Valkyrie Elysium

Good game for what it is .

I thoroughly enjoyed this new addition to the on-going Valkyrie series from Square Enix. It brings a new modern aesthetic to both the story-telling and combat experience.

The first 2-3 hours of this game are slow, and i would even go as far as to say it's garbage. But then you get 5 hours in, unlocking different skills, upgrades, relics, companion skills, spells etc. and before you know it your enjoying zipping around the battlefield clapping monsters. Really, really solid combat. It could be improved but, wow am i having a good time. Finished the base campaign moving onto the two other modes.As for the bad, the story, it's not borderlands 3 levels of bad making you want to take out the disk and snap it in half. It isn't good, it's very average, theres this plot twist build up and i did like the ending. I actually ended up liking the end cutscene so much i thought why isn't the rest of the game like this lmao, it ended on a really poignant note.Other bad stuff, zero voice acting for sub missions. This is 2022, every single line of dialogue shouldbe voice acted. It's lazy and screams low budget, this for me brings the replay ability and overall score down. I literally skipped through the subtitles for every sub mission and just blitzed through.combat the only issue i have is that we should be able to zip line after every combo. It's a small thing but i feel like this would really improve the combat.Overall solid 7/10. If you don't care or mind that your getting an average story, i would definitely pick this up as the combat is a blast.

the game is great a lot of fun, looking forward to the future of this finger crossed for DLC.only downside never got my pre order code for the avatar

Took a lot of repeating of the same thing to get to next level even at easy level.

This is going to be one of those games mentioned in articles in a few years time called "10 Hidden Gems on PS5" or "Top 10 PS5 Games You Haven't Played". It plays like DMC; acrobatic, superhuman combos against groups of enemies and bosses. There's a Dark Souls feel to it, very challenging bosses and the broken world you're exploring. Then there's this dreamlike, ethereal quality to it, plus the abandoned world you're exploring, that is also very much like Ico.There are different difficulty settings unlike Dark Souls. I'm playing in Normal and I'd say it's just about right. It starts out east, but the regular enemies start getting tougher and the bosses start feeling like you're playing Dark Souls, like I said. You have infinite retries and don't lose anything by dying apart from ranking points. Yeah, another DMC thing is that you're given a rank at the end of each mission.The story is told in a mysterious way. You get traditional cutscenes at significant moments but there's also a lot of story and lore conveyed through notes (well, these ghostly flowers you find that are effectively notes or journal entries) and that's another Dark Souls thing; you can piece more of the story together yourself.You meet allies along the way that you summon into battle. They're each alligned with different elements which lends a tactical aspect to it since each enemy has a particular elemental weakness. They level up by being summoned and through story events. It's one of those games where there's always something to do; farm materials, level up the Valkyrie, enhance your weapons, practice in the arena, side quests, collectibles, improve your level rankings, etc.I really recommend this game if you like technical action games with RPG elements, and stories that draw upon real world mythology. It has the feel, in a good way, of a classic, obscure PS2 game but just with much more modern graphics and QoL elements. So if you have fond memories of the PS2, that's another plus point.

Love the premise and have played the other games however this game felt like it lacked the complexity enjoyed in the other games, storyline was really simplified.The game was really short *depending on what ending you want*. Same use of environments was used over and over again.Imagine they'll release more content but there really should have been more content for what was bought.

-The best thing of this game are the battle system. The battles are dynamic and fun even though they change the classic system. Unfortunately you will do this A LOT.-Secondary missions are boring and don't contribute at all to the whole experience. The loop is basically go there and kill enemies then mission accomplished. I really can't ignore you need to exit the mission you are doing and check every single secondary mission on a completely different menu and once it's complete you must do it with all the missions. One by one... Pain in the ass-Exploration...The only exploration you have is searching for the corners in your map because definitely there's a chest there. The collectables are marked at the map as well.-The story is not good.The character are not interesting at all and they are poorly developed. I finished the game a few days ago and I don't even remember their names. At the end the story gets better but don't expect too much of it. The game is separate into chapters that tells you all the time what you need to do and where to go... I hate the chapter system, feels like the story and character are not really connected to anything.Unfortunately the game doesn't have much to offer and definitely you can wait to a substantial price drop to buy it. As a fan of this saga I see this game had potential but I don't think we have a new Valkyrie after this.