Dear Internet
Here is
to better games than the last one, Internet.
Then again, I should not count my chickens before they hatch. I did that with "Splinter Cell" and
I regret doing so. I hyped myself up
more than the game actually did so. Maybe
I have not learned my lesson and will continue to get overly excited when being
presented with something new because I have the hope that it will be enjoyable,
only to have my hopes dashed upon the low poly-count rocks. At least it is better than the polar
alternative where I am a jaded individual with no expectations so high that
only unreality can meet. In the mean
time, I have "Valkyria Chronicles" before me.
With my
game reviews, I would have said that I usually have had shorter games being
showcased here on the Backlog. Going
over the entries, I realized that I blacked out "Revelations:
Persona" from my memory. "Valkyria
Chronicles" is going to be a longer game than the three day average that
seems to have been created. With that in
mind, I will try and break things up in a different manner. I am going to try and break up the entries into
specific topics about the game. This
might not work out considering that I am making these posts as I go along and
will be lacking in the full understanding about each specific aspect until the
end. For example, I will have to break
up talking about the story into two parts.
Unless I wait until the last entry to discuss the story in fullness, I
have to talk first about the premise and then the story as a whole to be able
to talk about nearly everything else. If
I waited until the end to begin touching upon the story, I would have to refer
to the whole cast using alphanumeric coding like "Guy 1B" and
"Girl G9." There are just that
many characters in this game already.
Granted, a majority of them are minor characters that only play small
roles, but even the game tries to give each one a tiny back-story and some
depth. There is a reason for that, but I
will touch upon that later. For now, let
me try and give a premise.
"Valkyria
Chronicles" is set in a fictional alternative world. In this fictitious world, which seems oddly
familiar, there exists a mineral resource that is vital to the everyday
life. Ragnite mined from the ground is
used in everything from medical practices to heal to being a source of energy
to power tanks. Two major states of
power have risen in the world. There is
the East Europan Imperial Alliance and the Atlantic Federation. As both of these political entities grow to a
greater and greater power due to the importance of Ragnite, the supply of the
mineral becomes more and more scarce. Eventually,
the EEIA declares war on the AF which leads to the Second Europa War. As the two groups begin their fight, EEIA
invades Gallia, a neutral country that belongs to neither coalition. Enter our two protagonists.
 |
| I feel like making a "Star Wars" joke since we are supposed to be fighting "The Empire," but I will try to resist. |
Welkin
is the son of the late General Gunther, a hero of the last Europa War. He returns to his hometown, after having been
at university, when news of invasion by the EEIA is imminent to help his
sister, Isara, evacuate. He stops just
out of town to sketch some fish migrating upstream to spawn. Welkin is spotted by Alicia, a town guard who
believes Welkin could be an enemy spy collecting information. When Isara clears Welkin's name, the siblings
return to their home to prepare for the evacuation. Not too long later, Alicia brings some bread
for Wilkins in a way to apologizing for her mistake. The two go out for a walk, during which the
EEIA attack the small village. Welkin is
then thrust into the Second Europa War.
From there, he will enter into his country's military due to the
mandatory service in effect and lead a squad of soldiers to defend their motherland.
 |
| Alicia and Wilkins. |
That is
the basic premise for the game. Throw in
a few other characters like Cpt. Varrot, the seasoned veteran, Irene Ellet, the
radio journalist, or Martha Lipponen, Welkin and Isara's nurse, and you start
to get a fuller world. Beyond that are a
collection of troops that dot the ranks of Squad 7, Welkin's team. They do not make much on an impact in the
story, but the game is nice enough to present a little bit of information on
each and every one. You can learn the
age and rank of every single individual that is under your command as well as
where they came from and what they were doing before the war. This makes each character come alive in the
imagination of the player. Before you
realize it, you are keeping the 12 year old military prodigy in the back of the
battle, you are making sure none of your comrades-in-arms are shot down, and
you reset to the last save file in case anyone dies because there is no way you
can replace that character. Or you
disregard the mini-bios and just throw your troops to the slaughter. There might be a limited amount of stock
characters to pull from before the game just tells you that you need to stop
getting your troops killed, but I do not want to try it. Those small bios are enough to make me care. Even having only run two missions and a few scrambles,
I have grown to like them. That might
also be because of how the game treats the inter-personal relationships of the
troops to make a gameplay mechanic out of it, but I will save that for when I
am trying to talk about how the gameplay works.
 |
| Even the baby gets a bio. |
The
story, so far, is doing a good job in pulling me into the game's world. You probably can already tell that the setting
is pseudo-Europe with emphasis on the WWII era.
I will try and get to that when I start to talk about the game's aesthetics. The story can be a little hammy at times,
especially when the characters talk. The
voice acting is a little frigid at times, but it is only bad when the actors
are in the cinematics and have to make the words fit the lips. I can think of much worse games that have
worse voice-overs. I do not want to make
it seem all that bad. The battle dialog
is done much better than the other segments if that means anything to you. It should considering that you hear the
battle voices much more than you do those in the cinematics. To add to that, the game does one thing well
enough. After viewing any cinematic, you
can re-watch it again when you want to.
Most games only give you one chance to see these and lock you out unless
you play the whole game again. So, this is
a plus that is created due to how the game handles the story and higher menu
like a book being read. Select the chapter
and episode and you can go back and revisit past events.
I will
stop here with the story for today and pick up tomorrow with the gameplay,
Internet.
Yours in digital,
BeepBoop
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