Valkirya Chronicles

This game gave me split personality disorder. I don't think I have ever experienced such divergent feelings about the same game at the same time that I know won't resolve anytime soon. There will just forever be parts of this game that I will always fucking hate and parts of this game I will love and I don't think that will ever change.

Valkyria Chronicles is a turn based strategic combat simulator like Shadowrun and XCOM, but unlick those games its pretty old game, it actually was a PS3 exclusive when it came out in 2008. But it finally made its appearance on the PC in late 2014, which is when I finally played it on Steam. The game was entirely developed and published by Sega and there have actually been two sequels for it, both of which on the PSP and one of which is only available in Japanese. You can interpret that anyway you want, but I take it to means that this on is most likely the only one worth playing. 

I'm going to start with the aspect of the game that I hated the most. The narrative, otherwise known as one of the primary reasons people even play games that come out of Japan. To keep it short, I hated the story. To keep it long, I haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaated the story.

Jokes aside though, there are a couple of reasons I didn't like the story in the game. The first is historic, in that Japan(Rape of Nanking, Unit 731, Attempts to wipe Koreans from the face of the earth, etc.), unlike Germany, got away from the burden of the atrocities that committed during WWII due to being hit with two nuclear weapons and as a result can now make games that mimic the war despite the massive level of irony of something like this happening. Just one example would be that the game starts in the year 1935, a few years before the official start of WWII in 1939 and two years before the start of the Japanese-Chinese war in 1937. Another would be that some of the tanks of the "evil" empire in the game are modeled after the German Jadgpanzers. All of this might be a reaction exclusive to me given my large interest and experience in the field of history. But, I mean I wouldn't even want to imagine how a WWII game from Germany would even be received. The second major reason this game bothered me, might be more due to my taste, but I don't really feel that the cutesy/slightly sexual/slightly funny and serious anime tropes that game used to convey the story can be taken seriously even though it clearly wants to be. The world of Valkyria Chronicles has an oppressed minority called the Darcens who are oppressed due to their hair color and there are numerous scenes of racism, internment in concentration camps and even extermination efforts however, it was not given the respect the writers might have tried to convey since a few seconds after it you would get a scene of traditional anime angst or kawaii behavior. The game also touched on a number of other topics that relate to modern warfare, such as humanizing the enemy, the fact there are good and bad people on both sides, the brutality of conflict but it all just doesn't hit home very hard because of they anime themes and tropes. If I was going to summarize the story and its themes in one sentence it would definitely be "Baby's first attempt to deal with the horrors of war." which is something I found infuriating and difficult to take seriously given that we all know which side of  WWII Japan was on.

Given that I hated that game's story so much, I am sure you might be wondering how I even managed to power through the game. But, once you get a look at the actual mechanics involved that isn't much of mystery given that the game is one of the best designed strategy turned based combat games ever created.

I can honestly safe, without a shadow of a doubt that Valkyria Chronicles is the most brutal turn based combat games ever made. Its harder than XCOM: Enemy Unknown, its harder than Shadowrun, its harder than Fire Emblem and its harder Advance Wars and it is definitely way more frustrating than all of these games. I really enjoy this specific genre and I've played all of games I mentioned above over the years and I was always told to look out for them being "hard and brutal" and I won't say they were not challenging and fun, but in XCOM for example despite playing on the hardest difficultly I only lost one soldier in the last mission to compare I lost at least four or five soldiers in Valkyria Chronicles. Simply losing a level in Valkyria Chronicles also feels like a massive blow to the face compared to the other games I mentioned. Its definitely one of the games that has caused me to rage massively at myself and the game and just start walking around the house swearing at everything and anything. It was all worth it for me though, because each victory, each killed enemy, each step forward just felt so rewarding because the game was so challenging.

The reason the game was so challenging yet rewarding wasn't to do with some esoteric mumbo jumbo. It was due to the robust combat system in place in the game. Despite the game having come out in 2008, its BLITZ combat system is still unique and more advanced than the combat systems in current games. The big point of difference is that in Valkyria Chronicles you units are moving along a fluid battlefield and not on a map divided into squares giving fights a very natural feel, additionally, your units and enemy units will automatically fire on each other during opposing turns if they stray into each others firing range as well as retaliate to a direct attack if they survive giving the combat a very natural feel and is a large part I favored the system here over newer games like XCOM. Everything else is fairly standard to the genre of tactical combat games, there are various units types (Scout, Shocktrooper, Lancer, Sniper and Engineer) as well as a few tank types that the AI and player have at their disposal. Each of these unit types of course has a set weakness and strength and they all fit together in this complex version of rock paper scissors with the actual context of the battle and map itself throwing in a monkey wrench on occasion to add an additional if temporary element of strategy for a particular situation.

On a more meta level, there is a leveling system, role playing and orders element that add a bit more depth to the strategy. The leveling system is fairly simple with its only major impact being that it can potentially unlock additional weapons for some of the classes which significantly change the way you can use them in combat (grenade launchers, flamethrowers, etc) aside from obviously just making your units flat out stronger with more health and so on. The role playing elements come in the form that all your units have distinct names, personalities, dialogue, and most important combat traits (i.e. the only part that has an impact on performance in battle). These combat traits can then be managed strategically in order to the get the most out of your soldiers and by manage I don't mean activated as some of these traits and you will spent an equal amount of time trying to deal with both the negative and positive ones for each of your soldiers. Finally, the orders element given to the commander can allow you to circumvent, enhance and attack a number of things on the battlefield without having to put your units in direct threat, however, as these order use the same command points used to give direct orders to the units you will need to find a balance of when and when not to use these orders. As whole it is these elements as well as those in the two above paragraphs that make this game the best turn based strategic combat game that I have ever played.

I don't know if I should warn people about or recommend that people play Valkyria Chronicles. I have a very split opinion about the game where I absolutely hate its insipid and shallow story so full of anime themes and tropes that I can't help but feel like I was being transformed into an otaku playing this game. But, the combat system is so robust, strategic and rewarding you really won't find anything superior to it in even modern games. The only real competitor it has is the XCOM series and even that series has a slightly easier and more traditional combat system than the one in Valkyria Chronicles in my opinion. All I can say is that being a fan of strategic turn based combat games I was able to weather through the shit storm that was the narrative in this game in order to really enjoy what was a fantastic and rewarding game that still out classes modern games in respect to gameplay mechanics despite having come out over seven years ago.