Valkyrie Profile Covenant of the Plume - All for one and one for all

HAZ CLIC AQUÍ PARA LEER ESTA ENTRADA EN ESPAÑOL.

Hello everyone! How are the combats going with the game from the last entry? A couple of entries back I talked about the Banner Saga, a tactical RPG game inspired on the Scandinavian folklore, and in this new entry I´m going to talk about yet another game based in the North European myth and legends, however, this time around we will do with a story told from a Japanese point of view. In fact, this game belong to one of the most veteran JRPG series, and, although in this blog I try no talk about popular series, just like in the case of Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland, in this case we are talking about a game that, despite belonging to a reputed series, the platform and time in which the game was released probably made it go unnoticed for many players despite the title´s quality. The game is called Valkyrie Profile Covenant of the Plume. Let´s see what this little great game has to offer.

Developed by Tri-Ace exclusively for the Nintendo DS and published by long time business partner Square-Enix in 2008 in Japan and 2009 in Europe and the US, Valkyrie Profile Covenant of the Plume is the last entry (so far) in the cult JRPG series Valkyrie Profile that started back in 1999 in Sony´s 32-bit PlayStation 1. Despite never being as popular as the Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest series, or even other series from Tri-Ace itself such as Star Ocean, the series achieved the cult status with the first entry in the series due to its high production values, unique gameplay mechanics and complex story telling. Despite being considered always a JRPG, Tri-Ace´s title has never been a typical JRPG, mixing elements from other genres such as the action/platform games, and in the case of Covenant of the Plume, Tri-Ace decided to bring the franchise to a completely genre, and more specifically to the Tactic RPG genre. Opposite to what we see in many other JRPG games, with stories full of good-hearted heroes that are willing to sacrifice it all just for the sake of justice, the story of Covenant of the Plume is a sad and dark one, a tale of pain and desperation typical of the Valkyrie Profile series. In Covenant of the Plume we will assume the role of Wylfred, a young man with a life full of pain and misfortune that has plunged him into a spiral of hatred and revenge of which he doesn’t seem to be able to escape. It all started when Lenneth, the Valkyrie we controlled in the first adventure of the series, claimed the life of his father to join Odin’s army in Valhalla, the greatest honor a warrior can receive upon his death. However, what for many is an honor, for young Wylfred only meant the beginning of his nightmare. The death of his father left her mom without the means to take care of him and his sister, which ended up with his sister’s death due to sickness and his mom’s fall into dementia due to the desperate situation. Lost, desperate and drowning in pain, Wylfred decided to do exactly what her mom feared the most: he joined a group of mercenaries to follow on his father footsteps, however, life had more in store for young Wylfred, and this time around, he would pay for it with his own life. During one of his missions, Wylfred is severely wounded while protecting his friend, and finally dies due to his wounds, or at least he thought so. Surrounded by complete darkness, just when he though we would be able to find in death the peace he could not seem to find in life, he hears a voice whispering to him. Thinking it was the voice of a Valyrie like the one that took his father’s soul, Wylfred refuses the call due to the hatred he feels for Odin’s messengers, but soon he discovers the call actually comes from a being far more powerful that the Valkyries: Hel, queen of the underworld. Hel offers Wylfred the chance to fight in her name, asking him to inflict as much damage and suffering as he cans in her name, and in exchange for that, she will grant Wylfred the power he needs to finish off Lenneth, the Valkyrie that took his father’s life. Blinded by hatred, Wylfred accepts immediately Hel’s offer, and embarks on an adventure in which the life of the companions that will join him during his travels will depend on his decisions, for Covenant of the Plume and The Banner Saga share much more than just their North European theme and their sad and complex story. Just like in Stoic’s title, our decisions will have consequences, to the point that the game will have several routes and up to four different endings that will depend exclusively on our decisions, including the death of main characters. It seems that North European legends and tragedy always go together.

Regarding the title’s gameplay, you could say that Covenant of the Plume is basically a Tactical RPG game, however, Tri-Ace’s title combines tactical RPG and turn-based RPG in a single title. Those who know Tri-Ace, and more specifically the Valkyrie Profile series, know that if there is something characteristic of Tri-Ace that is that they don’t (always) do the things like the rest, looking always for that extra twist to the formula, and Covenant of the Plume is no exception to that. Covenant of the Plume follows the same scheme we can see in many other popular Tactic JRPG series such as Final Fantasy Tactics, thus we will find ourselves advancing in a linear manner through a map, fighting and visiting tows that we will be able to explore through a menu. In the towns we will be able to buy equipment or visit the tavern, where will be able to unlock some secondary missions by listening to the villagers stories, however, these won’t be abundant in Covenant of the Plume. In fact, the game won´t even allow us to repeat any battles to do some level grinding. Once we have equipped ourselves properly, it will be time to continue our travels and prepare ourselves for the combats. Once in the battlefield, which will be displayed in the classical isometric view, we will have to select four characters to and deploy them in a map divided with a grid. In order to carry any actions, we will first have to select the character we want to carry an action first and then select the action we want to perform, such as move, attack or use items. Once we defeat our enemies, we will be rewarded with money and experience points that will allow our characters to level up and improve their stats. As you can see, so far is your typical Tactic RPG stuff, but now it comes when the game switches to “full Valkyrie Profile mode.” Are you familiar with D´Artagnan´s “all for one and one for all”? Yeah? Well, then you are already familiar with the base of Covenant of the Plume´s combat system. Opposite to what we see in many Tactic JRPG, where characters fight individually, in Covenant of the Plume the characters standing next to where the action is taking place will join in every time we attack with one of our characters, allowing us to unleash devastating combos like the ones we could see in the original Valyrie Profile game. Every time we attack, the game will take us to the combat screen just like it happened in the original turn-based adventure. Once we are in this screen, we will have to assign each of the characters participating in the combat to one of the buttons of our DS, and every time we press that button, the character assigned to that button will attack. Just like the original Valkyrie Profile game, in Covenant of the Plume it will crucial to keep the right timing when pressing the buttons to make sure our attacks will land on the enemies, other ways our attacks could miss, leaving us exposed to the enemies counterattacks. Each character will be able to perform a different number and type of attacks depending on their skills and equipment. Also, just like the original Valkyrie Profile game again, the game will make use of the Soul Crush system. During the combats we will see a power gauge which will fill up during the combats. Once this gauge fills up completely, we will be able to perform a special attack with one of our characters. After this, the gauge will deplete and we will have to wait till we fill it up again to be able to perform another special attack. Each character will have different special attacks with different special effects depending on their equipment, all of them accompanied by flashy animations. Finally, we have the brand new Overkill System. Once our enemies´ HP depletes completely they will perish, however, depending on our combo, we might end up inflicting them more damage than we actually needed to defeat them. All that extra damage is known as overkill damage. At the beginning of each battle, Hel will demand that we gather a certain amount of overkill points. If we manage to reach that amount by the end of the battle, Hel will reward us with all kind of powerful items to aid us in our crusade in her name, however, if we fail, we will have to pay the price four our failure, for Hel is not a kind goddess precisely, and she will punish us by having to face and extremely powerful enemy in our next battle, and this effect is accumulative, which means that, the more times we fail, the more powerful enemies we will have to face in our next battles, till the point where a battle could become a real nightmare. This system is designed so that, on top of forcing us to stay always alert and not aiming just to complete the battles, it forces us to face the dilemma of using the item that gives the title to the game: the plume. At the beginning of the adventure Wylfred will obtain what he calls “the plume of the goddess” and which will be one of the key elements of the game´s story and gameplay. If we gather the necessary points, Hel will allow us to use the feather to boost one of our characters stats to grant them god-like powers, allowing us to defeat our enemies pretty easily. However, this will come at a price: whoever uses the plume will die at the end of the battle. Every time a character dies this way, we won´t be able to revive them, however, for every character that days this way, Wylfred will learn a powerful new skill that he will be able to use at will during the next battles. It will be up to us to decide when or who we use the feather with, or if we actually use it at all, however, we will always have to keep it mind that there will be consequences, and these will not only affect the battles, but also the story itself, as with every character that dies, the path of the story will change and Wylfred´s personality with it. Will Wylfred be a merciful leader? Or will he just use his companions as mere puppets in order to fulfill his plan and satisfy his dark goddess’s demands to obtain the power he needs to complete his vengeance? The decision will be he’s, or actually, ours, but the ambiguity of the complex plot and the great personality of all of its characters won’t make it easy for us to decide in a world where the evil might not always be so evil, and the good might not always be so good, making us reflect on the senselessness of war and a “heroic death” while we try to help Wylfred with his inner struggle.

As for the graphics of the game, although it doesn’t boast the best graphics on the platform, it surely does a good job. The 2D sprites of the characters and enemies have a good design, and the same foes for the 3D maps in which the combats will take place. Opposite to the typical anime-style portraits that most JRPG games display during the conversations between the characters, just like its predecessors, Covenant of the Plume makes use of a much more realistic style that really matches the tone of the story, displaying some really elaborated illustrations. Finally, regarding the soundtrack, many of the tracks from Covenant of the Plume are the same ones we could hear in the original title for the PSX, which has always been praised as one of the best soundtracks ever composed for an JRPG game, with really strong and emotive melodies that really manage to convey the atmosphere of the world of Valkyrie Profile.


Valkyrie Profile Covenant of the Plume is a great title that, like many other similar titles, had the bad luck of going unnoticed by a big part of the community despite the game’s high quality standards, perhaps due to the platform and time the game was released on. Covenant of the Plume is definitely a game worthy of the Valkyrie Profile name, and one of the best Tactic JRPG games of the Nintendo DS’s extensive catalogue, which is saying a lot when you think of the many high quality titles of the genre that were release for Nintendo´s portable console. The game is still relatively easy to find and affordable, however, as it happens many times with these titles, the game was released just in English (and Japanese), so it will require some command of the language in order to be able to understand properly all the options and complex story of the game. If you are looking for a new Tactic JRPG, you should give a chance to Valkyrie Profile, I´m sure it won´t disappoint you. Enjoy!


GAMEPLAY VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ7J5j31L-4