A quick sum up: Dragon's Dogma without the the climbing. I was reminded ALOT of that game.

1. This is a long demo. Trial would have been more accurate. I have not finished it as of writing this. For the first time I will be starting the game from where I left off on the demo when the full version is released. I never do this.

2. Lets not waste any more time and lets go over the battle system.

- A very grounded battle system. Less anime and more realistic but with flaire. If you have played Ninja Gaiden (or DMC) then you will be familiar with the powerup system for both Valkyrie and her weapons. Nearly identical. Valkyrie's progression is divided between Attack, defense, and support and as weapons level up you get more inputs and power. You will the use of various elemental gems to power both Valkyrie and weapons.

- You can summon warriors at any time. Every time a warrior is summoned they will give you access to an element. They reminded me of Pawns which lore wise I can see why they would be a possible inspiration.

- It takes MP to summon warriors and every warrior you summon it takes a chunk of MP and then on top of that MP is slowly drained while warrior is active. The more Warriors you have active the faster it drains. Instead of summoning every warrior at once you may just think about summoning one that will be most effective for battle.

- Valkyrie has access to elemental magic and if she uses this magic while imbued with the same element from the her warriors it gets more powerful and has added effects.

- You want to abuse that because attacking enemies with their elemental weakness puts them in a guard crush state which leaves them stunned, increases damage and gives you way more elemental gems.

3. The maps of locations are very vertical. You will be putting those movement skills to the test to get around these maps. Treasures and collectables are scattered about.

4. Warriors can also be used outside of battles to help clear obstacles. 

5. Music is great thanks to Sakaruba but his style in this entry is more grounded as well. No synths or rocking guitars so far. :( 

6. Presentation good; more so the art direction though. Graphically it is mid tier budget project.

I am enjoying myself, but I will admit that I am not wowed so fay. Elysium does a great job of taking the ingredients of Valkyrie and Soleil action game knowledge and incorporating them into an action rpg which, realistically, is not a huge accomplishment because because VP2 was one step shy of being a full on action rpgs anyways.

Starting demo now. Play it a couple times and share thoughts.

Long ass demo. Anybody else try it?

Definitely a long demo, I've been playing it for nearly 2 hours and still not done. I'm definitely sold on it though, will be picking up day one for sure. The combat is quite good.

Ok, 2 hours and 22 mins and the demo is still not finished. SE really wanted to show those conflicted gamers that it is ok; It is still Valkyrie Profile. I have maxed out all Valkyries skill trees (wont let you go beyond 23% in each category). I played the game on normal difficulty, I will be absolutely pissed if any difficulty trophy is included.

There is nothing floaty about the gameplay. In comparison to 2B and crew, Valkyrie feels like a tank. Lot of weight behind everything she does.

Finally finished the demo.

- You're graded on every quest and sub quest. Item usage tanks score. Managed an A on the main quest and first sub quest. S rank on second quest which happens to be the one where I didn't use any items. 

- Boss was pretty tough. Really put emphasis on how not 2B Valkyrie is haha. Kept wishing Valkyrie was a little more agile Breaking from a combo to dodge or guard 

- Second weapon is great a farming jewels from enemies Its low combined with a crush state leads to loads of gems.

Again I enjoyed myself big time. No regrets preordering the premium edition. I'm gonna be pissed if there is a difficulty trophy though. Would mean all this progress goes tp waste.

I don't think its suppose too. I think you are setting the bar a little too high. Elysium is more of a test, to see: 1. Reaction to a newish type of Valkyrie game 2. And based on reaction can SE push the Elysium series be the official reboot, that deep down, I think it is was really intended to be. I don't think that be next Automata is objective. I think the main objective is "Can we safely position this new Valkyrie series a pillar?(avoid the DMC vs DmC heat)". 

I think the reason why Elysium does not wow me is because it does everything that one would expect a action RPG in the VP series to do, nothing more. Nothing less. It's gonna take more than that to be the next automata. Honestly the next Automata is already coming: Stellar Blade.

Both games are pretty good in my opinion. Especially Diofield at least tries something different and should be applauded for that.

Valkyrie Elysium is nowhere near the 4.5 that Destructoid gave it. 

BUUUUUT.

I have lots to talk about. Almost done with main story. Will give my thoughts by wednesday.