Beauty! Wonder! Plotline! These are words that describe the majestic game, “Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria.”
In Norse mythology, goddesses of Fate, called Valkyries, collect souls of fallen warriors for Odin, the highest of the gods. This game follows the story of Silmeria —the youngest of the three Valkyries — who rebelled against Odin. As punishment, Silmeria was trapped in a sleeping human's body. She should have slept until the end of the world, while the human in which she resided lived a regular life.
However, rather than sleep eternally, Silmeria awoke within her host's body — a young princess named Alicia. Since then, Silmeria has actively worked to prepare Alicia for the trials she will eventually face as the host of an active Valkyrie.
As the game unfolds, Alicia meets and brings forth new allies to fight with. As a Valkyrie, Silmeria keeps the souls of dead warriors, called Einherjar, with her. These Einherjar can be summoned when the player finds the weapon once wielded by the warriors.
There are also many enemies. Most are monsters that simply stand in the way, but there are a few important enemies, namely Odin and Hrist, the Valkyrie currently allowed to be in the Midgard world.
Upon each meeting, conflicted emotions arise between Silmeria and her older sister, Hrist. Hrist tries to convince Silmeria to abandon her strange quest and return to Valhalla — so that Odin can set things straight. Silmeria refuses. You can already imagine the plot twists and epic confrontations that follow.
However, the plot isn't the only attractive component to this game. “Valkyrie’s” resplendent graphics are immediately noticeable. To put it simply, this game is a must-see.
“Valkyrie” also has a great new system for equipment, battle and movement.
Movement is usually 2-D, and motion follows a “Megaman”-style format: left-to-right or right-to-left. Enter a battle, however, and you'll find yourself surrounded by enemies on all sides.
As you fight, you strike specific parts of enemies. If you break off an enemy's legs, they can no longer stand. Hit their arms, and they no longer hold weapons. Also, when breaking off your enemies' body parts, you can gain accessories.
Colored equipment is a new element of this game. Each piece of equipment has a color, and many accessories have special effects that become stronger if two or more pieces of equipment of the same color are used. For example, if you equip a blue beetle shell that increases your defense by 3 percent, and you also have a blue sword and a blue helmet equipped, your blue beetle shell will actually increase your defense by 6 percent.
How does that sound for working together? The hard part arises when you consider that each piece of equipment is inscribed with a rune, and certain combinations of runes allow you to gain skills.
With a variety of colors, skills and equipment powers, what more could there be?
Why, different attacks of course!
Characters can learn different attacks as their level rises, and you have to decide which one you want to use the most. It might seem complex, but with such a huge combination of different possible maneuverings, the possibilities number as great as the stars.

Grade: A+