Dark Rose Valkyrie

 PlayStation 4
Metascore
58

Mixed or average reviews - based on 14 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 14
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 14
  3. Negative: 3 out of 14
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  1. Meristation
    Jul 4, 2017
    70
    Dark Rose Valkyrie is a decent game with an entertaining combat system which provide stunning fights and a interesting story besides a good character design. However at some points the game depends so much in fights, for bosses and chaining to complete main missions for the main story, that the game's pace resents from it.
  2. GamingTrend
    Jul 6, 2017
    65
    Dark Rose Valkyrie doesn’t blow the doors off the hinges, but it does serve as a much improved JRPG over what has been a largely tepid series of releases from Compile Heart and others. The story is fine, the battle system is fun and unique, and exploration is a large part of the adventure. While there are some cliches and rehashed elements throughout, Dark Rose Valkyrie represents what a top end-formulaic JRPG can be.
  3. Hardcore Gamer
    Jun 9, 2017
    60
    Dark Rose Valkyrie is a bit of a mixed bag. The hybrid of the visual novel inspired interview system mixed with a traditional JRPG is an interesting idea, and that the traitor is never set does give reason to play through the story more than once. The downside to it is like most JRPGs this is not a short game, and there are enough issues with the gameplay where tackling it once would be enough for most people. The pacing makes it difficult to fully get immersed into the story and outside of the interview portion, the gameplay does not live up to its potential, especially in battle. The result is an overall good but unremarkable JRPG. Compile Heart’s signature charm and humor is present throughout, so fans of their other games will likely be able to forgive its shortcomings and enjoy this title for what it is.
  5. IGN Spain
    Jun 27, 2017
    55
    An interesting product if you are looking for a more classical turn-based fight style, out of the musou-typical Japanese games, but also a boring experience that becomes too long unless you are a big fan of the "Tales of" characters.
  6. Gaming Age
    Jan 10, 2018
    50
    There are one or two areas where Dark Rose Valkyrie kinda-sorta stands out: it makes fast-forwarding through the battles, the explainer screens, and the dialogue a breeze, which is nice, because the game features far too much of all three. Unfortunately, the game is also lacking in enough areas that its positives are negated entirely. The camera is terrible; you may not have to use it that often, but when you do, you’ll probably curse its existence. Likewise, the main character has a weird habit of grunting when he runs. This may not sound like much, but when you hear grunts for a few minutes as you try to figure out where to go next, it gets more and more grating.
  7. PlayStation Country
    Jul 3, 2017
    50
    Dark Rose Valkyrie succeeds with a decent story and a cast of likable characters but unfortunately the gameplay part of it is slow, overly complicated and underdeveloped.
  8. GameCritics
    Jun 22, 2017
    50
    Compile Heart’s ambition in trying to leave its comfort zone should be lauded, but unfortunately, Dark Rose Valkyrie‘s release in a period full of landmark JRPGs (not least among them Persona 5 and Final Fantasy XV) highlights how tough it is to make a JRPG that can stick the landing. In leaner years it would be endearing enough for a player to push past its awkward aspects, but against such stiff competition, there’s simply no reason to settle for this botched execution.
  9. TheSixthAxis
    Jun 7, 2017
    50
    Despite the promising names behind the title, Dark Rose Valkyrie stumbles over its own ambitions. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the parts of the game that were the responsibility of the Tales series veterans, the art and the writing, were the most successful, but where other collaborations have been able to balance each party’s strengths an diminish their weaknesses, that’s not the case here.

User Reviews

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User Score
5.9

Mixed or average reviews- based on 25 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 25
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 25
  3. Negative: 8 out of 25
  1. Prrgangsta
    Jun 6, 2017
    6
    After playing this for about 12 hours I can honestly say this game is not all that great of a jrpg.

    I have enjoyed its battle system but    After playing this for about 12 hours I can honestly say this game is not all that great of a jrpg.

    I have enjoyed its battle system but its story is too cliche and the missions are really repetitive. This game feels like a copy and pasted version of a past game, Omega Quintet. It even has the same mechanic that if the female characters take too much damage they lose their clothes so now you can look at a girl in her underwear.

    Now I don't care how a game looks graphically, this is just to inform you, but the levels do look like something that should be in a late PS2 game or early PS3 game.

    Many scenes are done in the form of cardboard cut outs with moving mouths and blinking eyes which never really convey what is happening in the scene and most of them honestly have nothing to really add to the story like moments where you can chat up the valkyries.

    The characters are weak and some of the voice acting is cringey at times.

    If you are a fan of jrpg's then buy at your own risk but I would advise you at least wait til it goes on sale    … Full Review »
  2. snakekill321
    Jun 6, 2017
    9
    been playing it for a bit and its honestly, enjoyable. I didnt know what to expect, but as a casual JRPG fan, this was worth the 60$ it hasbeen playing it for a bit and its honestly, enjoyable. I didnt know what to expect, but as a casual JRPG fan, this was worth the 60$ it has elements of the "Tales of" series, and it feels like old school turn based games… Full Review »
  3. tomvs123
    Jul 9, 2019
    3
    This game is primarily for save scummers who can handle a generic harem story and combat that's worse than the typical Idea Factory (IF) game.This game is primarily for save scummers who can handle a generic harem story and combat that's worse than the typical Idea Factory (IF) game.

    Save scumming or following a guide is required to get a desirable ending in the game. I don't like these types of games, which is one reason for my low rating.

    In this game, you're a male military captain, leading a group of mostly girls (because harem), into combat against monsters who are attacking your supposedly functional, but apparently empty, city. The world building is almost nonexistent. You interact with your team and about 5 other people throughout the entire game. There's supposedly citizens who you're protecting, but I saw no evidence of them existing.

    The story consists of going to places and killing monsters (and people-turned-monsters) using your super-powered soldiers with transforming weapons (that aren't explained) to protect your city. The plot doesn't move past this until near the end of the game when you find out who the villain is and his motivation. To avoid spoilers, I'll just say that the main plot is based on harem logic. The writing is acceptable, but is not well done or interesting.

    During the story, you'll spend time talking to the girls in your team (harem). And this is where save scumming is necessary. Despite the conversations ending in the same way every time, if you pick the wrong dialogue option, the girls affection for you will not increase, which limits your ending options. This wouldn't be bad, except that there's no indication of when you choose a bad option.

    The character writing is not impressive. The girls are mostly generic and uninteresting. At some point, they'll get split personalities, but those are more silly/comical than they are good or interesting.

    Besides talking to girls, there's several set investigations where you get statements from the girls and try to figure out who's lying. This is great, but has two major flaws. First, there's no set topic. You're just asking girls what they think of other girls and they'll talk about seemingly random things. So you have no idea what topic you're trying to find lies about. Second, there's a limit on how many statements you can get. In one session, it's not possible to get everyone's statements about everyone else. So more save scumming is required.

    So as someone who didn't do any save scumming or reading a guide, the investigations were almost entirely worthless. I lucked out only once and happened to get two statements that contradicted each other and was able to determine who the liar was.

    The combat is bad. It's a big step down from the standard IF game. You have the same sort of attacks as in other IF games, but you can now choose only a single target. There simply aren't attacks that can hit a wide area or all enemies. Strategy is almost nonexistent. You simply hit a monster until you find what weapon or element it's weak to and use that from then on. Most monsters have different sections you can choose from, with each section having different weak points, so you'll need to match your attack with the right section. More than anything, it's annoying, since having to look up the weak points for each monster in every fight greatly increases combat time.

    This is somewhat solved by Easy mode, where I was able to auto-attack through every normal monster battle and only needed to worry about weak points for boss fights.

    Skills are a mess. Each character basically gets the same set of 50+ skills, so when you want to use one, you'll be digging through menus to find the few that are useful. But skills are expensive and overpowered, so I ended up saving them for boss fights.

    Customization is overly complex is more tedious than fun. Here's the things you can equip that affect your stats: visible armor, non-visible armor, accessory, shotgun, sniper rifle, rocket launcher, shield, main weapon level, main-weapon add-ons, character traits. Most of that gets unequipped whenever someone leaves your party, which adds to the annoyance. And most of these require the grinding of monster drops to upgrade.

    Thankfully, switching to Easy mode and equipping whatever you find is enough to get through the game without extra grinding.

    After 47 hours (most of which was fighting monsters), I completed the game. Based on PS4 trophies, only 6% of people who started the game completed it, which didn't surprise me. This game is for the hard-core save scummer only. Everyone else, beware: there's not much good here.    … Full Review »
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