Buy Valkyria Chronicles™

It’s hard to figure out where to even begin talking about Valkyria Chronicles; there’s so much to say. Sega’s brilliant take on turn-based tactics is one of my favorite games of the genre, but beyond that I think it’s a very important game. It’s important because the story touches on some of the darkest moments in human history – moments no other game has dared to touch – and does so in an intelligent and sensitive manner. It’s important because of the innovative ways in which it manages to systemize its characterization and themes. It’s important because it marks the last time that Sega put in the care and effort needed to make something unequivocally excellent.
Fans of Japanese games have been let down time and again by PC releases, and when Sega announced that Valkyria Chronicles would be coming to steam we had every reason to expect a buggy, slapdash port. And that would have been a real shame, because with its sketchy watercolor aesthetic the PS3 version is one of the most enduringly beautiful games of the last generation. Fortunately, not only does the PC version of run at 60 frames per second in high definition with nary a hiccup, it also makes several significant enhancements to the original game’s effects. Even better, it condenses the PS3 version’s excruciating loading times to a fraction of a second.
Valkyria Chronicles has a very dense narrative, but to sum it up it’s a steampunk fantasy take on World War II set on the fictional continent of Europa. Europa is embroiled in a conflict between two superpowers – the Atlantic Federation and the Imperial Alliance – over a miraculous mineral fuel called Ragnite. The small, neutral principality of Gallia is invaded by the Empire for their rich deposits of this precious resource. The Empire is also running a campaign of extermination against the Darcsens, a race of pale-skinned, dark-haired people who have become scapegoats for the bulk of Europa’s ills. They kill them indiscriminately and even – here we get to the part of the war that no other game talks about – toss them into concentration camps and work them to death. It’s a little ridiculous that an anime fantasy game is the only AAA title in history with something to say about the Holocaust, but to this game’s immense credit it speaks with the care and respect such a sensitive topic deserves. Furthermore, it covers all of its subject matter with that same care.
If Valkyria Chronicles can be said to have a single overarching theme, it’s that we are all human. The characters under your command, who together comprise Squad 7 of the Gallian Militia’s Third Regiment, are among the best-realized and most likeable characters in gaming history. Squad leader Welkin Gunther is a little socially awkward and obsessed with nature – a trait that sometimes gives him ingenious philosophical and strategic insights. Alicia Melchiott, his second-in-command, is steadfast, caring, and strong-willed. The way that her relationship with Welkin blossoms into romance over the course of the story is positively heartwarming.
But the game doesn’t let us forget that there are people on every side of the conflict. Early scenes in the game which depict the Empire rolling through Welkin’s idyllic home town are framed almost as propaganda, but as the story unfurls we see more and more humanity in the enemy forces, and more evil outside the Empire. When the Federation gets involved in the conflict it causes no end of trouble, and some of the more officious ranking officers in Gallia’s own military pose as much of a threat as the enemy generals.
Instead of seeing this conflict as it happens, we view it through the eyes of historian Irene Koller in her book “On the Gallian Front,” which covers the war from Squad 7’s perspective. Interestingly, Irene’s writing is a little biased, and the game leaves you to wonder how reliable a narrator she really is. Not only is this book a solid framing device for the game’s narrative, it also serves as its interface.
A good interface and good story wouldn’t matter if the game itself was not good, and Valkyria Chronicles is great. On a surface level the game has a lot in common with XCOM. You take command of a military unit comprised of different classes – scouts, engineers, shocktroopers, snipers, lancers, and one tank – and take responsibility for their training as well as their mission performance. On the battlefield success is all about making strategic use of cover and positioning soldiers for the best shot or an effective ambush.
In Valkyria Chronicles soldiers are always on “overwatch,” so they’ll automatically fire on any enemy that enters their range outside their own turn. If you’re smart you can set up ambushes on the enemy’s turn, taking soldiers down before they have a chance to attack and costing the computer an action in the process. Of course if you’re careless the same thing can happen to you. This dynamic makes each of your turns feel almost like an action game.
Anyone who’s played XCOM knows how aggravating it can be to open fire on an alien with a 95% hit chance only to miss entirely. Valkyria Chronicles handles accuracy by putting a circle around your crosshairs representing margin of error, and on top of being more intuitive this creates a wider potential range for success and failure. Instead of assigning a binary hit/miss condition to an entire burst of gunfire, Valkyria calculates each shot individually, so even if you don’t hit enough times to take an enemy down you’ll probably take a chunk out of their health.
Painstaking effort has gone into crafting every aspect of Valkyria Chronicles’ world. This comes across in obvious ways, like the pages upon pages of lore in the glossary that flesh out the setting’s ecology, cultures, and economy, but it also deeply informs the mission design. Every single level is full of little details that help to sell the reality of the world. This isn’t all that surprising considering that the same team created Skies of Arcadia but it’s appreciated nonetheless.
Acting and sound design are just as great as the music. More strict fans of JRPGs will be happy to know that the game includes both English and Japanese voices, but this is one of the few games where the option doesn’t feel needed. The performances for every member of the cast – including all 49 unique, non plot-essential members of Squad 7 – are of the same caliber as you’d expect from the core cast of an Atlus game. Sound effects always make it clear what’s going on and where it’s happening, even if you can’t see it.
The art style in Valkyria Chronicles isn’t just beautiful, it’s enduring. Valkyria Chronicles has aged remarkably well, and in a world where computer graphics advance every other month that’s quite an accomplishment. Another big contributing factor is the game’s animations, which are smooth and very well-crafted, conveying personality through subtle body-language and facial expressions while giving every object and character a correct sense of weight and presence in the world.
In its music, writing, art and acting ,Valkyria Chronicles is brimming with the emotional potency to bring a man to tears. It would make an excellent movie if that were all it had going for it, but the story is told in a way that could only work in a video game, and built on a rock-solid framework of deep and challenging tactical gameplay. Valkyria Chronicles is a timeless classic, and this exceptional PC port only manages to improve upon it.

I bought this game totally not because you can:

1) Set the audio to Japanese
2) Make a squad out of little screaming girls and a gay anti-tank dude (oh, you'll also have a winged piglet)
3) Kill everyone with your kawaii army while enjoying long cutscenes, victory poses, "Yatta" and "Rosie-sempai" shouts etc.

Same for you, right?

Started as a teenaged baker girl, got invaded by Russians. Slowly built up a squad of similarly aged girls and boys. Now I run a squad composed almost entirely of children who are fighting to take their homeland back. Joseph Kony doesn't have ♥♥♥♥ on me.

12/10.

Before I continue writing my review on this game, I got to say that the PC port of Valkyria Chronicles is one of the best, if not, the best port. The game was originally exclusive for the PlayStation 3 back in 2008. The game was well received, but garnered low sales that would put the sequels Valkyria Chronicles 2 and 3 on the PSP. I actually never heard of this game before until a few week prior to the PC release on November 2014. That said, I will have to give a standing ovation to Sega for putting an effort to make the PC port well optimized in 1080p (or more) at 60 FPS (or more). Sega has my attention and I will present this review.

Valkyria Chronicles focuses on Welkin Gunther, a son of a legendary general who fought in the First Europan War, leads a platoon of some adults and teenage volunteers to defend their country against the invading forces of the Imperial Alliance. The game presents a mix of tactical strategy and third-person action that is very unique in the strategy game genre. Does this game deserve your attention?

The story takes place in a “fictional” European continent where the Second Europan War was fought primarily between the Atlantic Federation (think of all of the European countries, in a geographical sense) versus the Imperial Alliance (Russia, in a geographic sense). Gallia is a “neutral” country where it contains a unique resource known as Ragnite. Thus, the Imperial Alliance invade Gallia to get Ragnite to fuel up their war resources. One of the greatest parts about the game is how well the developers use analogies from the World War II into the game and the execution is well-received. The analogies ranged from weapon designs (like the Gallian Scout weapons look like the Soviet SVT-40 to the Imperial weaponry look like the MP40 and the STG44, and plenty others), vehicles, and geopolitical conflicts. The character developments in the game is highly impressive, particularly with the relationship between Welkin (protagonist) and Alicia Melchiott (deuterogamist). The themes in Valkyria Chronicles consist a good mix of “light” moments (like hope as an example) and “semi-grotesque” themes of war (such as discrimination/racism, personal ambition over soldiers’ lives, and others themes that will unravel later on). Some reviewers criticized the game as being not serious on the themes about war. Honestly, I don’t think that the game is supposed to be depressing and a good mix between “light” and “dark” is best suited for the game. The story starts really slow in the beginning and actually begin to progress as you reach a certain point in the story. The plot is pretty good in most area while few scenes are a bit “awkward” in terms of sudden shifts between a sad event to a “positive motivation”.

The gameplay in Valkyria Chronicles is turn-based, but it is very unique because once you click on a character to choose, you can actually control the character to move to any location in third-person you like as long you have enough Action Points (basically, the movement bar). Experience points and money are earned by Ranks (like A, B, C, and D) by completing an objective within a certain number of turns (Example: Getting a ‘A’ rank within 3 turns or less to get the maximum amount of exp and money). However, it is possible that you can actually kill all of the enemies on the map, complete the objective, and still get an ‘A’ rank in the majority of missions (except for a few of them). With the exp and money, you train your soldiers based on classes (Scout, Shocktrooper, Lancer (Anti-Tank/Explosives), Engineers, and Sniper) rather than individuals. The money are used up to upgrade weapons, buy tank parts, and purchasing “reports” from a reporter in certain chapters in the story. The game would last you a good 30-50 hours if you play the game in a smart, tactical manner or have an “OCD” on getting an “A” rank on every single mission in the story or a mix of both (like I did).

The game does have some faults, particularly when it comes to classes. Reviewers argued that Scouts are too overpowered, but in my view, it is best to say that scouts are too reliable since they have the most movement bar and top-tier weapons like the ZM Kar 8 (basically the weapon looks like an anti-tank rifle, sort of like the Soviet PTRS-41, that can obliterate any enemy, even medium and heavy tanks (if you shoot it in the back). Engineers are useless in the game since you won’t repair your tank very often (depending on your play style) and Scouts is the better alternative. There are some bugs in the game that is related to the monitor refresh rate (if you play it on a 144 Hz monitor like I did) in certain missions in the story. PC controls are a bit awkward when you control the tank. There are a few moments in the story that has some poor “transitions” (an example would be that an upsetting moment happened in the story and all of a sudden, some of the major characters wanted a medal for their part on a major battle in the next cutscene as if that upsetting moment never happen or affected them).

The game is often compared to XCOM when it comes to gameplay. This may be true, but Valkyria Chronicles if very unique since you can actually control the character in third person instead of the computer doing it for you when you command the character to move from Point A to B, in bird’s eye view. The game engine is very aesthetic and presents the story very well. I’m glad the Sega released Valkyria Chronicles to the PC and I am very pleased to hear that a (possible) new Valkyria Chronicles game is being trademarked (and hopefully in development) thanks to the PC sales. The default price of $20 is a good deal, -50% off is a great deal, -75% is a perfect steal. Valkyria Chronicles is one of my top games for 2014 due to its unique strategy gameplay and superb PC port optimization. I am looking forward for the new game that is being trademarked (or possible PC ports or revamp for VC2 and 3). This game has my highest recommendation for any strategy gamer who want to find something original, unique, and beautiful.

I shall now proceed to write unbridled and unambiguous praise for this game.

Valkyria Chronicles is a triumph. It is a triumph in gameplay, style, presentation, sound design, narrative, character development, exposition and content. The game combines the illustrious production values of AAA titles with innovative gameplay quirks usually found in more obscure indie titles. Yet, it doesn’t compromise for even an inch. It delivers a style that uniquely its own and that might not appeal to everyone, but it sure has hell makes an exceptionally appealing case for itself.

If you’re a fan of turn based rpg tactics like Heroes of Might and Magic or Fire Emblem you will often find yourself in a minority crowd. It is a rather specific genre that many mainstream publishers don’t even want to look at it. Sega however took a bold stance and had Valkyria Chronicles developed and published. Not only is it a turn based rpg tactics game, it also breaks the mold on that genre to become a hybrid of turn based and real time. Part shooter, and part chess. The blend is so unique there is nothing quite like it outside of the series itself.
You control a small squad of soldiers. Each turn you’re given a number of action points. By selecting a soldier you expend the point and are given real time control of the unit. You can then move around the map. You only see enemy units on the map if any of your own units currently have a clear line of sight in that area, so you might run into unforeseen threats while exploring. When you’ve found your mark, you can hit the aim button and line up a shot. Your unit will empty a clip and then the enemy might retaliate, granted that you didn’t murder him in the first place. When moving, you deplete a movement gauge. When the gauge is empty your unit will be rooted to the ground and cannot move and you’ll be forced to expend an extra command point to move your unit. You’ll have to take range into account when moving. If you run out in enemy crossfire you’ll most likely lose your unit in the next turn. Additionally, units come in different shapes and sizes. Scouts are fast and nimble, but generally miss the firepower and endurance to break enemy entrenchments. Shocktroopers are the opposite of scouts. They tire much faster, but pack a serious wallop and can take one too. Lancers specialise in destroying enemy armour units, and the engineers provide support to your own tanks and troops. The sniper unit does what it says on the tin; it takes out single units with pinpoint accuracy.
However, your units are all unique, each soldier is a character with its own traits and abilities. You develop their talents by letting them perform in the line of duty, and by training them by expending experience points. You also have to equip them with new and better gear. You’re always busy with maintaining your army, be it out in the field or back at base; a commander’s duty never ends.
The missions are also very well executed. Most maps feature a unique obstacle that needs to be overcome. This keeps the gameplay fresh as you make your way through the enemy ranks. You’ll fight in the desert, the streets, beaches, forests, canyons and in fortresses. The variety is excellent and you’ll quickly learn to adapt you tactics and squad accordingly.

Speaking of the commander, the game’s story focusses on Lieutenant Welkin Gunther and his squad of militia men and women. The small nation of Gallia is caught amidst a continent wide conflict as the eastern Europan Empire invades and begins to violently subjugate the nation. Welkin and his fellow countrymen are drafted into service to repel the invaders. At the same time they discover important clues about the country’s history and its former rulers: The Valkyria; near mythical people with incredible powers.
The setting draws parallels with our own Second World War. Complete with ethnic scourges and totalitarian ideologies. Furthermore, the game takes its time to give you exposition. Many of the secondary characters get room to develop alongside the main man and lady. Most stages are bookended, with intro cut scenes beforehand, and an outro afterward. All cut scenes are fully voiced by an anime competent cast, so they’re familiar with the style of material and do an excellent job at conveying the moments the best they can. Even when the natively Japanese expositional style doesn’t exactly suit the moment. I’ve never found a need to switch the voices to Japanese. This is one of the key points where Valkyria Chronicles scores. Its approach to its narrative is not like a Hollywood movie like Saving Private Ryan, but more like a TV series, like The Pacific. It takes its time and lets you experience it at your own pace.

The entire game is presented in the form of a journal. Ever chapter takes place on a set of pages, where every ‘photo’ represents a cut scene, and every map equals a stage. You can flip through the journal’s tabs to find the entries on each separate character and other glossary entries. It’s a great way of presenting the story and its lore and mythos. You’re free to explore, or never even look at it.
The book is a neat way of presenting the game, but the real captivator are the graphics. The characters and environments are fashioned in an extremely stylish and gorgeous watercolour and pencil sketch manner. Not only does it suit its anime tone, it also stands the test of time. Even now, seven after its PS3 release, the graphics hold up and will probably hold up for a long time coming.
Accompanied with the visual package comes a very smart and elegant sound design. Every sort of bullet impact has a distinct noise, so you know when your unit is in direct danger, even if you can’t see the origin of the gunfire. The music is a romantic, tense and sweeping score that really underscores the game’s every moment. From the tense high stakes cover shootouts, to the emotional and heart wrenching moments, that despite of all your tactical prowess, will inevitably befall you.
These moments are where game is at its strongest; and where the art, gameplay and sound work together in a perfectly orchestrated and coordinated union that not just elevates the game at hand, but the medium as a whole. Valkyria Chronicles seizes the player for a unique experience that will change the way RPG tactics, narratives and presentation are perceived in video games