The Battle-Maiden has claimed the soul of your father and ruined your family.
Are you a bad enough dude to sacrifice your friends to get revenge?

Valkyrie Profile is one of my favorite RPG series, and this entry is no exception. The first game was an interesting platformer that included turn-based battles, the second game added a partially-turn-based field for more strategic battles, and the third is a full-on turn-based strategy RPG. Covenant of the Plume stars Wylfred, a young man on a quest for vengeance after Lenneth Valkyrie made his father an Einherjar (took his soul to Valhalla to train/live/fight to prepare for the apocalyptic Ragnarok) which left his family destitute, resulting in the death of his sister and his mother's dementia. Working as a mercenary with his best friend, Wyl nearly dies and is offered a deal with the devil in exchange for his life: Use the corrupted Valkyrie's Plume to accumulate Sin and be given power to kill the Battle-Maiden herself. The way to gain Sin is through the bloodshed of enemies...or allies. The machinations of war are stirring. What role will you play in the coming events?


Though spilling the blood of allies doesn't look as cool.

The move to SRPG isn't entirely unfounded, as Valkyrie Profile has always had some strategy to battles despite the button-mashiness it looked to have at first glance. Sure, flailing away on the face buttons can win some battles, but it's wholly inefficient and relying on this 'strategy' can really bite you in the end. A key element to the series is learning your allies' attacks and setting them up in a cohesive pattern so you can cause great damage, force drops of EXP-boosting crystals and attack-replenishing gems, and fill up the energy gauge for devastating Soul Crush specials, all with a rhythmic balance to ensure there are as few missed attacks as possible. You are forced to use Wylfred in every battle, but are allowed to bring three other allies with you, and these allies belong to specific classes which can equip certain equipment, and have movement/attack limits. Each person can only do so much, which is why the new Siege mechanic is so handy. When two or more units surround a foe in a formation, bonuses are granted to your units which progressively get better the more they surround one foe (up to one person on each of the four sides around the foe). This naturally means that whatever you surround is going to die pretty quickly, and much faster than having each person go one-on-one. Previous Valkyrie Profile games and plenty of other SRPGs already teach gamers to gang up on targets, but I've not played many games that actively encourage and reward you for doing so.


Pictured: Something about to die quickly, especially if this is the first of the four units' turns.

The Sin mechanic also gives reason to overkill an enemy. Unlike in previous Valkyrie Profile games, when you drain a foe's HP to zero and continue to attack, you're not given a flashing sign telling you you're overdoing it, you instead start to fill a Sin meter. Every battle requires you to attain a specific amount of Sin, given as a number at the start of the battle. Meet or exceed the amount of requested Sin, and you are rewarded with powerful equipment and skill books for your units to use; fail the quota and in the next story battle, a powerful enemy is spawned that will make things difficult for you. Overkilling is one way to get Sin, the other option to get Sin is to use the titular Plume on one of your allies. This results in your Sin quota being met instantly, said ally unleashing a wide-reaching effect unique to each unit that Wylfred will learn for future use, and it also results in said ally's stats increasing ten-fold. Yes, ten times. Naturally, this means most battles will become pathetically easy, but this action also results in the permanent death of said ally after the battle and the potential endings you can see change. Granted, you don't have to sacrifice your allies, but some have very powerful special effects (and you get to retain them on future playthroughs!), and in some battles it may be tempting to just forget conventional strategy and unleash your overpowered friends on the enemy force...


On Artolia, no, but there's nothing stopping people from dining upon you, is there?

Things I Liked

-Art Style-
The way the characters are drawn for their portraits harks back to the first Valkyrie Profile, whereas the second game simply used 3D models for conversations. Most characters have a limited number of pictures to show some emotion, but I love the art. Background pieces are also done well, and while the DS isn't as powerful as the PSP in terms of raw power, it still does a decent enough job during the battles, especially with the Soul Crush specials, and the sprites used look fairly clean in general.

-Replay Value/Multiple Storylines-
There are three endings and three distinct paths through Covenant of the Plume's gameplay. While the amount of people you use the Plume on determines your ending, the route you take to it is dependent on choices you make during the game, though the way you 'choose' your routes is based on where you go choose for your destination at key points in the game. What makes the routes interesting is that each focuses around a key point in the brewing war, and the decisions you make determine where you stand in relation to the other characters. One route can partner you with a set of characters, while another can have you trying to kill them. While having to clear the game three times to see all of the story may be a bit much for some, it's well worth doing so. The inclusion of New Game Plus helps to make subsequent runs shorter, as you retain all of your equipment and items, and Wyl keeps any Plume abilities he may have learned (which can be used without impact on your ending).

-Strategy-
As I mentioned above, this game rewards you for actually ganging up on individual enemies and totally beating the crap out of them. Disgaea is the first I've played where the position of your units matters beyond "attack the back for best accuracy, keep mages and archers away from melee units, etc." The Sin mechanic adds a bit of tension to every battle, as it's entirely possible to waste a foe too early, robbing yourself of potential Sin. But when you do pull off several hundreds of thousands of HP in damage in a single turn and get full bonuses, it feels great! And some people can make a game of how many hits they can pull off too (my best record is 193 hits).

-Allies Matter-
Since you get allies in pairs or triplets (and you have to accept everyone who wants to join), using the Plume on any one of them results in a little scene post-battle where the other person/people in their group grieve over that unit's sudden death or otherwise react to the happening. It's a nice touch given how previous Valkyrie Profile games shutter non-story personnel to the sidelines (so to speak) once you clear their part in the scheme of things.

Things I Didn't Like

-The Music-
Granted, this isn't a dig against the DS' sound quality, but a lot of the music comes from the first Valkyrie Profile. Sure, there are some new tracks, but there could've been a lot more of those, or just less reliance on classic tracks. I have loved composer Motoi Sakuraba's work on the previous games, but it was a missed opportunity despite the handheld's sound quality. At least the recycled music was used kinda creatively (one theme for player's turn, one for enemy's), and the main battle theme is new.

-The Voices-
Again, nothing related to the DS' sound quality, but my complaint here is why aren't the voices used more? They're not terrible, and while people speak in battle...there's absolutely nothing used in conversations, the overworld, anything. But in Japan? They had voiced cutscenes! RAGE I know it was probably to keep from having to use the big-capacity carts, but even Disgaea DS retained some out-of-battle voicework, and that was a port, though that also means the voicework was already done whereas in this case, new material had to be created and wasn't. Baww.

-Anti-Grinding-
To me, games have three stances on grinding: Forced, like in most MMOs; present-but-optional, like most JRPGs, and not present at all, like most non-RPGs or other games where killing more foes has no actual impact on gameplay. Covenant of the Plume falls between the last two. There are some optional battles where you can get some more items/money/EXP without the Sin quota breathing down your back, but once beaten, they lock until the next time you come to them in a future playthrough. I felt the game assumes you have a lot of the powerful equipment from filling the Sin quotas, which some players may not. It's entirely possible to play badly enough to make some battles unwinnable (especially if you are dead-set on getting the best ending your first time, which is the hardest route). Sure, there is the Plume, but some people are stubborn.

-Allies Don't Matter-
Despite my final Like above (and thus making disliking this rather silly), this game still treats the new allies you receive the same as in previous games. Once you clear a chapter and people join permanently, said people simply cease showing up in story bits, only participating in battles. It feels strange that the only way to extend a character's screen time is to off one of them. But this is a type of 'defense mechanism' that the series employs well, as it's not necessary to make a big list of checks and alternate events depending on whether or not you used the Plume on one person or the whole group. The effect can be a little jarring to newcomers to the series, but previous games simply prevented you from using that game's specific 'release' function on characters absolutely critical to the story.

The Final Verdict
Did you beat Final Fantasy Tactics and want a bit more strategy RPG with some political intrigue? Covenant of the Plume may not be able to compete in terms of story, but it's still the tale of one man and the war that erupts around him, so it won't disappoint. The fact that you can somewhat choose which faction to support helps flesh out the events both in front and behind the scenes, though this requires at minimum three playthroughs. Of course, if you're a fan of the Valkyrie Profile series like I am, then this is an obvious get. It is a nice evolution of the series' battle system, and I can't help but wonder where Square-Enix is going to take it next.

...I hope it's not real-time strategy. I'm absolute trash at RTS.

A Tip From DF
If you're going to beat the game three times, I would suggest going for the worst ending first, where you use the Plume as often as possible (without going over the invisible counter lest you get a non-standard game over), then next time Plume one person, and after that, never again. This is probably the easiest way to see all of the story bits, as it sets up future playthroughs with a large number of Plume abilities, not to mention the overpowered gear you'll have. The only problem is, you may need a guide so you can see all three story paths. Just a friendly suggestion.

Score:
10/10
The best of the best of the best, Game of the Year material, Best Game Ever candidate, instant Gaming Hall of Fame inductee, God Among Games winner, #1 on the "Games You Must Play Before You Die" list, Best Game Ever winner, approved by four out of five dentists, part of a complete breakfast.