Valkyria Chronicles

#100 Valkyria Chronicles

 

Game Info

Publisher: Sega

Developer: Sega

Platform:  PS3

Genre(s): Action, Role-Playing Game

Players: 1

ESRB Rating: T (Teen)

Release Date: November 4, 2008

Intro:

The intro is shown with music only.  There are no words, no story, just a montage of storybook-style pictures.  It was easy to catch a glimpse of a love story to come and to realize that this would be a war game, but neither the graphics nor the music necessarily draw the player into the game.

Getting Going:

The game is a series of cut scenes interspersed with a few strategic game areas.  The first thing noted in playing is that the series of cut scenes effectively keep the player from playing for 15 minutes prior to really starting to play.  There were some nice backstory introductions in the scenes, but little else to whet the appetite.  In fact, if you're waiting to play, it might even be seen as annoying.

Fun:

The game seems to be a good strategy game.  While it falls into the Action and Role-playing genres, it is more about strategic moves than action.  And, since the story is told to the player in a series of cut scenes instead of through play, it fails to create fun.

Visuals:

The story is told from a book, so the graphics effectively mimic the storybook-style.  The maps give a good sense of era.  Although the game doesn't directly state that it is WWII, referring instead to EWWII, many of the graphics are reminiscent of it.  The game does state, however, that it is set in the 1930's.  The small-town feel of the game and peasant uprising are effectively conveyed in the story and visuals.

Sound:

There is voice-acting for nearly every character and every scene in the game.  Even tutorials are voice-acted and instructed.  The tutorials are created as directions from other party members, which is a nice touch.  The sound effects are well-done. The game never comes across as jarring or too noisy, although it doesn't have a tremendous dynamic range either.

Intelligence:

There was a point in the game in which a tank simply appears.  Not out of thin air, mind you, but unexpectedly.  The enemies fall back when necessary.  They are very aware of player presence.  This game does create a real sense of strategy and enemy awareness.

Immersion:

It's difficult to feel immersed in a game that doesn't let you play.  Play may become a much bigger aspect later in the "book", but the game fails to immediately draw in the player to try to get that far because it fails to allow play.  There are two types of cut scenes:  the scenes a player merely sits through and watches and the scenes the player must click through.  In either case, the player isn't really playing.  There were up to four or five cut scenes between play taking 5-15 minutes to sit through.

Cameras:

There doesn't seem to be any real camera angles in play.  It was hard sometimes to know which way to go since looking around wasn't a real option.  On the other hand, the visuals and mapping do a fairly good job of letting the player know what's there for cover and what's in their immediate surroundings prior to moving.

Ideas:

The storybook was a nice idea.  If the game could be told in paragraphs or segments through play instead of cut scenes, it may have made a bigger impression.  A strategy RPG is an excellent and innovative idea, however.  The execution fails in the fact that it's more RPG (story) than action (strategy).

Memory:

The high point of this game is the artwork itself.  The art style is detailed, innovative, and clever.