Valkyrie Saga

I don’t like to review games, but since Public Void is continuing to update this game and is engaging directly with the fans of this game and since I’ve plugged ~19 hours into this game I’ll give my two cents on it. [b]I will be discussing the whole of this game so obligatory spoiler warning[/b]. In my nobody-Steam-gamer opinion, [spoiler]Valkyrie Saga is a very good game seriously hampered by its messaging as of now. It’s outlook is the in-vogue postmodern nihilism which sees everything as horrible and unchangeable and the way to fix things is to ignore it all and do what you want. But...[/spoiler] [b]Gameplay:[/b] This game was made by people who [i]love[/i] platformers and the fantastic movement and attack system makes this evidently clear. The large map over time changes from a detailed landscape to a parkourfest, and the nooks and crannies Public Void stuffs things with to interact with are balanced with wide spaces to zoom around on. As you get more crystals, upgrades, and two spells which enhance your movement(the way the game does this is great pacing), you can bounce around the map in a way that I wish other games could. Roll’s movement gives her 8 different ways to access/climb each structure in a fun way, and the major locations are jungle gyms full of different side quests and baubles to collect. Best of all, improving your movement doesn’t make this game easier, but instead makes it an enjoyable movement puzzles. Valkyrie Saga is a blast to play and more platformers should take notes. The two things that should be mentioned with movement are small bugs that pop up sometimes. One, when running Roll sometimes freezes in place, forcing you to return to your last save point. Two, triggering the Gale spell is inconsistent, causing you to miss certain jumps because the spell didn’t activate when you pressed the button. I imagine fixing these is easy, and neither of these points are fully game-breaking. Bravo! The enemies in this game are good: however, I didn't like the bosses. [spoiler]The Seraphims are mini-bosses throughout the map that are shockingly easy to deal with. They go down in five hits: a small number of crystals makes them challenging, but you can kill them with one jump if you have enough. They seem to have four attacks and all four are easily avoidable, but they can sometimes sucker-punch you. Their biggest issue is that they don’t move. Having them be a static pillar to wollop makes them boring, but if they moved it would make them more engaging to fight imo. With Doom Dragon, the changing platforms each time you hit him fits nicely with the game’s mechanics, it makes for a rather boring fight. He just sits there. Go from one side of the room to the other, stab him in the face, repeat about 7 times as he shoots projectiles at you. Imo, a game which is based around quick platforming and dashing around screams for a chase down: why aren’t you chasing down this thing while it shoots stuff at you? Public Void could have made this fight similar to Psychonauts’s Linda the Lungfish fight – zip after the Doom Dragon, then he stops at the top of a structure, you climb it while he shoots at you, hit him when you get to the top, repeat 3 times, then fight him in an arena. I’m not Public Void and it’s their game, but I’m still surprised they went with such a static final boss.[/spoiler] This is pretty much my biggest complaint with the enemies: [i]they all just sit there for you to hit[/i]. It’s odd that there’s not at least one enemy that zips around on the ground for you to hit. The combat in this game is essentially “hit this thing X times,” which is the only major gameplay blemish. [b]Art Style:[/b] [i]Nails[/i] the chunky fifth-gen look. While the pattern choices can at times be hard to parse, they’re not incomprehensible and fit well for the aesthetic. The option to turn up or down the resolution and color contrasting is a smart move. The cool-tone palette and the highlights of white give the game a wonderful angelic and divine tone, and is contrasted fittingly with the stereotypical “dark, brooding, gothic, satanic” characters in this game. The character models are great! The Constructs (the main NPCs) have a fun design which allows them to be all over the place without being boring. Different props and color palettes are a simple but effective way to differentiate them and gives them personality (Seth my beloved). Roll has a great model too – it’s complicated but not jarring, and her demeanor is disciplined but expressive. The “napping” idle animation is a fun gag. The enemy models are fun: I love the Zoroasters! They’re big goofy lizards with airplane wings that shoot missiles at you. That’s just fun. The Seraphims have this imposing quality to them that is well-done. Someone here is aping modern Pokemon and I approve of it. (Whoever decide the statues you save your game at should be hyperrealistic crying angels deserves a gold star. That made me laugh and I love it.) One small aesthetic criticism: the marble texture is a little [i]too[/i] bright. From a distance it makes things a formless block and it becomes hard to make out things. Gray it just a bit and this game is golden aesthetically. [b]Writing/Dialogue:[/b] This game has a great sense of humor. Every once in a while Roll’s conversations with the Constructs sees either one make a left-field comment or line that got a chuckle out of me. The homicidal enemies who ask you to kill off their kind or other enemies is a bonkers gag that hits you out of nowhere. Actually, I’ll say a bit more on the Constructs, which are easily one of my favorite parts of this game. Most Constructs are content with their circumstances, none of them saccharinely so – a hard thing to do that this game does well. They do a menagerie of different things, keeping themselves busy in the post-apocalypse they reside in. The goth constructs are also a hilarious touch. There are a few Constructs which are unhappy with their lot, and give you sarcastic dialogue that is charming if it weren’t so hopeless – one in the city area is across from a bunch of missile launchers which perpetually shoot at each other and they are not happy about this. Then there’s Seth. Man do I love that he’s a thing in this game. Rock on you funky little robots. *The rest of this review is more on the political and philosophical matters that I have more firmer opinions on as well as more outright plot points on, so it will be made a comment on this review. It’s no “these people suck and I hate them for disagreeing with me” trash, but not everyone wants to read a Marxist analysis of a video game so I think it’s good to at least give a head’s up. I am simply giving my opinions here for their consideration. They have done a bang-up job in making this game and if anything I am pointing out these things in hopes of them raising a good game to a higher level. They have mentioned before being inspired by comments and I want to encourage their work further. If this different angle gives them new ideas, then mission accomplished imo!*