Sega Nerds

Valkyria Chronicles: In-depth, hands-on preview

Posted by Graham. Filed under Europe, G, News, Preview, Sony PlayStation 3. Tagged with Hands on, Valkyria Chronicles.

We were fortunate enough to get our hands on the Japanese version of the soon-to-be-released Valkyria Chronicles a while back, but since it didn’t have English subtitles, you can imagine the difficulty we had trying to understand anything going on.

Fortunately for us, and for you, Sega of Europe recently invited us to come to their offices for an extended gaming session of the English version.

Rather than focus too much on the gameplay aspects, which we have covered previously, and you can find out on any of the Japanese reviews, we are going to delve into some of the finer aspects of the game.

Game/Story Layout:

The game represents itself as a story book, which goes well with the new Canvas Engine the game utilises. As the player progresses through the game, they will open up illustrations within the pages.  These illustrations symbolise battles and story cut scenes.

Each page turn signifies a new chapter or interlude in the story. In total, there are 18 chapters and 12 interludes you’ll experience in Valkyria Chronicles.  Each chapter has at least one battle (many have more than one), interludes tend not have a battle, although there a few which do.

Book Tabs:

The story book has several tabs that symbolise various options within the game, which you unlock as you progress through the story.

Headquarters:
Use experience earned during the game to help train troops, upgrade and build new weapons, receive medals/awards.  Also choose members of Squad 7 (your squad); you can have up to 20 troops in your squad at any one time.

Skirmishes:
Side missions/battles that help you earn more experience outside of the story mode.  New skirmish levels unlocked as you play through the game.  Players can adjust the difficulty level in skirmish battles.
Note: Troops lost (killed) during skirmish battles are also lost from your squad in the story mode.

Personnel:
Information on the cast featured in the game.

Weaponry:
Information on weapons used during the game.

Glossary:
Other information on the game’s history, alliances etc… there in.

Decorations:
You can view any medals you have unlocked here.
You can earn medals as you progress through the game.  Princess Cordelia will award you with medals (in person) at the Audience Hall, found at your Headquarters.Â

Stats:
Shows your progress through the game.

Music:
Allows you to listen and see the music within the game.

Castlefront Street:
Not entirely sure. (I didn’t get a chance to look at this option properly).

War Cemetery:
Where your fallen comrades lie.Â
When members of your squad die during battle in story (and skirmish mode), they remain dead.

Troops and their classes:

Like all good party-based role playing games, Valkyria Chronicles has a decent selection of combat classes and characters to choose from.

Combat classes:

• Scouts:
  Highly mobile, collect intelligence.
  Pros: Good at spotting enemies in grass.
  Cons: Weak attack (better at spotting, not killing)
• Stormtrooper:
  Good all rounder at combat. Lacking in special skills but have no obvious downfalls.
  Pros: Good offensive and Defensive.
  Cons: No specialised techniques.
• Lancers and Anti-Tank:
  Heavyweight troops used for taking out bigger enemies and vehicles.
  Pros: Good at destroying tanks, well shielded from direct explosions.
  Cons: Slow, weak to gunfire and limited ammunition.
• Engineers:
  Handles supplies and combat support; restock ammunition, treat wounded, repair tanks on site, place sandbags for cover, disarm mines and repair towers.
  Pros: Support for both vehicles and troops.
  Cons: Weak combat skills.
• Snipers:
  Good long distance shots, help provide backup for frontline troops (like snipers in any other game).
  Pros: Good shooting skills; accurate and powerful shots.
  Cons: Low mobility and defence. If caught alone by an enemy, they are done for.

Characters:

One of the most surprising things (for me at least), about Valkyria Chronicles, is just how many characters there are for you to choose from to put into your squad.  I’m not sure on the final total, but I believe there are as many as 40-50 different characters to unlock and choose from in the final game.

As I mentioned before, you can choose up to 20 troops to place into your squad at any one time.  However, this doesn’t mean that you will have 20 troops in each battle.  The highest number of troops I had actually in battle was eight.  But during battle, you are able to send troops back to base, to heal up and call up replacements from the 20 that are in your main squad.

So I won’t bother to list all the cast in the game, (although we know that Vyse Inglebard and Aika Thompson, from Skies of Arcadia, are in the game), but I’ll go through some of their personality foibles.

The characters in the game don’t just differ in terms of their combat classes, but Sega has given them all very unique personality traits, which can affect their abilities in combat.

Some characters like or dislike other people in your squad, which obviously means that you want to try and pair them up with potential friends.

One of the most humorous character traits I saw was for Dallas Wyatt, a female engineer.  She hates men, but likes Alicia, Edy and Aika.  She’s a lesbian! (Hell yeah!)

Here are a few of the traits to expect from different characters:

• Desert Allergy (is weakened in dusty terrain)
• Fancies Women
• Men Hater
• Lone Wolf (doesn’t like other troops to be near him/her)
• Night Vision (good accuracy during night battles)
• Pollen Allergy (weakened by field/flowery terrain)
• Pessimist (loses faith if too many comrades die during battle)
• Aichnophobic (scared of pointed weapons - hates Lancers)
• Bad Back

That’s just a short list of what to expect, but you will get to see and try to arrange your troops accordingly, depending on what terrain the next battle takes place on and who else is in your squad.  Just to note, most of the character qualities listed above are negative, but there are plenty of positive ones, too.

It’s this attention to detail that makes me want this game even more than before.  Such loving creation of characters for a game - it deserves to be played!

Gameplay:

Hopefully, you will have read one of our previous hands-on impressions - and so should know how the game plays.  But I’ll give out anything we may not yet have covered on Sega Nerds.

There’s not really a huge amount of new information in the way the game plays, to be honest.  But you should know that’s not a bad thing.  Valkyria Chronicles plays very well, with easy controls, fun combat and great strategy play.

However, there are a few rather interesting things to point out, which I noticed on this more thorough play of the game.

The few levels I had played previously, on earlier (unfinished) versions of the game, all featured very similar objectives - basically involving wiping out any enemy troops.Â

However, this is not the case with the full game.  While some battles contain the same objectives, they do vary a fair amount.  Some levels involve defending strategic (for the plot) buildings, or they can be as simple as “Get to point X,” which means you can either go through the battle map, killing off all enemies, or you can try and avoid enemies and reach your goal.  It all depends on what’s happening at the time in the story.

Initially, it was made out that you had to move each player in turn before the end of the round, like with many SRPGs.  But that’s not the case with Valkyria.

You’re given a set amount of moves each round and you can, should you want to, use all the moves up with one character.  So, let’s say you prefer sniping - you can take a sniper and use him again and again, depending on his ammunition, which does run out - but can be restocked.

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Tanks are very handy at ploughing through levels with roadblocks.  They can run over and destroy low walls and sandbags, which leaves any enemies without cover.  However, the tanks cannot run over and kill any troops.  If a troop gets in the way of a tank, the troop, good or bad, will automatically dive out of the way.

It might seem a bit annoying that you don’t get to crush your enemies beneath your tracks, but if you could, the game would be a tad too easy, and also this way avoids any potential annoyance when an enemy vehicle tries to run one of your troops over.

One other very cool thing is how enemies move.  If you are in sight of an enemy they will normally move into a better defensive position, or run up and attack you.Â

However, if none of your characters can physically see the enemy troops, the enemy troops will still move around, but you will not know where they have moved.  They normally adopt more aggressive positions when they do this, where they can hide behind cover and take better aim.

If one of your troops loses all his/her health in combat, he/she will become incapacitated but won’t die immediately.  If you can get another troop to him/her, they will automatically call for a medic. Your fallen comrade will be removed from the map, taken back to HQ, and be available later.

However, if an enemy troop gets to your fallen troop before you can, your troop dies. Fallen troops can be replaced by going to a base during battle and calling for support.  The next turn you have, the extra troops will arrive to help you.  You can also send troops back to HQ from a base to allow them to heal up.

Other points of interest:

Multiple languages:
One good thing to note would be that players can select both Japanese and English voice tracks with or without subtitles from the main menu screen  - although once in-game, you cannot change the language settings (just save and go out).

Optional installation:
The game has an optional 3.3GB install option.  Note: The version I played was installed, and while the loading wasn’t bad by any means, it wasn’t very impressive either (so I’d hate to think what loading would be like when it’s not installed) as some battles take longer to load than others.

Bad news:
Like the Japanese version, the Western version lacks rumble support and also has no Trophy support.

Hopefully, this will have given you a good in-depth view at what to expect for the game, and I certainly hope more of you will be excited when it ships.  It’s a pretty unique game, and surprisingly deep, compared to some Strategy RPGs.

Stay tuned for our full review when the game ships in a couple of months.

~G~