Awesome game w/ RPG elements
I initially purchased this game as a Christmas present for a friend. After watching him play it though, I knew I wanted to play it too. So I got it from him after he finished it. Let me just say from reading descriptions of the game, it only seemed vaguely interesting to me. Also, I have never gotten into what I consider an RPG type of game, beyond maybe something like Civilization.
Having said that, I hope you know what Civilization is because I'm going to compare this game to it a bit. Whereas in Civilization you are ruler of your own country, determining what gets built, send troops off to war, etc.; in Valkyria Chronicles I think of this game more as a being the leader of your troops (based loosely on WWII). You determine which units to use in a battle, which units to use against enemy units for the best match up, and how best to complete the objective of each operation.
There are several different types of militia units used: armored tank, scout, shocktrooper (machine gun), lancer (rocket propelled grenade), sniper, and engineer. Each has their own abilities and limitations. For example, a scout doesn't have the firepower or health level that a shocktrooper has, but they can travel nearly twice as far per turn.
During the game you earn experience points and another type of points (I can't remember what they are called, but I believe they use DCT to identify them, so that is what I'll use.) You earn both types of points by doing different battles & skirmishes. The Experience Points you use to level up each of your unit types (except the tank). You use the DCT points to upgrade your weapons and your tanks. You also use DCT points to unlock new orders that can be given to troops, such as retreat, all defend, etc; and they may be used to purchase additional story line and occassional battles through the reporter screen. You can earn more points by winning the mission in as few turns as possible and by defeating tanks and opposing military leaders.
I think total there are 19 Chapters to the game (I'm only on Chapter 11 now). Typically each chapter includes 1 battle, though some contain more than 1. Some are tougher than others, and you will most definitely be doing them multiple times as you figure out how best to complete the mission. Though please note once you completely finish the battle you can't go back and redo it. You can only redo the skirmishes multiple times to add to your Experience and DCT points.
Graphically, the game is beautiful and exactly what you would expect from a PS3 game. Challenge wise, the game is dead on and will keep you puzzled throughout most battles as what to do next.
I'd say there are 3 things the game developers could have done to make this a better game:
1) Add more types of militia units to the mix
2) Add an online mode to the game that allowed you to randomly square off against other players using boards from the game
3) Provide trophy support to the game. While I'm not that into trophy collecting, I admit it is nice to see that I've gotten some through game play. Also, it would have been really easy for them to do, as they already give you a grade of A to F and award points to you after a battle based upon how quickly you complete a mission.
Hope you found this helpful!Read full review
