Valkyrie Profile: Covenant Of The Plume

DS review by Bart Robson, published on Saturday 30th May 2009

Valkyrie Profile is somewhat of an oddity when compared with other RPG series. While most franchises are content with one battle system stretched over many titles with only subtle variations, Valkyrie Profile has so far been released with three very distinct modes of play. The original game was a departure from traditional turn-based battle in the first place; Valkyrie Profile 2 opted for an elaborate quasi-real-time model, and now Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume on the Nintendo DS has yet again moved the series into new territory. Covenant of the Plume continues the Valkyrie Profile tradition of cerebral storytelling and Norse imagery, but plays like a strategy-RPG. This shift makes the third game in the series feel just as fresh as the original; however, is it actually a good game?

Covenant of the Plume also marks another narrative shift for Valkyrie Profile. The first game saw the player actually controlling a Valkyrie, Lenneth. Lenneth still played a large role in the sequel, and returns again in Covenant, but much like Valkyrie Profile 2 players assume the role of someone other than the titular character. It’s a testament to how dedicated to telling a good story the writers must be; instead of copping out and building another game around the concept of Lenneth, the story moves to the perspective of Wylfred, a young man who feels wronged by the actions of Lenneth - i.e., choosing people to die and become Einherjar, warriors for Odin in the eternal battle against the underworld. Wylfred’s father is chosen to be one of these immortal souls, leaving his family impoverished. It only gets darker from here.

“smack the corpse around for a good thirty seconds after their health bar is drained to gain more experience.”You see, Covenant of the Plume isn’t a very nice game at all. None of the Valkyrie Profile games have been particularly great bedtime stories, but this one is as black as pitch and ruthless in its execution. Wylfred’s maddened desire for revenge is exploited by the goddess of the underworld, Hel, who grants him a Valkyrie feather that can bestow unlimited strength on a warrior… that is, until they keel over dead after a minute or two. Throughout Covenant of the Plume, it is up to the player to decide who to bestow the power of the plume upon for the duration of the battle. Once the altercation is over, that character is removed from your roster for good. The plume is a tempting tool, as its benefits improve a character’s stats to godlike levels, but the trade-off is pretty heavy. The moral play will delight gamers looking for a more mature game.

Unfortunately, aside from the unique mechanics and storyline, there isn’t much to differentiate Covenant of the Plume from other SRPGs on the handheld. The game controls like virtually every other SRPG, and only diverges from the pack with its emphasis on character formation. Depending on where other characters are positioned when a soldier attacks an enemy, the player can perform multi-person strikes that deal huge amounts of damage. This hearkens back to the original Valkyrie Profile’s battle system, even assigning a face button to each attacking character to allow Overkill finishes - in other words, smacking the corpse around for a good thirty seconds after their health bar is drained to gain more experience. Valkyrie Profile sure is lovely, isn’t it?

“Prepare to see many bricks and lots of castle walls”Naturally, the DS can’t rival the gorgeous visuals of Valkyrie Profile 2, but even compared to the original PlayStation title, it falls a little flat. Character art is beautiful and the sprites are quite colorful, but they lack detail and look rather dated. The backgrounds are far worse, though; everything is a sickly shade of brown, grey, or green, which contrasts poorly with the cartoony sprites dancing around the battlefield. The dark colors mesh well with the grim story and setting, but the actual battlegrounds can just feel boring. Prepare to see many bricks and lots of castle walls. Still, the excellent 2D art displayed during conversations and the energetic sprite animation during battles helps make up for the rest of the the presentation. The music tends to vary just as much as the visual component; series veteran Motoi Sakubara provides classical music that can blast powerfully at one moment and warble unimpressively at the next. Someone really ought to take away his keyboard, too, because too often a patch of insipid breakbeats will interrupt a brilliant orchestral piece. Electronic and classical music are fine things to mix, but here they just feel like an exercise in generica.

Despite the slightly disappointing presentation, though, Covenant of the Plume is a worthy entry in this enigmatic series. Valkyrie Profile has continued its tradition of experimentation onto the DS, and the result is a solid strategy title with a captivating story. It’s a shame that the developer didn’t push the hardware a little more; and the character designer and background artist clearly weren’t trading notes. Still, for a cerebral experience like no other and a simple, addictive gameplay setup, Covenant of the Plume is an excellent choice.