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RSCNyx
Mar 6, 2013

It's okay, little guy. I would be scared too.
The VA is very hit and miss in VP.

I'll admit, first time I played the game, I cringed when I heard, "Welcome to Valhalla! :v:"

Still, I feel a lot of it falls into the hilariously bad category. There's a few classic lines that I can never get out of my head, for better or for worse.

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Derek Barona
Dec 8, 2009

WHO'S YOUR FRIEND?!
Like I said, if you could survive Saturday morning animes as a kid, VP's nothing new. Hell, there are games out much more recently that the dubs are far worse than anything you'll see in this one.

...Case in point, Chaos Wars. Ugh, both that and Mana Khemia I refuse to play with the english voices on.

Elite
Oct 30, 2010

Poulpe posted:

Can we talk about how Arngrim destroys the reward statue just as he receives it yet also somehow shows it to his brother later? Was he forced to glue it back together as punishment?

He got the statue for killing the most people in a battle. He probably has like... 50 of them just lying around.

theshim
May 1, 2012

You think you can defeat ME, Ephraimcopter?!?

You couldn't even beat Assassincopter!!!

Elite posted:

He got the statue for killing the most people in a battle. He probably has like... 50 of them just lying around.
He keeps them all lined up in the gaping void in his soul.

BottledBodhisvata
Jul 26, 2013

by Lowtax
Arngrim handles existential crises poorly, but truth be told, he's among the more well-adjusted, if not honorable members of the cast.

Omobono
Feb 19, 2013

That's it! No more hiding in tomato crates! It's time to show that idiota Germany how a real nation fights!

For pasta~! CHARGE!

ApplesandOranges posted:

As for the voice acting... it's got a bit of a 'so bad it's good' feel to it. It grows on you after a while. There are definitely some scenes where I really wish I could fast forward through them though.

This is so, so true.

Nibelung Valesti :allears:
It never failed to make me smile; then again, big numbers popping up have that effect on me.

For all the liberties they took with norse myths, they got the most important thing perfectly right: everyone and everything is an rear end in a top hat, EVERYONE. Yeah, even the little cute puppy down at the orphanage, it's secretly an hell puppy plotting to burn it down.

Hunter Noventa
Apr 21, 2010

This is such a great game. Got a copy of eBay ages ago when the PSP was just a fever dream and slammed through it repeatedly.

It just has a wonderful quality to it that the follow up games failed to capture.

ApplesandOranges
Jun 22, 2012

Thankee kindly.


We gain control of Arngrim, the following day. We can't open the menu, so the only thing we can do is run around.



Well, we can also jump around.



Heading out, we can talk to Roland, try to leave, and there's a knock at the door.

Just sit down and relax.

And who should enter but...

Do you want something?



Yeah, that's right...

I am... I mean, my name is... Um... Jela...

Jela?

Yeah! I mean, no Jela... Uh...

My name is Angela.



Master of disguise and wit, people.

And... what do you want from me, Lady Angela?

I came... to offer you a job.

...Are you serious?

You've got time. Why not talk to her?

...



Let's go to, ah, one of those... restaurants. Do you know of any fine establishments?

Well this place over here is about as fine as it gets in Artolia.







Let's see... I'll take this, and this, and this...

And what would you like to drink?

Umm... This and this and one of these...

Hey!! Are you really gonna eat all that!?

Why would I? I'll just have what I want and leave the rest.

...

So, ah, what was it you wanted to hire me for?

Why don't we talk while we eat?





Huh?

I said, call your manager!



Don't act like such a... spoiled little princess...



Hey, she said manager, not head chef! The service in Artolia these days.

"Not to my liking", you say! What is this meat? It's raw!!

But Miss... That is called "Sashimi". It's classic Yamato cuisine...

Sashimi is, as I expect quite a few people know, fresh raw meat or fish in thin slices, commonly served in Japan. Salmon is typically the most common form of sashimi outside of Japan.

And what's this cloudy soup? It smells awful!! It must be rotten!

Miss... That's an absolute staple of Yamato cuisine, "Miso Soup"...

Miso soup is a standard Japanese side dish with miso, a Japanese seasoning, mixed into a stock. I'm not a big fan of it myself, but I know people who enjoy it.

And what about this! It's a monster!! You're trying to make me eat baby krakens!?

But Miss... That's just plain octopus...!

You serve monsters here!?

I assure you, Miss...

...I have never been so insulted in my life! Aaah! Now my throat is parched!



Kaff! Blech! What kind of water IS this!?

Are you trying to poison me?! How dare you...! 10,000 deaths are not enough for you...!!



Zzzzz...

Your bill, sir.



It's not explicitly stated in the translation, but my guess is that what Angela drank was likely sake, or rice wine. The NA version removed the visible blush in Angela's portraits after she had her drink, possibly to remove the outright statement of underage drinking.

We finally get a chance to save after that scene.

---



Yeah.



!!



---



Well, I know she came here in disguise to offer me a job.

Roland leaves.

Uuummmm...

She's very proud.

Daa...

Huh? Talking in her sleep, eh.

Daa...

...

Foul oathbreaker...! 10,000 deaths are not enough for you...!



Listen: Arngrim's Monologue 1



Of course, I didn't mean to. I just wanted to show what a gutless coward the king is. What I did wasn't wrong. But-

But a daughter can't help but love and honor her own father. Is there any child that would not feel anger at seeing their sire made a fool of...

Arngrim is voiced by the late Maddie Blaustein. Blaustein's most famous other role is, of course, from Pokemon, playing the role of Team Rocket's Meowth, which just shows the extent of the range of her voices. This game is her only role as Arngrim; Dameon Clarke takes over as the role in other games.

Blaustein also voices two other characters in this game, so don't look her up just yet if you don't want to get spoiled on who else she does.


---


Where am I? It's already evening!



I just had to include Jelanda's face there. VP has some seriously goofy expressions at times.

I have to go! Oh! Is it okay if I come back tomorrow to make my offer?

Yeah, sure.

A job offer, huh? Probably some sort of revenge for what I did to her father... When she comes tomorrow, I'll apologize to her.

---





So, what's your offer this time?

It's short notice, but I need you to help another man deliver.

What? Gimme a break! You're wasting my time for that?

C'mon, the pay is top price. So will you take it?

Dangerous cargo, eh? Well, I'll take it. But I want 5,000. My price has doubled.



You serious? Well, if you say so. By the way, who's the other guy you've got me teamed up with?

You'll meet soon enough.

Hmph.

Listen: Badrach



Badrach is voiced by Jimmy Zoppi. This one provides the voice of Gary Oak from Pokemon, as well as the roles of James later on in the series. Zoppi also has one more role in the game.

---



Control of Arngrim again. Let's see what Roland has to say.



Probably not.

But if you think about the princess being out of the castle...

Yeah, I suppose.

If she keeps sneaking out, she's going to get her attendants executed-

Yeah.

Some conversationalist...



Well, we don't really have any leads on where to go. We can head outside and wander around Artolia. We can go back into the restaurant, but there's nothing of note (the waitress just says 'Welcome'.) Let's poke around the houses and talk to NPCs.





Artolia also has a chapel.

If the Villnore army comes this way, this whole town will be wiped out...

All we can do is pray...





Bah. Who cares about flowers anyway?



The other day I opened up a treasure chest and some poison gas shot out at me! Luckily I was crouching down, so it didn't do anything except give me a big scare.

Hey, no foreshadowing game mechanics!



Well, nothing interesting in town. Let's head back to Arngrim's house.

---



I need to speak with you...

...

The agent leaves after a few seconds.

Is this about a job?

Yeah.

Did you take it?

I leave tomorrow morning. You'll be alone again for a few days.

And what about the Princess?

Cancelled, probably...

---



...

Aw, don't gimme that. The name's Badrach. Nice to meet ya, Arngrim. I've heard all about ya.

If you must engage in such meaningless blather, do so on the road. This cargo must be delivered!



Next time: Actual fighting this time! Really!

ApplesandOranges fucked around with this message at 02:36 on Mar 15, 2014

Derek Barona
Dec 8, 2009

WHO'S YOUR FRIEND?!
Hoo boy, here we go with this one.

I think this is probably my favorite part of Chapter 0, honestly. That image of Arngrim sitting there embarrassed as all hell while she's going on a tirade in the middle of the japanese restaurant never gets old.

Rigged Death Trap
Feb 13, 2012

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

ApplesandOranges posted:

[i]Arngrim is voiced by the late Maddie Blaustein. Blaustein's most famous other role is, of course, from Pokemon, playing the role of Team Rocket's Meowth, which just shows the extent of the range of her voices. This game is her only role as Arngrim; Dameon Clarke takes over as the role in other games.


What?
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

Seriously? Why have I not come across her before?
Goddamn she was talented.

vilkacis
Feb 16, 2011

Derek Barona posted:

Hoo boy, here we go with this one.

I think this is probably my favorite part of Chapter 0, honestly. That image of Arngrim sitting there embarrassed as all hell while she's going on a tirade in the middle of the japanese restaurant never gets old.

That, and the lady coming in with the bill just after she passes out drunk on the floor. :allears:

The man called M
Dec 25, 2009

THUNDERDOME ULTRALOSER
2022



Rigged Death Trap posted:

What?
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

Seriously? Why have I not come across her before?
Goddamn she was talented.

You haven't seen NOTHING yet. :allears:

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.

Clapping Larry
I like how understanding Arngrim is about this whole thing.

Rigged Death Trap
Feb 13, 2012

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

The man called M posted:

You haven't seen NOTHING yet. :allears:

Ive played valkyrie profile before.
I just never looked up the VAs.


And i know what you mean (its final blast)

E: oh wait no.
She was HIM as well? :stare: good lord.

Rigged Death Trap fucked around with this message at 04:12 on Mar 15, 2014

Heavy neutrino
Sep 16, 2007

You made a fine post for yourself. ...For a casualry, I suppose.
Wow, she did both Arngrim and Lawfer? The two are basically polar opposites in tone. Amazing. Must be weird for a VA to be in a situation where you're basically talking with yourself, but I've seen worse: the heroic Yuri Lowenthal talking with his broody sidekick, Yuri Lowenthal about ways to take down the nefarious Yuri Lowenthal.

Gotta Wear Shades
Jul 25, 2013

Learn to hoist a jack,
Learn to lay a track
Learn to pick and shovel too
And take my hammer, it'll do anything you tell it to
My favorite track in the game is the music in the restaurant. It sounds much more ominous and foreboding when it's not attached to that scene.

BottledBodhisvata posted:

Valkyrie Profile is mad dope and probably the best game Tri-Ace ever produced, despite and also because of all of its goofy voice acting and obtuse mechanics. It's also got some of the better storytelling and general plot and world development I've seen in games. The setting and atmosphere are rich, and the game meditates on death in a variety of fun ways.

This is one of my favorite PSX games for a lot of the reasons you've listed here. It's a bizarre game with both a central plot and an immense amount of details for background stories if you're paying attention to what's going on. So there's both something to hold on to that's presented in a mostly straightforward way and also a feeling of minimalism to flesh out what's going on in the world.

The game's attitude towards death is very interesting as well. As quickly as characters can come and go I can't think of many other games with a cast as interesting to me as this.

The mechanics are pretty weird, though, and I have a hard time going back to the game these days because of it. The game can be fairly hard right up until you understand how certain options interact and then nothing's close to difficult afterwards.

Rabbi Raccoon posted:

And hot drat I love this game. I remember reading somewhere that Easy Mode is actually harder than the others because you don't have access to anything particularly powerful though.

Easy mode is the hardest. Hard mode is the easiest. Valkyrie Profile!

Rabbi Raccoon
Mar 31, 2009

I stabbed you dude!
Only Arngrim is man enough to use a sword that freakishly massive.

Cuntellectual
Aug 6, 2010
I've played VP 1 and thought it was great, were either of the other two games any good?

a cartoon duck
Sep 5, 2011

Applesandoranges did an LP of Covenant of the Plume, so you can judge for yourself.

As for VP2, I felt like replaying VP1 and it when Applesandoranges LPed CotP but gave up a quarter through. It's much more of a standard JRPG with a linear plot progression and a core cast of playable characters while einherjar are basically just recolours of each other now. This is not an exaggeration, every character within a cast shares a list of normal attacks they can use, except the main characters can learn their own unique attacks to set them apart from the generics. You also learn new skills by putting on specific combinations of equipment so if you wanna get the most out of your characters you will spend a long time swapping around equipment, which gets old quick.

My first time through VP2 I completely ignored einherjar to absolutely no ill effect while making an active effort to use them in my second run, which I think is why I got burned out on it so quickly. VP1 did a great job of making me like every single character so I had no problem using them all for at least a couple dungeons each, in VP2 everyone who's not a main character has no personality, shares animations and soul crushes, I think each class might even only have one or two voice actors.

Maybe I'm too harsh on it, I dunno, I do like the core concepts of VP2, but playing it straight after VP1 just kinda soured me on it.

Marogareh
Feb 23, 2011
I found the gameplay in VP 2 fun as hell though and entering break mode to brutally dismember foes never gets old. The story is a trainwreck but at least playing as Hrist made everything all right.

Pollyanna
Mar 5, 2005

Milk's on them.


Incidentally, about Sakuraba's music: you wouldn't be able to tell by the music in VP and the Tales series, but Sakuraba actually composes for the Dark Souls series.

Yep, that Dark Souls.



He actually said that prior to DS1 he didn't have much experience composing classical music. Kinda shows with the rest of his work.

Darth TNT
Sep 20, 2013
I only know VP1 from the LP archive. I look forward to seeing what Apples is going to do with it.
As last time I'm loving your little GIFS.

FredMSloniker posted:

I found it amusing when I played Valkyrie Profile that one of the characters Veronica Taylor (the voice of Ash) voices basically sounds like a feminine Ash... and her Finishing Strike sounds like she's having an orgasm. :v:
This makes the typo in the first update quite funny to my adult mind.

Valkery Profile Update 1 posted:

You have a power that is yours alone. Close your eyes and open your heat. Concentrate and listen. You will understand.


Rabbi Raccoon posted:

Only Arngrim is man enough to use a sword that freakishly massive.


His sword also increases in size after being drawn.

Crepuscule Adepte
Feb 21, 2008

Why is my hair purple? It's from the blood of everyone that lost a bet against me.
...By the way ApplesandOranges, are you planning to show the attract mode mini-story? I remember that one well, because it was my first experience with the voice acting of the game.

I was so happy when Lenneth stuck with monotone in the main game after that... performance.

dis astranagant
Dec 14, 2006

I'm sure he'll show it once its relevant, being that its one of the few clues the game gives you about the good ending.

a cartoon duck
Sep 5, 2011

Crepuscule Adepte posted:

...By the way ApplesandOranges, are you planning to show the attract mode mini-story? I remember that one well, because it was my first experience with the voice acting of the game.

I was so happy when Lenneth stuck with monotone in the main game after that... performance.

ApplesandOranges got a plan for this LP, so don't worry if some parts aren't shown as soon as they're available.

ApplesandOranges
Jun 22, 2012

Thankee kindly.
The Princess and the Mercenary

This next bit has lots of Arngrim voiced dialogue in-between no voice dialogue sections. For that reason I've lumped the next portion into a Youtube video here as well as transcribing it, as well as individual audio links to some more significant parts.



But the journey was uneventful and by the third day we were halfway there.



...

Grrr, that Lombert...



You mean it wasn't the agent who hired us?

Hey, bodyguard. Something's coming up behind you!

What?

Knights! And lots of them!

Knights!?





Hey, hold up!





Let's get out of here!



Badrach has a goofy run sprite.

Hey, hold on a sec!! Wha!?



Listen: Arngrim Monologue 2



It was that little tomboy princess...



---



...

Hmph! drat that Lombert! He totally screwed this!

You filthy...! You knew!?

No, I didn't know what was IN the drat thing! It's just that my, uh, client was Lombert like always, and...

Did those soldiers know that Lombert...

Eh? No way, can't be. The guy's a Villnore spy, ya know.

What?!

Nobody was s'posed to know what was in the thing, man! If Villnore got their hand on the princess, they'd have Artolia in the palm of their hand.



Listen: Arngrim Monologue 3

Ah, Arngrim... It hurts... Help me... Save me!!

Jelanda is voiced by Rachael Lillis. The Pokemon characters this time are Misty, Jessie and Jigglypuff, all played by Lillis - she also reprised her role as Jigglypuff in the Super Smash Bros. series. Aside from her multiple roles in anime, she had a few roles in Winx Club.



Wha...?

---







Hey, what's going on? Jelanda?

Umm, because the princess was unconscious, the captain told us to give her this medicine that he got from Lombert...

Isn't that... the princess!?



Listen: Arngrim Monologue 4

He knew the abduction might be discovered, so he sent some "medicine" along with the search party - If we made it all the way to Villnore, no problem. But if we were discovered, the cavalry would use the "medicine"... He knew the princess would be unconscious if she was found.

The medicine's effect was as you see. The princess became a monster, and afterwards, all were dead.

Perhaps even the princess...



Ghoul Powder?

Yeah. It turns a person into a howling demon. Necromancers use the stuff all the time.

Lombert is... a necromancer?



Angela...

Angela? You mean Jelanda? What're you talking about? It's time we got back to Artolia. I'm getting out of here. See ya!



Listen: Arngrim Monologue 5

Even on the field of battle, I'd never felt like this.

Lombert... I'm going to kill you. But-

What will become of Jelanda....





OST: Turn Over a New Leaf

Stop!! That's...!!

Human, life is not something to be thrown away. If you are a true warrior, you will find your path in the maelstrom of battle.

The Battle-Maiden, Valkyrie?



Of the endless war the gods wage with the creatures of darkness.

Youtube clip ends here.



OST: Confidence in the Domination

Come to me dark warriors, battle awaits us!

Actual gameplay! We're up against poor Jelanda, and we finally get to use Lenneth, with Freya tagging along. This battle is really impossible to lose however, we're much more powerful, and Freya takes no damage from the Ghoul's attacks anyway.



We'll get to talking about Lenneth and Freya when we get into a proper battle. For now, feel free to watch them smash Jelanda to death.

---





Listen: Arngrim Monologue 7

You think it's foolish, brother, because you're content with what you have.

You're wrong!!

It was through others' misfortune that I felt myself to be strong. That's right... I was myself without morals. Who was I to judge others? Who was I to look down on them? Injustice. I began to realize that the King and I were very much the same-



---



Ah, I thought you might show up sooner or later. You really should have just run away... It will avail you nothing to cause a disturbance here, young man.

Maybe not, but! It'll sure as hell "avail" me to smash your face in!!

I see... Arngrim, you may be a genius when it comes to the battlefield, but you know little.



What?

Magic, Arngrim. Heh heh heh... Let me show you.



Aaaargh!!

---



Listen: Lenneth and Jelanda

Save? How do you think he might be saved?

Eh... I... I...

By being allowed to continue to live? Or by being chosen by me?

---



I'd have believed it if you ran away. But... could a human really have defeated a Ghoul? I can't imagine...





What...!? Ah, now I understand. We have a little conspiracy here, don't we?

Conspiracy? Hah! I hear you're the expert on that subject!





And now we're up against Lombert, sans Freya. This battle is still pretty much a cakewalk, however.



As our first actual human enemy, Lombert is a Sorcerer. Sorcerers are a bit of a special class (which I'll get to once we get to play with one of our own), but essentially, they cast spells for their attacks. Lombert uses the Fire Storm spell. For this battle though, there really isn't much to him, we're just trading blows til he goes down.



And down he goes.

---





Arngrim swiftly chops down all but one.

(These slipshod soldiers think they can call me "rebel scum"?)

Look, friend, don't expect me to do you any favours. I'm not going to die.



Vainglorious human... Strength is not everything.

Hmph. You're one to talk, death goddess!!



Such words will result in your certain death!!



Eh? You... you knew?

Heh heh heh... I see... So you're safe, little one.

I have one question. Aren't you just a death-goddess?

A god of death is merely responsible for the snuffing out of lives. I, however, can show you the path...

Path?

Yes. However, you must walk it on your own.













---



Listen: Arngrim and Jelanda

Consider it a gift.

It seems we'll be spending quite a bit of time together.

...That it does, little one. Quite a bit indeed....

FINALLY. END SCENE.





Jelanda official renders.

a cartoon duck
Sep 5, 2011


The combat music is kinda battling with the voice acting there. The second disc has a sound collection including all battle quotes you've encountered, so you can record them without the combat music getting in the way. Unless that's too much effort for what amounts to five second sound-clips, I dunno.

Overrated Sage
Aug 9, 2011

Atelier Iris in a nutshell:
"yay Veola pl- oh dammit main plot again"
Hey, and this whole time I was expecting the princess to be the primary antagonist. Huh.

How old is the princess, anyway? At first I thought she was a young adult, but now she's looking like she's barely reaching an age with two digits in it. It's not everyday that you find a game where a little girl turns into a monster and you have to kill her within the first thirty minutes or so. Never change, Valkyrie Profile.

Mors Rattus
Oct 25, 2007

FATAL & Friends
Walls of Text
#1 Builder
2014-2018

With this game, really, odds are that if a human has a portrait, you are either going to kill them or see them die at some point. After all, that's when a valkyrie shows up, isn't it?

ApplesandOranges
Jun 22, 2012

Thankee kindly.

Overrated Sage posted:

Hey, and this whole time I was expecting the princess to be the primary antagonist. Huh.

How old is the princess, anyway? At first I thought she was a young adult, but now she's looking like she's barely reaching an age with two digits in it. It's not everyday that you find a game where a little girl turns into a monster and you have to kill her within the first thirty minutes or so. Never change, Valkyrie Profile.

Jelanda is 14, Arngrim is 26.

One thing I can say about the game is that remember it's called Valkyrie Profile, not Mortal Profile.

a cartoon duck posted:

The combat music is kinda battling with the voice acting there. The second disc has a sound collection including all battle quotes you've encountered, so you can record them without the combat music getting in the way. Unless that's too much effort for what amounts to five second sound-clips, I dunno.

The only other battle quote I can think to grab at the moment is Lenneth's other opening line, so we'll see.

ApplesandOranges fucked around with this message at 00:01 on Mar 18, 2014

theshim
May 1, 2012

You think you can defeat ME, Ephraimcopter?!?

You couldn't even beat Assassincopter!!!
I love that line. Nothing gets you :black101: quite like hearing the Valkyrie call that out.

W.T. Fits
Apr 21, 2010

Ready to Poyozo Dance all over your face.

Overrated Sage posted:

Hey, and this whole time I was expecting the princess to be the primary antagonist. Huh.

How old is the princess, anyway? At first I thought she was a young adult, but now she's looking like she's barely reaching an age with two digits in it. It's not everyday that you find a game where a little girl turns into a monster and you have to kill her within the first thirty minutes or so. Never change, Valkyrie Profile.

It's not quite Drakengard levels of :wtc: but Valkyrie Profile does have its moments.

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.

Clapping Larry
Huh. I thought Valkyrie only took those who fell in battle. I guess suicide is kind of like battling yourself?

RSCNyx
Mar 6, 2013

It's okay, little guy. I would be scared too.
The cool thing about Spiritual Concentration is that all the voices you hear appear in the cutscenes after. However, not all of them are voiced.

For example, the two knights that scream are in the Spiritual Concentration scene! Exact same kind of screams, too, except they're in text, now.

I dunno, I always found that to be a really neat detail.

IAmTheRad
Dec 11, 2009

Goddammit this Cello is way out of tune!
The PSP version of this is a very faithful port, and a heck of a lot cheaper than the PSOne version to get off ebay. Slight slowdown because of the UMD, and the only real change was adding pre-rendered cutscenes. I don't know if you can get it for the Vita or from PSN.

But back to the LP itself.
I had no clue a female voiced Arngrim. It's definitely a voice I'd expect a gruff looking guy to do.

dis astranagant
Dec 14, 2006

theshim posted:

I love that line. Nothing gets you :black101: quite like hearing the Valkyrie call that out.

Shame it's so rare, it's my favorite line of her's.

booksnake
May 4, 2009

we who are crowned with the crest of wisdom
This whole bit just sets the tone for VP so well. Everybody dies.

Also loving the gifs.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe

booksnake posted:

This whole bit just sets the tone for VP so well. Everybody dies.

It's like Shakespeare! :v:

Going back a bit in the thread,

RSCNyx posted:

Frey was a guy, but he was a God of Fertility. One of his friends managed to woo a giant's daughter into becoming his wife by threatening to turn her into a withered old maid.

Freya, however, was known for her beauty, oftentimes to the point of vanity. She started a war just to receive a necklace.

If you're really into Norse mythology: you're going to notice that TriAce took quite a few A TON OF liberties.

Honestly the VP series in general is very "Norse Mythology seen through an anime lens". The fact that Ragnarok is apparently between the Aesir and Vanir should be your first clue that this is not your average Viking saga.

Rabbi Raccoon posted:

And hot drat I love this game. I remember reading somewhere that Easy Mode is actually harder than the others because you don't have access to anything particularly powerful though. And the intro is just such a slog to sit through once you've played through once.

If I recall correctly (It's been a few years since I last played), it basically boils down to you not being able to stack characters' levelup customization bonuses quite so heavily, since on Easy/Normal, they join at set levels, while on Hard mode, every character joins at level 1 and is easily powerleveled up to party average. There's a few more tweaks you can do to snap the game's difficulty over your knee but they'd be getting into spoiler territory so I won't discuss them yet.

As for the LP, looking good! It's nice to see GIFs of all the once-off animations the game made. I know Final Fantasy Tactics gets a lot of love for having special animations for all kinds of things, but Valkyrie Profile does so much more with its art.

FeyerbrandX
Oct 9, 2012

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

If I recall correctly (It's been a few years since I last played), it basically boils down to you not being able to stack characters' levelup customization bonuses quite so heavily, since on Easy/Normal, they join at set levels, while on Hard mode, every character joins at level 1 and is easily powerleveled up to party average. There's a few more tweaks you can do to snap the game's difficulty over your knee but they'd be getting into spoiler territory so I won't discuss them yet.

My memory is that there is a disproportionate level of "too good to use" items in Easy and Normal, whereas Hard has things you don't have to freak out about using. There's one boss I remember taking forever because I couldn't dare to try to lean on something to make a big bang.

Intentionally vague to avoid spoiling.

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Mazed
Oct 23, 2010

:blizz:


Ever watch Pokemon and think to yourself, "I want Berserk but with these guys"? If so, well do we have a game for you. :getin:

I never got around to finishing this game due to feeling like it was too grindy, but it's got a lot going for it. The background and sprite artwork is astonishingly gorgeous still.

And while it doesn't even care about how wrong it gets Norse mythology, the themes, particularly of the actions of people leading up to their death, feels at least thematically consistent with the sagas and the eddas.

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