Valkyria Chronicles is underrated and underappreciated game that PS3 owners shouldn't let it pass by.
This tactical Role-playing game is very unique in every aspect. From the book-driven menu to the awesome third-person perspective game-play. Everything from the start to the finish is cool but not without its flaws.
Presentation:
The presentation is very nice and sweet. From the cut-scenes animation to the 3D slides in the non cut-scenes. It's really well-done.
Story:
The story takes place in a fictional country situated in Europe and it's being invaded by the Gallian Army. And your objective is win the war at all costs. You control the main the character at first, Welkin, a man who is obsessed with nature and he's met by Alicia, a local cop who works in her village.
And from that point, you're involved in the civil war.
What makes the story a little bit odd is the English voice acting "that's why I switched it to Japanese with English subtitle" and the anime-type acting. Those two points made me feel weird about it but overall. It's all cool.
Score: 8.5/10
Despite what I've said up there, I can't deny that it has a great story to tell. I hope VC2 on the psp avoid this.
Graphics:
The graphics on the PS3 has always been the hot topic in the exclusive library. This game is really gorgeous and I mean it. Hell, you don't notice the difference between an in-game animation and cut-scenes animation. But the skirmish "random battles" are a little pixilated due to the big map on each stage, but that's very minor and unnoticeable.
Score: 9.3/10
The best anime graphics I've ever seen. The graphics are even better than Eternal Sonata.
Game-Play:
Now, this is where the game truly shines. It plays simply like any other RPG games. But there are lots of things you can do in the game-play
Main Menu:
The book-driven menu I mentioned earlier is very simple. You have chapters which are told by slides and cut-scenes. Then as you advance in the story, you'll get to use "TABS" in the main menu, from there you can develop weapons, strengthen your ranks and your tanks, and viewing emblems and personnel that you encounter.
Skirmish Battles:
The maps are too big for one battle and it takes too much time. "15-20 minutes and sometimes more than an hour."
The battle starts with instruction given to you by your captain in the story and you have to deploy your soldiers according to their class or however you want to place them.
Then, once you've entered a battle. You'll get to start first. You have command points that represent the traditional turn-based style that you know and love but of course in a tactical way. Once you choose a character/soldier to role-play as, the camera pops straightly down from the tactical-view map and turns into a third-person shooter. After all that, you control the character you've chosen and move as long as the action gauge doesn't get to finish. "the action gauge is determined by the rank"
Leveling up:
Once you finish a battle you earn EXP points and DDC points and each one of them has its uses.
EXP points:
You can improve your characters' rank.
DCC points:
For improving your weapons and tanks' overall stats.
Rank:
I've been saying ranks and ranks all over, so let me say that the characters differ from one to another.
You have:
Scouts: Good action gauge that allows them to move almost freely in battle.
Shock Troopers: Have power light machine gun that kills enemies instantaneously.
Engineers: The in-combat medics and the repairers of your tanks sometimes you can't go anywhere without them.
Snipers: They can knock out enemies with one precise shot from a very long distance, but have very little action gauge which makes them very vulnerable to short-distanced attacks.
Anti-Tankers: Their weapons are like RPGs, they can destroy tanks but very slow movement. They have very strong defensive power.
Game-Play's verdict:
The game-play is very special. I haven't seen anything like it before. This is a next-gen RPG game-play and I can see a great potential. But the only complain I have about it is the camera. It's really annoying because it comes quickly in your face and ruins the directions of your control.
Score: 9.4/10
Although you will spend a lot of time in one battle, you will never find an RPG game that plays like Valkyria Chronicles.
Replay Value:
You have lots and lots of things to do in Valkyria Chronicles. It's true that it's so much linear. It's not an opened-world game that you can roam in. But you can spend as many hours as any other RPG game out there.
1- You have the ratings from the battles that you earn. If you get a rank in battle, you are rewarded with emblems. You kill many enemies or you destroy tanks no matter what its kind is, you are rewarded too.
2- There are the DLC, which includes the hard mode feature and three more side-story campaign.
Score: 8.8/10
So, I'd say that it has very good replay values. I may have forgotten things but those I can write about at the moment.
General PROS and CONS:
+ Great game-play
+ Beautiful music
+ CooL animation graphics
+ Very challenging
- which turns off many people.
- Camera glitches.
Final Verdict:
No matter what type of gamer you are, buy/rent this game and give it a chance at first. But as for hardcore RPG gamers, do not miss it "since most RPG fans are on the PS3"
You have a ps3, just check it out.
Final Score: 9.1/10