It's been six years since Enix's original Valkyrie Profile hit the US and introduced players to its rich world based on Norse mythology. You played as Lenneth, a valkyrie (who were handmaidens to Norse god Odin and conducted the souls of the dead to Valhalla) tasked with helping defend the home of the gods in a time of unrest by raising an army of souls to fight the forces of evil. The gameplay featured a mix of the expected role-playing game elements--2D graphics, real-time action, turn-based combat, and platforming--but wound up offering a unique experience that stood out from its contemporaries at the time. The polished title found a loyal audience in the States, but due to a modest production run, didn't sell through the roof and joined the ranks of PlayStation titles such as SquareSoft's Final Fantasy Tactics as being almost impossible to get hold of. Fast forward to today and Square Enix's upcoming Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth, a PlayStation Portable conversion of an old-school gem that promises to give players a second chance to experience the rich adventure. While we already checked out the import that hit Japan earlier this year, we've since been able to land a preview of the US version of the game.
Before we delve into the various aspects of the game, we'll cut to the chase and break down what new content those who are familiar with the original game can expect. Square Enix has tapped original developer Tri-Ace to handle the conversion, which stays faithful to the original PlayStation game, for better or worse. The core game remains exactly the same, but it's been enhanced with a 16x9 widescreen presentation; new CG movies; and, according to Squre Enix, some localization cleanup. While this isn't much in the way of new content, the fact remains that VP is arguably one of the best games Tri-Ace has made to date, and it holds up after all this time.
The game features the same assortment of modes found in the import version of the game, which includes an assortment of options such as access to a movie gallery and a sound-test mode. The movie gallery collects the new cinematics that have been added to beef up key moments in the story, and they look great on the PSP's screen. The meat of the experience is in the single-player game, which will offer easy, normal, and hard difficulty settings. Though the different difficulty settings are a smart touch, they also come at a price for completionists. Each setting will have its own unique settings for experience earned; frequency of items dropped; dungeons visited; characters to manage; character starting level; and, most significantly, which of the three possible endings you can get. Easy will only let you get two of the game's three endings, while normal and hard offer access to all three. In addition, the hard setting will let you access a bonus dungeon that contains unique treasures and hidden characters that you'll only find there. Of course, the joint is not for the faint of heart, as the foes there are merciless, so tread with caution.
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