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| I am running out of title screens to begin these entries. |
Dear Internet,
It is
time to continue to talk about "Valkyria Chronicles." Today's topic: art style and aesthetics.
I have
already gone over the opening storyline in "Valkyria Chronicles" and
how it is a fantastical resetting of WWII in Europe. To see this you can look
at a number of instances. The continent
is called Europa. The war being fought is
also called the Second Europa War and is the biggest one ever waged in the world's
history. The era of the world is marked most
notably by a surge in industrial ability that also was present in the first
Europa War. Then there are the artistic similarities
that draw parallels t their real-world alternatives. About the only thing that is not present in
the game is any sort of depiction of the Holocaust, even though there seems to
a downtrodden people called the Darcsen.
I think it is better this way.
Having a fictitious reflection of the Holocaust in this game would
greatly alter the direction of the themes and overshadow the central story that
the game is trying to tell. But let us
look at what the game does showcase rather than what it does not.
The
setting of the game is reminiscent of old Europe, but it also contains a number
of locations that highlight different terrains.
The starting terrains are of those beautiful European villages and
towns. The game does a good job with
making the battlefield reflect the style of buildings. The towns are tight and confining with most
buildings either touching one another or being very close to one another. Both the roads and the buildings are
stonework, and the destroyed structures show details to their methods of
construction. Eventually, the game moves
to forests and a desert. While it seems
improbably for such a small country within the world of the game to have such a
diverse collection of biomes, the game mechanics that come from the changes
more than make up for the somewhat improbable terrain. I am waiting for an ice level to appear soon
at this rate.
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| And it does not look like an architect has touched it since. |
What is
perhaps most striking of the game's art direction are the character costumes
and designs for the warfare oddities. I
wrap them together because the two are so closely related together that
thinking of them as separate entities would require cutting them broadly apart. Most of the characters that appear only do so
while in military garb. Take the
Imperial Prince Maximilian for instance.
So far, he only has appeared in attire that is reminiscent of Roman
emperors. He wears a golden crown formed
into the shape of an olive wreath while wearing a flowing cape with ermine-like
trim. If anything, the game is trying to
pull together the Roman antiquity that both the Third Reich and Mussolini drew
upon for their countries. The German
influences can be seen in the type of uniforms that the EEIA use for their
officers. While not completely similar,
the hat design and the Waffenrock design do point in that direction.
On the
Gallian side of the war, it would be easy to draw parallelisms to certain
Allied countries. I will leave the
historical similarities to the war buffs to say which countries Gallia is most
like. In the mean time, let us look at
the Gallian uniform. The most notable
thing for me is the armor. The game
makes heavy use of plate armor in the game.
Scouts all wear some sort of armor, be it on their elbows, knees, shoulders,
or hips. Shocktroopers take this notion
and go one step higher making the plated armor more noticeable, which is to
reflect their high defensive capabilities.
The Lancers, who are supposed to take out tanks singlehandedly, are
closer to English knights preparing to joust.
This is of course meant to tie back into their class definition and
bring forth classical knightly images.
The game is clever with this use of armor especially considering that such
forms of protection have been out of use as a primary form of protection since
bullets began to reach high enough velocities and piercing power. It makes a unique look for the game that
pulls out the fantastical while remaining enough in reality to see the
allusions. The EEIA soldiers go one step
further in regards to armor, but perhaps for different reasons. The Empire troops are completely covered in
armor to the point that they are indistinguishable from one another. Their Lancers are so covered with armor that
the look of a knight armed with lance does not need interpretation since the
image is complete. Low level troops are
reminiscent of German Stormtroopers that I will not go farther into it.
The
reason for the complete armor rather than the patchwork style of the Gallians is
twofold. The first is that it makes the
Empire as an imposing figure with resources that more than rival your own. They have full armor while you can barely put
together half a blast suit. It shows
that the Empire can fully fund their troops.
The other half is that it turns the enemy into common mooks, or cannon
fodder for the player to plow through.
Without an identity, common enemies are much easier to kill off, and it
is easier to program but mostly makes the enemies the same. The game goes to great lengths to make each
member of your team unique enough to cause the player to gain an emotional link
to that character. This is partially why
the game does not make your soldiers wear face-covering helmets. It would make it harder to tell who was who
and cause confusion when issuing orders.
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| Nameless mooks, the lot of them. |
Lastly,
I should mention the obvious fact that I have been shirking. "Valkyria Chronicles" makes us of
an Anime stylized art. All the
characters are created with common Anime aesthetics in mind. On top of that, the game uses a cel shading
technique to make the character and other object appear with a small outline
when appropriate. This further
emphasizes the hand-drawn look. What
most draws me to the art style of the game is a texture that gets applied to
the shadows that the game processes.
Instead of only making the shadows of characters and objects darker, the
game overlays a repeated parallel line pattern that one would find in line art
drawings or etchings. The effect is one
that mimics the drawings that the game tries and succeeds to imitate. Beyond that, there are some characters that
seem impossibly thin, which might deter some people, but I find it to reflect
the troop class of those individuals, showing how are less accustomed to combat
and physical tasks.
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| Also used are onomatopoeia in relation to weapons being fired. |
Overall,
"Valkyria Chronicles" creates a unique quasi-WWII fantasy setting
that remembers to have its roots in the industrial revolution. The look is favorable because it identifies
itself away from other games in its genre or even those that have somewhat
similar art style. Most importantly is
that it works. As I continue playing the
game, I can tell that the story is going to start to elaborate more on the
fantasy elements. When I have enough
material for that, I will talk a bit on that.
Until then, I will continue to bite my nails off whenever one of my
squad is knocked out.
Yours in digital,
BeepBoop
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