What Inspired Valkyrie Profile?

Asked by Famitsu why he thought of making Valkyrie Profile, Yamagishi answered plainly: "My main motivation was the fact that I've always wanted to make an RPG based on Norse Mythology." The Star Ocean series, he said, was an all around RPG; he also wanted to work in a world where the uses of sword and magic were already set in place. Development, he added, had started before Star Ocean: The Second Story was released.

He was equally plain that the mythology was raw material, not scripture. The world is based on the world portrayed in Norse myths, he said, but "we've changed many things about it", altering the look and feel of the characters and the world to seem more Eastern, like someplace in Asia: an alternate world. And he described the story at its center without grandeur: to put it simply, he laughed, it is a romance story, between the childhood friends Platina and Lucian.

Gotanda's account starts one step earlier. "Valkyrie Profile began because I wanted to make something with this kind of gameplay system," he said. "Specifically, the first part that came to me was having characters you'd raise on the Earth, who you'd then send off to Valhalla to fight. I felt that Norse mythology was the perfect story setting for this idea." His reason was the mythology's own logic: "No matter how dramatic a life you live, in the end everyone dies. That's basically what the Norse mythology is about. In the end everyone dies, but the important point is how you die. If you live an accomplished life and die in battle you'll get to go to Valhalla."

The detailed backstory and plot, he said, were all finished after the gameplay system, and the game diverges from the mythology from the start, by his own cheerful admission: Frey is male in the myths, but he made the character a beautiful woman because he thought it would work better for the game. The earliest form of the system was a strategy RPG about raising more than 100 units and watching them fight in Valhalla, which he compared to watching over horses you raised in Derby Stallion; he cut it down because it took too long to play and left the characters no room for individual personalities. The einherjar drama the series is known for is what survived that cut.

One more stated influence, on form rather than story. Yamagishi told Famitsu the game is side scrolling partly because the PlayStation's limited power made it the best way to portray a beautiful environment, and partly because of the title itself: "Profile" also means a side view, a representation of a face seen from the side. Large characters, better acting in scenes, and dungeons that are easy to read top from bottom all followed from that choice. The most distinctive visual fact about Valkyrie Profile, that it is an RPG played in profile, is the title taken literally.