First Look at Valhalla Knights 2

Valhalla Knights was a solid first effort at a PSP action-RPG for XSEED and Marvelous Entertainment, but it was definitely a bit rough around the edges and left plenty of room for improvement. Now that Valhalla Knights 2 is on the way, hopes are high that the shortcomings of the first game will be remedied and the sequel will deliver on the potential left unfulfilled by the original.

Obviously we won’t know for sure how the sequel fares until it ships out this fall, but for now we can at least take a gander at these first assets XSEED passed along today and begin to see how the game is shaping up. To that end, hit the jump for the official trailer (it’s in Japanese, just so you know), a gallery filled with art and screenshots, and an overview of the game’s expanded Race/Job system.

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VK2 Race/Job class Introduction
　 　
Races:
　
Human: A well-balanced, all-purpose character. Can use any job type; choose their class according to how the character was created / their parameters were adjusted.
Elf: Race with high intelligence that excels in using magic.
Dwarf: Excel at close-range combat due to their incredible strength. Weak magic users.
Halflings: With their unsurpassed weapons skills and incredible speed, Halflings run circles around their enemies.
Machine: Race armed with heavy armor and can power their way through battles. They cannot switch job classes, but they are the only race that can utilize guns and rocket launchers.
Akatoki (NEW): Race highly trained in hand-to-hand combat. Good match with the new job class Monk which is capable of unleashing devastating combo attacks.
Canine (NEW): No description at this time
　 　
Job Classes:
　
Low-level jobs 　
Fighter: Good at close range combat and are able to equip shields.
Mage: Good with black (offensive, elemental) magic.
Priest: Good with white (defense, healing) magic.
Thief: Extremely agile and good at close range or long range attacks. They are able to equip bows.
Monk (NEW): Good at physical combat and are able to do combo attacks.
　 　
High-level jobs 　
Anchor: Magic user that can use both mage and priest magic spells.
Knight: A fighter class that can use Priest magic. However, the time required to cast spells is longer then a priest. Able to equip shields.
Samurai: Uses two handed swords and have a higher chance of unleashing critical hits.
Ninja: An upgraded thief class. Able to use bows as well as special ninja weapons.
Enchanter (NEW): Magic user that specializes in inflicting status abnormalities such as Poison and Paralysis on groups of enemies.
　 　
Specialized jobs
Machine: Race specific job class available only to Machines. Able to equip almost all weapons as well as special machine weapons such as guns and rocket launchers.
Guard (NEW): Race specific job class available only to canines.

Additional Job Info:

More freedom to customize characters – Over 100,000 possible combinations!

Customize your appearances: In Valhalla Knights 2 you are able to customize not only what you equip but also select the face and hair style of every character you create along with gender, race and job class to differentiate from one another.

Introduction to the Skill System: You can set two different legacy skills for each job; an Action Skill and a Base Skill. Action Skill – Skills that have an immediate effect (Attack power increased for a limited time). Base Skill – If you learn one job’s inherent skill (Chant speed up), you can then apply it to another class; for example a player can create a Warrior with the ability to use healing magic.

Introduction to the Attribute and Tuning System: At the “Fountain of Modification” it is possible to modify weapons and armor. Also, unlike the previous game, there is a now a tuning system so that a player can make improvements to the Machine job class.

Mix and match different job classes: Each character can equip up to 3 different job classes simultaneously. Although the effects of the sub-jobs aren’t as immediate as the main, the character will have access to all of the sub-job’s Base Skills.