What is it about this game that makes it so darned special and so darned expensive? I’ve never played it, so this isn’t one of those “OMG why do people like this they must be noobs” ranting-type things. I’m genuinely curious.
It’s expensive because it’s rare.
It’s special because… I better just let Eva or Val take care of that particular rant, they can probably do it better than me.
It has a really kick ass battle system and very nice 2d art.
It’s simply a very original take on RPGs. The whole idea that you have a limited time to do everything you need to do puts a new spin on the regular RPG mood, which is “take your time, level up, do all the sidequests”. Having a whole slew of characters, each of which has their own backstory and their own battle strengths, is actually pretty well done (and the characters are useful for things outside of battle as well).
I personally just downloaded the ROM. ^^; It rocked.
To add a little bit mroe to what’s already been said:
This game has a unique battle system, Which I can only describe as part turn-based, part real-time, and I think a ltitle fighting game in there, too, though I’m not sure if that’s the proper term I want.
The art is PHENOMENAL at times, beautiful watercolor backgrounds and all characters portrayed as sprites. Only a minimal amount of 3-D graphics are used, and tastefully done so that it never requires looking at an early attempt at human CG. All CG stuff is done for inanimate objects, like looking at imposing structures and such.
The characters, though having limited screentime, all have their own individual personalities that make it easy to empathize with them. If you’ve ever played Suikoden 3, it’s like that. And the villains are somethign special too - I theorize that lezard Valeth could be jsut as fucking creepy as Kefka is, only through different means. kefka was bat-shit insane, but Lezard is what I’d call so sane, he comes out the other side.
The music is… well, not sure what to say here. It’s not one of the best soundtracks I’ve ever heard, but it keeps your blood pumping a lot. It’s a little… loud, though. I had to turn my volume down a lot when I played the game.
The dungeon Crawls are fun. Just the right balance of fighting, puzzles, and exploring for loot to make it really enjoyable.
Not sure what else to say about this game, except: I wouldn’t part with this game if you offered me your first, second, and possibly thirdborn chiuldren. Offer me something that’s actually worth something, then we’ll talk.
I’ve wanted to try this game to see how it was; all I knew before was that it involved a valkyrie finding dead people(?) and that the battle system was “interesting”. However, the damn thing is prohibitively expensive for someone who hasn’t played it. 
Edit: No rom site links, ever.
It makes more sense if you know a bit about nordic mytology. Valkyries are said to search for the souls of dying brave warriors and take them to Valhalla, where they train to fight in the war at the end of the world (Ragnarok).
This is basically what you do during most the game: Chapter starts, you use Lenneth’s spider sense to find people about to kick the bucket, watch a relatively long scene that introduces the soon-to-be corpse and kills it, do the Grim Reaper routine and bingo, new party member. Then proceed to crawl trough some dungeons training your warriors until the chapter ends and then FedEx whoever best fits the requirements you were given.
It may seem a bit monotonous at first, but as you reach the middle you have the chance to start pursuing the game’s true story. As a personal recomendation: Start in Hard mode. It’s not really any harder than your average game (Okay, maybe not always, but Tower of Lezard Valeth is a pain in the ass no matter what mode you’re in) and allows you to get all the possible stuff.
Yes, the mythological spin on things definitely makes VP stand out. Of course, it’s not the only game to have been influenced by x mythology and to be perfectly truthful, VP turns the tales right around and warps norse mythology quite a lot. In my opinion, this is to compress and compact soooo many stories and influences and traditions and personas into a much smaller storyline, and it works.
“Finding dead people” is the basic point of the game. However with this, comes a very rare, mature perspective on death, heroes and war that is not usually touched upon in other games. The scenarios exploring death and the bleak, cold world that is presented in Valkyrie Profile is quite touching- if you allow it, you will be overcome by the amount of pessimism, negativity and hopeless overtones that pretty much come at you in waves in every scene. The only uplifting feature to combat this I think, is the few brightly designed environments and upbeat music, the former is few and far between. It’s like Enix wanted to paint a grim, desolate picture of the norse world of Midgard and they succeed (if you’ve ever heard of the Canadian prairies and what they look like in the winter time, it’s EXACTLY like that). However, accompanying these sinister elements of the game comes a feeling of redemption; a higher purpose. I believe Val touched upon the beauty of the art featured in VP- and it IS beautiful. To see character profile heads light up the screen as it turns to black after someone say, dies, it just…it’s really something. I was very moved, very touched but the finished product of the music, environment and storyline and felt that it all meshed together quite nicely. The character storylines, just when you thought the thickness of the depressing storylines would turn you away, you will catch a hint of contentment, or a sense of fulfillment…however I warn you, most of the characters who die, do so sadly. Though for you, as a gamer, knowing that those departed souls reach Vahalla and join your party of Vahallian warriors (the place where you must send the dead characters to, after you train them, to fight in a big braaaaawl) kind of downplays on the feeling that “oh their death was unecessary”.
It’s pretty much everything for me, however I got more wrapped up in the world of Valkyrie Profile than most people for whatever reason.
EDIT: I’d also have to advise starting out on Hard mode, Ms Mints. If you’re unfamiliar with the controls (and you probably will be starting out) then Hard mode is not something to pursue. I suggest going through Normal mode as practice, because more difficult dungeons open up in Hard, and you will have to do some fancy hand manuevering here and there to navigate.
It also has an amazing voice acting, in the scenes at least. Tri-ace always screws up with voicing in the sense that the battle clips turn really damn annoying after a while (You’ll hear Kashell’s NOW DIE! every five seconds if you use him) but not all the characters are like that. For some reason, Lenneth’s “DIVINE ASSAULT: NIBELUNG VALESTY” and “IT SHALL BE ENGRAVED UPON YOUR SOUL!” never seemed to tire me even after I heard them for the 17.858.935th time.
Oh, and Eva has point with the mythology thing, it’s not 100% true to the real thing. For example, Lenneth is referred to as one of the “3 Goddesses of Destiny” (Seen “Oh! My Goddess!”? Lenneth would be Belldandy) which, while being part of Nordic folklore, were not directly related to Valkyries.