Valhalla Knights has a fantastic pitch. From the companies behind Technu and Harvest Moon, it's a 3D hack n' slash with hardcore RPG roots. You can customize up to 6 players in your party. You can play ad hoc with a friend. You can waste your life away for higher MP/HP. And you can actually transcend to a higher level of existence (feature untested). So what did the reviewers think?

Hit the jump for our Frankenreview. We take little parts of every review and shove them together like the classical monster you all know and love - better known as Swamp Thing.

G4
Chop off the realtime combat system, replace the graphics with a primitive first-person view, and you have Wizardry, The Bard's Tale, or any number of other PC adventures. You have to have been there to get in on the joke, but a few players over on the shady side of 30 should some pleasant reminder of their youths...As for everybody else, well, there's not as much here.


GamesRadar
... what little story is present, involving your main player's loss of memory and speaking in ellipses, won't be enough to keep most players mashing buttons. Not that we consider all thumb workouts unnecessary, but if enemies are going to successfully melee attack you regardless of their proximity, rendering any dynamic evasion moot, it makes us wonder why they didn't just keep it turn-based.


1UP
...Valhalla Knights becomes pure torture. You see, in order to change classes, you must remove all of a character's equipment. Since you've only got 30 free inventory spots, though, that doesn't leave much free space to actually hold this equipment. Thus, switching jobs — a simple task that should be as easy as accessing a menu option — becomes a tedious, drawn-out game of hot potato as you swap armor, weapons, and healing flasks between characters for what seems like hours on end...Oh, wait — it is hours on end.


Total Playstation
[With] Ad-Hoc-only multiplayer modes...Though you can't quest through the main game in any sort of proper co-op, you can go on specific quests to gain experience and items to help out in your solo adventure...you can also duel someone, winner take all. They're decent additions to be sure, but actually having a full-time co-op mode would have made trudging through those dungeons and doing all that backtracking a whole lot easier.


GameZone
...even with these flaws, the game's best features shine through. You'll love the fact that the game includes a wide range of weapons and equipment (all which even alters the appearance of your character). You'll adore the fact that you can add than one job class to your character, allowing your fighter to have some Priest healing abilities or a Ninja's ability to successfully sneak past enemies...Plus, the story is not bad once you get past the complex beginning.

Despite those who ripped the game (basically everyone), I still really want to play it. I miss designing my own characters and building my own teams. Plus, I love tedium. It's just great. Mark Wilson