Sega’s remastered version of Valkyria Chronicles will be out on May 17th. We have here our review of the updated version, Valkyria Chronicles Remastered for the Playstation 4.Â
8 years ago Sega released a brand new military tactic game called Valkyria Chronicles. The game was a tactical role-playing game that was set in a time that’s almost a cross between steampunk-ish world with magical and mystic elements. The game has sold extremely well and had rave reviews from everywhere to the point where it sparked a series of games. Valkyria Chronicles 2 was released for the PlayStation Portable and even valkyria Chronicles 3 which never saw a release outside of Japan. In 2014 Sega released valkyria Chronicles for the PC through Steam where, again it’s sold very well. The game has been remastered for the PlayStation 4 and we had a Hands-On look at the updated version.
Valkyria Chronicles is a story about Welkin Gunther, a young college student from Galia. Galia is a principality that sits between two warring powers called the Atlantic
Federation in the Imperial Empire. The two nations of fighting over a precious mineral source called Ragnite that runs most of the modern technology in the world from medical supplies to objects as large as tanks. After his town is attacked and occupied by Imperial soldiers, Welkin and enlisted in the militia. He commands a squad that contains most of the main cast like his sister Isara, the 2nd in command Alicia and many other characters that can be recruited as you play throughout the game. The Imperial Army is led by King Maximilian and his three generals. Gregor, who keeps watch over labor camps, Jager who fights for his own country by siding with Maximilian, and Selvaria Bles, a descendant of the ancient bloodline called Valkyria who makes Superior power to the point where regular weapons are useless against them.
When play valkyria Chronicles the gameplay feels a lot like a cross between Fire Emblem and Front Mission with third person shooter elements. However it’s not a grid based map. You do get a map of the entire stage where you can pick and choose characters using command points. Afterwards individual characters ability points are used to move and attack the enemy. Once you pick a character in the game zooms in to their location where you can move based on how full the meter is. The moment you spend a command point on a character you can’t take it back. However unlike Fire Emblem or front mission you can spend multiple command points on the same character at a reduced AP meter cost. He won’t be able to move as far making the same character over and over again but if that one character is in a good position to continuously fire on an enemy it may be worth spending multiple points on that one character. Throughout the game you can also unlocking gift special commands and orders to your units they can either boost your character stats heal injured characters or even take a shot and an enemy that might be too far away.
There are five classes that a character could be registered as. Scouts shock troopers Lancers engineers and snipers. Scouts have the greatest distance so they can cover what are very weak to attack. Shock troopers have limited movement but are great on offense. Lancers are your best bet to attack enemy tanks. Snipers can pick enemies off in the distance and engineers heal your other units and provide ammunition for limited rounds. There are also people that use tanks like the main character with great defense and has immense destructive power.
In Valkyria Chronicles you don’t level up individual characters. everyone who shares the same class levels of together through the training field so while grinding for levels you don’t have to worry about leveling up one of your units at a time. If one of your pic characters loses all of their hit points they are not completely killed off right away like in Fire Emblem. Instead if one of your other characters can reach them while in their down status, a medic will be called to escort them out of the Battlefield. Once a couple of times past you can even bring them back into the same stage. However if an enemy unit reaches that downed character or three turns past that character dies and will never come back.
The roster is huge and you can continuously Recruit new characters at any point in time and switching whenever you want or use them to replace any characters that may have been killed in action. So reloading saved games over and over isn’t something that you might find yourself doing unless you find yourself attached to certain characters and want to keep them alive.
Overall the gameplay was tons of fun. You get ranked at the end of every battle that you complete and based on how well you do you get set amount of experience points
and money. Unfortunately it doesn’t go by however many units you defeat, but instead on how fast you complete the level. Eliminating enemy soldiers and tanks have a very minimal impact on your score so players who go through completely routing the enemy units and while taking their time don’t always get the same amount of experience you can get by running through enemy territory and just Capture the Flag without firing a shot. The are completion videos that are out there based on the previous versions of valkyria Chronicles that show how you can be several stages and one or two turns that all but completely break the game and could take away the overall fun that you can have by taking your time and playing the game how you would normally play it.
I would definitely recommend the game. Taking your time and not worrying about rank for every level will give you a great experience. If you a person who wants to strive for the top marks while still finding a way to completely obliterate the enemy may have some time trying to figure out a strategy to do it on your own.
The game might not be for you it strategy is in your favorite genre or if you only intend to play it once on normal difficulty and never again. This game was meant for RPG fans who love strategy and want some light shooter elements added to the mix. The game is very challenging but you can even go back with a new game plus after finishing the main story and opted for a much harder challenge.
