While aesthetically pleasing I found VP2 to be one of the most frustrating and annoying games that I've had the misfortune to come across. Aside from finding the characters flat and uninteresting, the story mediocre, and the music passable, it was almost impossible to progress through the game at a reasonable pace. The dungeons get progressively harder which is understandable and acceptable, what isn't is how it's nearly impossible to even set foot in the next dungeon without returning to the previous one to "level up" but a lot of good that does you. At best you'll earn more hit points and hopefully the skills that you're trying to learn, but the core part, the amount of damage you deal, is tied to the weapon that you're using.

 But guess what. You can only get the really good weapons that give you half a chance by having them "made" for you. Weapons are made by acquiring different items from battle and selling them at various armories to have the desired weapons placed in stock. This in and of itself isn't such a bad thing, what is is that some of the items you need are nearly impossible to acquire. I'm not the type of person who normally memorizes where I was when I got a particular item and what it was that dropped a it. I dash, strike, and hope for a direct assault. Therefore I'm completely at a loss as to where I acquired that charged tail feather from or if I happened to remember which area and which monster, it was a trial and error method to determine just which body part provided which item, and then again which attack actually targeted said body part. In the end I left it up to luck, got what I could, and did the best that I could do with what I had.

The item situation left me irritated to the point where I questioned if I even wanted to finish the game. But I did and was rewarded with a rather unsatisfying ending. Theoretically after beating VP2 I should have wanted to play VP1, but you know what?  I don't. In fact I don't want anything else to do with Dipan, the valkyrie sisters, and whatever other pseudo mythology they manage to come up with. I wasn't expecting much from the game and on that end it didn't disappoint.

If pretty graphics are enough to offset a mediocre story and a frustrating item system, then by all means get Valkyrie Profile 2 and enjoy it for what it has to offer.
While aesthetically pleasing I found VP2 to be one of the most frustrating and annoying games that I've had the misfortune to come across. Aside from finding the characters flat and uninteresting, the story mediocre, and the music passable, it was almost impossible to progress through the game at a reasonable pace. The dungeons get progressively harder which is understandable and acceptable, what isn't is how it's nearly impossible to even set foot in the next dungeon without returning to the previous one to "level up" but a lot of good that does you. At best you'll earn more hit points and hopefully the skills that you're trying to learn, but the core part, the amount of damage you deal, is tied to the weapon that you're using. But guess what. You can only get the really good weapons that give you half a chance by having them "made" for you. Weapons are made by acquiring different items from battle and selling them at various armories to have the desired weapons placed in stock. This in and of itself isn't such a bad thing, what is is that some of the items you need are nearly impossible to acquire. I'm not the type of person who normally memorizes where I was when I got a particular item and what it was that dropped a it. I dash, strike, and hope for a direct assault. Therefore I'm completely at a loss as to where I acquired that charged tail feather from or if I happened to remember which area and which monster, it was a trial and error method to determine just which body part provided which item, and then again which attack actually targeted said body part. In the end I left it up to luck, got what I could, and did the best that I could do with what I had. The item situation left me irritated to the point where I questioned if I even wanted to finish the game. But I did and was rewarded with a rather unsatisfying ending. Theoretically after beating VP2 I should have wanted to play VP1, but you know what? I don't. In fact I don't want anything else to do with Dipan, the valkyrie sisters, and whatever other pseudo mythology they manage to come up with. I wasn't expecting much from the game and on that end it didn't disappoint. If pretty graphics are enough to offset a mediocre story and a frustrating item system, then by all means get Valkyrie Profile 2 and enjoy it for what it has to offer.