Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume
| Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Developer(s) | Tri-Ace |
| Publisher(s) | Square Enix |
| Director(s) | Shunsuke Katsumata |
| Producer(s) | Yoshinori Yamagishi |
| Designer(s) | Miho Akabane Shutaro Yokoyama Naoko Ando |
| Programmer(s) | Shinji Hirachi Koji Morikawa Yoshiharu Gotanda |
| Artist(s) | Yutaka Watanabe Yuki Nakamura Tomohisa Ishikawa |
| Writer(s) | Miho Akabane Yasushi Ohtake Kishiko Miyagi |
| Composer(s) | Motoi Sakuraba |
| Series | Valkyrie Profile |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo DS |
| Release | |
| Genre(s) | Tactical role-playing game |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Aggregator | Score |
| GameRankings | 74% |
| Metacritic | 74 of 100 |
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
| 1UP.com | B |
| Famitsu | 32 of 40 |
| GamePro | 4 of 5 |
| GameSpot | 6 out of 10 |
| IGN | 8.5 of 10 |
| Nintendo Power | 90 of 100 |
| RPGFan | 83% |
| Blast Magazine | 8.3/10 |
Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume (ヴァルキリープロファイル 咎を背負う者 Varukirī Purofairu Toga o Seou Mono?, lit. Valkyrie Profile: The Accused One(s)) is the third installment in the Valkyrie Profile series of role-playing video games developed by tri-Ace. It was published by Square Enix for the Nintendo DS in 2008 in Japan, later released in North America, Europe, and Australia in 2009.
The story uses Norse mythology and involves a ten-year-old boy named Wylfred who becomes involved in a civil war that is at the same time a war with the gods. The game debuted at number two in Japanese video game sales, and was generally well received by critics who cited its dark tone but noted its high degree of difficulty.
Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume's gameplay is presented mainly from an isometric view, similarly to Final Fantasy Tactics. The player's two-dimensional character sprites move about on a three-dimensional map akin to those of a tactical role-playing game. Characters can attack enemies individually or can actively support each other via the Mutual Assist system. When an enemy is in range of up to four characters, an exclamation mark will appear, indicating that the character is ready to attack. Up to four characters are mapped to the A, B, X, and Y buttons, which are used to attack. Each successful attack fills up the Attack Gauge; when it reaches 100, characters can perform powerful attacks called Soul Crushes.
The position of characters around enemies during combat can be exploited in a feature called the Active Formation system. Aligning characters in certain formations can increase the rate of item drops or speed at which the Attack Gauge increases. Active Formations include the Flank Raid with two characters on opposite sides of an enemy, Axis Raid with two characters in front of and behind an enemy, Trinity Fork where characters surround the enemy on three sides, and Grand Cross where characters surround an enemy on all four sides. Another new factor in battle involves the Destiny Plume. By invoking the power of the plume, the player can choose to temporarily grant an ally improved statistics and abilities but once the battle ends, the Destiny Plume overwhelms that character's physical form and they die permanently. Using the plume affects the outcome of the plot, leading to different branches of the story or even a Game Over upon overusing the plume in a single chapter.
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