PlayExclusive: Valkyrie Profile - Covenant of the Plume

Console: DS
Genre: Strategy RPG
Players: 1
Rating: Teen 16+




Story
Valkyrie Profile: CotP is a tale of revenge, betrayal, and sacrifice. It's main character, the hard done and brooding, Wyl, vows revenge upon the Valkyrie – a battle goddess who takes the souls of fallen soldiers to the afterlife – blaming her for taking his father away, and all the terrible things that befell his family as a result of it.


Becoming a mercenary with a good friend, Wyl has a close brush with death, but is rescued by a dark, and mysterious force that claims to have to have the answer to Wyl's quest. It saves his life, and takes his friend's life instead, and gives him the power of the titular “Plume of the Covenant”, a feather from the Valkyrie, which needs to be infused with “Sin” in each battle, either with Overkill damage, or invoking it upon an ally.


With multiple paths through this tale, players will have to take more than a few playthroughs to see each ending!

Gameplay
Valkyrie Profile: CotP follows the same style as many past SRPG's with it's turn based battle system, quite similar to others of the same genre like Final Fantasy Tactics, or Disgaea, but still mixes things up with the same attack system that made the first Valkyrie Profile stand out.



Each unit that attacks an enemy can have up to 3 attacks depending on what weapon they have equipped, with the attacks of each individual character linked to a single button. In addition, if there are any other allies in range, they'll jump in and add to your attacks, leading to creative combo's of your own design, if you can time those attacks right!



All these lead you to being able to unleash special attacks with high enough combo's and overkilling enemies to gain “sin” for greater rewards after battle!

Of course, where there is reward, there is punishment for those that fail to meet the required sin needed by the end of the battle. All manner of powerful beasts are sent after the player for not meeting such requirements, forcing them to use the power of the Covenant Plume!

The plume grants a teammate greatly enhanced stats, turning them into a killing machine! But with such power, comes a hefty price, as whoever has the plume invoked upon them, dies, permanently!



With the power of the plume comes a tough choice; Sacrifice one of your allies to save the team, or fight against near impossible odds. To make matters worse, it only works on allies that you've worked with long enough to earn their trust!

With the titular plume paving the way to victory, you'll also get a unique ability that the main character can use to devastating effect in later battles, but was it worth the price of losing a valued member of your team?

Overall
A deep story about a good person heading down an obviously bad path, and an excellent battle system make for a brilliant spinoff. Whether you're familiar with the series or not, Valkyrie Profile: CotP is a Strategy RPG to try!


Review by Johar Aston, TheLAG

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Copyright 2009 Johar Aston, TheLAG