This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
German Troper: Taking out
- Good Bad Translation - "I shall annihilate your soul!" became "It shall be engraved upon your soul!" The latter was kept for the prequel and the remake.
- Discredited long ago, this piece of misinformation still continues to spread because
since that particular piece - even though it still is on gamefaqs - has been disproved a long time ago.
32_footsteps: You're going to need backup on how that's discredited. I've played the original Japanese - and it is extremely easy to make that mixup. Given that game companies don't release the official scripts to the public, I don't see how you can disprove it.
German Troper: The next best thing to the original scripts is to take a look around japanese sites featuring game quote transcripts. Since a japanese person - naturally - has a better grasp of the japanese language I think that would definitely count as proof. I'll look into it.
Nezumi: Taking out
- Gratuitous English - Three words: Purify Weird Soul
as, despite looking bizarre to modern audiences, it's actually perfectly valid — it's weird in the older sense of "supernatural; unearthly", deriving from the root Wyrd "relating to fate or destiny." And as Purify Weird Soul attacks cleanse the undead, that is exactly what they're doing — purifying an unearthly spirit.
32_Footsteps: I can actually give two indications on why it should be put back in.
First, that usage of "weird" is against how it's used otherwise in the game, which is evidenced by the fact that the same scenes in the sequel use the phrasing "Soul Crush" instead.
More importantly, though, is that the game has several instances of Gratuitous English outside "Purify Weird Soul". Perhaps the most blatant (and somewhat confusing) is the game's subtitle, "Should Deny the Divine Destiny of The Destinies." While those who have gotten the best ending can tease out what that means, it's definitely in bounds of the trope. The second game has a subtitle that is only mildly better - "The Destinies mend rifts in time as Man etches fate anew."
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From Tola: Hmm? 'Dark' as Game Breaker? How so?
32_Footsteps: Since there seems to be a ton of dispute, based on the edit history, my view of the various game breakers:
Dark: Not so much a game breaker itself, but it's the only way to get Reverie, via transmutation.
Guts, Auto-Item set to Union Plume, and Angel Curio: This combo does make it extraordinarily difficult to die, but it is possible if your foes can completely blitz you before you can completely blitz them. It's not quite the guaranteed immortality its proponents proclaim (I've lost characters to each Bonus Boss with this combo equipped), though it is powerful.
Reverie: Much more subtle in how it works, but vastly more potent if you know how to use it. Basically, it gives shadow duplicates to melee fighters that also attack, driving up the hit counter. This causes a few effects. One, the hit counter determines how powerful the next hit is - thus, if you use a Finishing Move when the hit counter is 40, it's much more powerful than the hit counter at 15. Two, it makes more purple gems pop out - which make it much more likely that all characters can repeatedly use said finishing moves. Now, if you combine that with an unbreakable Great Magic stave (the first of which is available before either Reverie or the materials to set up the previous build are available) and finish a chain of finishing moves with Celestial Star or Meteor Swarm (which hit all enemies and have the most hits to drive up the counter), you can clear out almost every enemy in the game before they can even strike.
So what's the bigger game breaker - the ability to almost guarantee survival against any attack, or the ability to kill everything before they even get an attack?
White Rose Duelist: Not to mention that the Reverie clones make it much easier to create magic gems, which increase the amount of experience points you gain after the battle. This just makes the offensive silliness spiral upward to the point that only the Bonus Bosses can harm you. Really, I just want the Edit War over. I am okay with listing both methods as Game Breakers.
Felcis: The biggest difference between both "Game Breakers" is the fact that "Guts+Auto Item+Angel Curio" works in every battle regardless of the players skill, whereas Reverie is risky (clones disappear after hits, rendering the skill useless) and does NOT guarantee a one-round kill as you still need to be skilled in combo-building and have the right characters to pull of the combo (and landing such a combo against hamsters is almost impossible). It is more of a way to show of your badassness than a real game breaker. Fact: Immortality is safer than "the chance to kill everything before it hits you" and "Guts+Auto Item+Angel Curio" grants it to almost 99% regardless of enemy. But whatever: Add both for all I care, but the immortality is a must have.
White Rose Duelist: Immortality is really, really expensive as well. Angel Curios cost so much DME that a full set for a party would run you as much as you could earn in an entire run-through, no matter how skilled you are at farming, transmuting and satisfying Freya. And then, you can't afford the Union Plumes that are required for Auto Item part of the setup. And they break, which means that you can't just run around with your immortality build all the time. Your build doesn't grant immortality, even if you use the word "fact" in your argument, and properly using Reverie makes it so that the player doesn't suffer attacks from all but the most powerful enemies.
Felcis: Maybe we have different experiences, but Money or MP isn´t exactly rare in Valkyrie Profile even without farming. And I personaly only needed Angel Curio against Hamsters and maybe the Iseria Queen (and even they never managed to break even half of them). For the rest of the game, "Guts+Auto Item" is more than enough to keep you alive, if you got good equipment via transmutation and used the "Emerald Necklace" and "Bracelet of Zoe" wisely (which you should in any case, unless you enjoy low DME and skills). Well, moste likely you will use both combos at once anyway, as they use different skill-slots (although I prefer "Splash" over Reverie with certain heroes).
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Neophos: I think Did Not Do The Research should be mentioned somewhere, because the information given in the game seems to be more based on Tolkien then actual norse mythology (Yggdrasil being in a forest guarded by elves?).
Mr Death: I don't think it was that Yggdrasil was located in that forest, so much that the entrance to get to it was. Yggdrasil isn't a literal tree in that forest, that's just where the "doorway" to get to the other worlds/dimensions/whatever you wanna call'em is.
That said, other things (Like swapping the Vanir for the Jotuns) probably do count as Did Not Do The Research.
Carnildo: It's either swapping the Vanir for the Jotuns, or mistaking the Aesir-Vanir war for Ragnarok. Either way, they're Sadly Mythtaken.
Mr Death: I think it's the Vanir/Jotun swap. For one, in the original myths, Loki was (half?) Jotun, while in VP, he's half Vanir; also, the Vanir's base in the B ending is called Jotunheim. Also, as you noted, Freya (who's on the Aesir's side in-game) was in the original myths one of the Vanir.
Yggi Dee: Also, Frey is a man. He had a sword that was on fire.
Carnildo: Is there a trope for Badrach's weapons? According to the equipment list, he uses crossbows — but his weapon fires round projectiles at a high rate of speed, and generates a pile of spent shell casings around his feet.
Mr Death: Automatic Crossbows is probably the best fit.
32_Footsteps: It's kind of odd, though, because Badrach's supposed to be holding a gun (it's clear from the concept drawings), although he equips bows (I assume because they didn't want to create yet another class of weapons, to be wielded by only one character). Not sure how you want to trope that; several probably qualify.
Visla: The entry claiming that all the female casters in the game are Black Magician Girl has been bothering me for a while. I didn't just want to take it out, since I'm new and didn't want to step on anyone's toes, but it seems plainly wrong. The trope is a personality trope and is clearly being misused as "anyone who casts attack magic." Lorenta, Shiho, Nanami, and Lyseria are significant counterexamples. Mystina is a Black Magic Girl. Most of the rest are closer to Staff Chick
Falxo: Seconded. As you put it, casting attack magic isn't enough to qualify as a Black Magician Girl - and even then, one of these "female casters", Shiho, doesn't even have an attack spell when you first get her. I'm now going to change the entry.
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Weird Raptor: This Troper would like to bring forth the motion of adding a Character Sheet for Valkyrie Profile, as I think the series has enough merit and reknown, at least a decent enough a cult following, to warrant one. I'll even do all it all, myself, if I have to.
