Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria

At a length of about thirty hours, the game may be considered short by epic RPG standards, but it also makes the game that much more replayable. [JPN Import]

If you can get past the stiff difficulty, it has all the elements of a great RPG with its intriguing storyline, compelling combat and deep game mechanics.

Miles ahead of its competition when it comes to gameplay, story, visuals, and sound.

This is one of the best RPGs that PlayStation 2 owners could hope for.

A clever mix of real-time and turn-based battling keps combat fresh and there's real tactical depth. [Nov 2007, p.112]

This is a real gamer's game, but the excellent graphics and the action-packed battles should draw anyone in. And once you're hooked, you'll find yourself forced to dig deeper. That's how they get you.

At its core the game is fiendishly clever. Like the game's baroque visuals, the mechanics are equally ornate – nearly diabolically so. It's a shame to discover such a meticulously crafted game cobbled together with duct-tape.

+ Amazing battle system+ Game has next gen graphics for a PS2 game+ Music gives atomsphere+ Strategy over power leveling~ Battle system is convulated~ Tedious management~ Story feels slightly missing~ Cutscenes are done in a cinema style- Spike in difficulty half way through the game and at the very tail end- Most characters are rather dull / slow to grow- Einherjar are severaly cut compared to first game

One of the best ps2 games. Combat system is grater then other for rpg on ps3 or ps4. This game must be remastered. To bad that new VP game is not like Silmeria but more like Donkey Kong

Along with Okami, Odin Sphere, and Final Fantasy X, this is one of the most visually stunning games to come out for the PS2, or for any system, last or current gen. It's also really refreshing to see side scrolling brought back to the front burner like this. A wonderful throwback to the old school days, but still feels fresh and precise by modern standards. The music is also terrific, impressively ranging from stirring, Celtic village themes to the haunting, minimalistic sounds of a possessed woods or serpentine cavern. Getting to everything else, however, the praise begins to thin out. The battle system (the backbone of any RPG), while not without merit, is too easily gamed through repetitive, cookie-cutter tactics. I got to a point eventually where I could win just about any battle by simply breaking off a member of my group, placing him or her behind my enemy, and leading it around in circles to keep my attack gauge full and avoid hits. Some people argue that **** has an easily exploitable flaw like this, you should just not use it and enjoy the game in a you-know-what-they-were-trying-to-get-at kind of way, but that doesn't make sense to me. That's like saying you should ignore bad acting in a film because you know they were actually trying to give a good performance. Games are judged by the depth and completeness of their design. That's their commodity. If the flaw is there, I'm going to exploit it. The story, too, is a bit lacking. Not terrible, but it takes too long to get to the major turns. And the dialogue is a bit Final Fantasy 4-ish, with hot-headed, 1D characters who form inextricable bonds over one firelit night at camp, but still retain a petty, soap opera bend to their interactions. That would have been fine in 1991, but at the tail end of the PS2 era, it feels stale and trite. The voice acting, too, while overall pretty acceptable, is at times laughably bad, almost in a good way. Especially some of the battle chatter from Lezard. Sometimes it was hard to tell whether they were being facetious or not. I say not, but I still got a laugh out of some of it, so I guess it's kind of a wash. Overall, a game that's just kind of all over the place. Terrific, Good, OK, and sometimes Pretty Bad. But mostly, it's just Pretty Good. I finished it at a fairly good clip, never really felt bored even when I knew the battles were a foregone win, and always enjoyed what I was seeing and hearing. I just wish they'd done something about that running around in circles thing.

As far as sequels go, the first game gave a higher quality on everything. Gameplay is somewhat clunky and story is not on par with the previous one.

This is a bit old but i want to register. Battles are good and dinamics, history is good, but not a continue from the last one and the way you fight bosses is a bit frustrating. I remember that even with a guide, that pointed me which boss i would face, i was not able to find the components to built items/weapon to help in the fight, and when i was able, it really didnt helped a lot. It follow the same line of gameplay and battle as the STAR OCEAN LAST HOPE. The overall of this game is ok, but not exceptional. How they portable this one with theright modifications.