Dear Internet
I
finally finished "Valkyria Chronicles" today. Just an hour ago by the time I type this
sentence. I am sure you can guess my
impression of the game having read the previous entries. Then again, you may just be impatient and
have already scrolled to the end to see my general score instead of reading the
review first. I cannot stop you, but I
am still going to write the review.
"Valkyria
Chronicles" is a rare gem among games.
It has everything going for it.
It has a pleasing art style, a simple yet complex battle system, a
fantastic musical backing, and a moving story.
The most important aspect would be the gameplay. I say this because the game does not hold the
player's hand nor push them off a cliff.
I lost a lot in this game. I
cannot even remember how many times that I had to restart a battle because I
failed or realized I was heading into a dead end. Every time that I restarted, I never once
felt like the game was acting unfairly or in a way against the rules of
engagement. I never felt cheated because
the game decided to change the rules mid-battle without fair reason. I failed because I acted foolishly, forgot
the game's rules, or attempted a risk with only a low chance of success. The game is one where the player actually has
to get better at the gameplay instead of just grinding away, hoping to win by
brute force. Tactics are required to
advance properly. And sometimes those
tactics is how to properly use brute force.
"Valkyria
Chronicles" might have problems with its story, but that only stems from
the slightly awkward English voice acting.
Often I found the speech sound bits being stretched out. This might have been a technical solution
where they stretch the sound clips out to fit the amount of time that the
original lip movement was done for the Japanese audio. The result either way is less than pristine
line delivery from most of the cast.
While the acting never got horrible enough to make me want to rip my
ears off, the occasional bad line made me at least want to clean out my ears
lest some earwax was preventing the emotion from the line being stopped. Sadly, my ears were clean and the emotion was
never there. It is not something that I
want to strike against the game considering that words themselves usually
convey enough of the character's thoughts and intentions. Take for example Maximilian's repeated use of
the royal plural pronoun usage when referring to himself. It conveys his arrogance and royal up-brining
much better than the actor's ability to portray the character. While the character is supposed to be aloof
and have a stonewall personality, when it comes to his presence in the story,
Maximilian's actions and manner of speaking does a better job of conveying the
character. Most of the characters are
like this, and the game places the importance on those aspects rather than the
voice acting, which is a good thing.
The
story overall does its job well. The
WWII/fantasy aesthetics do a good job of creating a unique setting. Instead of trying to focus on the entirety of
the EWII, the game smartly focuses on a single squad with only half a dozen
characters being showcased. The love
story between Welkin and Alicia was handled with a maturity that I do not see
often in other games. Instead of ending
on a cliffhanger as to whether or not the two get together, there is a very
real ending to their relationship, and there is even a climactic event that
defines their relationship. The various
other spotlight characters from Squad 7 are well enough developed to make them
less like cardboard soldiers and more fleshed out characters. Even the antagonists have some depth to them
instead of becoming Saturday morning cartoon villains. The story got me to empathize with them. At the same time, it remembered not to
overshadow the reasons that the heroes were fighting for by stressing the
antagonist's reasons too much. The story
was never about EWII. It was only a
backdrop to the tiny narrative the game gives.
The game was not shy from this fact and had stated this much within the
opening segments, so it should not have been a surprise.
I
should mention the music for a bit. The
game makes full use of an orchestrated soundtrack. The opening sequence that plays before the
title screen appears has a beautifully arranged song. What struck me about that sequence is that it
plays independently of the visual hodgepodge that is stitched together. Most opening sequences would play some sort
of music that is synchronized with the events being displayed. Instead, the game plays a soft melody while
past paced action occurs. The effect
highlights the music even more because of the juxtaposition. Elsewhere in the game, the music is much more
in context, playing melodies that align with the scene's or event's theme.
Overall,
I enjoyed the game immensely. "Valkyria
Chronicles" will be a highlight of my collection that I would recommend to
others. I will have to try and watch the
animated adaptation that was created or read the comic that stemmed from it. I wish I could have played the game outside
of the Backlog and have devoted more time to it, but I am ready to go onto the
next card.
Yours in digital,
BeepBoop
P.S Next is the film "The Monster X Strikes Back/Attack the G8 Summit".
P.S Next is the film "The Monster X Strikes Back/Attack the G8 Summit".
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