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Important Importables
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Valkyria was one of those games that was released in the holiday launch storm between Fable 2, Fallout 3, Little Big Planet and Gears of War 2.
Valkyria’s retail chronicles didn’t turn tin a happy ending and the as-niche-as-it-gets game ended up getting pummeled, ensuring that either Sega learned its lesson about launch windows or that the company won’t be taking another risk any time soon. Which would be sad considering how good Valkyria Chronicles is.
Pretty as a Picture
From the get-go I fell in love with the watercolor painting art style that brings the world of Euorpa (the world of Valkyria) to life. Vibrant colors mixed with anime style etchings and fused with the power of an HDTV make the visual spectacle pop off your screen justifying Sega’s branding the engine CANVAS. Whether it was a desert, forest, urban or night battle I was never let down by how good the game looked.
Romanticizing this watercolor-come-to-life is Valkyria’s setting in an alternate World War II. The East European Imperial Alliance is invading the small country of Gallia for its abundance of an ore called Ragnite.
Valkyria Chronicles suffers from a generic story but still arguably one of the better storylines on the current market which says more about the market than it does Valkyria. The story follows the exploits of Squad 7, more specifically the squad commander, Welkin, and the game’s heroine, Alicia, as they fight to save their homes and their families. Of course, the story doesn’t stop there but in lieu of ruining it for you I won’t say anything further.
Strategy on the Move
At it’s core, Valkyria Chronicles is a game with a mix of strategy and real-time action with a dash of role-playing that makes the gameplay inviting to anyone yet simultaneously demands a certain level of mastery. Anybody can place units on a field and rush forth hoping to overpower the opposing force but only someone with a measure of patience will find the quickest way (which is a plus for experience points) to end a battle while persevering as many troops possible.
Where other turn-based strategies use grids, Valkyria utilizes a movement bar. The object is to move your units in real time into the best positions that you designate. It’s not as easy as it sounds but it is definitely fun executing moves without having to worry about grid space limitations.
Taking the lives of your troops into account is important for many reasons. The biggest being that would be the humane thing to do. The second biggest being is that, once these troops are dead, they’re dead. Troops will not magically reappear after the battles end. Instead they will give a dying monologue that will leave you feeling like a schmuck for letting them down. The saving grace is that none of these characters affect the plot. So heartlessly thinking of them as bullet fodder is fine, too.
What does affect the plot is its pacing. Valkyria is told through a storybook manner with chapters dividing the past, present, and future events. Each chapter includes between three and five storyline videos and one major battle. Depending on your cunning, you can finish each chapter in about 20 minutes. (I finished the entire game in about a week.)
The Busy Gamer’s Final Fantasy
It’s set perfectly for the busy gamer. In fact, let’s just call Valkyria Chronicles the busy gamer’s Final Fantasy. For others, there’s skirmishes to run that will help level up your characters and newspaper headlines to fill you in on more story.
Valkyria Chronicles is one of those games that just fires on all cylinders and gets the important things right. It’s not going to appeal to everyone (retail sales have shown that already) but those who want to give Valkyria Chronicles a shot will be glad they did.
Site [Valkyria Chronicles] Read [Gamertell]
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