Caught my eye while I was browsing in a game shop the other day. Has anyone here played it and can offer an informed opinion?

Hehe, this was a very popular rpg last fall! Prepare for tons of posts to be made on this thread!

http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/ps2/valkyrieprofile2silmeria
84% from 39 critical reviews, 97% from 4 user votes
http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/931102.asp
85% from 44 critical reviews, 84% from 65 user votes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valkyrie_Profile_2:_Silmeria
http://na.square-enix.com/valkyrie/site2/

That game was very popular last fall and it's from the same team that also made the Star Ocean and Radiata Stories games. This development team, Tri-Ace, is now working on Infinite Undiscovery and Star Ocean 4. I haven't played this game but I should rent it. It's safe to say that this game is very popular and has high critical and user reviews, so you found a great game to be interested in!

Fall 2006 had these as the most popular rpg's, in chronological order...
Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus
Xenosaga 3
Disgaea 2
Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria
Tales of the Abyss
Final Fantasy XII
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Fall 2006 was probably the single best season in rpg history for the amount of top games released around the same time. All of those games are extremely high quality, except for FF VII: DoG, which is ok only. :)

I played it for about 3 hours. From what I had seen so far they had basically taken the original, removed the non-linear elements, made the battle system more like an action RPG and added an unnecessarily complex ability system.

I was not particularly impressed.

I'm a Tri-Ace fan girl, so I picked this game up right away. I really enjoy it. Its pretty, its a side scroller (and does a good job at being one for being such a new game), the battle system takes awhile to pick up, but is really fun and somewhat strategic once you get the hang of it. The voice acting is more tolerable than most other Tri Ace games (I like it, but I also liked most of SO2's voice acting, so I may be biased). The story is fun, especially for fans of the original Valkyrie Profile. If you get this game, I really recommend playing VP1 over again and getting the more difficult ending. The story line in VP1 gives you a huge base for VP2. Although, its not necessary to enjoy the game.

I haven't beaten the game, so if it gets horrible later on, I can't tell you that. There is a point in the game where the story gets a bit repetitive and its a lot of dungeon crawling. Dungeons aren't terrible -- you can avoid battles, and there is some strategy involve in getting through (similar to VP1 using the Valkyrie's powers).

The "special attributes" system leaves a bit to be desired. As does the equipment system. The goal is to get the same "color" equipment, so as you go through the game, you may find a "red" sword that works well, but the rest of your equipment is "blue". Equipment also have runes, which in certain combinations (of the same color), you will gain those special attributes. From what I remember, most abilities are just gained by level. Those special skills/attributes are things like "Do 150% damage" or "200% to flying types" or

Seal stones also require a bit of strategy to figure out. These are essential in completing dungeons, as they can provide huge advantages to the player and give huge disadvantages to the enemy. Seal stones can do anything from decrease fire damage by half (good for dungeons with all fire enemies, obviously), or increase your experience by 300% (although this means you will not gain any money following battles).

The side scrolling is really neat as well. I heard it was a side scroller early on and thought "how the hell are they going to pull that off for a newer PS2 game?", and I was pleasantly surprised. The strategy in battles and dungeons isn't top of the line, but it is fun and makes the game interesting (and potentially frustrating if you can't jump properly like me :P). I love love love the soundtrack.

ThroneofOminous should probably play more than 3 hours of the game to get a feel for it. Although, I admit it is certainly not as non-linear as the first game (at least from what I've played), but they do give you optional dungeons to visit, which is probably their attempt at a surrogate for non-linear game play. I think VP1 was pretty linear, although not in the traditional sense, since you could go wherever, whenever, but was very linear in terms of time. No matter where you went, you'd still get the same chapters and same timeline, with a few small changes based on which ending you were shooting for.

Maybe rent it first. I know its not going to be a game for everyone, but I really enjoy it. I've taken a long break from it, due to being busy/distracted by other games and such, and also because I was caught in the stagnant part of the game. But for VP1 fans, you'll see some familiar faces and places, and get an insight into part of the story introduced for the "good" ending.

Thanks for your comments guys.

Just for the record, I haven't played the first one, so a lot of the comparisons to that are to me like telling a blind man to look both ways before he crosses the street :p

It doesn't seem like the kind of thing I'd usually go for (side-scroller on the PS2? seriously......) but I'll definitely rent it. There's so little in terms of new stuff on PS2 right now that I'll pretty much play anything. I've been playing FFXII for the last month or so almost exclusively, so I'm getting a little fed up now.

I'm not that keen on dungeon crawling either to be honest, but I was able to put up with it in FFXII. The key is gameplay. If the gameplay's good, I can get past having to grind away for hours in dungeons. In fact in FFXII I actually enjoyed it at times. But in games with poor gameplay, it's a real minus point for a game.

What is "dungeon crawling"? I heard of this for years but don't know what it means.

A game or section of a game where most of the gameplay involves working your way through dungeons. This style of play can be disliked by many because it can reduce the freedom of exploration within the game, slows the progression of the plot and/or simply become repetitive.

Know what you're getting into. It's one of the hardest RPGs on the PS2. The skills you have will make a great difference, but you learn them by equipping the right equipment in the right place. If you ignore that for a while, you're gonna get screwed. Leveling without keeping track of your skills is basically useless. Its battle system is also pretty complex. That aside, I think it's THE most beautiful game on the PS2, and it has some great music.

Gamespot gave a fair review, I've seen a couple trailers, some gameplay clips, and I believe the main screen is a side scroller and the battle screen goes 3-d or something.

I have it, but I stopped after the first save.

yeah in the beginning it's tiring cuz u don't have many money/pots/gameplay xperience...
but if u try a bit harder after the first 5 Hours or so u will just love it...
i myself have abandoned many other rpgs just to devote my time to it...
it just rox

For me, I was just testing to see if it worked (I downloaded it and burned it). There's a lot of other games that I've burned that I have never finished yet.