Valkyrie No Densetsu

The Legend of Valkyrie is a top-down action-adventure game. The player takes control of the sword-armed warrior maiden Valkyrie, while a second player can join in as Valkyrie's lizard-like companion Kurino Xandra. Both characters have a projectile weapon that can be shot at enemies to defeat them, as well as health meters that deplete if they are hit by an enemy or projectile. A fraction of their health will also be removed if either fall into a pit or off a cliff. A time limit is present, indicated by an hourglass towards the bottom of the screen, which will deplete as the stage progresses – allowing this timer to fully empty will result in the game being over.

Both players can collect gold coins by defeating enemies, which can be used in stores found throughout the game to purchase magic spells, weapons and other items. Some enemies can drop bubble-like items that can be exchanged with certain NPCs in return for powerful magic spells that can deal great damage against enemies. Item prices in shops increase as the game progresses. Players can find treasure chests in certain places that yield powerful, sometimes rare items that are useful for later sections of the game.

Small parts of the story to The Legend of Valkyrie are told through in-game cutscenes and dialogue, while much of it is instead found in various pieces of Namco promotional material. Continuing after the events of the first game, following the restoration of peace to the kingdom of Marvel Land the inhabitants of Xandra Land notice their kingdom becoming barren of resources, with the cropfields providing the Xandra Land people's food drying up. In an effort to save his family and home, Kurino Xandra embarks on a quest to retrieve a mystical item called the Golden Seed, said to grant the wishes of whoever drops it into the Northern Spring. After beginning his search for the Golden Seed, Xandra is joined by Sabina, a member of the Koakuman tribe, and Zuul, a former bandit who has a map potentially leading to the seed. Following the map leads the trio to an odd formation of rocks with a golden trident atop them, which becomes Xandra's primary weapon.

One evening, the three encounter an old woman in the forest, advising them to visit an abandoned village that had been destroyed many years ago. As they investigate, Xandra and company are met by the warlord Kamooz and his group of soldiers. Kamooz, responsible for spreading destruction and chaos across Marvel Land, is also looking for the Golden Seed to enslave the inhabitants of the kingdom and make them his personal slaves, attacking Xandra and his friends. Just as the situation begins to escalate, a mythical warrior named Valkyrie descends from the heavens and chases away Kamooz and his soldiers.

The Legend of Valkyrie was conceptualized by Namco character artist Hiroshi Fujii, who previously worked on the game's predecessor Valkyrie no Bōken: Toki no Kagi Densetsu, and a designer only known by the pseudonym of "Koakuman". Prior to designing Densetsu, Fujii had previously worked for Namco's design department, a division of the company that produced toys, electro-mechanical arcade games, and robotics. When the department was eventually dissolved, Fujii was swiftly brought aboard Namco's core video game design division due to his prior experience with console games, and became the head designer for the new game. During the project's planning stage, Fujii used many of his sketches and artwork he created for Valkyrie no Boken to rework into Densetsu, including several enemies and locations.

The game's fictional world was inspired by the Middle Ages and ancient Europe, featuring a sense of "magic" in-between. The team envisioned the player exploring a vast, open-world, with transitioning seasons and landscapes, but the vertical orientation of the arcade monitor left much of this idea heavily altered or cut out entirely.

The Legend of Valkyrie was critically acclaimed in its initial release by players and critics, and was widely successful. Japanese publication Gamest awarded the game the first-place "The Best Game" award in 1991 and listed it as one of the best arcade games of all time, simultaneously awarding it the 7th "Player Popularity" and 2nd "Best Action" awards. Gamest said that the unique characters, addictive role-playing-like gameplay and overall presentation made The Legend of Valkyrie one of Namco's best arcade titles, greatly applauding the game's strong usage of the System 2 hardware and for providing an experience unmatched by most arcade titles at the time. They also claimed it was a significant improvement over its Famicom predecessor, and labeled it as being influential for the genre. In a 1991 Gamest reader poll, The Legend of Valkyrie was voted the best arcade game of all time.

The PC Engine conversion was met with a more mixed reaction by contrast. Several critics agreed that the gameplay was fun and offered variety, but was too difficult and lacked replay value. German publications ASM and Power Play both found the gameplay to be entertaining yet overly simplistic, with Power Play adding that its short play time made it difficult going back to, in contrast to similar games for the PC Engine that offered much longer gameplay experiences. Japanese magazines PC Engine FAN and Maru PC Engine liked the gameplay for being fun and energetic, although PC Engine FAN argued that it was too difficult to appeal to newer players.