudder to think about how Squeenix will mess up Valkyrie Elysium now that tri-Ace is no longer at the helm and even then most of the key staff responsible for the greatest tri-Ace games have already left the company.
Just wanna say, late 90s Squaresoft (as Dev and publisher) was a POWER HOUSE of creativity.
True........but this was done under Enix prior to the merger.
Masterpiece. My all time favorite game for many, many years now. I got it on release day for PS1 and it's strategy guide. I was barely 12 years old when it came out in August 2000 in North America. It took me a long time to really figure out the games' mechanics. Its got a steep learning curve, but so worth the time and effort. It really is the perfect game. Long live Masaki Norimoto and tri-Ace!
Im crying seeing this. Me and my late brother played this alot before just to figure out how to get the true ending. We experiment alot with this game and never got bored with it. Its really one of our favorite games, we even memorize lines from greater magic.
This game gave me so many mixed feelings, but ultimately more good than bad in retrospect. While I felt unlocking the best ending and the combat system were kind of shaky foundations, I absolutely ADORE the little vignettes with character recruitments and feeling out the world through the deaths of the characters.
Still one of my favorite soundtracks. Curious to see how the next Valkyrie game will go now that it's swinging into a much different genre.
I fell in love with this game 20 years ago. Glad to see to see it get some love.
I'm actually glad you didn't mention Indivisible and how they 'attempted to do a spirital successor of Valkyrie Profile"' without actually being faithful to what made Valkyrie Profile good.
I highly recommend play this on hard mode, the only downside is "less exp points" but weapons and artifacts are so broken (specially specters) that you don't need to grind that much.
I loved this game so much has a child!, i only got the A ending after years, when online guides where there, but even so, is still one of my favorite games of all time
The music, the characters, freya wipping my ass for being greedy, just perfect
Plus seraphic gate was awesome
10:19 Dude, I _loved_ the green knight's combo and hitboxes. Ticked me off at first, but then I realized how much fun the challenge was. Homegirl stayed in my party all day e'ryday.
God, the pixel art is flippin' gorgeous~ Might give it a shot for that alone.
I have always loved great Pixel art story telling games with great themes. I highly recommend this game then, it will be very worth it. The characters, story, the artstyle, great music mixed with themes are very worth it in my opinion.
Radiant Historia is another great game with some gorgeous spriteworks and animations for the time. Probably the best on the ds too
Wow this game has more going on with it, than almost every game that has came out in the last couple years. That's rad
new KBash vid and on one of my all-time favorite games? What a treat!
Man I can't wait for Valkyrie Profile 2.
1 is much better tbh
@@sharebear421 That's your opinion. And secondly, I never played 1, and grew up with 2, so I'm biased. Let me have this.
@@sixtales7681 haha touché. Have at it! I still like 2 quite a bit
Valkyrie Profile: Hi, we're a depressing RPG
Earthbound: MOTHER 3: Aw, it's adorable ...
Earthbound is nothing, 1 and 3 are some of the best games of all time, but playing 2 makes me feel hollow as I can't care about anything what's going on.
still my favorite game of all time,
Some of the abilities only availlable in hard mode totally changes how you approach combat. Stuff like side-switching to dodge ennemies that counter and rock throw to force a guard crush. Its shared DNAs with Fighting Games is just a no brainer for excellence.
Nice vid, there's something about old games that give them a different vibe comparing to modern titles, and I'm not just talking about AAA but the indie scene as well. Indie titles and AAAs aggressively feed of each others trends until someone comes up with something unique and the cycle repeats. With the Oldie it's similar but they try to lean hard into what little makes them unique.
Oldie games had the luxuries of handing a competent story teller a game with a moderate enough budget it just had to sell, not sell millions, so they got left alone enough to make unique ideas with good art. Indie games now have that but microbudgets mean you can't have something like 10 seconds of sakuga animation to illustrate a point, so they feel different (although the sheer volume of indie games makes them insanely creative). AAA... hahahahahahaha. I think mid budget games are making a come back though. THQ seems to be dipping into that space with stuff like Biomutant and the Alone in the Dark remake.
@Sleepy Shut-In I think good AAA games with a point still come out, like God of War Norse and Nintendo games, but stuff that can be more like anime where it has an adequate budget for a hyper specific vision and not too many restrictions is pretty rare.
Oddly enough, this was suggested to me right after I was searching for the game Dark Rose Valkyrie to tell my friend hotcyder to not confuse it from Valkyria Chronicles. Glad to know that there are WAY more rpgs with the word valkyrie to make everything confusing
This was a phenomenal game. Ah you made me go down memory lane. :) I still recall the time I went off track of getting the best ending. It pissed me off so much. Since I was like, "This feels wrong, did I go the wrong direction?" Found out later that I did and had to start the whole game over. I only had a single save slot on my memory card at the time. :( I was playing azure dreams, vandal hearts and thousand arms at the time :)
Darn, can't believe kbash isn't triplets
I'm excited af for the new one. Thanks for the great retrospective!
Jeremy Blaustein translated the game from Japanese to English. He also directed the voice actors. If you don't know, he also translated Metal Gear Solid, Symphony of the Night, Dragon Warrior 7, Snatcher, and dozens more. He's the best in the biz.
Is he related to the late great Maddie Blaustein, who incidentally did the voices for Janus, Lezard, etc? That would be wild
Lol. He's far from from the best.
Star Ocean 3 actually got me into Valkyrie Profile. IYKYK
"Who are those sassy lost children?"
i always come back to this gamer every few years or so. it deserves to be recognized
Now I remember why I didn't finish the game on PSP. I should give it another try. Also I usually skip reading the names of top patrons but I can never skip "simp GOD" it cracks me up every time.
19:40 The answer to this question is only hinted in-game, but actually explained in a manga outright! Lezard is the Alchemist who set up the Ghoul Powder shipment incident at the very beginning of the game, Lombart was his hireling. When Lenneth sensed the transformation in a Demonic beast and came to Midgard to kill it (And later recruit Arngrim), Lezard watched her fight via a magical artifact and though his plan was foiled, he became smitten with Lenneth.
11:43 actually you can keep every single artifact and still get the A (best) ending.
"Im going to rule reality anyway, might as well claim what is rightfully mine."
I've been interested in this game for ages, it's great to see such a fun and in depth look into it.
Please review the sequel? And maybe Indivisible too
One of my favorite games of all time. I'm glad its getting a remaster/port with the new VP game coming out.
A JRPG where we don't murder god and instead for them? Mindblowing just like this video was
Ah yes, the game when I was younger that rewarded me with all my hard work with complete and utter depression. I love it to this day.
You seem to be having more fun this video, and I'm glad. Thanks for everything.
Everyone should play Valkyrie Profile 2 Just because its such a beautiful PS2 game (and Freya's Papaya legs)
Oh finally, kbash reviews my favorite game! I knew this day would come eventually!
i was surprised actually, i had been playing this game while discovering old school jpgps then stumbled upon this review by KBASH , all of a sudden. This was a great surprise and a very welcome one. Thankfully he made it.
Stalagmites come from the ground, stalactites hang from the ceilings remembered as it takes might to stand tall and hold on tight to the ceiling, no I don't know why I learned this as a kid but it was the same time Learned how to remember the difference in spelling desert and dessert
Great video you did one of my favorite games justice, I would suggest that people play on hard mode even if it is your first time as you get more characters and dungeons then on normal and the exp orb pays out more letting you level up new characters instantly
So excited for this video and for Valkyrie Elysium !!
The saddest thing about Valkyrie Profile, it never had a true sequel to the first game. It is filled with prequels and spin-offs that nobody asked for.
A childhood friend of mine and I used to play Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria all the time back in the day. Never actually got around to playing the first game though, probably should.
Sippy cup? Check
Snacks? Check
Time to settle into the embrace of the void of KBash's mind
So in mythology Loki is less evil and more both the scapegoat and that one friend you call to clean up a mess combine into one
He also can cause that mess from time to time to be fair.
Stalactites hold *tight* to the ceiling. Stalagmites *might* grow up from the floor.
My favourite part of every KBash review is when he says "It's Bashin time"
I remember spending weeks learning almost everthings on this game. Reading walk throughs, spending hours enjoying this game
Man, you make such good videos. Interesting games, super funny, with a clear personal take. Thanks for making these
*Imagine a game where hard mode is easier than Easy mode*
Me: Persona 5 Merciless mode to Actual Hard mode
i was gonna play this after trying out Xenogears!!! thanks for the review 👍🏼
I was told, "Stalactite, hold on TIGHT" to signify they form from the ceiling down when I was in like 2nd grade & have never forgot it. Also remember lads, when stalactites and stalagmites finally meet they're called a column. Also real good review of VP. Found it way back in elementary school on ps1 & has been a favorite ever since. 2 wasn't as fun but still worth playing.
you really encapsulated everything I loved about VP. Great video. Lenneth is one of the best protagonists to ever be written.
another great video. never played it, but im sold.
plus the humor hit better than usual. keep it up Kbash!
The key differences between modes is the areas you access and the starting level of characters, but virtually does not change the enemies one bit (The final bosses and dungeons are absolutely the same).
In hard mode you get access to exclusive areas not accessible in easy or normal mode, that contain much powerful equipment non existent in easy or normal mode.
Secondly, if you get access to new character in level 1, you can use certain equipment that gives extra HP and ability points on level up, which means, in hard mode they'll be much more durable and stronger much earlier than in other modes, where they may come at level 30 but with deficits in attributes compared to hard mode.
So, as the game progresses, the characters will grow stronger and stronger with better and better equipment. By the end of the game, the gaming experience will be much easier on hard mode.
Compared to hard, playing in normal mode with weaker characters and weaker equipment would be essentially shooting yourself in the foot! Normal is actually harder to play!
I recommend playing on hard difficulty. Also it has an extra dungeon after the end of the game with more powerful enemies, and you also have access to all characters you have sent plus a few bosses you fought against also as playable characters! This extra dungeon is not accessible in easy or normal.
Before I ever reached the halfway mark, you had me wishing this was on newer systems. Namely the Switch. This has got to be one of the weirdest RPGs I’ve ever seen and it’s pretty much entirely in a good way.
Thanks for the spoiler warning, by the way. If there’s any possibility of this coming to Switch (given that there’s a new game incoming, which might re-ignite interest in the series, it just MIGHT), I wanna go in unspoiled
Gonna try jumping into this series with Valkyrie Elysium when it comes out later this year. Hope that doesn't end up being a mistake lol
Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth comes with the Digital Deluxe version of Elysium so give it a try, my guy.
@@S4ltyTar0 I'll download the PS1 ISO hahaha. I only go for digital if there's no other option or if it's 75% on sale
@@S4ltyTar0 does that include the steam version
@@S4ltyTar0 it's also free on android phones. Though I'm not sure how good the android version is
@@Revealingstorm. Nah, unfortunately it's a PSP port so PS4 and PS5 exclusive.
"So, even a man who lives in darkness can bloom for a fleeting moment."
And thankfully, with Valkyrie Elysium the game is going to be re-released alongside it on PS4 and PS4 (Dunno about other consoles.).
We need these games to sell well to get more like this game.
Same with Star Ocean 6 (Granted I actually have somewhat high hopes that game will be good.).
We need a new Golden Era for Tri-Ace.
...........
Also Lezard is voiced by Meowth from the Pokemon Anime.
I am so hyped for Valkyrie Elysium. Never been so hyped for a game! I hope you play it too and review it.
Oh wow this gem made my High School years on PSP. I was on this all the time.
I don't remember the good ending being that crazy to get, it's not like Knights in the Nightmare or anything. I feel it was something like, give all the proper Einherjar they need to keep them smiting your ass into game over but be defiant by keeping all the artifact. Or something?
Anyways, I thank you for even uploading, such an important part of my babby days deserves a replayyyyyyyyyyyyy!
One of the best GAMES I have ever played. One of my all time favorites, and the 2nd was just as good. TWO solid gems. I hope the new one coming revives this beauty so we can FINALLY get VP3: Hrist!
PS - are you gonna do VP2 and VP CoP?
i'm hopelessly obsessed with the nier series and this game seems to be quite similar and this video is really convincing me to play it oh god
This is an amazing video! I hope you do Valkyrie Profile 2 some day!
Thank you so much for this video! I really wanted to play this game, but wasn't able to. My brother got a used copy for the psp from his friend, little did we know that the UMD was damaged, so the game would always die after the first cut scene. The game was pretty old by the time we got it, so we kinda just forgot to get another copy. Really interesting to see what we were missing all this time.
theres always emulators ^^
One day we'll have an Arc the Lad video on this site or I'll have to make one myself
This game and Mother 3 are the only games that made me sob like a little baby and I can't exactly explain why for Valkyrie Profile. Mother 3 is pretty obvious if you've played that game and have like... any kind of relationship with your parents at all good or bad. Valkyrie Profile I played as a teenager on the PSP when i was a teenager and kinda realized how truly powerless I was and was really depressed about it. This game just reinforces the powerlessness of being part of an impossibly large cruel system you can properly comprehend as well as Kafka and does it really viscerally. For all that power, getting the nomal ending was just such a kick in the emotinal kidneys as you aren't given vindication or satisfaction about basically anything and are used and functionally put to sleep and god it just hit me so hard. What a game.
Great video!! I've been curious about this game for a while and this is the perfect way to get more info.
Yo quit spying on me bro was just mentioning Valkyrie Profile yesterday, good timing.
I've had this game for so long and I could never finish it. Now I want to again, thanks KBash!
You get a like for the ending section alone. Great vid
Still hoping you'd check out the Ys Series.
Also, loved the video. I love your work and always will.
The most important thing about Mystina is that she's voiced by Jessie from Pokemon. Blew my mind as a kid.
You're not going to mention the Seraphic Gate? It's a potentially very long post game dungeon where you can recruit the 3 best characters in the game. It consists of 4 large maps with the toughest enemies and bosses in the game where you can go to max out your levels and find the best equipment and items the game has to offer.
"Dying a cruel, cruel death can be HIGHLY RADICAL"
Still my favorite RPG. Completely unmatched.
Have you ever played the Suikoden Serie ? Would you ever consider doing a review on those games ?
Courtesy of the 90s "Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego" cartoon, a stalagTITE has to hold on TIGHT because it grows on the ceiling.
Played the PSP release when I was a kid and was so confused by the INSANE difficulty, especially as one of my first JRPGs. I think I may have played this before I actually knew how to read English fluently, so I can only imagine how much fun I could pull out of the game when it is practically incomprehensible. I couldn't remember the name of this game for years but seeing the font of the title made me jump as it made all of my memories line up.
This is possibly my favorite game ever, the party members are almost all so memorable, and the music is beautiful. It's one I recommend 100%
My ex got this game on mobile (it was the exact same as the original) and I spent HOURS hunched uncomfortably over his shoulder, watching him play. If that's not a testament to this game's quality, idk what is lol
Really glad you covered this one! It's so unique and heartfelt yet I never see it talked about.
I love Valkyrie Profile, it's one if my favorites! Good video!
Yep. I played this game like 15 yrs ago. This game really deserves a remake.
And Heist still crying in the corner.
I always remember Stalactites as the ones hanging on TIGHT to the ceiling!
This game is so beautiful. If they ever considered remaking it it definitely deserves the 2d hd octopath traveler look
Seeing that scene where the lover of the mermaid wish for her to be with her parents, in other words wishing for her to drown and die, is such a slap in the face when your as young as the last movie you have watch was the little mermaid.