Valkyrie Profile 2 had been my go-to answer to “What’s your favorite JRPG?” for a long time and whereas this title has been claimed by 軌跡 series I still think that TriAce did a stellar job and I have only warm memories of playing this game. Recently Square Enix published the first trailer of pretty trashy-looking Valkyrie Elysium, and I got simultaneously upset that apparently we’re never going to get another VP and curious how well my beloved VP: Silmeria aged. I found a PS2 emulator, downloaded a ROM with the game, hooked up my trusty PS4 controller and after a few hours I have to say: if you like JRPGs and haven’t played this gem then you must. It’s still such an experience!

Even 16 years later Valkyrie Profile 2 looks and plays amazingly. What matters most though is how creative this game is! It’s a fucking 2D side-scroller (again, fantastically looking) when you’re exploring the world, with environmental puzzles based on freezing and moving/teleporting the enemies and items. It’s pseudo-realtime combat system is fun and I don’t think that I saw anything like it in other games. The RPG mechanics with new skills obtained via a proper combination of runes; sealstones; attacks combinations; souls which join your party and could be released later — all this is a bit convoluted and overwhelming at the beginning but pretty interesting as well and nudge you to experiment. I also just like the main heroine(s) there =) I’ve played a lot of JRPGs and it’s hard to think of something resembling VP2. So currently I’m deliberating whether I should buy a PS2 console just to play this game (oh well, and maybe a few more I missed back then), for I’m way too old to sit in front of my PC for hours =)

To finish this love letter on a sad note — I highly doubt that SE will take a risk with a real Valkyrie Profile 3. Difficult, complex JRPGs are pretty niche. Instead we’ll get another action-RPG that can be praised by critics for featuring “strong female characters” or something, and unlike Silmeria will be forgotten in no time.