Valkyria Chronicles

Valkyria Chronicles, which was made by SEGA and published in 2008, is a game that combines strategy games, RPGs, and third person shooters masterfully. It is a game with a rich story to tell, and a refreshing art style to match.

Enjoying the art

This game’s art style is decidedly anime— but with a pleasant blend of Japanese watercolor. This creates beautiful art, and makes the game fun to look at. The character design especially is well fleshed-out and engaging. Unraveling the story

As an RPG, Valkyria Chronicles cares about telling a story, so that’s what it’s going to do. The game tells the story of a fictional war in an alternate 1930s Europe, and follows the main character Welkin Gunther as he commands troops to take back his homeland.

The game’s entire story is told through a fictional book called “On the Gallian Front”. This makes the gameplay more immersive, as it seems like you’re living out the events of the book in real-time. Additionally, this book also has nearly all of the information you could want to know about the world, the people in it, and the war. The world is very well thought out, so it’s a great game if you like getting sucked into a story.

Commanding your troops

After opening cutscenes and the like, most missions start out by giving you an objective, and then allowing you to figure out how to command your troops to meet that objective. But you don’t just watch it all from the sidelines— you join in the combat yourself, which is where the third person shooter element comes in.

Most games are either a strategy RPG or a third person shooter, not both. But with Valkyria Chronicles, you can easily do both, and get the benefits of both types of gameplay. It offers unique challenges, but also unique ways to get past those challenges. Its gameplay elements are somewhat similar to the game Code Name: S.T.E.A.M., although due to its uniqueness, the similarities aren’t many.

Pros:

• Beautiful blend of anime and watercolor art styles
• Incredibly rich story and history
• Blend of multiple types of gameplay to get a unique experience

Cons:

• Although character design may be great, the environments can be lacking
• As it is an older game, it doesn’t always match up to today’s technical standards