Whether you're a fan of the Valkyrie Profile games, or this is your first foray into the long-dormant series, Valkyrie Elysium may very well play with your expectations. It's an action RPG, through and through, with the need for skillful speed that comes with the genre. Were it not for its aesthetic and the broader edges of its lore, it might not come across as even tangentially related to the Profile duology of old.
This is hardly an inherently bad thing, but it can be something of a shock. All the more reason, then, to read our thoughts on how best to head into Valkyrie Elysium with the All-Father's grace in mind.
5 Look For Enemy Elemental Icons
One thing Valkyrie Elysium's tutorials don't really hammer home is the fact that most enemies have an elemental weakness icon visible between their health bars. You may need to squint a bit to see it sometimes, depending on how frantic the action gets, but recognizing it early for each monster type is the way to pick up the tempo and blast your opponents to pieces.
Once you've gotten the hang for it, you'll be able to see an enemy from afar and just immediately know what spells and/or weapons to use against it, but be advised that the same archetypes can differ between species. For example, the Dracos (dragon-like enemies) come in multiple elemental varieties, so you should take care not to mix them up.
4 Focus On Two Weapon Types
While this may change with future updates, at launch there are eight weapons in Valkyrie Elysium, divided into six types. Whether you have access to the second and third weapons of the Straight Sword type, the Alscir and Svartaljr, depends on whether you purchased the digital edition. If you elected to grab the standard physical edition instead, they won't show up in your inventory.
Don't worry too much about that — their elements may be different (Holy and Dark), but their weapon type is what matters most, and as such, they're redundant.
But which weapons should you use? Well, when an encounter proves particularly tough without the right weapon, swap to that weapon. That goes without saying. But in general, we recommend focusing the proficiency grind on two primary types. Unless you're planning on replaying every chapter a bunch of times, your proficiencies are going to level fairly slowly until the latter chapters, and even then ranking them all to the max is a tall ask.
3 Search Your Surroundings
Blue circles, like the one seen above, function as places the Valkyrie can reach with a tap of L2 (on the PlayStation controller) and whichever key is assigned as such on the keyboard. Think of them as warp stones, more or less, complete with a nifty animation.
Keep your eyes open and the camera swiveling whenever you feel stuck, or if a place seems suspiciously likely to house treasure. Sometimes, the way forward is hidden just out of the camera's typical focus, and a glance here and there will guide you on your way.
2 There Is A Cap On Upgrades Per Chapter
It isn't readily apparent, but there is effectively only so much you can do to enhance your powers each chapter. Or rather, not so much each chapter as each region, which tends to mean every two chapters.
The reason for this is the presence (or lack thereof) of certain types of gems. These gems come in nine categories, with the first four (Yellow, Magic, Violet, Emerald) obtainable from Chapters One and Two onward. Azure is the first gem you will not find until later, specifically Chapters Three and Four. If you've been diligently upgrading the Valkyrie's Skill Trees and weaponry, you'll likely hit a stopgap here in both respects, as you will lack the Azure Gems necessary to proceed further until then.
This pattern continues throughout the game, with Ruby in Chapters Five and Six, then Silver in Six and Seven, and finally Black and Rainbow Gems in the final chapters.
1 Subquests Are Separately Instanced
This one confused us at first. Throughout each chapter, scroll-like icons on the map will indicate the location of subquests. Merely interacting with an object in the immediate area will trigger the start of the subquest, but you cannot complete most of them until after you've returned to Valhalla and then selected them on their own at the level select globe.
In other words, they're instanced. They'll utilize fractional chunks of the regions you've been exploring, albeit perhaps with a change in the color of the sky or other small aesthetic deviations. But everything else about them will be modified to suit the mission, including enemy locations and layouts, as well as loot.
Be sure to check the level select globe for additional subquests after completing a chapter, too. For example, the third subquest for the first region only becomes available when it's time to start Chapter Three.