Dark Rose Valkyrie (PC) review

Sporadically, a team of renowned developers unite, and the results are splendidly synergistic. Largely, that’s the case with Dark Rose Valkyrie, a game was released last June on the PlayStation 4, and has now made the leap to PC. As a title that brings together scenario writer Takumi Miyajima, character artist Kosuke Fujishima, (both worked on the Tales series) along with the Compile Heart staff, Dark Rose Valkyrie can be a peculiar concoction- balancing the earnestness of the Bandai Namco franchise with the customary Compile Heart sexiness. But save for a few issues, it’s also one of the Shibuya-based developer’s better efforts, elevated by a captivating cast and an intricate battle system.

Destined for comparison with Resistance’s plotline, Dark Rose Valkyrie similarly focuses on an epidemic known as the Chimera virus, an isolationist country, and a context established in an imagined fork of history. Yet, where Insomniac’s third-person shooter adopted an alternative Cold War setting, Valkyrie is set in 1929- offering a vaguely symbolic interpretation of Japan on the verge of the Great Depression.

Rather than economic policy, it’s a meteorite known as the Black Garnet that’s the impetus for catastrophe, with the object generating an epidemic that’s killed three percent of the world’s population. Reacting to the outbreak, the Shin Yamato Empire has closed its borders, and established a dedicated agency known as ACID (Anti-Chimera Interception Division) to combat the outbreak and protect the populace. Players assume the role of Asahi Shiramine, a rookie captain from the rural outskirts who has been reassigned to the capital to lead Special Force Valkyrie, one of ACID’s most elite squads.

As an outsider, Shiramine’s past successes are devalued as “beginner’s luck”, by some members of the existing team, prodding the protagonist to prove himself. Typically, when games show the introductions between characters, the sequence can be tedious, filled with the straightforward formalities of an initial meeting. But Valkyrie signals some of its intriguing backstories that lurk beneath the anime-based architypes, revealing that there’s a cast worth caring about.

Leading a para-military team, cohesion is one of the title’s main themes, reflecting in both story and conflict. Spending time with members of your predominantly female team unsurprisingly cultivates these sentiments. As each discloses their past, viewpoint, and attitude toward the conflict, Valkyrie simulates rapport just as good as any role-playing game; it would be difficult not to develop some kind of para-social relationships with a few teammates. But then, Valkyrie throws a curveball at players, with the warning that one member is a traitor, secretly working to perpetuate the plague for malevolent reasons.

Periodically, players have the opportunity to perform some Phoenix Wright-style sleuthing, interrogating members, and looking for inconsistently in their testimony. Pleasingly, a few elements endow the investigations with nuance. First, they are rather open-ended in nature, allowing for players to cross-examine a single person or interview multiple members, with either technique able to suss out the turncoat. There’s also complexity rooted in the TCS weapons the team uses, which have a tendency to produce split personalities in individuals. Then, there’s Dark Rose Valkyrie’s randomization of its conspirator, ensuring replay and a spoiler-free experience. Perhaps, the traitor is based on answers to conversation responses, which would explain why I’ve fallen for a different defector during each playthrough. Then again, maybe it’s chance.

When you do suss out the saboteur, Dark Rose Valkyrie provides an ethical impasse that’s arguably worth the price of admission. Beyond the obvious branch of decision, there’s a third particularly devious option that certainly won’t get you to the game’s true ending, but is alarmingly wicked. My heart wouldn’t let me take the plunge, but I admire any player who could. For those who are obsessed with Valkyrie’s canonical conclusion, be prepared to put some time in.  Essentially, you’ll have to play the game at least twice, with a subsequent playthrough on a higher difficulty level, and quite possibly a FAQ in hand, which might be off-putting to some.

Esprit de corps is evident in the game’s battle system, which might draw comparison to Grandia. At the heart of the system is the Tactical Wait Gauge, an arced meter that charts enemy and ally turn order. But unlike the rigid turn orders of most role-playing games, Valkyrie is remarkably dynamic, with icons influenced by character speed, the type of strike, and the time it takes to charge an attack. Unsurprisingly, not only will you want to sync attacks to maximize efficiency, but well-timed attacks can make enemies miss their turn, pushing a party toward producing a guard break.

Later, complexity arises in the form of targeted body parts, and a form of elemental strengths and weaknesses, insuring that players can’t idly power their way through the game’s encounters. Most role-playing veterans should appreciate the game’s combat, as there’s enough strategy and minutia to keep things interesting through the sixty-hour trek. Likely, there will be some that bemoan the inability to attack the back row until area-of-effect skills are boosted but it’s a very minor fleck on an otherwise well-designed system of mechanics.

And yes, there’s the obligatory Compile Heart fan-service. Gradually combat wears down your armor, and when a statistical quota is exceeded, clothes the comes off, ultimately leaving your team fighting in their underwear. Since repair is expensive and the amount of protection by clothes isn’t monumental, there’s the urge to shirk modesty when fighting lesser monsters. When you do confront Dark Rose Valkyrie’s bosses, you’ll want to make sure your battle dress is undamaged, however. It should be noted that the game’s an equal-opportunity offender, with both males and females forces to fight in their skivvies.

Despite the upright mechanics, there are a few issues that can make Dark Rose’s journey a little prickly.  Even if you’re accustomed to Compile Heart’s tutorial screens, the sheer amount of early hour info-dumped can be debilitating. While it’s commendable that the developers want to welcome newcomers, the constant interruptions spoil Valkyrie’s first few hours. Other will take issue with the game’s composition, with an overworld that can feel underutilized, and a mission structure that can paint players in a corner. Aesthetically, Fujishima’s character designs are alluring and environments often convey sentiment, but sporadically milieus can feel woefully empty, which seems to be a reoccurring issue with Compile Heart.

The game’s pilgrimage to PC is competent, but there are a few lingering problems that need to be worked out. Head to the options menu, and Valkyrie provides players with eight different graphical options, extending the ability to adjust texture quality, shadows, outlining, depth of field, anti-aliasing, and the presence of v-sync. While there’s an option for windowed, full-screen, and borderless play, the game seemingly lacked to output anything above 900p, as well as lacked any option to take advantage of the real estate of an ultra-wide monitor. On the upside, performance was just shy of proficient with the game displaying the occasional stutter from a thirty-frame-per second target on a midrange laptop with a discrete GTX 1050Ti GPU. While play is possible with a mouse and keyboard, the persistence of dedicated controller icons insinuate that having a game controller is the preferred input method.

Dark Rose Valkyrie is the infrequent role-playing game that takes chances. Where most entries in the genre might present an eleventh-hour character turn, Compile Heart’s latest spurs suspicion with its entire cast. It’s a risk that could have easily weakened the plotline, with players refusing to build bonds with any potential conspirator. But somehow, it works, elevating Valkyrie past contemporaries eager to play it safe. If you can consciously fall for a schemer, then by all means you can develop a fondness for a game with a few niggling blemishes.

Dark Rose Valkyrie was played on the PC with
review code provided by the publisher.

Dark Rose Valkyrie
Platform: PC, previously on PlayStation 4
Developer: Compile Heart
Publisher: Idea Factory International
Release date: April 10th, 2018
Launch Price: $39.99 via Steam, $31.99 at launch
Sporadically, a team of renowned developers unite, and the results are splendidly synergistic. Largely, that’s the case with Dark Rose Valkyrie, a game was released last June on the PlayStation 4, and has now made the leap to PC. As a title that brings together scenario writer Takumi Miyajima, character artist Kosuke Fujishima, (both worked on the Tales series) along with the Compile Heart staff, Dark Rose Valkyrie can be a peculiar concoction- balancing the earnestness of the Bandai Namco franchise with the customary Compile Heart sexiness. But save for a few issues, it’s also one of the Shibuya-based developer’s…

Review Overview

Gameplay - 85%
Controls - 75%
Aesthetics - 75%
Content - 80%
Accessibility - 75%
Innovation - 80%

78%

GOOD

Summary : Dark Rose Valkyrie represents Compile Heart tackling a slight more mature subject matter. Sure, there’s the shimapan, but there’s also the suspense of knowing your best girl might be malicious.

User Rating: 4.4 ( 3 votes)

About Robert Allen

Since being a toddler, Robert Allen has been immersed in video games, anime, and tokusatsu. Currently, his days are spent teaching at two southern California colleges. But his evenings and weekends are filled with STGs, RPGs, and action titles and well at writing for Tech-Gaming since 2007.

7 comments

  1. I rare turn down the chance to watch half-naked girls take on monster in turn-based battles. Or even realtime.

  2. I didn’t even know this was coming to Steam. I really think the PS4 will me my last console. PC gaming almost has it all.

    • Yeah, I didn’t even buy an Xbox One this generation and in the past I used to buy every system. There’s literally nothing on the Xbox that I really want to play. It’s either on PS4 or PC.

  3. The only think holding me back is all the DLC for the games. There $23.92 worth of extras. They should have included them with a game thats almost 9 months old with 30 fps output.

  4. I have the PS4 version. Fun game, pretty long. I liked it enough to play through twice.

  5. So which is better– playing this on a PS4 Pro or a PC?

  6. Sounds like a crappy port but not nearly as bad as Ys VIII.