A well-crafted action experience, Valkyria Chronicles is well worth your time.
89
Verdict
90%
Steam
90
IGDB
Verdict score based on confidence-adjusted Steam reviews?
Very Positive on Steam (90% positive from 13K reviews)
Critically acclaimed (90/100 critic average)
Compelling narrative and story
Outstanding soundtrack
No significant drawbacks reported
In the year 1935 E.C., the continent of Europa is dominated by two superpowers: The autocratic East Europan Imperial Alliance in the east and a commonwealth of loosely allied democracies known as the Atlantic Federation in the west. The economies of both powers depend on a precious multipurpose mineral called Ragnite. Its growing scarcity results in the Empire declaring war on the Federation, sparking the Second Europan War. The Empire uses its military superiority to quickly put the Federation on the defensive. Emboldened by their progress and momentum, the Empire decides to invade the neutral Principality of Gallia in order to seize its rich Ragnite deposits. When Imperial forces launch an attack on the Gallian border town of Bruhl, Welkin Gunther, son of late Gallian national hero General Belgen Gunther, is forced to fight for his life alongside the town watch captain, Alicia Melchiott. Together with Welkin's adopted sister Isara and using Belgen's prototype tank from the first war, the Edelweiss, they escape to Gallia's capital, Randgriz, and subsequently join the country's militia forces. Welkin is given the rank of lieutenant and assumes command of the newly-formed Squad 7, with Alicia acting as his non-commissioned officer. Initially, members of the squad question Welkin's qualifications due to a lack of combat experience; however, he quickly earns their trust and loyalty with his tactical genius. Welkin and Alicia soon become romantically engaged.
Runs well on modern hardware.
Last updated 2d ago
Game is advertised on both its store page and ProtonDB as having verified support on Linux under proton. It doesn't. Unacceptable levels of stuttering and audio flickering even with the newest version of Proton-GE as of writing this. If you're on a Linux machine, don't even bother. At least on my setup, it just won't run at an acceptable level. Save your money.
A true classic that is showing its age. The turn-based/real-time combo is unique and fun. A lot of QoL issues keep this from being a masterpiece. Weird terrain hitboxes, the inability to speed up the enemy's turn, lack of difficulty scaling, awful rating system, little replay value, to name a few. The rating system in particular detracts from the overall experience of the game. It's sole criteria is the number of turns it takes to finish the mission, meaning that to achieve the highest rank you must rush through every mission as fast as possible. Much of the joy of strategizing solutions is lost when only scout rushing is viable. You'll get more enjoyment from the game if you ignore the rating system entirely. The game requires two full completions to 100% and the campaign gets a little tiresome the 2nd time around. The optional skirmishes you unlock are simply identical or slightly easier versions of their campaign counterparts, when initially unlocked. They are the meat and potatoes of New Game+ in my opinion, as you then unlock the hard and expert difficulties. These are a lot of fun and are new twists with greatly increased difficulty that is sure to put your endgame arsenal to work. Sadly, the campaign missions are identical to the first go around and are total bore fests, compounded by the fact that you can't speed the enemies turn in any way. Don't let my criticisms put you off from this game, it really is fantastic and there is a lot of fun here. I again suggest anyone playing this for the first time to ignore the rating system entirely, it's a poor design choice that robs the game of a lot of its enjoyment. Having completed it, I doubt I'll ever revisit it other than to remember it fondly and check out the other installments of the series.
8/10 before I played Valkyria Chronicles 4 this would easily have been a 9/10 or higher. Very solid entry but some normal JRPG cheesyness in the story, but still an excellent game. A ton of fun with the fights even if the first time through you have to grind a bit to level up soldiers and gear. Highly recommend playing, it a steal on sale and bundling with 4 is even better as 4 is best in serries.
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Data sourced from RAWG, Steam, IGDB, CheapShark, Wikipedia, HLTB, and GX Corner. Sources: rawg, steam, igdb, wikipedia.
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