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.
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.
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...
@@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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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 :)
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.
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.
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
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 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.
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'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
God I loved this game. It came out when Norse themed games where ultra rare (now they are a dime a dozen). My biggest complaint was the 30 second ending I got (think it was the worst one) when I was used to endings that were a couple minutes.
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?
Stalagmites are the ones in the ground going up. Stalactites are from the ceiling going down. The different letter in the word tells you the direction.
Didn't catch it the first few times I watched the video. You said Arngrim would missed floored enemies. I kept hearing he'd mis Florida. Makes sense with those wide swings
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.
