Sega Nerds

SGD08: Valkyria Chronicles preview

by George on May 16th, 2008

I’ve been eagerly anticipating Valkyria Chronicles. I couldn’t wait for a chance to play it in English. I mean, I can’t import it… I don’t know how to speak or write Japanese! Sega thought it would be funny to make me mad. They showed off the retail Japanese version at the event. The worst part is they didn’t let us play it.

However, I learned a lot at about the game! For example, I learned that I must have this game when it comes out.

If you don’t know the story to the game, the East European Imperial Alliance and the Atlantic Federation are at war. Gillian just happened to be right in the middle and also happens to have a lot of ragnite ore. Ragnite ore can be made into fuel to power tanks and things like that. So the East European Imperial Alliance decides to attack and take over his ragnite ore.

The game is a SRPG (Strategy Role Playing Game), so you are limited to moving your characters. The point is to out think the enemy. In most games like this you get to move on squares or tiles. In this one you get a meter, and once it drains you can’t move any more, though you are allowed to skip turns. You can set up your people and queue up a move. If you have on character and it sees a scout, you can attack him, but you can’t run and attack more people.

The environments play a major role in what you choose to be on your team. You can pick snipers, rocketers, tankers, riflemen and many more. The Sega rep showed us how you can set up snipers on towers, so you can pin down the enemy when it crosses. Being on top of a tower also provides you with an accuracy bonus.

Aiming is done manually by you, the player! The guy said it’s very important to aim right. He said he was playing and tried to aim at a guy, but accidentally hit one of his own snipers in the head. I don’t think you want to do that!

There will be over 50 characters, each with their own abilities and weaknesses. They said some like urban environments and others don’t like rats. Characters also have potentials, which gives certain boosts or drawbacks depending on characters you have and battlefield conditions.

Taking over enemy posts gives you an advantage and more respawn points. You have to take down all the enemies around it to take the post. You can also switch out characters at flag posts, of which you are allowed six active in the game at a time.

Let’s say one of your comrades is down in the battlefield. You have three turns to heal him. If you don’t heal him by those three turns he is gone for the rest of the game. Also if one of the main characters from the story dies in combat, you lose the battle. It’s like they are the king in your chess game.

Conclusions:
Even though I wanted to play this game and in English, I still want to play it! I couldn’t think of anything wrong with the preview at all. The graphics are awesome and the gameplay looks tight in all corners.

My only real complaint is that winter is too far way.

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POSTED IN: George, Sony PlayStation 3