Valkyrie Elysium shakes up a classic RPG recipe with mixed results

digitaltrends.com:

I’ve had around a week with a demo build of Square Enix’s upcoming action JRPG Valkyrie Elysium. During that time, I’ve been at a loss for words. I don’t mean that in a “Wow, this is great!” or “Wow, this sucks!” type of way. It’s more of a “I don’t have much to say about this at all so far” situation.

Valkyrie Elysium takes the equation that made the classic JRPG Valkyrie Profile and its sequels so memorable and attempts to give it the Final Fantasy 7 Remake treatment. It tries to open the series up to new players who want even more interactive gameplay than was found in the classic combo JRPG formula its predecessors followed. My issue after playing its first two-and-a-half hours isn’t that it attempts to update the series’ game-winning recipe, but that it dramatically lacks the heart and polish that it boasted all those years ago.

If you were around during that bygone era when God of War was all the rage and inspired a slew of lifeless copycats, then you can probably see some of my issues with Valkeyrie Elysium already. The game isn’t effortless, but it isn’t as lively as it should be yet, which is a shame because it’s full of so much potential.

Like the classic entries in the franchise, you play as a Valkyrie tasked with saving a world on the brink of Ragnarok. To do so, you’ll travel the world in search of lost and recently deceased warrior souls to build a team of Einherjar. Unlike the older titles, this is an action JRPG closer to something like Devil May Cry, but way less flashy. You’ve got jump cancels, Bayonetta‘s Witch Time dodging, different attack strings, specials, and assists attacks that work similarly to those in Scarlet Nexus to replace the old Einherjar party members. The issue comes down to how the