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Valhalla Knights Review
Written by Cody Musser on Thursday, June 28, 2007
User Score
Equipment customizeable to the nth degree; Real-time combat is mostly enjoyable.
Ridiculously low item storage limits; Basically no story at all; Just another MMO-lite spawn.
I used to jokingly tell all my friends that I would willingly forego story and cool characters if an RPG gave me the option to wear a multitude of items on my character, and literally see each item I was wearing. This was obviously before the advent of MMO's and their realization of said desire, but even still, I wanted this to happen in a regular RPG, sans the whole monthly payments and giving up your soul bit. I should also make clear that I'm lying; I actually wasn't joking, I really would do that, and also, I only have one friend. That is the type of person I am, not only a liar, but someone who is so materialistic that 75 different varieties of shields outweighs all other aspects of gameplay. Well, it turns out, I was entirely wrong. They created what I thought would be the game of my dreams, Valhalla Knights, and nowadays, ignoring story and character development for a slew of cool-looking items just makes something on a handheld feel like an MMO-lite.
It's very important to bring to any conversation about Valhalla Knights the term MMO-lite, because everything about this game feels like that was the goal the developer was desperately striving for. It's as if they used the model of games like World of Warcraft, ...nay, that may be a bit too overzealous, the model of games like Everquest to create an online RPG, only without any other players. There is only a faux-story that provides the backdrop to the seemingly infinite series of quests that are available, and it's never a particularly captivating one. The other players in your party aren't characters in the terms of actually having dialogue or meaning anything in the games overall structure, but instead they're simply recruited henchman ala' Guild Wars, or they're just like real people in MMO's that don't want to talk to you because you have a whiny voice and won't turn down that new Linkin Park album. These henchman come with the standard variety of race and class we've grown accustomed to. Races include humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, and machines; while classes initially include fighter, mage, priest, and thief. Just once I want to see someone shoot for off-the-wall and give me playable Mermen or Ents or fire-breathing dragon people with a history of prejudice.
Also, just as in any MMO ever created, if you venture out into the dungeons of Valhalla Knights without a priest, you're genuinely screwed. Like, screwed to the point of, "I wasted all my money on a mage, now I can't survive longer than one battle, I should probably restart the game." That's pretty screwed.
The MMO vision of Valhalla Knights starts to fall apart when scope comes into question. Obviously, you can't cram Everquest onto a PSP and call it a day. Well, then again, who am I to say? Maybe you can. Regardless, Valhalla Knights doesn't quite provide the full features of its wannabe genre. Instead, you're given a game which lets your characters appearance be determined by the various equipment he or she's wearing, but they can only carry a maximum of 30 items throughout the entire party. What kind of terrible joke is this? I clearly remember running back and forth to town in Monster Hunter Freedom because of the same ridiculously low limited baggage concept and it basically ruined the game.
I also bring up Monster Hunter Freedom because these are basically two versions of the same game, only one is going to allow you to traverse with a party of up to five henchman, and the other is... a much better game. Like to guess which is which? Monster Hunter Freedom and Valhalla Knights are propagating this awkward subgenre of MMO-lite RPG's with real-time combat on the PSP, and it will probably continue on in Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology and, obviously, Monster Hunter Freedom 2. Who's a guy have to kill to get a serious story around here (and 75 varieties of shields that show on my character)?
Anything else I could say about Valhalla Knights is what anyone could determine solely by looking at the screenshots. The game looks good for a PSP title, merely good. The large amount of items allows you to customize your character to the nth degree, but unfortunately, none of them ever make your character look vastly cool. This, of course, might be the most important fault of the entire game. The environments are much the same, although they grow a little tiresome after playing for some time. There's a hazy quality to Valhalla Knights that ensures nothing ever become too vibrant or exciting; I guess that's what some people call style. I tend to call it boring.
