Valkyria Chronicles

Regulars here at Electronic Theatre may well have recognised our strong belief in SEGA’s credentials throughout 2008. Branded as a publisher on the way up, the quality of SEGA’s title’s may have varied wildly – with Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk: The Official Videogame being particular lowlights, and Viking: Battle For Asgard and SEGA Superstar Tennis raising the bar in their respective fields – but the fact that they have devised a strong portfolio of titles across a multitude of formats could not be argued. And that line-up can now be seen to continue into 2009, with MADWORLD, Aliens: Colonial Marines, The Conduit, SEGA Mega-Drive Ultimate Collection and Phantasy Star Portable all arriving in Europe within the first few months.

Before SEGA’s 2009 train starts running, however, we have two remaining big-budget SEGA titles to run-out 2008; Valkyria Chronicles and Sonic Unleashed. Sonic Unleashed, as has now become the nature of SEGA’s mascot, is a multi-format title, whereas Valkyria Chronicles is that most elusive of beasts: a third-party PLAYSTATION3 exclusive.

The game depicts a fantasy continent, known as Europa, with two warring factions – The Empire and The Federation - and your nation of Gallia stuck in the middle. However, conversely to recent game tradition with titles such as FallOut 3, Fracture and Turning Point: Fall Of Liberty, this vision is more comparable to Europe than the US. A breath of fresh air, to say the least.

The title is set in the 1930’s, and casts the player as the day-dreaming hero to be, Welkin. With the most direct comparisons being drawn to the likes of the Advance Wars and Fire Emblem series’ and Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command, Valkyria Chronicles is a Tactical Strategy Game, but one that focuses it’s attention directly on breaking the mould.

The title is divided into Episodes, each filling a space in the player’s History Book. Episodes may just be that – a Cut-Scene for the player to view – but also contain Operations when required by the storyline. An inventive means of unfolding the complex plot at a leisurely rate, although considerably unintuitive for those not affluent with videogame conventions, the History Book also allow you to flip back through the pages and replay previous events. The combat is a juxtaposition of turn-based strategy and real-time action, known as Operations. Choosing your units individually while in Command Mode – on a top-down field map slightly resembling that featured in of Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway, with each unit using an allocated amount of Command Points – the player then enters a third-person Action Mode in which the battle takes place. Once the player’s Action Point Meter for the unit is depleted – having been utilised for movement – the player can attack by pressing the R1 Button and selecting their target. Each unit may only attack once (unless under special rules), and the unit’s Action Mode then ends. However, each unit may be used more than once in Action Mode, requiring further expenditure of a player’s Command Points. The player returns to Command Mode, and once all the Command Points are used, the phase ends and the opponent begins. Once both player and opponent’s phases have ended, the Turn is over, and fewer Turns in a victorious battle will provide the player with more Experience and items.

The game presents a detailed battlefield in Action Mode, with representations of line-of-sight, hidden units, target arcs and reload delays all adopting their own conventions that heighten the atmosphere more than any fog-of-war system before it. The game demands layer-upon-layer of tactical manoeuvring from the player, and are vastly more congruent with the punishing nature of war than the unkempt hair and boyish looks of its protagonist may suggest. Occasional difficulty spikes are disappointing at first, but inevitably only add to the reward upon successfully completing an Operation.

The game’s rich anime styling has a buoyancy similar to Dungeon Maker, although, with the power of the PLAYSTATION3, is effortlessly more attractive. A pencil sketching effect is a simple but effective addition giving the game the feel of a living sketch book. Despite some large issues with the localisation for lip-synching, the animation is almost flawless. The booming triumphant orchestral score is similar to many games of Valkyria Chronicles’ ilk and in-particular brings to mind KOEI’s criminally underrated BladeStorm: The Hundred Year’s War.

SEGA’s plate is certainly full right now, but clearly that doesn’t mean that don’t have the time to lead by example. Valkyria Chronicles manages to adapt a template almost perfected on handheld for the home console, in a more successful first strike than those struggling with the transition from home console to handheld. Valkyria Chronicles is one of the most unique and interesting releases currently available on the PLAYSTATION3 and, while it certainly won’t appeal to a large percentage of the system’s current installed userbase, those in need of some tactically demanding gameplay have a new champion.

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