Game Spotlight: Valkyria Chronicles

In 1935EC, the continent of Europa is thrown into its second continental war this century. The Atlantic Alliance and Eastern Empire wage a costly war for control of a rare ore called Ragnite, a fuel source which has grown in demand ever since the recent industrial revolution.

In the middle of this great war is Gallia, a small nation that has remained neutral in all wars between the Alliance and Empire. Valkyria Chronicles tells of the story of a small group of people from Militia group Squad 7 and their pivotal role in the Second Europan War as the Empire invades Gallia in order to secure its rich supply of Ragnite.

Game Features

• CANVAS visual engine providing unique sketch and watercolour effect visuals.
• BLiTZ (Battle of Live Tactical Zones) system. Once a unit has been chosen from the overhead Command view, the player can then control the character in third person view, giving them the ability to move, position and aim the characters weapon in an action game perspective.
• Features both the English and Japanese voice work which you can switch between at any time using the options menu at the title screen.
• Music composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto who also composed Final Fantasy XII, Radiant Silvergun and Vagrant Story. Orchestral work by Eminence Symphony Orchestra who worked on SoulCalibur IV and Odin Sphere.
• Engaging storyline chronicled in an animated storybook-like format.
• A tonne of extras from re playable cutscenes, to unlockable side-stories and skirmish missions, as well as an entire book full of written information about the characters and the world they inhabit.
• More to come in the form of downloadable content.

The Good, the Bad and the Score

The Good

• Beautiful visual engine with equally well done animation and brilliant English and Japanese voice acting.
• Very well thought out tutorials and explanations of game functions means you’re never lost during a mission, but at the same time it doesn’t feel like you’re being led by the hand.
• Has a unique gameplay experience by combining well known traditional gameplay methods together.

The Bad

• When listening to the Japanese voices, sometimes the English subtitles don’t actually reflect exactly what is being said because it’s the direct script of the English voice work.
• The game can become much harder for you in the long run if you don’t finish levels with a high enough grade to grab enough experience to level up your squad.
• Some grinding may be required. If you’re lacking experience points you will have to replay Skirmish missions over and over again to get more experience to outfit your squad.

Review Score

Detailed Review

Welcome to the first review ever written up for Twilight Lynk. Hopefully this will be enjoyable for people and will be the start of many more reviews to be written in the future. I chose Valkyria Chronicles as my first review because it’s not a very well known game and most people will overlook it for more mainstream games. Personally, I am a fan of Tactical RPGs and I am a big fan or Fire Emblem. That said, this isn’t going to be a comparison of Valkyria Chronicles and Fire Emblem. I will be reviewing Valkyria Chronicles and every other game on their own merits.

Story

“On the Gallian Front” is a book chronicling the events of the second Europan War from the perspective of the Gallian Militia Squad 7 and written by a journalist, Irene Koller. As soon as you start a new game, you will be presented to this book which will become your main menu for the game. You’re introduced to an alternate reality Europe in which a small country called Gallia is being invaded by the Eastern Empire. The story itself is centered on Welkin Gunther and Alicia Melchiott as the two main leading characters. There are a number of main characters throughout the game along with other secondary characters who you can choose to join your squad but aren’t a part of the main plot.

I found the story very easy to follow. While it had quite a lot of back story that it fleshed out along the way in various forms, you didn’t find yourself asking why certain characters were motivated in their actions or why any of what was happening was happening in the first place. It was all just there and it clicked into place, though it still did have a few moments where I felt were a little too cliché for my tastes.

All of the characters in Valkyria Chronicles have distinct personalities and while a lot of the playable characters aren’t part of the main plot-line, they still create quite an impact on you with their personal traits. I for one love using Vyse (who some of you will know from Skies of Arcadia) who happens to laugh like a maniac as he mows the enemy down with his machine gun. And let’s not forget Jann who is hands down the funniest character in the game. I won’t tell you why in this review, it’s best to find out for yourself. The cast of characters has a lot to do with why this game is so enjoyable and I’m sure many of you will find the bad guys to be just as enjoyable to watch as the good guys.

While there are a lot of very cinematic moments within the game that become increasingly awesome as the story progresses, there are quite a lot of moments where there are standard conversations between characters. These are handled in a much more traditional “face to face” manner with a standard background still with what can only be described as comic book frames with the characters talking back and forth with each other.

With a few small bumps along the way, the overall story, plot and characters really did deliver in excellence. I am also VERY glad that they brought in a great English voice cast to voice the characters. I’ll talk more about that in the Audio part of this review.

Gameplay

While Valkyria Chronicles may seem very different, it really doesn’t feature anything that we haven’t already experienced in many other games, though I say this in a good way. On the surface, you are presented with what appears to be an RPG, however in many ways you will find that a lot of the more traditional RPG elements have been taken out and simplified in favour of a more straight forward action game. The result is a game that is accessible to many who feel that RPGs can get too technical for their tastes. There is still some character management to be done and you are able to do some customisations by equipping the squad with certain weapons as well as purchasing upgrades for your tank unit.

The meat of the game comes from the many battles you fight with a group of characters you select to use. While there are many action elements to the game, it is still turn based. You start off with the command view that shows you a map of the battlefield area with markers showing the placement of your units and any enemy units within view. An interesting twist in this game comes from its own version of the “fog of war” concept. You will only be able to keep track of enemy units that members of your squad can visually identify from their locations.

You have many kinds of different units to use and they all have different strengths and weaknesses and are used for different purposes. For example: Scouts are used for reconnaissance and are able to spot enemy hidden enemy units while shock troopers are your main front-line units, Lancers are your anti-tank units and Engineers are your support units, and finally the snipers whose purpose will be quite obvious to everyone. You will learn more of how these units are used as you progress through the first few missions of the game.

Once you have selected a unit to move from the Command View, you are brought down to the battlefield and are able to directly control the character in a third person shooter view. Different units have a certain level of Action Points which drain every time you move your selected character. In this mode you can move your character to position them near enemy unit, however if your character gets within range of an enemy unit, that enemy character will open fire on your character. Pressing R1 will allow you to go into firing mode which will effectively stop time and allow you to aim your character’s weapon at the enemy. You can spend as long as you want in this mode, however once you have selected to fire your characters weapon on an enemy unit or have chosen to cancel the attack, any enemy soldier still alive and within range will resume their attack on your character. Your character can only attack once until you end their movement and choose them again.

Unlike other Tactical RPGs, movement is determined by how many Command Points you have and isn’t determined by the number of characters you have and which have or have not made a move. If you want, you can choose to move the same character as many times as you want until you run out of Command Points for that turn. Alternatively, you can choose not to use up all of your Command Points for that turn, in which case they are carried over to the next turn. Either way, once you have chosen to end your turn the Enemy Phase will begin. Depending on how much of a tactical mastermind you are, your units should be able to survive to your next turn and hopefully take out some enemy units as well. In any case, it all depends on how well you’ve thought out the actions of your units.

You’ll certainly find a lot of action in this game and at the same time, you don’t have to be a tactical genius to be able to enjoy the game. However, it does help to stop and think before you act. You’re their commanding officer, so it’s your responsibility to get your units out of the battle alive.

Visuals

Sega has been developing its CANVAS visual engine for quite awhile now behind closed doors and Valkyria Chronicles is the flagship title to show off just what this visual engine can do. As soon you view any image of Valkyria Chronicles, you’ll notice that everything has been sketched and water-coloured. We aren’t talking about a cel-shaded art style that many games of the past have had. This game brings to life a watercolour sketchbook that goes extremely well with the premise that you’re reading the chronicled history of Gallia.

I could go on and on about minute details and how effective the colour palette is and how the textures look crisp and all that kinda jazz, however all you really need to know is that the art style simply works. The anime art style will most definitely allow the visuals to outlast most other games of this generation. If we come back and take a look at this game at the end of the next generation, chances are that Valkyria Chronicles will still hold up against the latest games of the time.

There is one small problem I have noticed occasionally while playing through the game. The textures, particularly around shadows on various objects that moved frequently, seem to blink from one texture to another repeatedly in a shimmering pattern. You can find it mostly in cutscenes, though to be honest; it’s not really an issue since most people won’t even notice it.

Audio

The first thing that you should know is that Valkyria Chronicles includes both Japanese and English voice acting. You can choose to switch between the two voice tracks at any time, however it can only be done through the options menu on the title screen. Personally, I found the English voice work to be brilliantly done and it also included a lot of my favourite voice actors, however I do realise that there are a lot of other people who prefer to hear the original Japanese voice work instead. The only problem Valkyria Chronicles really has is that the subtitles don’t match up exactly with the Japanese voice work since they are based off of the script for the English voice work.

It is said that a lot of what makes a movie great is its musical soundtrack. I feel that this is also true for many video games, whether they are story based or not. Valkyria Chronicles’ score, composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto and orchestrated by Eminence Symphony Orchestra, works extremely well and helps the story feel that extra bit more epic. Personally, I feel that this has to be some of Hitoshi Sakimoto’s best work yet.

One thing about the US/Europe/Australian version of this game is that it doesn’t include the main theme song found on the original Japanese version. It is disappointing, however for the most part, I don’t think anyone will mind too much in the long run.

Extras

As far as extra material goes, Valkyria Chronicles does not disappoint. In fact, in many ways it’s surprising just how much is packed into the game. As you play through, you’ll discover that each new chapter opens up more and more extras for you to explore. Some are unlocked automatically after you complete a mission or view a specific cutscene, while others can be bought using the in-game currency. Most of the extra material is organised within the pages of “On the Gallian Front” and while I could go into exactly what you get, I think it’s more fun to find out for yourself. I will say, however, that there is a lot of written information for you to read through that really gives you the sense that a lot of hard work was put into creating this game. Even better is a certain extra chapter you can unlock that has some delicious fan service… yes, you heard me.

Of course, it doesn’t end with what’s packed into the Blu-ray disc itself. Downloadable content has already been released in Japan which will be available in other regions in early 2009. From what we know so far, there are two download packs: one which contains a side story involving Edy and a few other minor characters who join your squad and the other one will have you taking control of the Eastern Empire units as you play missions against Gallia. Each pack contains all new recorded voice acting and will expand upon the main storyline so it’ll definitely be a treat to get.

I don’t think anyone will be unsatisfied replaying this game considering the many ways it draws you back in. I guarantee you that you will want to try to earn A ranks in every mission and choose to use different characters to unlock more information about them in their profiles. The real question is, how much more can they pack into the game with the downloadable content?

Final Thoughts

I won’t lie to you, I had very high expectations going into this game since I had heard quite a lot of high praise from others. The unique gameplay experience, well presented story and beautiful visuals really draw you in and just when you think it’s over, you’re given more to play with the promise of more to come. I’m very proud of Sega after playing Valkyria Chronicles. They haven’t released a great game like this in a very long time, and the inclusion of Vyse, Aika and Fina from Skies of Arcadia as cameo characters pretty much tell you that Sega is trying to recapture their greatest moments within the pages of Valkyria Chronicles.

Well done Sega. If I were wearing a top hat at the moment, I would tip it for you in acknowledgement of a very well made game.