Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume

4

12+

8,5

1969-12-31

2018-07-03 12:23:25

Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume (ヴァルキリープロファイル 咎を背負う者 Varukirī Purofairu Toga o Seou Mono, lit. Valkyrie Profile: The Accused One(s)) is the third installment in the Valkyrie Profile series of role-playing games. It was developed by tri-Ace and published by Square Enix for the Nintendo DS, released on November 1, 2008 in Japan; on March 17, 2009 in North America; and in all PAL regions on April 3, 2009.

Gameplay

Characters talking during a dialogue sequence.
Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume’s gameplay is presented mainly from an isometric view, similarly to Final Fantasy Tactics. The player’s two-dimensional character sprites move about on a three-dimensional map akin to those of a tactical role-playing game. Characters can attack enemies individually or can actively support each other via the Mutual Assist system. When an enemy is in range of up to four characters, an exclamation mark will appear, indicating that the character is ready to attack. Up to four characters are mapped to the A, B, X, and Y buttons, which are used to attack. Each successful attack fills up the Attack Gauge; when it reaches 100, characters can perform powerful attacks called Soul Crushes.

The position of characters around enemies during combat can be exploited in a feature called the Active Formation system. Aligning characters in certain formations can increase the rate of item drops or speed at which the Attack Gauge increases. Active Formations include the Flank Raid with two characters on opposite sides of an enemy, Axis Raid with two characters in front of and behind an enemy, Trinity Fork where characters surround the enemy on 3 sides, and Grand Cross where characters surround an enemy on all four sides. Another new factor in battle involves the Destiny Plume. By invoking the power of the plume, the player can chose to temporarily grant an ally improved statistics and abilities but once the battle ends, the Destiny Plume overwhelms that character’s physical form and they die permanently. Using the plume affects the outcome of the plot, leading to different branches of the story or even game over, should the player overuse the plume.

Another aspect to combat is the accumulation of Sin. Sin is gained by inflicting damage against an enemy whose HP has already been depleted. Most of the battles in the storyline have a predetermined amount of Sin the player must harvest to appease Hel. If the appropriate amount of Sin is accumulated by the end of battle, the player will be rewarded with items and equipment but if the amount is not reached, the player will face a set of extremely difficult and powerful enemies.

Reception

Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume has received mostly positive reviews.

The game debuted on the Japanese sales charts at number two, selling 80,000 copies. It was the 97th best-selling game in Japan in 2008, selling 136,948 copies. As of May 31, 2009, the game has sold 230,000 copies worldwide. Hyper’s Daniel Wilks commends the game for being ”very dark in tone and gameplay mechanics, forces long term strategy” but criticises it for its ”punishing, steep difficulty curve”.

Nintendo DS

Square Enix

5060121824881

United States

Cartridge

~32,50 €

2025-07-13

2018-07-03 12:23:25