Valkyria Chronicles™

I don't really write reviews; nor write in general, but this game is so good I had to at least say something.

Around 10ish years ago, another game I played called World of Tanks had a cross-over with Valkryia Chronicles. I was a little kid at the time and didn't know what it was nor did I really care all that much. Fast forward to today, I saw it on sale while looking for a new story game to play, I remembered about the cross-over with World of Tanks and thought I'd give it a shot.



I was so happy I did, first of; The artstyle in this game is absolutely amazing. I've actually never played a game with watercolor artstyle before and I can say for certain that it is one of the coolest looking aspects of this game.

The Story is not hard to start following along at all while still peaking your interest. The Characters are unbelievably charming. I instantly fell in love with the main cast and not to mention there's so many different characters you can actually choose to have on your team with each their own unique personality making you want to try even harder to make sure they survive :). The Villains are also well written that I feel its almost Impossible to dislike even one of them even though you are opposing them.

The gameplay is literally like nothing I've ever played before. I love strategy games but most of the ones I've played have just been top views nothing else. Going from a top view into a 3rd person shooter actually surprised me quite a bit when I first started playing since I literally did 0 research before hand. It makes the game feel all the more interactive being able to fully take control of every unit you have.

My only real complaint that I do have about this game is simply do to the fact that the game is old, The gameplay can feel a little bit clunky sometimes but that did not stop me from having one of my favorite story game experiences. Theres also a certain mission that I've seen multiple people mention in the reviews... yeeeaahhhh that one to. not fun. good luck.



Overall this game holds up greatly even today. While I got it on sale; not knowing how good this game is and how much fun I was going to have with it. I would have bought it at full price. :)

you can use the tanks as cover

While Valkyria Chronicles doesn't have the customization of Final Fantasy Tactics, it maks up for it in story. while it is very thinly disguised WW2 plot,the characters do make you feel like your in a war setting. A certain character's death is felt throught the story.

Great gameplay, even better story.

So. Many. Cutscenes...
The incredibly long and boring exposition, for a world I was not invested in in the slightest, followed up by 2 long cutscenes, a small tutorial, and 3 more cutscenes, all with boring, unlikable, and incredibly dumb characters making way too many anime noises did not help.

The game instantly crashed, when I went to my desktop to change my sound settings.
The saves are completely manual, this means if you crash in the middle of playing, you lose all your progress if you don't constantly manually save after each cutscene/gameplay section (I lost my progress twice and had to complete the first tutorial twice and the second one three times because of this).

Gameplay is alright, but has some little things I found annoying.
My characters kept vaulting over cover, when I didn't want them to, and not vaulting, when I finally did want them to. Since vaulting is automatic, you just have to deal with it.
Crouching is only available in dedicated areas. You can not improvise cover with a lot of things that seem like they could provide it, since you can't crouch behind them.
After certain in-battle cutscene your characters get moved into very weird positions (the cutscene starts immediately after you kill the enemy without even letting you finish your turn...), that made me outright lose one time and the other few times were very inconvenient.
Tutorials were popping up while I was being shot, eating my inputs, and making me get hit like 3 more times. Probably won't be an issue once you get out of the tutorial, but another very annoying thing to add to the many annoying things I got thrown at me when starting the game.
I had a couple more issues I wont mention, as they were either unfair on the game or just my fault. They did however contribute to me, eventually, running out of patience with this game.

I do realise I do not have a good view of the game, as I just played for one hour, but that one hour was frustrating enough for me to quit.
If you can handle the cutscenes. This game might actually be a pretty decent game with some rough edges.

+ Compelling story and lovely artstyle
+ Turn based action shooting go brrrr
+ Ragdolls are funny as heck

- Clunky to move sometimes, but great nonetheless

fantastic game

Steam Deck Review

Steam Deck Performance: No issues save for rare instances of slow downs
Portable Gaming: Allows saving anytime (Multiple save slots recommended for long missions)
Length: Main story be finished under 50 hours, extra hours depends on the player using the extra units, playing the skirmish maps, optional fanservice chapters called Reports, and optional money/EXP grinding

Game Review:
I bought the game at some point during the weeks I was replaying the Violet Evergarden and Fullmetal Alchemist series, as well as a select few Ghibli movies. Coupled with my sudden need to play tactics games, Valkyria Chronicles seemed like the perfect title to experience during that haze of being immersed in anime fantasy war media.

If there's one thing I need to stress out that made this an amazing game from start to finish, it's the effort put towards level design. It's a tactics game with a lot of heart from a mechanical standpoint and the story and presentation are just the icing and cherry on top that makes this extremely memorable. Basically, there’s so much variety to the missions that the game goes the extra mile to prevent tedium or boredom without being too mechanically intrusive.

First impressions were fairly alright and if I'm going to be honest, I thought the whole game would be chock full of your usual anime stereotypes (which is half-true). The main character, Welkin Gunther, is a boyscout type with fair intentions; in other words, a safe MC. You're also introduced to the brave but feisty love interest Alicia and your non blood related half sister, Isara, early on. But much like the clunky cover controls, first impressions are deceiving. There's actual depth to a lot of the things you're introduced to and the game is well paced enough to let you feel the effects that war has on the main characters and the world that's being ruined by it.

Of course being an anime game, a lot of the horrors of war told by the story are restrained from a visual standpoint. War crimes are still war crimes during certain parts of the campaign, but along the way you're also constantly reminded that you're still playing an anime game that leans towards extreme hope and idealism. This isn't a critique of the tone, but a caution for folks who are fresh off depressing and/or grimdark war media who would probably be weirded out by it.

I won't spoil the whole story, but I'll tell you this much: it is a wild but heartwarming ride. There's depth when I expected little, and there's intrigue where I thought would be trivial. Perhaps the best part about this is there's plenty of side content to get into. One of the things that suprised me the most was how the extra units are given backstories, unique voice dialogue, and amusing traits. Where else can you find a war game that lets you control units with racism and sexism debuffs? They all serve to make the game (or specifically your side of the war) lively, which means if you've already fallen for the setting 10 hours in, you're in for a lot more content that'll probably persuade you to consider playing the fourth Valkyria Chronicle game, which also takes place in the same timeline and setting.

Overall, Valkyria Chronicles is a game I thought would be a nice little twenty hour campaign. I ended up enjoying over 50 hours of it and I plan on coming back soon for a NG+ run. It’s just that good!

Ignore cry babies in review, this game is a gem, especially for how old it is. The story is quite easy if you know what to do and where to position your units.

YEET!

I think VC 1 is a pretty damn good game. It's art style is lovely, it's plot has some very emotional moments and is simple enough for the average JRPG player but also layered enough for more deeper RPG players too, and it's strategic battle can be a lot of fun. There's no doubt that the battle system is quite unique and works well too. There's a lot to like here.

But, it can miss a bit too. Firstly, there are battles which just aren't that well thought out, some of which require you to meet specific conditions to win, but which sometimes aren't all that clear, so can drag on. Secondly, it's a very easy game with no Harder settings to start with, always a downer in games.

But the real problem I had was with the fact that this PC port is sloppy in certain areas, specifically the tank controls. The tank controls horridly here, and my advice is to drop the mouse all together, and use the numerical keys in conjunction with the WASD ones to control them.

Gripes aside, VC1 is still a fun game worth playing for strategy JRPG lovers. But I'll definitely be playing my PS4 version ahead of this next time I play.

Listen I can understand the appeal of the game however how did this get a sequel the combat is terrible i fully get it "dont be like x-com" yet this is a giant mix mash of half ideas that completely fall on their face the only good is the squade members being actual people in the world. Its not even buggy or hard just frustrating and awful most kills are just the guys walking into my firing line how is that fun even the cover system isnt there they stick out their heads getting hit, bullets do nothing to anything but scouts Shocktroops cant walk five feet, Lancers cant even blow up one scout! The tanks hit rat is a 50/50 you even made 70% of the good looking chicks be Scout. The begining is awful a 3v3 battle even the starting with the other classes the tank is being played half of the time and taking most of the kills so you cant figure out anything or how to us them! Did you guys let the smut artist control eveything including gameplay cause if so let the series die off!

The game has large visual novel-like cutscene "chapters".
And it really should have stuck to that format for the rest of it. The gameplay sections' design is bizarre.

I would only recommend (whatever this is) to those who want to experience a weird hybrid of a turn-based something, and a clunky as hell third-person shooter.

Fire Emblem and Sniper Elite had a glorious incestuous baby and i love it!

only play if one is a masochist

A masterpiece in its own genre, the turn JRPG genre. The story is solid, the mechanics are good, the units were interesting with some counter play involved, and so was the soundtrack.

kinda like anime turn based tactical game

A excellent RPG

Good game, bad port.

Get it on Switch or Playstation if you can, if not then save frequently and be prepared for crashes and some minor graphic glitches.

Aged poorly, and kb+m controls are absolutely atrocious... though incredibly photogenic, the gameplay process is incredibly unbalanced, and force-feeding the unskippable story by FMVs is painful.

Lots of bugs, crashes and could have been so much more.

A great game, the series comes the closest to feeling like Fire Emblem without actually being it. It's aged very well and the port is decent. Story is basic but charming, and gameplay is very fun. Its basically an easier version of XCOM mixed in with some Fire Emblem. Some notes about the port:

- SAVE OFTEN: I had one crash that happened twice right after the first mission, the first time it happened I didn't save and lost 30 mins progress. The second time I saved and it was fine. Have not had issues since but just make sure you save after every mission as there are no auto saves.
- This is a port, not a remaster. cutscenes are stuck at 1920 x 1080, and some textures look bad, especially at higher resolution but its fine as long as you go in knowing that.

In terms of QOL Mods there aren't many, just one that will skip the intro and load the game faster. There are some rebalance and graphics mods but they don't seem worth it.

no autosave, when my game crashed suddenly, when I relaunched i am still on the prologue, lost almost 8-10 hours of progress. 1 out of 10. will not replay to completion due to loss of progress.

fun

I love Valkyria Chronicles series, because I grew up with it. I love the stories and unique combat system. Of course it's too much grinding for EXP and DCT. If I got money and discount, I'll buy the fourth game. It is deeply regretted because second and third game is PSP exclusive. If SEGA had plan, please release the second and third game to Steam. I'll love it to wishlist it and buy it for my childhood memories and nostalgia.

Whilst the difficulty can be very up and down, and class balance is very uneven at times
Valkyria Chronicles still means a lot to me as one of my first gateways into RPG's with a captivating story and memorable characters that bring me back to playing this game years later

This game is amazing

Strange game this like, 3rd person XCOM, real time reaction fire from your own troops and enemies gives a more immersive feel. Tactics are varied but sadly the game seem to awards you more for bumrushing than taking a more clinical approach. Still you can play it however you feel and story is compelling enough to keep it moving, and being moving in places too.

All of this underscored with a beautiful soundtrack and aesthetic it's worth giving a try. I strongly recommend bashing your head against a wall first time through and finding ways to a rank and seeing what secrets (Enemy Aces and hidden recruits) you can uncover then using what you learned to smash it on new game plus.

Only real problems I can think of are a few missions where ambushes are lobbed on you via trigger points you had no way of knowing existed. Some of the mechanics in a couple missions are poorly/timed obscurely too. But this only happens a couple of times throughout and you can generally save yourself from any of these situations.

what a fever dream

What should be a fun X-com type game is sadly just a puzzle solver, with almost each battle having a '1 turn solution' to get an A rank. Yes, one single turn, rush into the base with a fast scout unit and win the battle, and the devs actually REWARD this stupid gamey play by giving you extra exp and income boosts for turn 1 clearances.

So, with that said, ignore all those abilities, all the other classes, all those cool perks each character has, its all meaningless, you will literally never have to actually defend anything, if you give the enemy just one turn, your already losing, might as well reload the mission and try again.

anime world war 2 but only the western front, don't worry about what happened back east

The content of the game is actually really good, but the game crashes when I switch from ‘headquartes’ to ‘book mode’.
Which causes progress to be lost as the game has no form of auto-save.
This wouldn't actually be a big problem, or so I thought.
However, I'm not the only one who has this problem with the game
and in fact this problem seems to have existed for years.
It's a real shame, but I don't want to support a product that requires the player to solve problems that should actually be solved by the developers.

i enjoy

A fun and different take on the turn-based combat genre; a great story, likeable characters, and a variety of strategies and unit types make it challenging but not punishingly hard. A lot of fun for those who like advance wars or fire emblem.

Its a good game even with the end of the plot gets so dumb and the ranking too tight for the player, better just play the 4 game if you only have time for one of the two in steam.

Alicia 100/10

A great game to sink hours of tactical thinking into. Graphics are beautiful, sound is amazing, and the wide variety of recruits means you can build the squad you want to lead into battle.

it good

I love this game. The characters in this game have so much personality and you really care about them.

The story is pretty good en cute, but also has a lot of dark moments in it.

The soundtracks are a 10/10 and the main theme is personally my favorite.

The gameplay is great and perfectly balanced in my opinion.

VERY GOOD GAME, JANE OP.
wish the missions were better designed tho. Lot of the missions require constant save scumming just cause they are not explained properly.

One of my all time favorite games. Excellent combination of strategy and action game play and a pretty great story with good character development. Played it quite a bit on PS3 and had to get it for PC when it got ported.

Good memories, very underrated franchise.

The best one in the series and way ahead of its time.

Highly recommended strategy RPG. Its gameplay is really unique and creative. I haven't found something similar anywhere. The upgrade system is super satisfying. Choosing what troops you'll dispatch based on their relationships, attributes, class, and skills is brain scratching but good! All the thinking is kind of reserved for the first two-thirds of the experience, though. Once you understand the systems well enough, you'll breeze through most maps with an "A" grade. (That's a positive for me.) It's rewarding to easily crush the enemy you had a hard time dealing with before. It's a shame the third game is not fully fan translated yet. Hoping Valkyria Chronicles 2 and 3 find their way to PC, as they are stuck on the PSP.

Still an amazing game despite being out for years.

Awesome but...

1. Cool battle system, you need to experiment with the level and character perks to pass the level, but the actions you do takes so many time so you dont want to practice at all and just watching walkthrough to speedrun the level.
2. The ending is dumb ( why da hell Faldio is suicide at the end, whenever team can just shoot him? Just to sacrifice what he did? L
3. How da hell they both jumped on the full speed plane????????????

Going off the in-game map, Gallia is roughly an equivalent of Estonia in our world. Unfortunately, this means that our loving cast of ragtag rebels are in fact Estonian beet and onion slop farmers who are resisting the USSR elevating them to sapience.

Gameplay's fantastic, I'd recommend this game to anyone who likes the genre. But you making people think Estonians are good people is a crime.

Culturally Marxist themes

Good story and characters but the port could be done alot better. Got turned off after 10 mins of having to fight the controls to move the tank from one position to the next. On the other hand the world design and style is second to none, learned alot of design elements from this game.

If you have a playstation, play it on that instead or try VC4 (hopefully the controls are better there)

VERY GOOD THIS IS ONE OF THE BETTER VALKYRIA GAMES 2 BEST