Daily Review: Valkyria Chronicles

Daily Review

Valkyria Chronicles

System: PS3
Status: Beaten
Currently: Just beat it, finally!

So yeah, I love this game, its unabashed. I'm really regretting it took me so long to beat it, especially since there are sequels on the PSP, and I actually have one now. Not to say its perfect, but it is definately a great game. Its really surprising that lately Sega has been making awesome games (Yakuza series as well), as long as it isn't Sonic franchise.

The game is beautiful, it is drawn in this 'paintbrush' style that makes the entire game look like a painting (including whitened out sections at the top and bottom). The world is a stylized Europe, set in pretty much World War 2, barring certain technology (Its all land war). As a strategy RPG, it works well, you have to carefully consider your movements, jump from cover to cover, guard your approaches, lay down covering fire, hide behind tanks, etc. The missions are usually quite fun, tossing you into situations where you have to adapt and adjust your tactics, and at the same time try to rush to get a good grade for more experience and cash.

Any gripes I have are really nitpicks, and some of them were misconceptions on my part, I'll handle those first. First of all, I played this game like Fire Emblem, and that was wrong. At first I would restart a mission if I lost someone who wasn't important....except all but the character's who you can not let die during the particular mission, anyone who falls you can run up next to, call a medic...then call again in the same mission. Once I realized this, I abused it, in one mission I had a mechanic who would run up, repair the tank, and get nailed by crossfire. I would call the medic, then at the next base I captured, call her up again, and go again. I literally had her shot down four times, and called back into action four times. As long as the enemy doesn't get to that person, they don't die permanently (but will if an enemy touches them).

The other weird part was realizing I could save scum. You can save in the middle of missions...I put the game down at first because I would go through a 5-6 turn mission, and screw up near the end, having to start all over. Once I realized I could save mid mission, I would save at the beginning of a turn where nothing really went terrible, and be able to reload if I made a really bad move. This saved me from having to start all over, and at times wasting hours.

So, other than those two misunderstandings, my main gripes lay in some minor elements. The first, is that for most of the game, the game is played as a straight war stories. There are some 'land battleships' that are too big to be believed, but its kinda acceptable with the mysterious fuel source they use. However, at the later part, you have super-powered beings tearing up battlefields, and the final enemy general goes 'one wing angel' and takes on your entire squad by himself. It doesn't ruin it, but its rather weird since the game would have worked fine as a war story (an idealistic one, but still a good war story).

The other nitpick is on certain missions, you're going to have to go into it, fail, and reload entirely. This is because halfway through the mission, something happens, and then suddenly the team you brought is useless for what the 'real' objective of the mission is. This is in general a complaint for a lot of RPGs, where you have to trial and error a boss, going back through once you find out what they do. Its not really good in any game, you should be able to figure out the boss as you go. In a rather realistic war story, its kinda silly that you have to presciently position your troops to get enemies before they can screw you over. Again, its a nitpick, once you know the happening you can usually give it one more shot and make it.

The story is good, the game is great (albeit stressful at times), the whole thing is very solid. If you see it and you like strategy games or war games, pick it up, completely worth it.

I have it listed as beaten, as the game has in-game medals that you can acquire, and you need to A rank all the missions along with getting all the weapons, maxing troops, etc. I'll consider it completed when I get all of those.