Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga is the third game in the Valhalla Knights series and the first to be released for a home console. The previous two games were released for the PSP and lack some of the features of Eldar Saga such as online play. The game is an action-RPG similar to games such as Children of Mana and the Monster Hunter series. While it may be overlooked by most gamers, Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga tries to set the bar high in its first jump from handhelds.

The story for Eldar Saga starts with a meteor shower, many years ago. The meteors gave birth to monsters that invaded the world of humans, dwarves, elves, and halflings. Banding together, all the races managed to push the monsters to a region known as Eldar. So your job is, naturally, to destroy the monsters and ridding the land of evil. It sounds very familiar to many other storylines in other games/movies, but there is a cool twist to the plot.

The story is split into 2 episodes, one where you play as the hero that fights for the destruction of evil and one where you play as the hero’s son or daughter. This generation change in the story makes for a nice change of pace, but it still feels a little disjointed. Not only do you play as a different character in the second chapter, you can even choose to play as a different race or class (mage, fighter, thief). The plot is not the best and it’s only made worse by poor cutscenes and poor voice acting. Most of the character animations don’t match up with the audio and it really softens the experience.

From a gameplay perspective, Valhalla Knights starts off with a lot of great ideas. Having an RPG-style game with real-time combat is a great idea. But having lackluster controls and a frustrating combat engine make this great idea seem like a distant goal. For instance, no matter what weapon you’re using, the combos and time it takes to complete each combo on an enemy is the same. Even as different stats upgrade for your character. The targeting system is also a problem as it never seemed to target things for very long. You either have to hold down the Z button for the whole encounter or constantly adjust your camera angle to attack. Like I said, it has a lot of great ideas, but it’s really hurt by the poor execution. This doesn’t just affect the gameplay, it also carries over into some of the more painful visuals in a Wii game to date.

It’s not often that I compare a Wii game to a Nintendo 64 game, but there are definitely areas where that’s true. And it’s not just in the quality of the textures, it’s in everything from poor character animations to bland overworld graphics. As you explore the overworld, you’ll find that there’s a lot of geographic variation such as cool land bridges, cliffs, rivers, and even waterfalls; but the environments lack a certain richness. The poor graphical presentation affects not only the gameplay but the experience as well. It’s really hard to get into an RPG, that you know you’ll see a lot of over the next 20 hours, when the graphics are so dated. The audio needs to be mentioned here as well. In no game have I heard such monotonous and just plain bad sound effects. Just running on the cobblestone streets had me wondering if my feet had turned into two loud drums. And again, the voice acting and even narration left a little to be desired.

While the visuals are not the best, there are a couple areas where the game actually has a lot of depth. There are 4 races, 12 different job classes, multiple skills for each job, and weapons can also be customized. So for RPG fans looking for a lot of customization, Valhalla Knights Eldar Saga may be up your alley. And probably the best idea that doesn’t quite meet its potential, is the inclusion of 2-player online co-op using Nintendo Wifi Connection. Now the levels of customization are given a real purpose because now you can wield your own custom-forged weapons with a friend and go on various quests. A great idea on paper, if you’re able to find another person to play with online and you ignore the previously mentioned gameplay flaws.

Conclusion

Valhalla Knights Eldar Saga is definitely not the answer for action-RPG fans. While the game retails for only $39.99, I fear most gamers won’t see the value even then. With all the flaws in gameplay, graphics, and presentation; Eldar Saga is not a great buy at any price. The Wii has enough games that are already labeled as last generation, and it’s a shame to see another title with a lot of potential fall into that same category.

Valhalla Knights: Eldar saga gets a 4.9/10