Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga
Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga is a role playing game that was developed by Marvelous Entertainment, and was released on the Nintendo Wii on September 29, 2009.
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Developer: Marvelous Entertainment Publisher: XSeed Release Date: September 29, 2009 Platforms: Wii JustRPG Score: 85% Pros: +Decent graphics. +Great controls. +Fun gameplay. +Good replay value. +Tons of customization options. Cons: -Sub-par story. -Visuals are now outdated. |
Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga Overview
Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga for the Nintendo Wii is a traditional role playing game that was not widely released. The game sports fun combat mechanics, and tons of customization options. Where the game falls short is its sub-par story. Other than that Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga is a great game and worthy of any serious RPG gamer’s library.
Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga Screenshots
Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga Featured Video
Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga Review
| Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga is the first of the Valhalla Knights series to be on the Wii, and it even has online play. You are a human male. Just a simple human male. But you have an even greater destiny. |
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At first, you will only be able to be a human male, if you choose episode one. There are only two episodes. You will be able to choose from the five basic jobs to begin with: fighter, thief, priest, mage, and bard. |
| The fighter is just your simple warrior with many passives that really help during battle. His skills are mainly passives that increase the effectiveness of a weapon or shield and increasing strength. I believe the effectiveness increases the hit chance and the damage, but because I am mainly a mage, I don’t specifically see the increase of effectiveness. I do use a fighter mercenary the most, and he does do a lot of damage and never misses unless he is afflicted with darkness. |
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The thief is a fast job that may not do the damage, but attacks fast and won’t let the enemy attack. The thief’s beginning skills increase his effectiveness with knives and speed, and allow him to steal items. There are different weapon styles that you can do, and it seems that the thief is effective with both. |
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| The priest is the healer and can use a few buffs. I leveled up the priest a little bit for his aid spell. Just at level three, aid can heal around two hundred health and it is cast instantly. You can simply change the person you want to cast it on by pushing left or right on the D-pad. They will have to be in your range, though, and darkness limits it to nearly melee range. He can also increase the effectiveness of blunt weapons, like maces or clubs. He has elemental magic attacks that are void. |
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The mage is a physically weak class that can’t take much damage. What the mage specializes in is attack magic. The magic, at first, seemed dull the way it was performed, but that was only because the first three elemental skills are just fire, ice, and wind. Once he gets level three for each, he gets the storm abilities, which are the AOE versions and hit in an area around him, but not a target. He can also passively increase his intellect. |
| The final class, the bard, is a new basic job and seems very interesting. I haven’t tried the bard yet, but he does look like an amazing support class. He is able to increase his effectiveness with rapiers and buff the party. At first, he will only be able to buff the party’s weapons with different elemental attributes. When the bard is using his buffs, he will need a harp, which he will continuously strum until you stop it. I haven’t really seen anything of the bard, but I believe the buffs won’t be active if he stops playing. The bard can’t do much if he is alone, though, but it may be good to get his skills. |
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Once you have chosen your class, you will be able to allocate thirty-three points into your stats. This is a humongous number, especially when there are only seven different stats. You can only have a maximum of ten per stat at the beginning. Once stats go over ten, they will start costing two points instead of one. |
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| In Valhalla Knights, you can easily level up and gain a lot of stats just by simply leveling other classes. What is cool about simply switching to another class is that you keep every single one of your equipped skills. You can only switch at guilds in towns for a sum on gold depending on the level. If you have a starting class at level one, it will only cost a little bit over one thousand gold, which is nothing. You can also accept quests at guilds, which are found in friendly villages. |
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The only village that is friendly to you at the beginning is the humans. The first village of another race you go to is the dwarves. In order to gain access to their stores, besides the church, you need to find the star fragment. A young mage wants you to collect these fragments and at the same time reunite the races of Eldar. |
| At Nolz, the dwarf village, you will be able to use their stores once you get the fragment. These stores will contain different items from the human village, Vestlia. Dwarves are great fighters, so you will find a lot of swords, axes, two-handed weapons, and shields in their shop. Shops sell weapons, armor for male and females, items, and can even appraise. In the first two, appraisal had a cost to it. In Eldar Saga, you can appraise at a shop for free and it will do all the items. If you have an appraise card, you can also appraise while out in the field for free. This will also do all the items. There may also be special shops where you can ask for advice. |
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Churches are in every village, and you will be able to use them no matter what. You can use them to teleport to different areas, like the villages, or to milestones. Once you discover a village, you will automatically get it. Milestones look like odd stone formations and will definitely look out of place. You will also be able to save. |
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| At a tavern, you can do anything that involves mercenaries. To get mercenaries, you need to find them. They can be found during a quest or a special event. Mercenaries will all begin at level one. You may think this as a liability, but it’s not. As you bring them with you, they can level up very fast. Levels one through ten are very easy to get. While you are leveling them up, you can always go and switch to a different class so that you can get even better stats. Managing the equipment is also easy. The only problem is the cost of items at the shop. Equipment is very expensive. Equipping them with different equipment is the same as changing your own — you just need to be at a tavern. You can also change the AI settings of mercs with orders. Orders are given while out on the field. |
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Blacksmiths can repair your weapons or reinforce them. The dwarf village is the first village that will allow you to reinforce. You will find many gems, like quartz, while you are out on quests. Gems usually need to be appraised before you can see what they can do. You can also repair using repair cards. |
| Vestlia is the only place that has your home. This is the best feature of the entire game, and I think that it is also new. You will be able to use your closet to store any items. There are six storage slots, each containing your bag size or more. You will want to use the closet a whole bunch. There is also a safe where you can deposit or withdraw your money. You can also change the speech setting for the Nintendo Wifi online speech. You can have four different speech sayings on at a time, like Go or Help. You will also be able to change your hairstyle and color. |
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Starting from Vestlia you won’t be able to accept any quests just yet. First, you will have to head towards the north gate in order to get your first event. The butler of the young mage will ask you if you will see him. You go and you will need to get him some medicine in a cave that has just begun to fill with monsters. |
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| This will be the first time you head out onto the map. The Wii remote will be used as the main combat controller, and the nun chuck will be used for movement. Pushing the A button will let you use your weapon’s weak attack, while pushing B will use the strong attack. The weak and strong attacks can be stringed into different combos. Also, if you shake the remote, you can use your weapon’s special attack, but you will need a full burst gauge. These special attacks hit for so much damage and they can really help in a pinch. Every type of weapon has a different type of special attack. I use one-handed swords, and it has a great special. You swing your weapon around you, dealing damage to anything surrounding you. |
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If you hold the Z button down, you will lock onto the nearest target that you can “see.” You can switch targets by pressing left or right on the D-pad. Even though it decreases mobility to walking, you can use the C button to run at your normal speed. You can also climb or descend using C. |
| Every class level you gain, you will get two points from levels one to ten, and above ten you will start to get four. You use these points for your stats. You will also gain one skill point per level that you can use for that class’s skills. Once you put enough points into a certain skill, you will gain a new skill. For a fighter, once you get one point into strength, you will get regenerate, which increases HP regeneration when you are standing. For a priest, getting level three aid will let you gain the ray, a void attack magic. |
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In order for any skill to be of any effect, you will need to equip it first. All you need to do is go to the set skill tab under skills. You can select any class’s skills to equip from this menu, and you can even choose the level you want on. Let’s say you want to put on a mage’s ice storm skill and you have five levels in it. You select mage, ice storm, and then you can choose level one through five. Selecting the desired level will let you equip it into the active magic slots. The same can also be done with passive skills. |
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| On the map, you will come upon many enemies that are scattered around the area. If you have a mercenary with you, they will automatically go and attack anything nearby or anything you have targeted. Killing an enemy isn’t that hard if you have a mercenary with you. But if you are a mage, you will have lots of trouble killing stronger enemies. To offset this, you will be able to have any type of equipment on. Also, having a fighter’s weapon skills and strength really helps a mage’s weak physical capabilities. You will also be able to use any type of active skill in any class you have equipped. By pressing the + or – buttons, you will be able to use one of two skills. You can also switch to sub skills by pressing up on the D-pad. |
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As you get better equipment, you will see that it has a certain weight. The heaviest weapons will be the two-handed swords or axes. The heaviest armor will be the plate. Every class has a different CP, or carrying capacity. CP increases as you gain levels. With the mage, so far I have twelve carrying capacity. The fighter should have the most CP. |
| If you do have a fighter mercenary, you will notice that he is able to hit more than one target at once. This is great. The more enemies that are in front of them, the more will get hurt, and for the same amount of damage, too. In the Nolz mines, there will be large enemies, such as orcs. Orcs can do a lot of damage to anyone without good armor. They also happen to come in bunches. A fighter is the best choice for this area, whether it’s a mercenary or you. |
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I’ve looked around and still haven’t found anything on TP, or technique points. I don’t really know what they are used for. So far in the in-game tutorial, there hasn’t been anything about them, but you still gain them by moving around. I usually use it as a sort of regeneration timer. Every draining tick of the TP gauge means you gain one HP, if you don’t have regeneration, and two is one MP. |
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| Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga is a good game for any RPG fans. I have seen that people don’t really like this game because of its graphics and annoying footsteps. For me, those footsteps were basically blanked out, and I don’t specifically care for graphics. I am disappointed about no offline multiplayer, but it is still a good game that I do suggest getting if you don’t mind the graphics. And I also forgot to mention that every piece of equipment has its own different look. I give Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga an 85. |
Final Grade: 85%