Review- “Valkyria Chronicles”

Grade: A-

Sega’s “Valkyria Chronicles” turns all of the age-old conventions of the Tactical-RPG genre on their ears. Fortunately for Sega, mixing things up produced the single most important TRPG since 1998’s “Final Fantasy Tactics.”

Instead of confining combat to a grid, “VC” displays the battlefield with a hand-drawn map and markers to designate each unit. Instead of directing a unit to move from one point to another, the game switches to a third-person action mode to move the character in real time and then a first-person mode when taking aim for attacks.

On a graphical standpoint, “VC” abandons the realistic approach taken by most current-generation games in favor of a beautiful hand-drawn-looking style. This style makes in-game cut scenes look like they were taken directly from an anime series.

Like any memorable RPG, “VC” does not skimp on the story. The game takes place in a fictional version of Europe going through a war parallel to World War II. The writers are very sensitive of any issues between the European countries and redraw the borders to create two different sides similar to the axis and allies.

Additionally, the game tackles issues with racism related to WWII. Instead of singling out any particular group, the games lore centers around a persecuted group called the “Darcsens” that represent all persecuted groups of people.

Some of the game’s characters are blatantly racist toward each other—some change through the course of the story, some don’t. However, the story carefully examines the futility of racist thought—even going as far as to make racist characters less effective in combat when around a character of the cultural background they despise.

As an added bonus, “VC’s” soundtrack, composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto, who also composed several “Final Fantasy” soundtracks, is one of the best original game soundtracks of the decade. The music is very fitting to the nature of the game, like a good movie score.

However, the game does have a few downsides.

There are a few instances where the player can immediately lose a battle by unintentionally tripping a land mine that is in clear view. Many issues with accidental death can be resolved by saving between turns. The player, however, will often resort to starting the battle over again in favor of loading a save from a previous turn.

The pre-battle map does not show the locations of enemy units which are immediately shown to the player upon entering combat. It gets frustrating to have to sit through loading screens after filling your unit with several anti-tank units, only to discover the enemy has no tanks at all on the first turn.

In the end, the game’s take on combat makes the grid-based combat of older games feel juvenile, making “Valkyria Chronicles” one of the best PlayStation 3 games of 2008.