Genre: RPG
Developer: tri-Ace
Publisher: Square Enix

Aside from a polygonal world map, Valkyrie Profile is entirely sprite based. It features beautiful hand-drawn backdrops for its dungeons, battles, and towns. Like a masterful painting, some of these backgrounds are so rich they almost look three dimensional. The sprites themselves are fluidly animated and demonstrate amply the character they are intended to represent.

The soundtrack in Valkyrie Profile is one of the strengths of this game: in the modern gaming world where music is either by Nobuo Uematsu or someone else, Valkyrie's music fits snugly in the upper echelon of the latter category. Sound effects are crisp, and the voice acting is either well done or "funny-bad". Icicle disaster!

The game flow involves recruiting the lost souls of recently deceased fighters and training them via dungeon crawling for a war going on in the afterlife. Dungeons are side-scrolling, and the rich visuals and platforming elements are very reminiscent of the Castlevania games. The battle engine is quasi-realtime and features a unique combo system. Wild oscillations in difficulty and a lack of direction given to the player at key times hurt the score a bit.

For the hardcore RPG fan, Valkyrie Profile is simply unforgettable. Its combination of gameplay elements, fantastic story, intruiging characters, and outstanding artistic attributes make for a one of a kind package. Unfortunately, the gameplay is sometimes so inaccessable and difficult that I even found myself getting frustrated with some of the dungeons. The casual should stay away, while the hardcore will probably foster a "love-hate" relationship with this game.