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April 15th 2009
Recommendation - Valkyria Chronicles (Playstation 3)
Valkyria Chronicles is set in a fictional continent loosely based off Europe during the 1930's, called Europa. To the west is a economic and business-like superpower known as the Atlantic Federation and to the East is its military and technological equivalent, the East Europan Alliance, AKA The Empire.
In the middle of them is your country, little old Gallia, which has remained neutral throughout all the battles fought between the Federation and the Empire. But its Ragnite-rich grounds is too tempting and eventually Gallia is invaded by the Empire.
That's where you come in, Welkin Guther, son of a famous Gallian general. You've joined the Gallian Militia to support the army in driving off the invasion, although it soon becomes apparent that your unit, Militia Squad 7, will play a greater role in this war than all of the Army.
Joining you is your adopted sister Isara and Bruhl (your home town) Town Watch member Alicia as your meet the rest of squad 7 and fellow squads. From then on it's your job to defend your country against the many technological behemoths of Prince Maximilian (cheesy only in name).
At first your squad is divided between the experienced and inexperienced. You've got a lot to do to earn the trust of Rosie and Largo (bottom left and right), keeping them alive and completing missions do this, mainly through Welkin's crazy yet ingenious ideas, he gets them all to follow his commands eventually. Other than yourself (who it's game over for if you die) your main characters can't permanently die, they just retreat. They are only a quarter of your squad, you've got lots of different characters (who can permanently die) with unique skills and classes to choose to take into you missions. All can be swapped in and out between missions.
While all this is going on you have to deal with an on-going problem between your Darcsen and non-Darcsen squad members. Known by their Black/Dark Blue hair, the Darcsen race are looked down upon and hated by everyone else for their part in historical events. The present day Darcsens try to live out as normal lives as possible while being punished for their ancestors mistakes. It's a good look at Racial Discrimination and how people on each side deal with it, including the Darcsen hunts and how it changes the relationship between Rosie and Isara.
The Ancestral Dacrsen and Valkyria legend is the big sub-plot, while some people are still feeling the effects of what eventually became the creation of Gallia, some try to gain the power wielded by the ancient Valkyria against the Darcsen (read: yeah, that damn Maximillion again). Some of the best graphical parts in the game are during Selvaria(top of the box art)'s use of the Valkur power in some really impressive cut-scenes. Even so it's about 70% to 30% in favour of gameplay. Despite that the cut-scenes are RPG-like in quality but not length and even in-game you get full facial animation and voice acting in little window boxes that pop-up during conversations.
Once you've selected your squad and had your mission briefing you'll be taken to the Command Mode. Here you have a certain amount of Command Points, selecting a footsoldier uses one CP, tanks take two. Alternatively you issue commands, like all-squad - defense+ or single unit - anti armour attack+. Camps are marked out by the rectangles with flags in them. The more camps you capture, the more places you have to spawn your squad members from. Command Mode is a quick and efficient system that instantly takes you from the role of a general to the role of a specific unit once you've selected them as seen below.
Classes Shooting Rock Paper Scissors and BOOM HEADSHOT
Selecting a unit takes you into Action Mode, which is basically a 3rd person shooter perspective with an aim system similiar to Fallout 3's V.A.T.S. Your units to take into battle are Scouts, Shocktroopers (Gunners), Lancers (Anti-Tank), Engineers and Snipers. As well as the Edelweiss tank, commanded by Welkin and driven by Isara, who can plough through defenses as well as function as a moving blockade for your other units to hide behind. Each unit has their own strengths and weaknesses, defined by their weapons, defense and how far they can run. Snipers are extremely limited in how far they can run but they can one-shot soldiers when aiming for the head, be warned that units are bound by accuracy stats so they won't hit all the time.
It also works the other way, if Rosie aimed for the Scout's head it would only take 2 shots to floor him, and if she was closer the chance of two headshots connecting increases dramatically.
Footsoldiers can easily take out Lancers, who are brilliant at destroying tanks, who in turn can kill large groups of close footsoldiers. How you manage each unit will be critical in the success of your missions, as well as making use of bunkers, group attacks and individual traits (like those who have grown up on a farm having a power increase when standing in mud).
Valkyria Chronicles's fast 3rd person action gameplay, mixed with it's stragetic missions and RPG-level character development and storyline make it a game for fans of all genres. There's a demo on PSN and it's cheap in stores and online so don't miss out on such a worthwhile experience.