Immersive new strategical gameplay lets you see from your unit's perspective, in colorful and lively anime painted art
The story of Valkyria Chronicles unfolds as war breaks out between two large alliances - West and East of Europe. The scene takes place in what looks like the early 1930's of a different universe, where modern firearms meet medieval vocabulary, but any similarity with WW2 is probably intended philosophical thinking - which we will set aside for this review. The universe is depicted in a manga-esque way, with the art style close to what drawing and water painting would look like on paper. The story revolves around characters who belong to Gallia, a neutral country sitting between the 2 European blocks. Weiqin Gunther, son of a famous general from previous wars, would-be teacher, joins Alicia Melchiott, member of the local city militia. Let us keep the rest of the story for you to discover, but let us say it will deal with friendship, love, war and all it means to people, great secrets to uncover and occasional humour. Suffice to say, the story is not exactly break-through but it will keep you entertained. However I found the story telling pretty efficient. The scenario unfolds through anime sequences
between missions, which are browsed through a book which I guess bears the title of.. "Valkyria Chronicles", of course! And there are a ton of sequences out there - probably 4-6 per mission.
With 20 main missions, 8 Skirmish missions on existing main mission maps, and a few more in "reports", the game is not as long as Fire Emblem but it still took me in the order of 50 hours to get through (taking my own sweet time). After the main missions are over, you get to play again and get free main missions access, so you can try and challenge yourself to get an "A" grade, but that is all.
What is truly new with Valkyria Chronicles is the gameplay. You engage in battles with (2-10) squad members, that you pick up among a roster that is said to reach 50 (I could only see 40+ on my first play-through), sorted in 5 classes: Shocktrooper (run & gun with a machine gun), scout (foot reconnaissance armed with a rifle), sniper, engineer (able to repair your tank, disarm mines and repair sandbags), lancer (who has rocket-launcher). You take turns with your enemy in spending your command points (CP) on units in order for them to get an action phase. For each Action phase, a unit has an Action Points (AP) gauge that drains while it moves, and the unit can fire / repair once only in the phase. During unit movement, other units are static but the enemy's units armed with rifles and machine guns will shoot at you when you enter their range. This is where the strategical eleùent starts to be interesting. You will build your tactics around probably 3 lines of thought:
- placing your units to catch the enemy in defensive fire and kill them when they move;
- using a longer-ranged unit to take out the enemy's (scouts on shocktroopers, lancers / snipers on scouts);
- using a unit that does not really fear the attack of an enemy unit to take it out (shocktroopers on scouts, tanks on any unit).
Yes, you did notice: this is not just rock-paper-scissors, but the one moving has a lot of impact on who wins. Part of this comes from the fact that, when you shoot, you can choose to aim for vital parts of the enemy to score critical damage. This means shooting the head of a foot-soldier for instance.
This makes for a lot of hit-and-run, of cover fire provided from sandbags that decrease damage you take when hit, of calculating who you take out first in order to reach your objective fastest, etc. When your units are hit, you can heal them (instead of acting in your phase), or retreat them at a camp to swap them with another unit, or recall them.
The last thing on which you can spend your Command Points (unless you want to save them for the next turn) is "Orders". These come from your squad commander (Welkins) and can bring in a little extra (damage / defense / aim / dodge), heal or a variety of other effects that you will have to find out for yourself. I personally nearly only relied on the "retreat" order, which can save your unit from a tough situation and also speeds up your movement.
In terms of objectives, most of the time you will be tasked with taking the enemy's main base while protecting yours, keeping your main character alive and taking less than 20 turns. A few missions deal with holding the base or taking out all enemies, but they are the exception. Maps are sized with the 20 turns limit in mind, so do not expect huge maps - they are "ok" in terms of size.
The artificial intelligence is a little lacking, which in my view is where the game's main defect lies. It will do its job of sending its units at you, but it often keeps CP's instead of downing one of your units and it seldom runs at your main base. It will surely punish you for leaving a unit exposed in the field while in range, but do not expect clever tactics. There is even a point in the game at which you are told to expect tactics unseen until then. Well you will probably have done a better job by that time. Still it is fair to say that the AI does a decent job at being "ok", but not difficult.
The game also brings in RPG elements, by letting you gather experience from the battlefield depending on how well you did (probably based on how quickly you complete a mission as well as how much damage you took or how many characters got downed). You spend experience on unit classes rather than individuals, which... well prevents the Fire Emblem syndrome of having later comers not getting played easily, but at the same time does not endeavour you to consider your troops too individually. When troops level up, they reveal "potentials" which are traits that give them extra boost in statistics under special circumstances (being in the desert, near men...) The most useful are for instance "Extra Shot" (sniper gets another ammo for free, out of 3 it counts!) but overall they are useful when triggered, which happens rarely until you level up.
Your tank evolves too, by spending Ducats (money) rather than experience. Some upgrades have to be equipped and you get to choose a certain set based on how much room they take.
I found sound really good. The sound effects are efficient in taking up the atmosphere, while the music score is lyrical enough to suck you in. As for voice acting, while not always lick synced in English (but better in Japanese, which is included too), is pretty damn good. (I love the training field officer's way of asking you to go through sweat and pain!)
The game is not without a few flaws in its execution. The 3D aiming will sometimes frustrate you in indicating you cannot hit while you can see the enemy in your visor (because of object proximity). Then there are limitations that are mostly game design choices that can surprise you but are actually here as part of the game's mechanics. For instance, you can only crouch near sandbags and stairs, and while crouched you will never get critically hit even when aimed in the head. This means that couching spots are critical to go for and creates a more strategical sense than action-fans are used to. Not everything is destructible (in fact very few objects are) - especially don't expect to shoot through wired fence. But again this forces a strategical gameplay rather than an all-out crush action gameplay where only ashes remain at the end. :-)
Trophies? No, I could not see any. The game grants you medals, but that is all within the game only.
Overall, this is a game with which I had a great deal of fun! While I would not encourage you to try it if you are looking for an FPS, it is probably a good choice as a starter in the strategy genre. And I do recommend it because of its original gameplay to all of you strategy fans out there (even occasional fans, yes). Manga / Anime fans will also love the atmosphere.
A quick closing note for European dwellers: the game is in English only, so you usually save (30%) money by importing it from the UK through an e-retailer.
As for me, I will now get after the replay value and hope we get downloadable content or a second game (who knows? playing the bad guys would be fun too, and getting an AI boost download would do wonders!)