Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth

Six years ago, the original PlayStation was hit with a decidedly unusual RPG. Valkyrie Profile featured a story steeped in Norse mythology, and allowed you to recruit the spirits of the dead to train as warriors for the upcoming battle of Ragnarok. It even dressed its heroine in clothes rather than a few scraps of silk or a bikini. Criminally, however, the game was released in very limited numbers and has since become an eBay staple, where it fetches outrageous prices. No more! Square has ported Valkyrie Profile, great qualities intact, to the PSP. In doing so they've revived one of the most memorable RPGs of the decade, and provided the PSP's best role-player to date.

As the titular Valkyrie, you'll explore a world map to collect souls that can be trained and sent into battle with Odin. Most of that training will be in combat as a member of your party; you'll also build items and weapons, and micromanage the development of personality traits for party members. There's a lot to do, and with the shadow of Ragnarok hanging over everything, a unique atmosphere in which to do it.

One of the game's many iconoclastic features is a very active combat system, in which the four party members are each represented by a face button. Each will attack when the button is pressed, though mitigating factors can affect your opportunity to move. Managing the fast-paced attack system takes some work, since monsters can't simply be wailed upon, but is also a lot more rewarding than most of the Final Fantasy clone systems out there. Just wait til you nail a combo with all four characters to send an enemy reeling.

The most stunning gameplay element is a constantly ticking clock. In most games the looming catastrophe only really threatens when you trigger an event. Not so here. In Asgard and Midgard both, events are moving towards their conclusion. Take too long to forge a great fighting force, and some goals may become unattainable. Unlike the cookie-cutter clutter of Japanese RPGs, this is one you'll want to play more than once as you learn the strategy of timing.

Getting to the good stuff, however, requires that you ignore a few technical flaws. The ported graphics are small and blurry, seemingly in spite of the PSP's beautiful screen. The load times are long, and interaction points with things like treasure chests can be sticky. And some of the platforming, while theoretically interesting, is just a pain to execute.

Given the quality of the game itself, Square's lackluster porting efforts deserve a slap. How about some explanation for the game's more obscure features? And they took the time to add some new CG, but couldn't instead brush up the sprites to make the whole endeavor more pleasant? Shame.

This is one of those instances, however, where our griping about technical quality must give way to gameplay admiration. There isn't another RPG like this, and there's nothing on the PSP that's even in the same league. Every fan of the genre should revel in the ability to enjoy Valkyrie Profile without giving blood on eBay. RPG newbies are encouraged to indulge as well, though with a warning: don't expect to find an equivalent any time soon.