Valkyrie Elysium is an Action RPG based (very loosely) on Norse Mythology, released for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on September 29, 2022. It is a reboot of the Valkyrie Profile series.
Odin, grievously wounded by Fenrir the wolf in the Asgard Wars at the start of Ragnarok, has created Valkyrie to purify souls on Midgard to help him heal. Midgard, ravaged by Ragnarok, is nearly empty, with undead souls roaming and killing the few remaining humans, and Valkyrie must deal with them, while finding valiant souls to be her Einherjar.
Of course, all is not as it seems, as a dark Valkyrie known as Hilde, confronts Valkyrie, telling her that Odin is not the virtuous god he claims to be...
As a reboot, Valkyrie Elysium keeps none of the continuity of the prior series, but retains its themes, with its combat focused on elemental damage, combos, and fighting alongside summoned Einherjar.
Valkyrie Elysium uses the following tropes:
- Apocalyptic Log: The Hollow Blossoms dotted about the map contain the thoughts and feelings of the people of Midgard, and most of them give insight into how they feel about the effects of Ragnarok.
- Battle At The Center Of The Mind: To recruit three of her four Einherjar, Valkyrie has to go into a dreamscape made out of their respective element to track down their soul and convince them to join her.
- 11th-Hour Ranger: Hilde joins you in the True Ending, though you don't get to direct her the way you do the Einherjar.
- Evil Counterpart: Hilde to Valkyrie, or at least that's how she's presented at first, attempting to kill Valkyrie and getting in the way of her mission. However, we find out later that she rebelled against Odin when she found out he was responsible for the death of her family, and she teams up with Valkyrie in the Golden Ending.
- Expy: Valkyrie is one for Lenneth, while Hilde is a clear analog to Hrist, down to the similar colored armor and the halberd.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning: Three of the four einherjar use these elements, with the druidic mage Taika specializing in fire, the merchant Cypher using ice, and the swordsman Eygon using lightning. When she summons them, Valkyrie's own attacks take on their element along with other special effects.
- Gender-Blender Name: Kristoffer took on her older brother's name after his death. Her birth name is Olivier, though the characters pronounce it closer to "Olivia."
- Gender Flip: Fenrir is a female wolf in this game, while Fenrir was male in the myths.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: Valkyrie's default weapon is the sword Alfodr, and she picks up a rapier named Bolverkr and a greatsword named Gagnrathr.
- Holy Hand Grenade: The princess knight Kristoffer uses holy magic and attacks, and Valkyrie's attacks take on the element when she's summoned.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: According to the Verdant Blossoms Fenrir turned against Odin because Odin heard the prophecy she would kill him, and had her imprisoned. Yggdrasil even specifically refers to Fenrir as "the innocent wolf."
- Multiple Endings: Four of them, in Bad, Normal, Good and True varieties.
- The Reveal: Two of them in the final chapter. One is that Valkyrie was made from the soul of Nora, Armand's lover, by Odin. The second concerns the nature of the world, and is only accessible if the player has found all of the Verdant Blossoms, which reveal that Odin and the other gods were made by the World Tree, Yggdrasil, to guide wayward souls back to the tree to continue the cycle of reincarnation, but had rebelled against the tree, gorging on the souls themselves for power, and that is the reason Ragnarok keeps happening.
- Save the World: The mission that Odin gives to Valkyrie at the start of the game. It turns out, though, that he has a very different definition of "saved" than she does...
- A Taste of Power: The tutorial gives you two Einherjar to play around with, but you won't get both of them back until about a third of the way through the game.
