This breakdown of Valkyria Chronicles by one Ben Elgin makes the game sound as intriguing as ever and once again fills me with regret that my job keeps me so close to really wonderful games but often keeps me from being able to experience them.
“But Jeremy,” you say, “how hypocritical is it for you to complain about work when you spent all weekend playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution? Totally hypocritical, so quitter bitchin’.” And I kind of agree! But consider this: A few weeks from now, we’ll both have played DX:HR, but I still won’t have had a chance to play Valkyria Chronicles. It makes me sad. Almost as sad as the fact that Sega’s too dense to publish the third game in the U.S.
“But Jeremy,” you say, “how hypocritical is it for you to complain about not getting the third game when you haven’t even played the first two?” But consider this: Shut up.
Valkyria Chronicles is awesome and has great graphics, gameplay, and music. Also I really enjoyed the story, unlike everyone else at TT.
I liked the story. I thought the end of game was kind of touching even though it was kinda cheesy.
Valkyria Chronicles is one of those special games for me. It came around right at the same time as I bought my PS3 and it remains the game I’ve played most this gen. Everything about its design comes together perfectly.
I don’t own a PS3, and don’t know if or even when I’ll purchase one. Nevertheless, after playing VC elsewhere a few times, I do own a copy of the game just to be prepared.
“But Jeremy, I was under the impression that you had played the game, and enjoyed it like any other other gamer with good taste?”
You falsely assume I have anything resembling free time, let enough to pour into such a time-consuming game.
No, actually, for some reason, some (apparently false) thought in my mind recalled that you were one of the game’s vocal champions when it came out. Which I suppose could still be true.
Valkryia Chonicles is possibly the best game I have played this generation. This may seem irrational, but it has enough of what made Sega great in the old days with Rieko Kodama-inspired characters and locales, with a hint of Overworks, all of which echo the likes of Phantasy Star and Sakura Taisen, as well as amazingly beautiful visuals and music (with the wonderful option of switching to Japanese for voice-overs).
We don’t see enough of what made Sega special these days, so this was a welcome marriage of old-world charm with a shiny new coat of paint.
Speaking of marriage, congratulations on getting hitched Jeremy! I missed your previous post with the good news, but thought this was a good opportunity to wish you and your wife all the very best!
I bought this game a while ago, but I still haven’t played it. And I have free time… I’m a bad person.
It breaks my heart that we’ll probably never see the 3rd game. It’s become one of those “well, maybe I can brush off my college Japanese and brute force it.” After all, I’m sure I’ve got enough Japanese in the bank to muddle through a story about 3rd grade concepts of bravery and sacrifice, as noted in the article.
But no, it just sits on Play-Asia, taunting me, the Japanese demo on my memory stick.
Valkyria Chronicles is some of the most fun I’ve had in videogames. Story’s pretty abhorrent most of the way through, but hey, anime’s like that sometimes (often). But the shooting! The running and shooting! And the equipping your favorite shocktrooper with an anti-tank machinegun and completely forgoing the clumsy, slow lancers in favor of lightning strikes against a tank’s radiator.
And the cast! There’s so many that anybody’ll find one or two to glom on to. Wendy’s combination of football grease under the eyes and knit cap gets me every time, as does her half-sadistic, half-daydreamy “Yayyy” every time she scores a kill, while a friend of mine was partial to Melville’s Tiger Beat-style mohawk.
I didn’t get the same satisfaction out of VC2’s cast, and the story went from “not great” to “actively awful,” but the gameplay ratcheted up to compensation. The sheer spread of classes were annoying (because it introduced the specific character leveling up that the first one avoided) and totally awesome (because you could give your shocktroopers a flamethrower, or a heavy machinegun, or a light machinegun, or extra grenades). You could also put a flamethrower on your tank. So there’s that.
Don’t usually post comments here, so I feel bad blabbing, but man, seeing something about Valkyria Chronicles here brightened my day. Thanks gamespite!
VC is the best game I have played in eons. It is the perfect example of how to emulate a tactical strategy boardgame as there has ever been. I’d kill for more games in this style.
This is one of those games I’ve started and given up on four separate times, all because of that cheap-as-hell-and-poorly-designed battle against the giant tank, in which an unkillable anime cliche arrives to further ruin your day, because a giant freaking tank wasn’t difficult enough.
Still worth watching the Let’s Play of, though.