Valkyria Chronicles

Anime WW2 is what most people describe the setting of Valkyria Chronicles and yea that's about right. I won't speak too much on the story other than I enjoyed the characters and plot. I actually started with VC2 on the PSP as my first game into this IP so it was really cool seeing the "OGs" in action. VC1 Is a solid tactics/strategy game. I mean, ya can't really go wrong when the game is quite often on sale for like £3.74. It's quite unique in that you control a character from their POV instead of like a bird's eye view. Kinda like Worms 4 back on the PS2 (this is the only other game I've played that is similar). In terms of soldier types, you get: scouts, shocktroopers, lancers, engineers, and snipers. Scouts have the most AP (so they can run the most) and are decent damage dealers. Shocktroopers have meh AP but amazing anti-personnel damage. Lancers are your vehicle destroyers and sometimes are good against packed infantry if you use mortars (I never did). Engineers are weaker scouts but act as a medic alongside their repair and mine disarming duties. And snipers are...well snipers. Oh and you also get tanks. The problem is, which I'll get onto later, is that you're basically pushed to using scouts the most in order to get a higher rank from a mission. You might be wondering "why is it so important to get a higher rank?". Well, you get more XP and currency from getting a higher rank. The difference between ranks (A-D) are pretty big. I think you don't get any bonus from a D rank but get the moolah when you get A. More XP and currency means better troops. XP levels up your classes and money buys you equipment upgrades. My only gripe with the gameplay is the mission scoring system. It rewards players who blitz through the mission, most of the time. So, combined with the buffs you can put on your soldiers, you can get basically unkillable troops that run through enemy firing lines and just capture their main base point. Slap Alicia with caution (can swap out with awaken potential) and defensive boost and send her to the main base. Works most of the time and gets you an A rank. Issue is, once I knew this, why would I do anything else? So most of the missions can be stomped by a scout or two which means you don't really need to use the other classes as much. They all get their time to shine, it's just the scouts get the most time ya feel me? I guess what I'm trying to say is that it feels a bit...gamey? Arcadey? Dunno how to put it. Since you get XP to allocate to the classes you want to, you have no reason to allocate or use the classes you don't. Well, you do get special orders and potentials unlocked for the classes you allocate to but it feels weird to do so without actually using the classes yknow? Take XCOM2 for example. Your soldiers get XP if they are in the mission. No allocation, they just have to participate and slime aliens. This, alongside fatigue, encourages spreading out your squad a bit and bringing along some variety every so often. But VC1 kinda just put me in a position where I'm using Alicia, stacked with orders, all the time. Why settle for the rest when you got the best right? Of course, it's not literally just Alicia in a squad, some missions require a bit more firepower but when your main objective is "capture the enemy main base" then its usually Alicia. Doesn't make sense either - you run one person into a heavily fortified base and capture a flag and then the enemy is like "oh welp we didnt lose a single soldier but our flag is lost, let's pack up and go home". Still, Valkyria Chronicles is a fun game and has an interesting setting. It goes on sale quite often so it's hard not to recommend this from a value perspective alone. Oh yea, it's a 99% bug free experience other than one that happens in the second to last mission. Basically, you can't walk/run up a ramp unless your FPS is like set at 42 or lower. Had to play at 30 FPS for the first time in a long time with this PC. Oh and make saves often. I kept three saves: before mission, mission start, during mission (like a checkpoint). So yea I do recommend this game. Valkyria Chronicles 4 is quite often on sale and is bundled with this game too so I recommend getting that too. [spoiler] Hmm thinking about it, a fire emblem style game in the VC universe seems kinda neat... but the main uniqueness of VC would be taken away... [/spoiler]

I liked most of the story, aside from a few things that didn't make that much sense. I liked the characters of your squad and I like the way you play on the map. It did take some getting used to, as I have not played any game like this before. To me however, the game would be hella annoying, if it didn't let you save during a mission. I basically had to save after every turn, because you sometimes just can't tell how things would play out, the mechanic decides to repair a barricade behind you instead of disarming the mine in front of you, or suddenly a characters aim is way off and misses a shot he should hit 99% of the time and missing it screws your entire turn over. So it has its quirks, but because you can save, you can save yourself a lot of headaches by just slamming save as much as you can. Are you supposed to play a game this way? Maybe not, but if I feel like a game is playing against the player randomly, its the only saving grace. Most of the time it functions fine though, if you weren't able to save whenever you want however, I wouldn't have finished this game. Since you can, I quite enjoyed the story and liked figuring out how everything is supposed to play out. Though sometimes you face enemy tank positions that feel like are "impossible" to clear without tanking some damage willingly. They have their weakpoints on their back, so the game often wants you to hit that to clear them. Not always, but if you try to take it out from the front, it takes several moves. It also ranks how well you did and the lower number of turns you needed, the better your rank... which means, it wants you to figure out the fastest, not the safest solution. This contradicts itself imo. None the less, I enjoyed it enough that I am looking forward to playing Valkyria Chronicles 4! Btw. you can put a ton more hours into this game if you want. You unlock a lot of stuff after finishing and there are more difficulty settings added for every mission and you gain the ability to replay story missions to get better ranks aswell. If I had this game in my youth, I probably would have grinded the hell out of it to complete it all.

Phew, what a grind. Id like to start by saying this is one of the most unique games I have ever played. Ill admit, I'm not the biggest turn based gamer in the world BUT out of the few that I have played none of them are even remotely similar to Valkyria Chronicles. Not only that, but I cant fathom that this game is nearly 20 years old. It has that "unc" game charm but its virtually flawless. The only gripe I can pull out of my bum is that the learning curve is a bit steep. Anyway some of my favorite things about the game. I love the backstories for each of the characters that slowly update in the personnel tab as you progress further throughout the game. The soundtrack is also quite good, its really simple but it works! And I guess this goes hand in hand with my sentence about characters but the main cast couldn't of been better. Personally I am a Rosie enjoyer but all of them have their own quirks, from veggie obsession, singing, and even a baker girl with Rambo esque qualities that totally cant clear the entire game herself with defense boost and a Kar 8. Point is this game is great and well worth the money especially on a sale for $5 you're getting around 40hrs of content. And if you're a lowly chud like me that hunts for achievements ignoring not being very good at doing so, you're looking at well over a 100 hours of playtime. Despite all my praise for this game I must admit I would've never known about it if it weren't for my good friend Seikara gifting me it on a whim. So thank you Seikara for an amazing experience and sharing this somewhat niche Sega classic with me! You know...it would be really cool if Valk 2 and 3 where available on steam haha...just sayin. 8/10