Valkyria Chronicals
Posted: 2009-01-11 09:34pm
So, I've been playing this on my friend's PS3. (About the fourth game for it I've bought without actually owning the console...)
It's a fairly solid turn based strategy game.
To get down to the nuts and bolts: The game does a number of things I've not seen in other turn based strategies. The basic turn flow fairly standard: round start, AP is gained, (up to twenty total) you spend the AP moving your units and issuing 'orders' that range in effect from one round stat boosts, to calling in a sniper or mortar shot at specific targets. Then the enemy does the same.
You can move a specific unit as many times as you want per turn, as long as you're willing to drop the AP on it. They get one action per AP though. (Using their weapons or med-kit) To balance this out, some weapons have limited ammo, though they regenerate one shot per turn, and for each additional AP spent on them they have fewer movement points. (Seems to be about a third of their movement range lost per additional AP, down to a tenth or so.)
During the movement of your unit, you're zoomed down into the battlefield and control the soldier in a third person shooter style. Though, all attacks are still purely numbers. However, you can aim your units fire. Generally, this means just going for head shots though, as it usually lowers the number of hits you need to 2-5 from 15-20+.
However, your enemies don't just sit by and wait for their turn. They'll quite readily shoot at any unit that gets into their ranges. Interception fire is a close to overpowered. Yet, if you're doing it right, it's usually the only hits the enemy will land. The Empire's forces are much less susceptible to your interception fire, because they generally don't move as much, and end their turns as soon as they're done. (The enemy will continue firing as long as you're in direct control of a unit, whether they're moving or not.)
Tanks are a major part of the battle too, for the first half of the game you have only the Edleweiss, a hand-me-down that bears a striking resemblance to a smaller Merkava, but she's a powerhouse. Packing Anti-tank rounds, an anti-personel mortar, and a sever round burst machine gun. All tanks take no damage from rifles and other small arms, though grenades -can- be used to damage the treads. (Though the null damage doesn't stop intercept fire from trying.)
They do have one glaring weakness. A large radiator on the back will allow all tanks to be taken out in one anti-tank shot. Compared to the three plus it would take for body hits, it's a definate priority target.
Going back to infantry, there're five classes that are fairly balanced. Scouts, Shocktroopers, Lancers, Engineers, and Snipers.
Scouts are easily the fastest, having around double of the next highest move distance, they're also the fairly fragile, and their weapons generally -require- headshots to down even other scouts. They're armed with a fairly accurate five shot rifle, a single grenade per game turn, and a Ragnaid. (A quasi-magic healing item. More in on this a little later.) They're fairly useful, and generally your primary units if you're trying to nail an A rank. [Missions are ranked purely on turns taken, A rank rewards 3x the base xp and money for the mission.] When leveled to 11, they get a launcher attached to their rifle that lets them shoot their one grenade about 2-3 times farther than they could just throw it.
Shocktroopers are sturdy, fairly powerful on anti-personel duty, and fairly slow. (Though they -move- only a little slower than scouts really.) They're equipped with a 20 round machine pistol, a single grenade, and a Ragnaid. When they hit 11, they get a flamethrower attached to their machine pistol. It's not too powerful, but can do the same damage to enemies in cover and can hit enemies who dodge.
Lancers are very slow, but are your primary anti-tank crew. They're equiped with only an anti-tank lance and a ragnaid. However, they have armor that reduces explosives damage to nearly nothing. The lance is kinda interesting. Picture an RPG if it had been designed to look like a knights lance. They only get three shots stocked, though. Anti-tank damage isn't generally enough to OHKO infantry, but does deal severe damage. Though the accuracy on them leaves something to be desired. They can't intercept, but when they hit 11, they get the choice of their standard lances, or mortar versions which are beastly against infantry.
Snipers are fun, though deeply situational. They have enough power to OHKO most enemies with a headshot, and their rifle has a 1-5(?)x zoom on it, allowing them to strick fairly accurately from a great distance. However, they can only stock 3 shots and have a movement distance similar to lancers. Like lancers, they also don't have a backup weapon, and can't intercept.
Engineers are interesting. One the one hand, they're very useful. They can disarm mines, reload allies, repair cover all as free actions, can repair your tank (50+%) and have the 'large' ragnaid cans that heal about 1/2-2/3 of a units HP in one go. They've also got a movement range about 3/4th the size of a scout's. However, they're more fragile than scouts, armed with the same primary weapon, (with which they're less accurate) and three grenades for offense.
You have a set pool of recruits that you can pull from, each of whom get three or four personal "potentials" and four class based ones. All of their last Personal potentials are locked to begin with, and your 'generics' all have to earn five points into a hidden value to unlock their final one. (Though you have to then visit the reporter to actually unlock it.) This is accompanied by an additional four lines in their profile page that are generally related to the final potential.
Your leaders however, have to go through certain events, usually a short optional chapter, to unlock their potentials.
An interesting little easter egg I noticed, at least two of the main characters from Skies of Arcadia are recruitable. Dunno if any of the other generics are from other Sega IPs though.
If a soldier is downed in combat, they're not necessarily dead. You have three turns to get a unit to them or they bleed out. They're not available for the rest of that fight though. Though, if the enemy does the same, they're dead too. (Though I can't say I've had it happen...)
The story is pretty good too. Nothing revolutionary, but its interesting enough to keep me playing through the cut scenes. (The majority of which are talking heads, though the game is fully voice acted.)
It follows a unit of a small neutral country's militia forces as they attempt to repel an invasion of their nation during a larger conflict. Nearly crushed, the nation is forced to rely on the universal training of its citizenry to reclaim its own soil. The war is primarily a resource driven conflict, though the Empire's leader harbors dreams of global conquest.
There isn't much outright magic in the game outside of a mineral called Ragnite. It has a ridiculous range of uses, from fuel, to explosives, to its use in the ragnaid canisters due to a painkilling effect. There're also the eponymous Valkyria... When you first run into the enemy's commander who is one, well, it looses a little bit of credibility. She weilds a spear and shield made out of a refined version of the mineral that, in that mission, renders her invulnerable and the spear fires beams in about the accuracy spread of your Shocktroopers machine pistols, though stupidly powerful. And she'll intercept with it...
Other than her, the fights have all be pretty fun.
The game also has a very solid visual style to it. The closest I could compare it to is the visual style of Dark Cloud 2, though with better art direction. Basically, if you've seen the stills, and thought 'nice artwork,' it basically looks like that all the time.
The gear for all of the standard units looks fairly believable. Though, everyone's wearing some level of plate mail. From the Imperial soldiers near full plate, to your lancers huge shell arm guard, to most everyone elses' shoulder guards and faulds. Basically, it all has a slightly medieval meets WWII feel. Though none of your units wear helmets...
I'd put it at around 8/10.
So, anyone else played it?
It's a fairly solid turn based strategy game.
To get down to the nuts and bolts: The game does a number of things I've not seen in other turn based strategies. The basic turn flow fairly standard: round start, AP is gained, (up to twenty total) you spend the AP moving your units and issuing 'orders' that range in effect from one round stat boosts, to calling in a sniper or mortar shot at specific targets. Then the enemy does the same.
You can move a specific unit as many times as you want per turn, as long as you're willing to drop the AP on it. They get one action per AP though. (Using their weapons or med-kit) To balance this out, some weapons have limited ammo, though they regenerate one shot per turn, and for each additional AP spent on them they have fewer movement points. (Seems to be about a third of their movement range lost per additional AP, down to a tenth or so.)
During the movement of your unit, you're zoomed down into the battlefield and control the soldier in a third person shooter style. Though, all attacks are still purely numbers. However, you can aim your units fire. Generally, this means just going for head shots though, as it usually lowers the number of hits you need to 2-5 from 15-20+.
However, your enemies don't just sit by and wait for their turn. They'll quite readily shoot at any unit that gets into their ranges. Interception fire is a close to overpowered. Yet, if you're doing it right, it's usually the only hits the enemy will land. The Empire's forces are much less susceptible to your interception fire, because they generally don't move as much, and end their turns as soon as they're done. (The enemy will continue firing as long as you're in direct control of a unit, whether they're moving or not.)
Tanks are a major part of the battle too, for the first half of the game you have only the Edleweiss, a hand-me-down that bears a striking resemblance to a smaller Merkava, but she's a powerhouse. Packing Anti-tank rounds, an anti-personel mortar, and a sever round burst machine gun. All tanks take no damage from rifles and other small arms, though grenades -can- be used to damage the treads. (Though the null damage doesn't stop intercept fire from trying.)
They do have one glaring weakness. A large radiator on the back will allow all tanks to be taken out in one anti-tank shot. Compared to the three plus it would take for body hits, it's a definate priority target.
Going back to infantry, there're five classes that are fairly balanced. Scouts, Shocktroopers, Lancers, Engineers, and Snipers.
Scouts are easily the fastest, having around double of the next highest move distance, they're also the fairly fragile, and their weapons generally -require- headshots to down even other scouts. They're armed with a fairly accurate five shot rifle, a single grenade per game turn, and a Ragnaid. (A quasi-magic healing item. More in on this a little later.) They're fairly useful, and generally your primary units if you're trying to nail an A rank. [Missions are ranked purely on turns taken, A rank rewards 3x the base xp and money for the mission.] When leveled to 11, they get a launcher attached to their rifle that lets them shoot their one grenade about 2-3 times farther than they could just throw it.
Shocktroopers are sturdy, fairly powerful on anti-personel duty, and fairly slow. (Though they -move- only a little slower than scouts really.) They're equipped with a 20 round machine pistol, a single grenade, and a Ragnaid. When they hit 11, they get a flamethrower attached to their machine pistol. It's not too powerful, but can do the same damage to enemies in cover and can hit enemies who dodge.
Lancers are very slow, but are your primary anti-tank crew. They're equiped with only an anti-tank lance and a ragnaid. However, they have armor that reduces explosives damage to nearly nothing. The lance is kinda interesting. Picture an RPG if it had been designed to look like a knights lance. They only get three shots stocked, though. Anti-tank damage isn't generally enough to OHKO infantry, but does deal severe damage. Though the accuracy on them leaves something to be desired. They can't intercept, but when they hit 11, they get the choice of their standard lances, or mortar versions which are beastly against infantry.
Snipers are fun, though deeply situational. They have enough power to OHKO most enemies with a headshot, and their rifle has a 1-5(?)x zoom on it, allowing them to strick fairly accurately from a great distance. However, they can only stock 3 shots and have a movement distance similar to lancers. Like lancers, they also don't have a backup weapon, and can't intercept.
Engineers are interesting. One the one hand, they're very useful. They can disarm mines, reload allies, repair cover all as free actions, can repair your tank (50+%) and have the 'large' ragnaid cans that heal about 1/2-2/3 of a units HP in one go. They've also got a movement range about 3/4th the size of a scout's. However, they're more fragile than scouts, armed with the same primary weapon, (with which they're less accurate) and three grenades for offense.
You have a set pool of recruits that you can pull from, each of whom get three or four personal "potentials" and four class based ones. All of their last Personal potentials are locked to begin with, and your 'generics' all have to earn five points into a hidden value to unlock their final one. (Though you have to then visit the reporter to actually unlock it.) This is accompanied by an additional four lines in their profile page that are generally related to the final potential.
Your leaders however, have to go through certain events, usually a short optional chapter, to unlock their potentials.
An interesting little easter egg I noticed, at least two of the main characters from Skies of Arcadia are recruitable. Dunno if any of the other generics are from other Sega IPs though.
If a soldier is downed in combat, they're not necessarily dead. You have three turns to get a unit to them or they bleed out. They're not available for the rest of that fight though. Though, if the enemy does the same, they're dead too. (Though I can't say I've had it happen...)
The story is pretty good too. Nothing revolutionary, but its interesting enough to keep me playing through the cut scenes. (The majority of which are talking heads, though the game is fully voice acted.)
It follows a unit of a small neutral country's militia forces as they attempt to repel an invasion of their nation during a larger conflict. Nearly crushed, the nation is forced to rely on the universal training of its citizenry to reclaim its own soil. The war is primarily a resource driven conflict, though the Empire's leader harbors dreams of global conquest.
There isn't much outright magic in the game outside of a mineral called Ragnite. It has a ridiculous range of uses, from fuel, to explosives, to its use in the ragnaid canisters due to a painkilling effect. There're also the eponymous Valkyria... When you first run into the enemy's commander who is one, well, it looses a little bit of credibility. She weilds a spear and shield made out of a refined version of the mineral that, in that mission, renders her invulnerable and the spear fires beams in about the accuracy spread of your Shocktroopers machine pistols, though stupidly powerful. And she'll intercept with it...
Other than her, the fights have all be pretty fun.
The game also has a very solid visual style to it. The closest I could compare it to is the visual style of Dark Cloud 2, though with better art direction. Basically, if you've seen the stills, and thought 'nice artwork,' it basically looks like that all the time.
The gear for all of the standard units looks fairly believable. Though, everyone's wearing some level of plate mail. From the Imperial soldiers near full plate, to your lancers huge shell arm guard, to most everyone elses' shoulder guards and faulds. Basically, it all has a slightly medieval meets WWII feel. Though none of your units wear helmets...
I'd put it at around 8/10.
So, anyone else played it?