Valkyria Chronicles ( PS3 )

So first off I must admit I love turned based game, for example I worship Vandal Hearts. If you ever want to make a turn based game that is going to be loved then please look at vandal hearts, but not vandal hearts 2.
Anyways time to get back on the track of Valkyria Chronicles.

It is a “3rd person action strategy turn based” game. You get a turn, you move your units, when you can move nothing more then enemy moves theirs and so and so on till someone wins.

The Story of Valkyria Chronicles

Lets start off with the story, the game begins part way through a world war, your little country is sitting on a huge amount of valuable “Ragnite” which the other countries want and they want it quite badly. So everyone is scurrying out of the cities and towns as fast as they can while the army and the militia try to fend off the invading armies. So in comes Mr main character, a university student of all things. Who has come back to his home town to fetch his sister. You get dragged into the militia, they find out you can actually do something useful and they promote you and give you your own squad.

The story progresses through ” chapters ” in the style of a book. You can unlock new chapters by doing certain actions or by buying them. The additional content while not necessary to complete the game and offer nothing more then back story to the characters will make you care about them in some way or another. It really lengthens the game and improves on the enjoyment. The format they use to tell the story while sometimes can be a bit long winded does the job and does it well. It is most likely the best story arc of any game in 2008. Insanely better then GoW2′s “NOOO darn you locust, darn you all to heck” moments.

Some of the plot can be predicted and there’s the general misc stuff thrown in from time to time, but none of it degrades the story or shifts it enough to make it go into non-sense land.

The visuals of the game are neigh spot on, the cell shading stylised into a water coloured effect carries on from cut scene into actual game play, making the experience as fluid as possible. While there are some graphic glitches here and there, it is easily the most pleasing on the eyes games I have seen in a long time.

The music doesn’t leave much of a standing impression in my mind, but I have found my self humming the engagement music from time to time while bored. The music kicks in at the right times and doesn’t feel out of place anywhere in the game, tho sometimes I felt I wanted to turn off the chapter selection menu music off.

Chapter selection screen

Valkyria Chronicles Game play

As you know it is a 3rd person turn based action game, so you start off by selecting your units by using something called a “Command Point”, you are given a limited number of these a turn, if you don’t use them all in that turn you can carry them over to your next turn. When you use a command point and use a unit (move, shoot / action) then you can reselect that same unit do move and shoot or preform an action again, but that unit will have less stamina, meaning they can’t move as far and with each CP used on them they move less and less. Stamina returns at the end of each round though, so all is good.

Unit selection and map

Now shooting your enemy in the head, you can do this before moving a unit or after, doesn’t matter….well it does in some cases. Each gun has a accuracy rating, this determines the “circle” of your attack. Naturally the closer you are to a target the more likely you are going to hit it. Head shots count for more damage so it is important to aim at them from time to time. The guns are limited to “Class” types.  Machine guns go to the Shock troopers, rifles go to the scouts and engineers, sniper rifles go to the snipers and lance rocket launchers go to the well…. lancers. Each unit type have different sets of abilities, engineers can repair sandbags and the like, they can also repair tanks. Each unit have a set of “innate abilities”, these can manifest themselves as extra damage, extra ammo to dropping ammo or not being able to do anything in that turn besides run about.

Your main character also gets a tank to control, tanks in Valkyria Chronicles do not feel overpowered, which is surprising. While they can deal a lot of damage to the enemy front they also need protecting against enemy lancers, tank mines, anti-armour guns and the like. Tactics play a part in this game, but it doesn’t impose them on the player to point where it breaks the game.

Take a deep breath and take the safety off

Conclusion

So onto the finale of this review

Pros :

• The story is the best I have seen in a very long time from a game
• Turn based gaming  at its best in a long while
• Keeps tension levels even through the wait of the enemy phases
• Fiendishly cunning AI
• AI doesn’t grief you… most of the time
• Unit classes level up as a whole, not individuals. Making loosing a minor character less pesky
• Wide variety of voices
• Tried and tested story arc
• Innate abilities of the units makes it more strategic in some aspects while still relying on luck

Cons :

• The IQ of the AI can be incredibly low at some points.
• Some parts of the story are painfully predicable
• Some points you can be more a long a level then the game thinks you are, making you skip a few turns until the game catches up.
• Innate abilities can hinder you sometimes, luck is a souble edge sword.

If you have a PS3 and have nothing against turn based games, or haven’t played one, or if you love them..You should add Valkyria Chronicles to your collection.

This is my game of the year.