Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria

Combat takes place in a real-time 3D battlefield using the Advanced Tactical Combination (ATC) battle system. Combat uses attack points (AP) which are needed to act in battle. Points are consumed by attacking and dashing, and are replenished by defeating enemies, by being attacked, by using the charge function, or by moving around as time passes. Time only flows when the player is moving which allows players to stop time and plan out where they will move next, and predict where enemy units may attack. Once an attack occurs, the screen zooms in on the party, allowing the player to coordinate their attack or defense. The party can also conduct a leader assault, in which destroying the enemy leader will cause the others to retreat, ending the battle quickly and earning bonus experience.

Characters have multiple attacks and can be assigned up to three of them for use in battle. Stringing attacks together adds to the heat gauge. When the heat gauge reaches 100% in one turn, characters can perform their soul crush special attack, which causes great damage and refills the heat gauge, possibly allowing another character to also use their soul crush. There is no charge time for soul crush, allowing characters to use it every turn so long as they charge the heat gauge up to 100% each time. This lack of charge time means that mages can attack every turn with magic as well, but can only be assigned one attack spell for the battle, though other spells can be accessed through the battle menu.

New to the game is the concept of breaking off enemy parts. Different attacks can hit different parts of enemies, and thus affect the amount of damage afflicted on the enemy. Once a part of an enemy has taken sufficient damage, it can break off. When an enemy part breaks off, the player may enter break mode, where the characters have unlimited AP for a short amount of time. Monster parts can be equipped as accessories or can be sold or used to craft weapons, armor, or other items. Breaking off enemy parts can also disable certain attacks that enemies perform using that specific part of their body that was broken off.

With a second controller, a second player can also control one or more party members in combat.

Alicia buys equipment from shops using the game's currency, OTH. As the player buys more items from a specific shop, they will become a valued customer, unlocking special weapons and items— which require monster parts to make.

Four weapon types are present: light sword, heavy sword, bow, and staff; corresponding to the four types of characters: light warrior, heavy warrior, archer, and mage. Additional weapon types are acquired as the game progresses for selected characters obtained during the gameplay. Characters will only be able to equip their specific type of weapon (the exception being the angel slayer, which can be equipped by anyone) and only certain weapons allow them to perform their soul crush.

Most equipment comes with runes, and by equipping different combinations of runes, characters can learn certain skills during combat. Runes also have color links (Red, Blue, or Green); multiple pieces of equipment of the same color equipped simultaneously in the proper configuration can enhance each equipped piece's effects.

When Silmeria is present, Alicia can materialize her einherjar, and many of the playable characters are from Silmeria's previous time as a Valkyrie. Alicia must touch an artifact associated with an einherjar in order to have Silmeria re-materialize them. Placing certain combinations of einherjar in the party will result in conversations between them during random battles, such as having Celes and Phyress, who are sisters, in the same group. The einherjar found in dungeons are random; there are up to three different characters of the same class found in an artifact. Because of this, although there are 40 different einherjar in the game, only 20 can be recruited per game.

Once einherjar reach a certain level, the player may release them, returning them to the world of the living. Depending on the einherjar's attributes and equipment, they may leave different rewards for the player.

There are two main settings in Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria: Midgard, the realm of mortal men, and Asgard, the realm of the Gods. Midgard is the world of men, a place stricken by war, famine, and disease; with the taint of death everywhere. Throughout history, the fate of Midgard has been influenced by the Gods on numerous occasions, but now the kingdom of Dipan is set upon resisting such divine interference.

Asgard is the world of the Æsir, ruled over by Odin, Lord of the Heavens. In Asgard lies the Hall of Valhalla, where the einherjar, the brave souls of the fallen, reside. The Æsir occasionally influence the course of history in Midgard in an effort to preserve the order of the universe.

Valkyrie Profile 2 takes place in an alternate timeline from the first game: in Valkyrie Profile, Silmeria was imprisoned within a crystal and taken by Brahms; here, Brahms is the one imprisoned within a crystal. Events that should have happened did not because of a certain character's interference with history.

The game's story is independent of and not directly related to the first Valkyrie Profile and takes place hundreds of years before the first game. Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria is about two characters, Silmeria and Alicia, who are contained in the same body. Silmeria is one of the valkyries tasked with collecting the souls of brave warriors and delivering them to Valhalla. After she disobeyed Odin, he reincarnated her in the body of Alicia, the Princess of Dipan.

Silmeria was supposed to remain trapped, but she awakens in the body of the Princess, which makes many people think that Alicia is insane or possessed. The king imprisons her and announces her death, but unbeknownst to the public he sends her to live in a small palace outside the city of Crell Monferaigne. In the pre-game prolog, Odin sends the current valkyrie, Hrist, to take Silmeria's soul back to Valhalla. Escaping from Hrist, Alicia/Silmeria flee into the wilderness, where they try to evade capture and attempt to avert a catastrophe that could spark a war between the Gods and Midgard.

The game begins in the port of Solde. Learning that the ferry is out of service, Alicia/Silmeria plans to enter Dipan through the secret Royal Underground Path. Seeing Rufus, a half-elf archer wearing a special ring, Alicia/Silmeria hires him to accompany them to Dipan, although Rufus has his own reasons for helping. As they journey through the underground ruins to Dipan, Alicia finds an old necklace and Silmeria calls forth Dylan, the most powerful of her former einherjar.

Alicia/Silmeria, Rufus, and Dylan enter Dipan where Rufus decided to leave the party, Alicia requests him to stay, Rufus go on talking until he discovers that Silmeria is within Alicia silmeria switched with alicia and started introducing herself, Rufus looks on his ring and decided to stay with them. They sneak into the palace, finding demonic research and a mysterious machine before being discovered by the Three Mages of Dipan. They are almost captured but Lezard Valeth, the mages' new apprentice, helps them escape. Lezard informs them that King Barbarossa and The Three Mages have delved into dangerous research, including the Sovereign's Rite, demonic transformation, and time travel, and plan to use the Dragon Orb to create a new world, free of the gods' interference. Odin cannot allow this and is planning to destroy Dipan. Alicia/Silmeria, Rufus, and Dylan decide that getting the Dragon Orb themselves is the only way to stop Odin and save Dipan.

Alicia/Silmeria, Rufus, Dylan, and Lezard head to the Serdberg Mountain Ruins, the Dragon Orb's last known location. Searching the ruins, they meet Leone and Arngrim, two mercenaries who agree to help in exchange for any treasure they find. Silmeria recognizes that Leone is Hrist in disguise, but fearing a confrontation, does not expose her to the others. Discovering the Dragon Orb gone from the ruins, Silmeria uses her powers to follow its magical trail throughout Midgard. While searching Audoula Temple On The Lake, Rufus' ring is knocked off, causing him to go into convulsions before it is replaced. Rufus reveals why he is helping Silmeria: as the only other half-elf, Odin keeps him around in case of injury (the Ring of Mylinn he wears keeps him from aging) and should Odin ever transfer into Rufus' body, Rufus would cease to exist. Silmeria's rebellion provides an opportunity to escape his fate. The group eventually finds the Dragon Orb's final resting place in the Palace of the Venerated Dragon where Hrist reveals herself, escaping with Arngrim and the Dragon Orb.

Hrist takes the Dragon Orb to Valhalla and Odin orders Dipan's destruction. Alicia/Silmeria, Rufus, Dylan, and Lezard return to Dipan but are too late to prevent Hrist from destroying the city and executing King Barbarossa. They confront Hrist and as Alicia/Silmeria and Hrist duel, the Three Mages cast the Sovereign's Rite, transmigrating Silmeria's and Hrist's souls from their bodies. Brahms reveals himself from within Dylan's body and stops them, at which point Freya appears and tries to apprehend him. This is where the timelines of Valkyrie Profile and Valkyrie Profile 2 diverge:

• In the original timeline, Silmeria, separated from Alicia's body, blocks Freya's spell, becoming crystallized herself. Brahms escaped with Silmeria, explaining why she was crystallized in his castle in Valkyrie Profile.
• In the altered timeline, Lezard, unknown to the others, casts his own spell and captures Silmeria. Without Silmeria's intervention, Freya crystallizes Brahms and returns with him and Hrist to Valhalla, though she cannot explain the strange distortion (from Lezard's spell) during the encounter nor why Silmeria vanished.

Alicia awakens to find Silmeria absent, Brahms and Lezard gone. She and Rufus decide to retrieve the Dragon Orb themselves. They journey through the Forest of Spirits, cross into Asgard, and climb to the top of Yggdrasil, where they confront Odin and Freya. Lezard reappears, and offers to aid Alicia in defeating Odin, but it is revealed that he only does this to obtain Odin's soul. Using Silmeria's captured soul, he casts a spell causing Odin to transmigrate, which also displaces Rufus' soul, before teleporting away with Odin's body and soul. Freya, unable to do anything, retreats. Alicia is able to use the Ring of Mylinn to rematerialize Rufus and restore him to his body.

Alicia and Rufus descend from Yggdrasil and head to Valhalla, where they meet Arngrim, who asks to accompany them in penance for his past actions. The three of them find the Dragon Orb and the crystallized Brahms, along with Hrist and Freya. Hrist wants their help rescuing Silmeria, but Freya refuses to negotiate with humans and attacks them. Fed up with the gods trying to kill her einherjar, Hrist stops Freya by using the Dragon Orb, transporting Alicia, Rufus, Arngrim, Brahms, and Hrist into Lezard Valeth's twisted world.

Finding themselves on Lezard's twisted world tree, Brahms and Hrist agree to a truce when Lenneth arrives, having come from her future to stop Lezard who, using the machine in Dipan (a time machine), traveled back in time and changed history. Ascending the tree, they rescue Silmeria, whom Alicia rematerializes into Valkyrie form. Their reunion is short-lived, though, when Lezard reveals that his target all along has been Lenneth. Having absorbed Odin's soul and power, Lezard casts the Sovereign's Rite, transmigrating the three Valkyries, and takes Lenneth's soul. Without bodies, the Valkyries will fade away so Alicia rematerializes Hrist's and Silmeria's souls into crystals until Lenneth can be freed. Following Lezard into his fortress atop the tree, they fight Lezard and shatter Lenneth's crystal prison. The three Valkyries combine their souls, using Alicia's body to form a single true Valkyrie. The Valkyrie defeats Lezard, but he stabs her before he dies, causing Alicia's body and soul to dissipate. Rufus and Arngrim return to Midgard with the Dragon Orb but Brahms decides to stay and die as Lezard's world crumbles; it is the only place where he is mortal.

The three Valkyries' souls are shown separating again, the fates of Hrist and Silmeria are unknown while a new future awaits Lenneth she returns to her own timeline in the present. Years later, Rufus is traveling through Coriander Village when he sees a young girl resembling Alicia. A young Lezard is also shown sitting on a fence if Valkyrie is not used during the final battle.