With new additions to the genre and being well designed overall, this game must be played.
The story in this game is pretty decent. There's a nice selection of characters to learn about(Welkin, Alicia, Rosie, Largo, etc.), and each has a certain personalty about them. You'll see them struggle through the war and share their thoughts on it. Some have their back stories of why they joined the war along with other things. Add that with some emotional moments and shocking twists and the story doesn't disappoint.
It is a SRPG(strategy role playing game) with some new things in the genre. There are 18 chapters and a lot of them have more than 1 mission to complete. The missions themselves do have some variety in the objectives, so it's more than just shoot your way past enemies. There are 5 classes to choose from: Scout, Shocktrooper, Lancer, Sniper and Engineer. They each have their own abilities, strengths and weaknesses, so you better get used to knowing how to use them properly. There's also a Tank Commander for Welkin(and another character later on), though he's different from the others. As you progress through the game you can level up your units and learn new abilities as well as upgrade their weapons(and tank parts), which is required as you play. You will unlock more characters as you play as well, even some characters from a game that Sega previously published...
Before combat, you'll do mission briefings. You'll select which characters to use for combat and please choose wisely since you'll need some serious strategy and if a character that isn't part of the story dies(easy to tell by star icons next to their names) and don't heal them in time, they are gone forever. After that, your set. 1St, you must know that you take turns not only controlling 1 unit at a time but also when it comes to the number of units you can move before the enemy has a chance to move for their turn. There are numerous CP(Command Posts) that you use to move units and even use specific orders to even the battle. Every unit but Tanks take 1 CP to use, Tanks use 2 CP. You must wisely use them or else you won't complete missions very well. When they are all used up, it's the enemy's turn, and while I'll discus their flaws later, for the most part they are smart and will take you down if you aren't careful. After the enemies turn is done, you simply have to take turns until either you or your enemy fails the mission.
And the most unique part is controlling your units. While it's a strategy game, the fact that you can manually control your unit in real time has yet to be seen in these types of game, and this game does it right and well. The simple controls makes it easy to get used to things, and this adds a new layer of how to complete objectives. While attacking, be sure to get a good shot since you will be standing still around the enemy, and if you don't kill the enemy after shooting, they can have a chance to attack you(same applies to the enemy attack you during their turn). The enemy can still attack you while moving depending on the range, and while this may be annoying, not only it can help you out when it's not your turn, but it adds to the challenge. And speaking of challenge, this game gets harder as you play. Be sure to know how to command your units since objectives get more complex and enemies become tougher as you go. All this adds up to is something that gives new life to SRPGs.
The game does have some flaws that prevents perfection. The enemy a.i. often takes actions that will boggle your mind of why they even do certain actions. Tanks sometimes just drive around and return to the same spot for no reason. The enemy will summon a half-dozen reinforcement snipers, which can't return fire during the player's turn, when you have multiple nearby shock troopers ready to take them down in a single turn. Even scouts run towards your army without flanking resulting in easy kills. The AI isn't the only problem either. The sensitive collision detection can also be a bit awkward, so you aren't always able to maneuver a character around with as much freedom as you like at certain spots, and the camera is an occasional annoyance in close quarters as you need to adjust it properly.
After beating the game, which should take you like 25-30 hours, the replay value comes in skirmish modes. There's a decent number of them to do and they have various objectives as well. There's even optional cut scenes to watch to know more about the story as well in case you missed them. You can also retry the chapters you did to get higher ranks, with S being the highest and must complete missions as fast as possible. All this adds some more hours into enjoyment of this long game.
The graphics and sound do their job for the most part. The game resembles a watercolor painting in motion and looks pretty nice with detailed models. Combined with some comic book like effects(explosions for example) and solid animation and it works pretty well. It's unique look is what sets it apart from most games, definitely in it's genre. The sound is great too with decent voice acting and while some of the music can be repetitive, it fits well in most situations. Technically it's solid all around.
At the end of the day, you can't go wrong with this game. It has it's annoyances and enemy a.i. isn't the very best, but it's a very well developed game and the enemy a.i. is great for the most part. The ability to have full control over your units is something that mus be experienced, it adds something new while still being what it is. The decent cast of characters, good story, engaging gameplay, great graphics and sound, and lots of replay value rounds out the package. If you're a fan of SRPGs and want something new, this is for you.
Final Score: 9.0/10