Introduction

Credits

Hey, everyone time for another video game review! This time I'm going to go over Valkyria Chronicles which was originally an early ps3 exclusive but it unexpectedly made its way to the pc. I played the ps3 version a few years back but this review will be specifically about the pc version which was released on Remembrance Day 2014. The  pc version is a steam exclusive which is too bad because a DRM-free physical release would have been ideal but I guess one shouldn't expect these kinds of things these days. The review will be like the other reviews I do but with the absence of any ratings or scores as this is more of a recommendation than a review.

Story

 If you don't know much about the game Valkyria Chronicles then it is an alternate reality world war 2 strategy RPG where two superpowers, The Federation and The Empire are at war over a mineral called Ragnar. Ragnar looks like a glowing blue stone and it is used as a fuel and as a power source and in addition, it also possesses healing abilities. Unfortunately for our main characters The Empire also known as The Imperials decide to invade their neutral country of Gallia in order to get a hold of its Ragnar. Our main characters Welken and Alicia both hail from the small town of Brule which gets attacked and occupied early in the game and eventually they both find themselves as part of the galius militia with Welken commanding his very own squad called squad 7. 

The game itself looks incredible. It's like a moving watercolor painting and I am very fond of the art style and visuals. It looks especially excellent on the pc but I'm going to touch on that later in the review.

Gameplay

Now that you know about the game's basic premise let's get into the gameplay. The menu is laid out like a book which I really like and this is where you select the cutscenes and the missions. For starting a mission you'll be given a briefing on the objectives and the missions usually involve you having to occupy a certain base camp, reaching a certain destination or defeating a boss character or vehicle. The losing conditions are usually the same like don't let your tank be destroyed or don't let the enemy take over your base camp. You also get to choose where your units deploy though some characters positions are predetermined depending on the mission you take. The Gameplay is turn-based but it has some real-time elements as well and the tactical overhead view. You select which unit you want to control when selecting that unit you control that unit from a third-person perspective you can move around and engage with the opposition or you can also get shot at when you get too close. Units use AP which can be seen on the top left and the foot units use up one AP while tanks will use up to two. Once you've used up all your AP or ended your turn manually it's the opposition's turn. You won't be able to see the enemy units on your map if they aren't in your field of view but you can get a rough idea of where they are in order to succeed. In Valkyria Chronicles, you'll have to learn how and when to use units of different classes. There are Scouts, Shocktroopers, Lancers, Engineers and Snipers. Additionally, you've also got a tank.

Scouts are the most mobile of all the classes they can see the farthest they have a really long range and can move around the most. They're armed with rifles but the small magazine is a handicap. They're really effective for scoping out the battlefield and looking for enemies and can take out foot soldiers pretty well if you aim at the head thankfully there shooting is quite precise but they're bit fragile so be careful.

Shock Troopers carry machine guns and are best suited in disposing of foot units and attacking and defending base camps though they can't run as far as Scouts can. 

Lancers are armed with rocket launchers and are best when put to use against tanks and vehicles. They are well armored and can endure grenades and bullets quite well but they can not counter-attack or shoot at moving enemies. 

Engineers are there to fix up your tanks. They supply foot units with grenades and ammo and repair things like sandbags that have been blown up or driven over. In a way, they're similar to Scouts but it's best not to have them engage the enemy if possible.

Snipers are the most vulnerable of all they can't shoot at moving enemy units neither can they counter-attack and they barely move at all plus they only have a small amount of ammunition. It's best to place them behind your troops may be in a tower or behind some sandbags. Despite having all these shortcomings you'll be using snipers quite a lot. 

For leveling up you decide which class you want to spend experience points on and all characters within that class level up. Once you get past level 10 the class can become elites and unlock some new abilities like elite Scouts, for example, get the ability to use grenade launchers and elite troopers can use flamethrowers. Each character has different strengths and weaknesses which are called potentials and these potentials activate in certain conditions for example for Alicia her country-bred potential enables her to shoot more accurately when standing on dirt whereas Edie's panicky potential makes her attack power decrease when charging towards a bunch of enemy units. Also characters like being around some characters more than others so it's a good idea to try and keep them together. If a character gets downed and you don't get to them in time or the enemy reaches them first they'll die permanently unless they are the main character in which case they'll just retreat for the rest of the mission. 

If you want to step away from the main story a bit you can also unlock some reports which are little side events that take place between chapters and are supposed to give the players a little insight into some of the characters. You can also play skirmish maps which are based on missions already completed in story mode with some alterations though you don't get to replay the actual story missions until after you finish the game. 

Visuals and Performance

The world of Valkyria Chronicles is very thought out with a lot of attention to detail given to pretty much every aspect of the game. The ps3 version was stuck at 720p and 30 frames per second but the pc version has none of these restrictions so you can crank the resolution up as much as your monitor and pc can handle plus there's no frame rate cap. The game is locked to a 16 by 9 aspect ratio and my monitor's resolution is 1680 x 1050 which is 16 by 10 so I get little black bars on the top and bottoms which is not too bad but I could live without that. The cutscenes are locked down to 720p at 30 frames per second and occasionally the cutscenes stutter and I am not sure why that happens as the gameplay is consistently 60fps on my computer. I have to say that the sound design could have been better explosions could have sounded much better and the dynamic range is sadly also lacking but the music, on the other hand, is very good. If you prefer sob overdub you can switch the voice acting to Japanese. I have no problem with either but for this review I left it on English.

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One of the OST of the game I really liked

Conclusion

Valkyria Chronicles is one of my favorite games of all time and I never expected it to be released on the pc. The pc version gets all the DLCs from the ps3 version and I cannot recommend the game enough. It's excellent on either system but the pc version is so freaking awesome running at high resolution and at 60fps. I'm running the game on my gaming computer but I heard that Valkyria chronicles works quite well with even modest computers so I would urge people to give the pc version of the game a try.

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Official Trailer

 Note: All Screenshots of the game were taken during my play session.