25 years later, Valkyrie profile remains one of the greatest JRPG classics

Valkyrie profile celebrates its 25th anniversary today, today on August 29, 2025. Below, we review why RPG was ignored at the time and why this makes it still so special today.

It's not hard to see why the Valkyrie Profile was ignored in its original North American release. Japanese publisher Enix has only recently resumed its U.S. affiliate, which is probably due to the popularity of JRPG in the ultimate Fantasy 7 era and the success rate of Sony's license and release of Star Ocean is attributed to the second story in the world. But it would be a tough effort to get any traction on the new PS1 RPG, even made by Star Ocean 2 developer Tri-Ace. Dreamcast has appeared, with the US PS2 launching less than two months, and Squaresoft followed up with the beloved Chrono Trigger a few weeks ago.

This is my freshman in college, that is, on a weekend before my birthday, I wanted a new RPG to get me to occupy me between classes. I have two options: Valkyrie Profile or Chrono Cross. My experience with Star Ocean was enjoyable the previous summer and my intuition told me that the Valkyrie profile was something I should have chosen.

I never regret buying. Valkyrie Profile was one of the greatest RPGs of its time, and it was a game – despite being from many of its devout fans, crime was criminalized. It's been 25 years and there's still no other to capture the same magic.

As you might suggest from the title, the Valkyrie Profile's setup is built around concepts inspired by Nordic myths, and of course there are a lot of creative swing rooms. The nominal Valkyrie Lenneth was called to serve Odin, the great god of Asgard's heavenly kingdom ruler. He learned that the fabulous Ragnarok was within reach, and between that and the struggle between Aesir Gods and Vanir heating, they needed human power in the form of a valuable human soul: Einherjar. Lennis must find the valuable souls on the recently left Midgard lower plane to train and transfer before the final confrontation of the gods. However, there are also a lot of chaos to clean up on Midgard – Immortal Einherjar before the rebellion that Niflheim infiltrated, and humans have surpassed their boundaries.

It was obvious from the beginning that, contrary to the gods' gilded realm, Midgard was a miserable nest. The villages exist on the brink of catastrophic collapse. Despair leads many people to participate in dangerous activities to make a living. In this harsh, desolate field, illegal transactions such as smuggling, thievery and even human trafficking seem to live in the grave every day. You can't help but ask if the disaster in ragnarok could be a little mercy to end all the pain seen.

Lenneth gave it with spiritual spirit, and could feel the late struggle and pain. When she came to bring their souls under her wings, she saw their last days, and their miserable fate was revealed. Her first recruits involved a arrogant princess and a rude mercenary, finding herself trapped by a traitor nobleman in a puzzling plot – one doomed to both. What followed was more tragedy. The warrior strikes Faust's bargaining to cure his sister's blindness, but only perishes in the hands of the demons inside him. A magic school principal finds himself slaughtered by his husband and turned into a monster by a revenge student. These are just a few. Not every death should be gone, because not every person recruited by Lenes is a particularly good person. What matters is their usefulness to Odin, and Lennis can help them shape the perfect warrior.

Knowledge of Midgard's geopolitical environment can be gathered from the late intertwined legends, and although the gods usually don't care about most human affairs, Lenneth encounters many personalities that keep her ongoing mission. There is an Einherjar that seems strange to Lenneth. Then there is the Brahmin, the King of the Undead, who seems to take people important to Lenes and the gods as hostages to prevent them from destroying him. And, of course, the Wunderkind Lezard Valeth: The only thing worse than his creepy obsession is that it is immoral to have Valkyrie “his”, which means he will succumb to achieving that.

The ongoing tragedy of Valkyrie profile helped to differentiate it from most other RPGs of the era, but what makes it feel special is its unique interlocking game mechanic. One of them is the unique structure of the game. Exploration is largely free, you can visit areas, recruit Einherjar, and explore dungeons when you see fit. Instead, progress is determined by the timer system: the game's chapters are divided into a certain number of “periods” and the number of actions (recruitment, exploration, rest). When you reach the end of the chapter period, Lenneth will get Asgard's evaluation. The actions performed in this chapter, such as sending the appropriate Einherjar to Asgard and losing artifacts to calculate your assessment. Be good and you will get rewarded. Then, you go to the next chapter. Although some characters and areas are only available in certain chapters, you are usually not obliged to complete anything immediately upon appearance, giving you a lot of freedom.

Another defined game feature is the dungeon. These are presented as 2D, side-scrolling platform-like transactions, full of traps, enemies, jumps and heads. They usually have customization obstacles and tricks that Lenneth needs to overcome and add elements of puzzles to the platform operation. Luckily, Lenneth has a handy gadget to help: Crystal Projectiles. This offers a wide variety of uses: temporarily freezing enemies, creating obstacles and platforms, and even refracting light from a distance or manipulating objects. She can also push her toward hidden enclaves (and allow for some interesting speed techniques) by performing advanced motion techniques in various ways.

But the most incredible element of Valkyrie's profile is its battle. Tri-Ace's previous Star Ocean Games added action game elements to the usual RPG program, while Valkyrie Profile did something similar conceptually but performed completely differently. Each battle will see you control four characters, one assigned to each face button. Depending on the weapon you are equipped, each character can access certain set attacks, which will be performed when you press the button. Some attacks have special features, such as breaking enemy guards or launching airborne for juggling. There is enough hit rate at the turn and you will fill the gauge so that you can free up a party member’s final attack. With some strategies and practices, you can learn how to link combinations and super similar to how it is in a fighting game.

However, enemies don't always make it easy – they will guard, parry and avoid where possible, disturbing your battle flow and making them more challenging to kill. Observe and figure out the characteristics of your attacks – how many hits they hit, if they can mess up or damage enemies on the ground, which is crucial to both defeating powerful enemies and winning many post-war rewards. It is also important to understand how enemies react to your attacks and crimes, as you can dodge, fight back and guard as long as you have the right skills. Sounds cool, I actually oversimplified the battle: there are a lot of tips and nuances here that will challenge RPG vets and experienced action gamers.

In-depth skill system Bolsters Valkyrie profile game depth. Learning skills not only helps characters in combat, but also improves the heroic value of characters and gives them positive traits, making them more suitable for their services in Valhalla. Passive personality skills grant statistics can be improved, eliminate negative personality traits, and tend to be specific requirements of the gods. Fighting skills include automatic disassembly and low HP survival techniques, counterattacks, added effects to normal strikes such as splash damage and extra hits, and powerful techniques to attract enemies.

Warning: Spoilers for Valkyrie's profile ending, including its true ending.

Everything peaked in the final chapter of the game, with Lenneth leading Einherjar and attacking the Vanir stronghold. When she wins, you may expect a glorious celebration of Valhalla. But that's not what you get. The ending you receive for this outstanding performance is… plain. and brief. It's shocking, it seems like you're hiding something. besides! The Valkyrie profile is a multi-faceted game, partly because what makes it so strong in commemorating players is the trick it attracts.

The key to getting the real, best ending in the game is the fundamentality with what often leads players to expect. It's easy to assume that executing the game provides you with an exceptionally good quest will pay off with a better ending. But that's not what Valkyrie profile does. Instead, the Valkyrie profile wants you to question and doubt your assigned task.

Throughout the process, Odin and the gods were not completely sublime, seeing humanity as a useful tool for their battle and service. By strictly following the orders Odin gave her, Lennis directly played his obedient pawn. But what if Lennis disobeys? Apparently, under the attention of a powerful God, a complete rebellion would put her directly in his crosshairs to eliminate.

The steps players have to take to get Lenneth out of Odin's control, a small act of stage over time: sending only the required number of Einherjar, decide to keep some of the sacred treasures found by the gods in the dungeon, visiting places related to the forgotten past. Even the simple move of removing the ring Odin will help break his impact on her even when negotiating with Asgard between chapters. Lowering the seal is enough that when you enter a certain area in Chapter 7, a series of dramatic events will occur and will hang in the balance when Lenneth estimates the fate of all the fields.

The unique requirement to visit this finale is shocking for players when the game was first released, and even now, it still stands out. We do conditionally we are told to receive praise and rewards in the game, and rarely stop to question why we do it. By contrast, Valkyrie's profile reveals only the full truth of his world to those who deliberately and provocatively play a role around his core system.

Valkyrie Profile features sequels, spinoffs and spiritual successors and provides inspiration for many of the subsequent games. Some of these games are great in their own right, while others are not many. However, all the games since then have somehow deviated from the original game elements that helped make the Valkyrie profile a fantastic experience. Maybe it's just a case of lighting in a bottle – the world of game and game development has changed so much since its original version that you can't retake the same magic. That's why it lacks usability on modern platforms so tragic: There are only tradeoffs on mobile ports and a re-release of the PSP version of PS4/5. I can only hope that changes will happen in the end, because there are no other profiles like Valkyrie, and probably never. When I first played on the PS1 these years ago, I was attracted. A quarter of a century later, I am still.