The actual missions don’t quite have as much variety, though. The sheer amount of depth and variety in the gameplay kept me hooked, and it made me excited to retry levels and tackle difficult missions. The inspiration is clear to see with this game, and I couldn’t be happier about it. My DMC comparison also comes from the fact that there are Secret Missions hidden throughout each stage, as well as secret items hidden behind locks that you need to perform a lengthy combos on in order to unlock. There are four Drive levels, and each one makes you stronger, and at the second level you can also use an ultimate attack by holding down both bumpers. Similar to Shinobi Transformatons from Senran Kagura, filling a special meter bar will allow you to transform your weapon-partner into an even stronger and larger weapon. On top of that, the Drive system mixes things up even further. Holding and releasing cross in tune with your launcher animation will send you flying toward the launched enemy, and from there, you can mix in combos, additional launchers, and ground-slam attacks to unleash chaos. Pressing the circle button will launch an enemy into the air, while holding it and letting go will send enemies flying backwards. You can get away with a lot of button mashing, but the fun starts when you begin to use launchers and dashes.
Characters can perform various combos using the square and triangle buttons, chaining normal attacks and special attacks for a variety of results, as well as simply using the triangle button for a unique special attack that requires good timing to use. The depth to each character, though, more than makes up for that.
The game has seven playable characters, each with a designated weapon partner, which may seem like an awkwardly small roster at first. Where Senran Kagura can be compared to Dynasty Warriors, Valkyrie Drive is much, much more like Devil May Cry. For me, the gameplay is absolutely what shined as the biggest part of this package. With a sudden island wide conspiracy and factions causing rifts between characters, the second half of the story deals with a lot of interesting, morally grey characters and situations.įor many, the narrative won’t be the most important aspect of this game. It feels like a chore to get through, but things start to open up a lot in the second half.
Characters are mostly one dimensional and nothing engaging or significant really ever seems to happen. It’s a lot of very goofy, contrived nonsense that serves as an excuse for girls to touch each other’s breasts and get into fights, and for the first half of the campaign, that’s really all the story ever feels like. The girls on this island are unique, though, in that they’re infected by a special VR-strain, allowing them to both transform into and wield Valkyrie weapons. The island of Bhikkhuni houses a battle school for girls to travel to in order to train and control their virus symptoms through, well, battle. Two strains of virus have infected many girls across the nation, with the A-Virus giving girls the ability to transform into deadly weapons when sexually aroused, while the V-Virus enables someone to wield an A-Virus weapon in battle.