Valhalla Knights

The interesting story and plenty of great character options make this a solid RPG with a lot to offer.

One thing that I must warn people about is that this games difficulty level at starting is rather high, with the amount of damage the monsters can do.

While not a supremely inspired game, its limited premise is implemented so well from a technical and design standpoint that it's very easy to enjoy despite itself. [Mar 2007, p.56]

Packed full of content, excellent graphics and robust character aspects meets up with overly challenging gameplay that takes away the initial fun level.

Despite the beautiful visuals and nuanced details, there's more tedium here than anything else. After a while, even die-hard RPG fans would be hard-pressed to enjoy the mindless sprints through the endless dungeons.

Solid visuals and audio, old-school charm and an absolutely huge adventure to slog through are not enough to offset the fact that this a brutally difficult game at the outset and it does nothing to help you along while you learn the ropes.

There's a hazy quality to Valhalla Knights that ensures nothing ever become too vibrant or exciting; I guess that's what some people call style. I tend to call it boring.

Valhalla Knights lacks soul.

Valhalla Knights is almost a good action role playing game for the PSP. Almost.

The game would be much better if they added combos into the combat system and allowed for blocking.

A deep character-creation system and sharp graphics are wasted on this dull, repetitive dungeon crawler.

It's a workable romp through a pedestrian tale of little interest. [Issue#158, p.91]

The game excels at real-time battle while ignoring storytelling.

It's likely Valhalla Knights will either lead to you pulling out your hair in consternation at its difficulty, or have you convinced you're doing something wrong. It’s a hard-lined dungeon crawler of the strictest caliber, and that's fine for anyone simply looking to fell a couple hundred skeletons or trolls in the most painstaking way possible.

If you go into Valhalla Knights expecting a mindless, empty and soulless dungeon romp, then your expectations will be fulfilled. If that's what you want out of a game, Valhalla Knights delivers. However, if you foolishly come to this game anticipating a riveting story that propels the action with great characters and plot twists, expect to fall into a bottomless pit of frustration.

Despite hinting at an interesting experience, Valhalla Knights squanders its potential with a lack of style and unfortunately compelling substance.

The character system seems deep and appealing, but is really fairly limited and what is there is undermined by the lack of true freedom in the game. Combat is a dreadfully boring experience that takes place in real-time in an ill-realized 'ring of death'. As for the rest of the game, the less said the better.

The general structure is annoying, but it's really the obtuse design that ensures that every second you play Valhalla Knights is irritating. [Mar 2007, p.107]

Valhalla Knights fails in most significant areas, except for looking pretty and actually being well-coded.

While I think it's kind of neat to have a big party of six tearing through dungeons, controlling them all during real-time combat is a bit cumbersome, and I wish the loot was a bit more inspiring than the generic fare you find here. [Mar 2007, p.95]

There's no real fun to be had. [Oct 2007, p.85]

Valhalla’s a well-meaning blend of old and new, but most of us have come to expect a little more from an RPG.

There's a hellish amount of "...", even by J-RPG standards, and many sentences don't quite make sense - it's either a poorly written game, a crap translation to English or, probably, both.

The combat system is leaden. [Aug 2007, p.114]

Valhalla Knights is quite possibly the least fun you'll have with a video game this year.

Sure, running around the dungeons and slashing through enemies is enjoyable enough -- and, dare I say it, even fun at times. But as soon as you attempt to play through Valhalla Knights like its an actual game, it completely falls apart.

Very average RPG mechanisms, diabolical missions, non-existent storyline, monstrously difficult battles... it's a bleak outcome. [Sept 2007, p.107]