I'm Impressed!
Valkyria Chronicles has been in my long backlog for a while. It was recommended for me personally. I fell in love on the first sight with its aesthetics. This week I started playing the PS4 version on PS Now and here's my #FirstImpression after completing the first two chapters.
The game is has a unique gameplay that mixes real-time and turn-based strategy systems and adds a lot of RPG elements on top of it.
That along with unusual storytelling that mixes reality and fantasy. The missions being split into a story-book like structure. As well as the frame border that enhances this effect. The border which unfortunately you can't turn off.
Perfect Introduction to The World & Characters!
Valkyria Chronicles is set in Europa, a fictional counterpart of Europe in the World War II. In this fictional an alternative universe, the nation of Gallia is attacked by The Empire for its Ragnite ore (a source of energy used in the war.) While the scale of the war is mentioned in exposition, the story is framed from the perspective of those who got involved in it unwillingly.
The prologue chapter of Valkyria Chronicles, is perfect. It sets the tone of the game while introducing the characters and establishing their personality in non-threatening manner, while making sure the big stakes are on our mind.
How it does this? By having the main protagonist mistakenly arrested for espionage by the heroine! Since he's an artist, his handbook was mistaken for a certain spy code! It establishes both of them as normal people who got dragged down to the war against their will. It reminds you that the characters you are going to control are humans with personalities and future goals. They're just unfortunate enough to be here.
Valkyria Chronicles keeps doing the same through-out the first two chapters. It introduces characters and concepts from the country of Gallia before we see the empire destroy them in front of us... It's very important for the game to do so. Now we, (the players,) are invested in this homeland, and we feel what the characters are feeling when they were forced to abandon it.
I also like that the characters didn't start unprepared. They were normal people who don't have experience fighting but both Welkin, Alicia and Isaira had the necessary training to being fighting. They didn't become powerful soldiers in an instant like many war stories do in fiction.
The Gameplay
Valkyria Chronicles gameplay is so unique, it was the reason I wanted to try the games in the first place, (didn't know about the story before.) It's a tactical turn-based battle with a real time shooting section. In your turn you can control any of your units on the map using command points, and while in the control of a character the battle takes place in real time.
The Mission Structure/Level Design of the first three battles is awesome, and it seems to be made to be insanely difficult unless you master what they wanted to teach you. The first battle teaches you the basic game mechanics and how the turn works, you have to actually try to lose this one.
At some point in the second battle, you're asked to move to certain location. If you paid attention to the game mechanics you could give all your command points to Welkin to win in one turn.
The final battle in Chapter 2 is your first taste of a Tank, and I've lost many times here until I learned the trick. Stacking turns! You could stack your command points of one turn to the next by not using them. After you acquire the Tank in the middle of the battle you can use all your stacked command points to give the tank extra actions. It's not optimal in most cases but the mission is designed in a way that makes this the best way to win!
More Than the Sum of its Parts
The visual style that resembles an painting in motion. The art style of a semi-realistic anime along with its bright colors, contrast well with the subject matter of the game. Some games, especially the strategy/tactics games, get to the good stuff many hours in. Valkyria Chronicles looks to be like that as well from a gameplay perspective, but looking at its story, I think it's the best start possible to a war game!
So, my first impression of this game could be summed up in one word: "Connection." Valkyria Chronicles succeeded in making me connect to the characters and the world in this short amount of time. I can't wait to explorer the world more!
What do you think?
While I haven't finished Tales of Vesperia yet, I'm going to switch to Valkyria Chronicles as my main JRPG because it's on PS Now and my subscription won't last too long. My gaming time began to stabilize so I hope to play this longer each day.
If you have any thoughts/advices about this game please let me know!