Valkyria Chronicles

Valkyria Chronicles is a turn-based strategy RPG from Sega for the Playstation 3. Featuring a unique blend of strategy and 3D action control, Valkyria Chronicles easily stands out from other games in the genre. As a fantasy take on World War II, Valkyria Chronicles follows the story of Welkin Gunther, a university science student who ends up commanding Squad 7 of the Gallian militia after his neutral country has been invaded by the Empire.

What I liked...
-Simple but deep strategy gameplay. Valkyria Chronicles initially looks a lot like Fire Emblem, but it really does its own thing. The most striking similarity to Fire Emblem is the Player Phase/Enemy Phase setup. Unlike Fire Emblem, you have a certain number of CP (command points) to use per turn. This means you can use CP to move a single unit multiple times, rather than one move per unit. However, some weapons have limited ammo and a unit's movement range is dramatically reduced each time they are moved during a single phase. Aside from tanks, there are 5 basic unit classes: scouts, shocktroopers, lancers, engineers, and snipers. They each serve a variety of purposes, and are all quite valuable. Individual units do not level up, but entire classes level up instead. Enemies also have a few other units, such as stationary gunnery, bunkers, and special tanks. This setup makes the game very easy to learn, but thanks to varied level and mission design, the whole game stays fresh and challenging.
-It's a SRPG with an action twist. When you pick a unit from the map view, the camera zooms down to ground level, and you move the unit just as you would in a third-person action game. Each unit has a set amount of ground they can cover, represented by a meter that reduces with every step taken. Scouts can cover a ton of ground, and snipers can't move very far at all. One of the most interesting things to keep in mind while planning a move is the location of enemies and where you want to position yourself when you are through moving. This is because scouts, shocktroopers, engineers, and tanks will fire at oncoming units if they enter their range, meaning a scout can't just charge through enemy lines and expect to make it to the other side. The same units can also counter-attack. When moving into aiming mode, enemies cannot shoot you, and you can take all the time you want to aim. Unlike Fire Emblem, which gives you a % chance of a successful hit, a shot in Valkyria Chronicles will land somewhere within the weapon's round aiming reticule. Also, due to the real 3D environments (instead of the "representative" environments in other SPRGs), every level plays by fog-of-war rules. If an enemy is not within an ally's line of sight (behind a hill, for example), then they are not visible on the map. Elements like these allow the 3D action elements to add a lot to the SRPG design.
-Cel-shading used to give the graphics a pencil sketch appearance. I love it when games use cel-shading for a very specific appearance rather than just simply "cartoon." The visuals are not necessarily impressive on a technical level, but Sega clearly put a lot of work into making the style possible.

What's alright...
-Potentials. These are kinda like abilities from any other game, except they may activate or they may not. They probably won't. Potentials are innate to each character or unit class, and are usually positive, but sometimes negative. Certain types of environments, for example, may slightly boost or decrease a particular unit's stats. Since you can't rely on these abilities (and their effect is often so minimal even if they do activate), they are really a surperflous element. They don't exactly hurt the game, but they also make me wish I could have reliable awesome abilities that were always active, as in some of the Fire Emblem games.
-Story, voices, and story presentation. Odd as it may sound, I would prefer the unvoiced character art story scenes found in Fire Emblem, even if Sega tried to step it up in Valkyria Chronicles. The voice delivery is generally soft, slow, and flat. Most story developments are presented with a background, with barely-animated character faces appearing within boxed frames. Obviously, this method kept the budget down, but it's not very engaging, especially with the yawn-inducing voice acting. Some story scenes are fully animated with the in-game engine, but most of them aren't particularly impressive. What IS impressive, however, are the rendered cinematics, which retain the pencil sketch style. As opposed to the scenes I just described, these are certainly some of the best scenes I've seen in an RPG in recent times. The story itself took a long time for me to become interested, and at first, I didn't really care about any of the characters. However, the story does become much better as the game progresses, and I did come to care about the characters, if only out of familiarity.
-Pretty good soundtrack. But seeing as how it's from Hitoshi Sakimoto, I was hoping for something a bit more. He's the guy behind Final Fantasy XII, all of the Final Fantasy Tactics games, and Odin Sphere. His style is very distinctive, and it's unmistakable in Valkyria Chronicles. Unfortunately, while the soundtrack is fitting and serviceable, it's not nearly as memorable as his earlier work.

What I didn't like so much...
-Slow start. The first several chapters in the game aren't very interesting. Once you have more control over deployment and engage in longer, larger-scale battles, Valkyria Chronicles suddenly switches over to being all fun, all awesome, all the time. But the first 4 or 5 hours sure are boring. At least they do a good job of conveying how to play the game during this time. Stick with it if you're starting out. It's very much worth it.
-Lack of terrain information on the overhead map. When switching between 3D action and the overhead map, the camera does a slick zoom-out to the map, where you can select your next unit. Unfortunately, during the process of zooming out, everything becomes very desaturated and low-contrast, making it difficult to discern terrain features. This can sometimes make it difficult to plan moves unless you already know what the view at ground level looks like. Cel-shaded outlines remain on the map view, so buildings, trees, and walls are usually very visible, but until you've seen the ground view for yourself, it's difficult to imagine what will happen.
-Occasional conflicts between SRPG and action gameplay. Valkyria Chronicles is undeniably an experimental game. It's definitely one of those "what if" designs that anyone could dream up... blending SRPG and 3D action. Thankfully, Sega has done a brilliant job of executing this, but it's not totally perfect. For example, when you hit R1 to enter the aiming view, if a nearby enemy has begun shooting you, then they may still hit you a few times as you switch to aiming mode. Also, I often found myself tapping the circle button while shooting so that I could immediately end the character's turn and ensure that they aren't shot at anymore. Mostly, the idea of having enemies shoot at oncoming units works, but this is where strategy conflicts a bit with action. The 3D action mode is not as robust as it would be in a proper action game, but it works well in this context. In the long run, these are minor quibbles, but worth noting.

I gave Valkyria Chronicles a 4/4 on my Backloggery for "excellent." It's far from a perfect game, but it's also among the most fun games I've played recently. The gameplay was very smartly designed and executed. The few flaws are far outweighed by the sheer level of fun. Sega has put together a brilliant and unique game that they should be very proud of. I absolutely recommend Valkyria Chronicles to everyone who enjoys strategy RPGs.