Destiny by Sinner Sought - Tragedy by Power Wrought -- Covenant of the Plume

Aroduc

The latest of the Valkyrie Profile series is out on Tuesday for DS.

The story follows Wylfred, whose father was taken by Lenneth to be one of the Einherjar. After he was gone, Wylfred's family fell into ruin. His sister starved to death, and then his mother took her life... all because his father bravely marched off to battle knowing that a glorious afterlife awaited him. The goddess of the underworld, Hel, offers him a chance for revenge. She gifts him a feather from Lenneth's wings that will damn a soul to her name, but give them untold power. With that blessing and curse in hand, Wylfred begins his quest to find glory enough to attract Lenneth's attention, and then exact his vengeance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMbvfkbPrEw

The game engine is quite a bit different from the usual VP action-based affair. This time, it's an SRPG, although the encounters play out similarly. When a character engages an enemy, every other ally in the general area around the monster will assist him in the attack in the usual button-press action sequence. Depending on the setup of your allies, you'll gain different bonuses from the formation. IE, the best is the Grand Cross, or 4 people surrounding the enemy. As usual, juggles earn bonus experience, and if you build up the combo meter far enough, you can use special attacks called Soul Crushes (or Purify Weird Soul for the less translatey).

One of the two major new gimmicks is Sin. You're working for Hel, and she wants souls. In order to please her, you must accumulate a certain amount of Sin each battle by brutalizing the enemy after they've been killed. Basically just keep attacking them once their HP is depleted and the Sin meter will go up (up to 100 per enemy). If you fail to accumulate enough Sin in the battle, then Hel will send a powerful minion in the next battle in order to goad you into using Lenneth's Feather to overcome it. If you do achieve enough Sin, she'll reward you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0wgIU1d0U0

Speaking of Lenneth's Feather, that's the second gimmick. It can be used in battle by almost any character and it increases their stats exponentially, but at the end of the battle, they're consumed by it and disappear forever. There are stages in the game tailor designed for the Feather and will be hard as nails to beat without using it. Obviously, once characters are killed, the story will change. The best ending (of three) is achieved by never using the Feather, but there is a New Game+ where you carry over a number of things to make those absurd battles more manageable.

Most reviews tend to agree that the game is one of the absolute best SRPGs on the DS, but probably the weakest of the Valkyrie Profile franchise. It's an extremely short game (~10 hours), but with the branching stories, multiple endings, and New Game+, it's made for multiple playthroughs (and you need a save at the end of all 3 to unlock the Seraphic Gate anyway). It also has the usual SRPG complaint that the enemy AI is horrible. *shrug* Also alternating compliments and complaints that it doesn't really try to use both screens in any creative fashion.

Um... have at you!