Valkyria Chronicles Ranking: A
…For a game titled “Valkyria Chronicles,” this game really isn’t about the Valkyria…
Anyway, I heard about this game while looking for more SRPGs to play – SRPGs being my favorite genre of video game. I enjoyed the game a lot. The story, while somewhat predictable at times, was well written and the character development was well done. Despite being a game set in a war, it has a relatively realistic take on war (i.e. it is hell). The game looks and plays well with one major exception that I’ll get into later on.
Tactically, the game suffers from its preoccupation with speed. See, like many other games in this genre and others, Valkyria Chronicles grades you after each mission. But instead of grading you in multiple areas, such as number of enemies killed or number of allies kept alive, the games only grades you on how fast you beat the mission. This means that to get the best rank, you need to make stupid choices like running through enemy fire just to get to your objective more quickly.
This wouldn’t be such a big problem if grades were cosmetic, like they are in most games that grade you. Here, the amount of experience you gain is mostly based on your rank. Later, you begin to receive the best weapons in the game only if you do well in missions. So…you either need to grind skirmishes to make up for lost experience or speed through the missions as much as possible...which I think is unfortunate design.
I have a few words on the battle system – you begin in Command Mode, where you get an overhead view of the map, and once you select a unit it zooms into Action Mode, where you control the unit in a real-time third-person shooter system. It’s unique and gives the game a bit of urgency – enemies will shoot at you as you approach in real time – but I feel they could’ve executed the system better. See, once you select a unit, each time the unit moves it uses up Action Points or AP. Once you run out of AP, the unit cannot move anymore. The problem is that if you misstep, that uses up AP.
Usually that isn’t a huge problem…except for the almost game-breaking issue I alluded to earlier, and that is driving a tank. The tank controls are atrocious. The game sometimes turns your tank in the opposite direction you’re trying to move in for some reason and that takes up AP. I’ve experienced blowing through a full bar of AP on my tank without it moving an inch. And some maps really necessitate you moving your tank quite a lot.
I still recommend the game heartily. You’ll have a good time outside of driving your tank.
…For a game titled “Valkyria Chronicles,” this game really isn’t about the Valkyria…
Anyway, I heard about this game while looking for more SRPGs to play – SRPGs being my favorite genre of video game. I enjoyed the game a lot. The story, while somewhat predictable at times, was well written and the character development was well done. Despite being a game set in a war, it has a relatively realistic take on war (i.e. it is hell). The game looks and plays well with one major exception that I’ll get into later on.
Tactically, the game suffers from its preoccupation with speed. See, like many other games in this genre and others, Valkyria Chronicles grades you after each mission. But instead of grading you in multiple areas, such as number of enemies killed or number of allies kept alive, the games only grades you on how fast you beat the mission. This means that to get the best rank, you need to make stupid choices like running through enemy fire just to get to your objective more quickly.
This wouldn’t be such a big problem if grades were cosmetic, like they are in most games that grade you. Here, the amount of experience you gain is mostly based on your rank. Later, you begin to receive the best weapons in the game only if you do well in missions. So…you either need to grind skirmishes to make up for lost experience or speed through the missions as much as possible...which I think is unfortunate design.
I have a few words on the battle system – you begin in Command Mode, where you get an overhead view of the map, and once you select a unit it zooms into Action Mode, where you control the unit in a real-time third-person shooter system. It’s unique and gives the game a bit of urgency – enemies will shoot at you as you approach in real time – but I feel they could’ve executed the system better. See, once you select a unit, each time the unit moves it uses up Action Points or AP. Once you run out of AP, the unit cannot move anymore. The problem is that if you misstep, that uses up AP.
Usually that isn’t a huge problem…except for the almost game-breaking issue I alluded to earlier, and that is driving a tank. The tank controls are atrocious. The game sometimes turns your tank in the opposite direction you’re trying to move in for some reason and that takes up AP. I’ve experienced blowing through a full bar of AP on my tank without it moving an inch. And some maps really necessitate you moving your tank quite a lot.
I still recommend the game heartily. You’ll have a good time outside of driving your tank.