When you start off in Valhalla Knights 2, you'll select your class and race, and then adjust the appearance of your created character. The actual creation tools are pretty limited (you can't even change hair color), but the models themselves aren't particularly pretty either, so it's not like you'd be sprucing up much to begin with. There's definitely a PS1 look to the character models, which is a shame considering the environments look really solid for the most part. There are a fair number of classes available in this game, definitely more than the original had, and the race you choose will effect the overall starting stats, so you'll want to line up a solid race/class combination to get the most out of your selection.

You'll start with five races to pick from, with two others being unlockable down the road. Then you can pick from the classes, like Fighter, Mage, Monk and so on. Certain classes definitely feel better suited to beginner players, like most of the melee guys, but the casters are also pretty viable in the beginning. The only one that I had some difficulty getting the hang of, especially before your ability to recruit teammates kicks in, was the Priest, since your offensive abilities aren't nearly as effective as the other classes. You also get a few stat points to play around with at first, to help develop your character according to your liking. Every time you level up you'll gain more of these points to use, allowing you to customize at will.

After that, you're treated to two story scenes, one of which lays down the overall world and threat of the game, and the other that introduces your character as an orphan, and then propels the story ahead a few years, to a world now populated with monsters and danger. You've been studying for the Latroci Exam, (basically to become a warrior), and today is exam day, which is used to get you introduced to the basic mechanics, combat, and dungeon crawling aspects of the entire game.

And of course, this is where my issues start to pop up. It's not that I don't enjoy dungeon crawlers, there are quite a few well made ones out there that I get a kick out of, but while Valhalla Knights 2 has all the trappings in place, the actual gameplay feels stiff and uninspired.

You have a basic hub city, wherein you can go to the shop and buy your items or equipment, go to an inn to restore health or save, and go to a guild to see if you can get some people to join up for your party, which you'll either have to pay for or they'll go for free, depending on the quest you're taking on. There's also a local bar which you can use to get information related to your quest, usually, and that's just about it for the main hub. There's not a lot of life to the citizens that inhabit the place, and no one really stands out as memorable, which is a shame since your character doesn't really get any dialogue or life of his own.

The majority of the time you play will be spent in the dungeons, which you can access right from the little circle of townspeople in your city hub. You can go in there just to grind (which you'll have to do A LOT), or to fulfill your quest requirements, usually by hunting down a particular beast, or looking for a specific item or object. There's some light puzzle solving as well, but the challenge mostly comes from the combat system, which is pretty straight forward and boring, and not particularly forgiving either. You can enter into combat by running into an opposing enemy you see on screen, which switches you to an arena like screen where you can move your character around and fight the monster you've run into (usually accompanied by one or two more). However, especially with the melee characters, you're pretty limited with what you can do. You have a basic attack, but you can't really string together impressive combo's, and there's no real dodge button either, so you're typically taking a few swipes and trying to step back before you're hit, or you'll just keep tapping the attack button and just take whatever damage the enemy wants to dish out.

This wouldn't be a problem if dying weren't such a pain. When you die you get revived back at the inn, at the expense of half of your total money. That's right, HALF. So if you have 1000 built up, you're down to 500, and so on. This makes building up any sizable bank really tricky, as you're better off just collecting items and holding on to them for when you not only need the cash, but know you can spend it right away. Thankfully, your equipment doesn't degrade, and item drops are pretty frequent, so you won't typically need to use that money for much more than recruitment or basic healing.

Also, there seems to be a lack of checkpoints, or places where you can warp back and forth between the hub and a certain level of the dungeon, which makes going back down the dungeon a complete time waster as you advance farther along. If there is a warp spot to be found, I certainly didn't come across it during my time playing. This makes dying frequently, especially early on, really frustrating, and the whole experience starts to feel like a chore.

There is a ton of equipment options to be found, so people looking to acquire mass amounts of loot will probably be pretty happy with all the stuff Valhalla Knights 2 will throw at you. As you kill monsters they'll drop a large chest on screen, and your items will typically be unknown to you until you use an analysis card on them, which will reveal what they really are. For instance, if you pick up something called a flask, it could be anything from a typical healing potion to a quickness potion and so on. There are quite a few items that will drop for classes other than yourself, but you can always use these for the people you recruit or just to sell them for things that you really need. You're going to get better items out of these drops than what you buy, which is another reason why you'll want to, or need to, grind quite a bit.

Which brings me to the final thing I don't care for about Valhalla Knights 2, which is the sheer amount of grinding you need to perform to actually get anywhere in the story. This is aggravated by how easy it is to get killed, especially in the first few quests, and the stupid death penalty you have to endure every time, coupled with the lack of warp points within the dungeon. You'll need to grind for levels and items, and you'll have to do that frequently the more you advance into the dungeon. Even as you gain levels, your stat increases are pretty minimal considering you only get a couple points to play around with at the most, so you'll need to really move up in rank to notice much of a difference in how your character plays or performs. I don't mind grinding in most RPG's, as long as I don't feel like I'm being punished as I'm doing it, but Valhalla Knights seems to go out of its way to make the experience more difficult than it needs to be.

So once again, this fledgling series fails to impress, and while I get the idea behind the game and the mechanics that it's going for, it just feels like a lot of the elements are unnecessary and a bit too archaic for my tastes. The story is all right for the most part, and the music is pretty solid as well, but the actual gameplay is far too frustrating and boring for me to be able to get into it. If you're looking for a fresh attempt at a long running genre, than Valhalla Knights 2 isn't going to satisfy that itch, not by a long shot. Maybe they'll get some of this right for the next iteration, but it might be far too late for some players.