During the PS1 days, there were two "under the radar" RPG's that many people considered major competitor's to the Final Fantasy throne. One was Star Ocean and the other was Valkyrie Profile. Both were published by Enix before the monstrous merging of RPG behemoth's Square and Enix. Well, it appears that both franchises seem to be doing well over the years and while the latest Star Ocean got a major console release, the newest entry in the Norse-inspired franchise has a decidedly low-key release on Nintendo's handheld.

One of the best traits of the DS platform is how well it renders visuals in 2D. Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume is designed to look very much like Final Fantasy Tactics on the battlefield with semi-traditional Squenix character art fused with Vikings. Animations are always smooth although sometimes overused, but that is to be expected in an RPG of this nature. The battlefields are laid out on a grid with environments and other structures jutting upward in 3D. If you have played any strategy RPG before, you already have a good idea at how most of the game looks.

While the visuals hold up well for a handheld, the music and audio are a somewhat hit and miss affair. The music is excellent and battle themes are memorable. There just isn't much variety to the soundtrack or voices. The only voice acting occurs during battles, and there are lines of dialogue recorded for an intro, attacking, and victory lines. I guess the break from the monotony is if you use different characters because you can only bring 4 into the battle at any given time, so you hear their taunts and actions frequently during a fight.

You play as Wylfred. Wylfred and his family suffered through a long draught and watched his father succumb to starvation. He witnessed the valkyrie, Lenneth, take his father into the afterlife and assumingly blames Lenneth for his death. As Wylfred grows older, he becomes more bitter and curses the valkyrie's name on the battlefield. In your first battle, Wylfred dies and in his astral journey is confronted by a servant of Hel (the person, not the place.)

The servant, Ailyth, tells Wylfred that he can be restored to life if only he promises to one day kill the valkyrie, Lenneth. In his swiftness to agree to the faustian proposal, he agrees to something more sinister. In order to confront Lenneth, he was given a feather called the "Destiny Plume" and he must stain it black with sin. (They mean sin in a metaphysical sense and not a moral one.)

In order to obtain more sin, Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume insists that you earn it in one of two ways. You can either "overkill" enemies by continuing a combo or attack even after the enemy is dead. Or you can earn sin by one of the most conniving gameplay devices I have ever seen in an RPG; you have to kill your party members. That's right; the most efficient way to meet your sin quota is to sacrifice your party members to the plume.

It wouldn't be nearly as bad as it sounds if you weren't at such huge disadvantages so often because you didn't meet the required sin quota from the last battle. At the beginning of every battle, you are given a set number of sin that you must reach, and if you reach it then you are rewarded handsomely. If you fail to meet the requirements, you are warned once and then subjected to ethereal doppelgangers of your party members that are much higher in level that you. By choosing a victim for the plume, that person essentially becomes immortal for the remainder of the fight and can easily dispatch the remainder of the battlefield by themselves, which, unfortunately is one of the only ways to kill the enemies that are sent when you don't meet sin requirements.

Battles take place on a traditional grid-based battlefield and each side takes turns advancing and attacking. When one of your party is ready to attack, it takes you to an actual battle screen where whomever is allowed to attack follows. Each of your party members is assigned to a face button and that allows you to attack in combos or chains to maximize damage. This is why you can only have four fighters on the field at any given moment, one character for each face button. (But it has no problem sending 10 enemies to fight you!)

After an enemy is defeated, you are immediately rewarded with experience and items afterwards while still in the bigger battle at large. So it is possible to level up while still trying to whittle away the last of the boss's HP.

The last device that Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume utilizes to a somewhat successful effect is a branching storyline. It breaks away into three distinct paths throughout. Basically you start on the righteous path, and as you sacrifice more party members to the plume, you fall into the next level of the path until you can see a Game Over screen for killing too many allies.

I feel tired now having to explain so much before I can give an opinion that will seem just. Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume is incredibly deep and complex. There are so many systems operating at once, it is almost daunting. However, I feel that it goes too far into narrative-driven gameplay devices, (i.e. The Destiny Plume.) instead of focusing on the really fun combat systems. I understand that many RPG enthusiasts only play that genre for stories, but fun combat keeps me coming back to find out what happens next. By giving you very one-sided decisions in whether or not to use the plume, I feel like I miss out on a really interesting side story. A story that was cut short because I had to sacrifice an ally in order to not be killed in battle, or in most cases, simply win the fight so you can progress further for the main story.

Like most RPG's, Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume doesn't have a difficulty system. The introductory session of the story is fairly simple and straightforward, but the real challenges come in the decisions you are forced to make. Do you become a pack of mercenaries in order to help save a small village, or do you return to your hometown and fend off an enemy invasion? Should you sacrifice your archer or your mage so that you can finally beat the boss that you replayed 5 times because she can kill each one of your party members in one attack?

Moments like these are incredibly frustrating because that's when the realization hits that you will have to play it three different times in order to see everything and that just isn't fair. It is hard enough already, because you need to focus on positioning and maximizing your ally's potential in order to beat some of the bosses, but then I couldn't even imagine wanting to do it all over again with a different party and getting stuck with one of the worst characters in the game without realizing it.

At this point, I already laid it out how much I despise the Plume mechanic. I really enjoyed everything else about Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume, but forcing me to kill party members doesn't seem fair. Everything else works great.

Allies almost always gain a new level in every battle. New abilities can be bought or earned in easy ways, and the World Map is very reminiscent of the older Final Fantasy Tactics games. Every last bullet point to hit when designing an RPG is hit squarely on the head in this entry, but why does that one mechanic stick with me? Because it is different, and because traditionally, RPG's revel in the past and rarely venture into exciting new territories like this one has.

When Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume is best is when the combat, strategy, and depth mix together to create an addictive RPG with a fascinating story.

I really enjoyed my time spent with Valkyrie Profile and I would whole-heartedly recommend it to any DS owner that likes role playing games. This is one of those few times when I can appreciate a game for what it does better than most others, but still understand that it isn't a game meant for me. If you are familiar with the series or want something that stirs the pot a little bit, then Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume is definitely something worth checking out.