Real Time, But Not: Valkyria Chronicles Review

For the past week and a half I've been dumping all of my spare after work time into Valkyria Chronicles for the PS3. It was an overlooked game in a slew of great overlooked games that came out toward the end of last year but deserves much respect and praise for what it is, what it does, how it managed to pull it off.

The game from publisher Sega, is a Japanese RPG set in an alternative WWII universe. The world has kind of a Steampunk feel to it with tanks roaming around with big glowing radiators sticking out the back of them and massive lancer weapons. It's done in an anime style and shown through a filter making every character and environment look hand drawn. You play Welkin, a 22 year old with the dreams of becoming a school teacher and study bugs but is forced to put those aspirations on hold to command a militia squad against (wait for it) the evil empire who is threatening to take over his country.

What separates Valkyria Chronicles from every other JRPG in existence (or known to me at least) are two things, the way the story is delivered and the combat. The story is in the form of a book with 18 chapters and episodes within those chapters. By selecting an episode you are either presented with a cut scene or a talking head text based scene to move the story along instead of aimlessly wondering around on a map trying to talk to everyone in town to find out where you next mission is to continue with the story. Every chapter has at least one map where the combat for that chapter takes place.

The combat of the game is a mix of genres. It blends real-time-strategy with the traditional turn-based system of most JRPGs. At the beginning of every battle you are given a briefing about what you will be up against, shown a map with the position of the enemy camp and yours, and given a set number of control points to use to move your units. Selecting a unit on the map drops you into a 3-D space where you move your character in real time across the map to either attack or capture enemy base camps. While you are moving your character all enemy characters have the ability to attack you if you are within range and vice-versa when it's the computer's turn. There are 6 classes of characters each with different attributes and varying amounts of move distance, HP, and attack power. Though you move your character in real time across the map, when you attack it is still a dice roll and sometimes you will have the perfect headshot lined up only to see it whiff for apparently no reason which stings a little more than in traditional turn based RPGs where your just told the attack missed because here you've done all the work of getting the character to that point.

Since story is delivered from the book only, the game found an interesting way of giving you side quests. You book will get tabs after advancing the game and you will be able to take place in skirmish battles over and over to basically grind for experience. They are completely aside from the story of the game and not essential to do to complete, but they do make for an interesting challenge. Every battle in the game including skirmishes is graded A-D depending only on how many turns it takes you and since a skirmish can be played multiple times unlike story mode battles it's easy to get caught up in the puzzle of trying to complete it in the least amount of turns and still be able to take out all the enemy captains for the maximum bonus. This is one of the first RPGs where I actually had fun and looked forward to grinding for exp because of the puzzle-like nature of the battles.

Your characters are upgraded by class and you can distribute the XP as you like. Upgrading classes also gives them new abilities and orders that can aid in battle by raising stats or giving them extra ammo. Weapon upgrades must be purchased and they branch off offering selection of more attack power to status effects. Tank parts can be bought as well and you must choose which ones to outfit you tank with depending on what battle you're going into. The best part is you have the choice of completely ignoring all of it an continue on without trouble but for players that want a little more depth it is there.

There are a lot of things to like about the game like the art direction and the new and fresh twist on the gameplay, but I was most impressed by the story. Welkin is a real character that you get to play at the beginning of his legend and get to see and take part in his successes. You develop a feel for your squad. I found myself not saying "I need an engineer here and a storm trouper here," but "Jane can storm this hallway and Carl needs to be by the tank." The game doesn't punish you for members dying in battle (though in the credit roll it will list the survivors and deceased) but I wanted to protect my troupes more than anything and get through every battle with no casualties which is saying something because 3/4ths of them were non-essential characters. It's hard to say much about the story without giving anything away but it is one full of emotion. There were several times I was at a loss for words at the action that was happening on screen. The book representation of the story was spot on as the game like a book makes you want to keep turning the pages of the chapters to find out what happens next.

If you have a PS3, this game is absolutely worth checking out. There are hours of great gameplay and a story that you'll actually want to sit through. A/9.0/93