Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume is a tactical role-playing game in which players take on the role of main protagonist Wylfred and a group of allies for turn-based tactical combat in three-dimensional isometric areas with a rotatable camera angle.[1][2] The screens of the Nintendo DS display different information, with the top screen showing battle information and the bottom showing the story, map and battle sequences.[3][4]
The story progresses through chapters, with different story routes available that offer other recruitable characters and difficulty levels. Players reach locations using a world map. The player can visit towns where merchants are based; merchants sell new equipment and items with currency earned through battles or selling items. There are also taverns, where players can learn additional lore about the world and pick up side-quests featuring battles against secondary foes.[5] During navigation or town visits, the player can organize their units, including which will participate in combat and what abilities and weapons they can use. Each party member has a character class, which grant them unique weapon affinities and impact their attack range and movement speed.[6] New units join Wylfred based on which path he takes through the story, with those he does not recruit turning up as enemies in later stages.[7]