Taboo Trial Review – Valkyrie Profiles

As much as it may upset the hardcore Valkyrie Profile fans, I can confidently say Valkyrie Elysium was a great game. Sure, it didn’t have much story behind it and what we did have was rather overstretched, but it made up for its shortfalls with some of the most stylish, fluid combat I’ve ever seen. Today’s featured game, whether intentional or not, pays homage to Valkyrie Elysium, mirroring many themes, events and mechanics.

Introduction

Taboo Trial is a hack-and-slash action-adventure with roguelike elements, also referred to as a rogue-lite game. The game takes place during the early days of the apocalyptic Ragnarok event featured as the final chapter of Norse mythology, with many prominent gods and key characters featured in the game. The game was produced and published by Cat Shine and HappyPlayer, released on 21st October, 2024.

Story

Ragnarok has begun, yet Freya, Queen of the elite Valkyrie warrior goddesses, remains hopeful that the crisis can be averted by defeating the invading Giants of Niflheim before the war can escalate further. Sworn into an existence of endless battle, the Valkyries are trapped in a cycle of life and death, reviving in the halls of Valhalla upon their defeat to begin their quest anew.

Legendary warrior Enheria leads the charge against the Giants. Though the Valkyries are greatly outnumbered, these sisters-in-arms continue to fight to the death, risking their fragile memories in the process, however the love these sisters have for each other won’t allow their deeds to be forgotten as they regularly reforge their bonds.

One by one, the beautiful Valkyrie goddesses Enheria, Freya, Hladgunnr, Gunn, Alvitr, Guth, and Brynhildr work to liberate the warring lands from hostile threats, yet the team must also contend with other corrupted gods standing in their way, and a mysterious voice who requests their aid.

Gameplay

Enheria will be your default playable Valkyrie, however an additional 6 girls can be unlocked in the Valhalla home hub by gifting ‘Holy Water’ items to them. You’ll also have the option of an additional 4 girls by investing in the DLC. Each playable Valkyrie has their own preferred weapons and distinct style of combo flows. There are multiple difficulty levels, each featuring different combat stats and mechanisms, and challenging different sequences of “Giants”.

The varieties of enemies you’ll be facing are generally referred to as “Giants”, though you’ll have to cut through their grunt-tier underlings to reach the boss encounters. Each area will usually include a mini-boss and main boss Giant, each a living bio-mechanical weapon with a distinctive combat style, with strengths and weaknesses to learn and exploit.

Combat encounters are comprised of smaller arenas contained within larger stages. Clearing each encounter will allow you to boost your character’s combat proficiency with perks known as “Blessings of the Gods”. Blessings of the Gods allow you to activate and later enhance different combat skills to deliver additional damage and give you an edge in combat. Your choices will create your own unique combat style.

As well as being the first stage of the game, Valhalla also acts as your base of operations where you’ll not only be able to unlock new characters, but purchase items, upgrade your weapons, level-up your stats for increased combat efficiency, and chat to characters to trigger story scenes and side content. Your character will re-spawn here once they fall in combat, which they will, a lot; urging you to upgrade your character to improve their chances of survival.

Graphics/Sound

Don’t let those first few static text boxes at the start of the game fool you. Taboo Trial is a gorgeous game. Even the smallest of battle arenas feature brilliantly detailed surroundings and stunning scenery in the distance. Clearly every effort has been made to make the game as realistic and majestic as its bigger-budget rivals.

Characters have a high definition anime design which is full of colour and attention to detail. The extra effort made in making every Valkyrie look different from the others while still retaining their goddess-tier beauty is a nice touch, yet having each favour a different weapon and utilise different move-sets really elevates the game by boosting your options.

Though sadly there is no voice acting at all in the game, this is certainly not indicative of bad sound design. The fully orchestral soundtrack is powerful and immersive, working incredibly well to highlight the regality of Valhalla and the violent realms beyond.

Conclusion

Taboo Trial, despite a silly name that sounds like a vintage-era porn film, could easily fit into the Valkyrie series’ universe, and with a few tweaks here and there, make for a pretty decent prequel to Valkyrie Elysium. With such high graphical standards and that epic orchestral soundtrack, there isn’t a whole lot to differentiate the two games, and that’s a big compliment.

However, the differences we do find are indicative of the difference in budget between the two titles. Taboo Trial is, after all, a budget title, for sale at half the standard price of Valkyrie Elysium, and this shows in Taboo Trial’s lack of voice acting. You won’t find any misplaced sexy British accents here, just a selection of regular text boxes which feel a little odd compared to what we’re used to.

Fortunately, what these frequent text boxes of exposition do highlight is just how much more storytelling is packed into Taboo Trial, and this is most noticeable when interacting with your fellow Valkyries back at Valhalla. Intoxicating your sisters-in-arms with a rare and highly alcoholic drink simply referred to as “holy water” will quickly raise your bonds, with relationships growing from comrades to friends to surprisingly sexually promiscuous lovers.

Yes, the game can get quite saucy at times, though I’m hesitant to call it a ‘fan service’ game. Sure, all the girls are gorgeous, with a bright-eyed HD anime aesthetic, and we’ll be treated to a few seductive poses during dialogue scenes, while the in-game artwork meant to advertise the four DLC characters does so by showing them half-dressed, yet this is about as naughty as it gets.

The setting, characters, and flow of Taboo Trial give it an addictive quality, and this is very important in games with roguelike mechanics since we tend to battle constantly recycled enemies and revisit old dungeons after we fail, and Taboo Trial is no exception. The difficulty is all over the place, with colossal boss-type damage-sponge enemies mixed in with one-hit-killable fodder.

Be prepared to lose a lot of fights, sometimes when you least expect it, during a solid run. It’s then that it all feels very ‘Soulslike’ as we respawn, dust ourselves off, upgrade as much as we can, and try again. It is a repetitive experience, yet it’s also an immensely satisfying and rewarding one if you can forgive all the difficulty spikes, and you can become quite the powerhouse if you put the time into upgrading.