BATTLE STAR

BATTLE STAR

The story and environments blend to form an intoxicating background to the meat of the game, which is its excellent battle system. You'll control four characters when you enter a dungeon (all of which are as atmospheric as the open world) via the face buttons, one for each. This cuts out the need for navigating complicated menus in the heat of battle. It seems simple, and bashing all four buttons simultaneously works, but if attacks are triggered in a different order, new ever-more-powerful combos are performed and creatures are dispatched explosively.The emphasis is on downing enemies as quickly as possible, yet with as much extravagance as you can muster. Combos help here, allowing you to rack up the hits over a scrap, then you're rewarded with bonus items. Going directly for an enemy leader and beating him quickly not only ends the battle immediately, but gives you cool stuff. Lopping off an enemy's limbs results in different pick-ups, so tactical slashing is required to get ingredients which can be converted into new equipment by store-keepers. There's a delicate balance between ending battles quickly to swell your inventory, and tonking every last one to increase your characters' experience. Delicate balances rock!Valkyrie Profile 2 is the sort of game that makes you shun you mates' offer of a beer to explore its fantastic world, recruiting infinitely customisable characters, marvelling at its involving battle system. To put it simply, it's gorgeous in every respect, even though it's only in 2D. PS2's last great game? What a way to go.