Valkyria Chronicles: Review

First off this game is a turn based RPG so for all those people who assume that mean its a terrible game please leave now.

second off kind of a WW2 shooter/RPG so people who say WW2 makes a game crap please leave now.

thirdly this game is purely battle/level based so no roaming between area to advance the plot and no random battles. so those FF7 Fanboys this isn’t for you either now

for everyone else who actually like playing games this is for you. so Review time

Valkyria Chronicles

ok, this is a PS3 only title developed by Sega and it technically falls into the catagory of JRPG, which i think came about due to the graphical style and the plot driven game play but hey. but the whole game seems to be told as someone reading a book but thats never really touched on apart from in some cutscenes. the book is split into chapters and chapters contain a few cutscenes/plot releated events and one or two battles/levels. so nice a simple.

Stroy

now above I mentioned this is set during WWII but that was a lie well kind of. Well the year is 1935 EC and the country is known as Gallia and its the start of the second europan War. ok to Gallia in terms of position on the very deformed Eurpoa map is round about where the Netherlands are and everything east of that is the bad guys. and its amazing the whole war happens the tiny little country of Gallia, which is basically the same as if the whole of WW2 happened in poland, which of course it didn’t. well anyway the reason for the war is the need to resourses and no not coal its a magical jack of all trades thing called ragnite this stuff powers everything and is also used for explosives and healing.

ok to sum it up quickly the big bad emprie is trying to take over poor little gallia because of all its ragnite and you (Welkin Gunther) join the militia along with ur trusty side kick Alica and his adopted sister Isara. and you get promited to a squad leader and you get your wonderful squad 7. and well yea you do missions kills stuff find out the true history of the world lalala you get it.

come on Rosie (Shocktrooper) smile

Gameplay

well the gameplay is nice a simple you are given a mission, which 9 times out of 10 is capture the enemies base which might sound boring but it can be god damn hard because I knows it turn based combat but the enemy can still shoot and kill you during ur turn if you are in there line of fire or when they counter attack you (which is everytime you shoot one of them and you are in there range of fire) so after getting your mission you select the placement of your troops for at the start of the mission of which you can pick anyone member of your squad all with there own perks but there are 5 main classes, which i’ll explain in a bit. once the battle begins you will be presented with the a screen very similar to the following this is just used for unit selection and well reviewing the current situation, but this screen will only ever who you known enemy locations if you don’t have them in direct sight they are displayed as a ?

first the scouts these guys are quick they can get anywhere on the map at pretty much anytime they want so these are best used for well scouting out the enemy. they come equipped with a rifle and a grenade (later they get a grenade launcher as well)

next we have the Shocktrooper these guys can be a pain to fight because if you step into there line of sight well expect a hail of bullets coming your way. unfortantly because they are stupidly over powered they can’t move very far and there range isn’t that good. as you may have guessed they come equipped with a machinegun and later on a flamethrower as well.

next is the mighty lancer who you need to watch out for if you are a tank but normally they can be ignored because there accuracy is terrible but if you get a head shot with them they can kill pretty much anything in one hit. as the name suggest they come equiped with a Lance, which is this worlds equivalent to a rocket launcher with a spike on the end. there main purpose is to take out enemy armor such as tanks, bunkers and turrets.

next up is the good old sniper these guys unforantly have very poor movement as well, actually they are the slowest movers of the game but what they lack in movement they make up with fire power and range. just put one of these in a tower and they can just pick of the enemy one by one. another down side to them though is they only come with 3 bullets and only gain one bullet per turn so they have there draw backs. as you can guess they come with a sniper rifle.

lastly we have the Engineers these little people have a high movement not quiet as much as a scout but enough so they can run around the map stocking up ammo, removing mines, placing sand bags, and repairing your tanks. they come equiped with a large medi pack, a rifle, engi tools and 3 grenades.

ok so after you have your squad you have Command point (the little star things at the top) each one of these mean you can move one unit by there set amount and fire your weapon once and once you run out of these command points your turn is over.

so once you have selected your unit you can run around freely dodging enemy bullets unit you decided you want to unload a few into them. so this continues until you either get a game over or you win simple. well its can be very hard but still simple.

Graphics

now the graphics in this game are somewhat unique becasue the whole thing is set out like a drawing that has been painted with water colours then had some pencil lined added in for shadows etc. but unfortantly i’m yet to find a screenshot they shows this off correctly i suppose you see it more when the picture is moving.

unfortunately that video doesn’t really do it any justice. but you get the picture.

over looking that its just your everyday cellshaded anime style graphics but just the attention to detail
just makes this game all that more special like the fading to just the pencil outline when you get a
game over it just added to it.

Characters

there lovable and let you get into the story, which is what you want really and you can play in both
english and japanese they both sound outstanding, i suppose there are a few squad member who are just plain annoying but still there good voice talents.

the good old squad 7 well the main cast anyway just before a big battle

and after one.

oh and one major MAJOR plus point about the English voice talent Mona Marshall (no offence to her but I’m so sick of that voice)

Music

now this kind of hurts the game becasue the same soundtrack is played over and over but saying that I havn’t found is annoying and i’ve been playing it for over 35 hours now.

Overall

well overall this is defo my favourite game of the year if not this console Generation I certainly have missed the feeling you get when your addicted to a game just a shame this one will have to end soon. but they are doing a big No no and making a Anime out of this (which will be out next spring)

please don’t ruin the game please please please. and no sequels

ok score time

Graphics: 10
Sound: 7
voice: 9
Gameplay: 9
Story: 8

Overall: 9

WOW I actually something a 10! and i only gave it a ten because clearly alot of effort has gone into making it look like it does. and the reason for the story being an 8 the twist were to easy to work out they could of so easily have hid it alot more and done like a flash back later (which the game does do at time but for the wrong events) and all I can say to sign this off with is if your looking for a reason to buy a PS3 and you like RPG’s the above is a perfect reason. oh and if you grab it before Christmas its only