Once a battlefield to the Spirit King, Eldar has since been deemed "Origin of Chaos" because of its history, in which demons and monsters had marched into war against an alliance of races. The ensuing conflict nearly destroyed the entire world. Now the plains of Eldar are in danger once again, as monsters emerge to retake the land. Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga takes place during these dark times, and the player must create a hero to save Eldar.
You start the game in its first chapter when all factions are united against the demon threat. The meat of the game takes place after this war, when the original hero from chapter one is already old and retired. You'll then customize a descendent to continue.
The game possesses a unique design, borrowing from Western RPG gaming with real-time battles and customizable characters, offering greater depth than most expect from J-RPGs today. Jumping into Valhalla Knights, RPG fans may get a sense of familiarity while browsing the hub villain, taking on random encountes and acquiring quests that border on overwhelming.
For those eager to battle, the stats in player creation are key -- being able to set up vitality, dexterity and strength, as well as resistance and other key attributes. All of these complement the character's class and speed up skill-building in fights. For us, one of the most important factors to start with was boosting up basic speed, opening up an option to run away from battle. Skills improve as you progress, fighting more and more battles, but death sends your character straight back to the nearest town and docks your money count. That's right, the death penalty takes your money and makes you start over across the monster-infested landscape. And starting as a Fighter class, it didn't take long before a few irksome flaws began popping up. After a few short battles, the Fighter's sword had degraded to a critical point. The damage to gear is time-based, meaning it will deteriorate
The game builds on many good intents; it delivers story and promise but the one major issue any player will see is that no matter how much stat padding you do, the game is remarkably slow. The leveling from fighting and quests can really drag over time, which tends to wear down a player's patience. What starts as a fun free roaming action RPG ends as a struggle with needlessly clumpsy progression. In-game mercenaries can help ease some difficulty off the player, but the A.I. is dim at best; some quests even prohibit the player from using mercenaries.
K2 tried creating a vast world on the Wii and should be commended for taking on such a difficult task, give the constraints of the technology. Eldar is often murky in color from draw distance issues, fog is all over the first chapter, and the textures fall flat, making the experience feel more removed than immersive. The game is fun, and dungeon-crawling can really appeal to the experienced RPG fan, but the mechanics are what stop the game in its tracks. Having to rely on less than efficient partners and facing fight-persistent enemies across the land get incredibly tiresome. This makes that speed buff we talked about all the more important. Valhalla Knights does offers two-player WiFi, but even that isn’t much help at times.
This is a brave game for the team to produce, and it has many pieces for a promising RPG -- only problem being the pieces were not strung together particularly well. Eldar Saga is a game we want to recognize, but it will inevitably feel like a chore more than actual fun. By the second episode (chapter), colors started to emerge in the game world, adding some needed vibrancy to an otherwise uninspiring universe. Even with that, other flaws remain unaddressed. Aside from the slow progression, however, hardcore RPG gamers might be pleased with the overall length of the game. For moderate or casual players, Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga doesn’t pop right out of the box and will take time to warm up to.
Final score: 7.0 / 10
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