Valkyria Chronicles™

[h2]Story[/h2] I would summarize the story as Anime WWII in alternate Europe. It's rather fun/entertaining, although it's only somewhat good. Only few members of Squad 7 are shown in the story, which prevents you from getting overwhelmed and helps character growth. On the other hand, it has some common tropes found in JRPG/Anime which makes it predictable. On the technical side, it uses a combination of 3D pre-rendered cutscenes and pseudo VN as the storytelling approach. You can choose between English and Japanese VA. The Japanese ones have good casting, although I notice there are few discrepancies between Japanese VA and English subtitles which may annoy you. [h2]Gameplay[/h2] [b]TLDR:[/b] Fun gameplay with unique mechanics, but held back by some issues. I really like the gameplay, it combines turn-based and pseudo real-time mechanics. There are various ways to finish the operation, although the game encourages you to finish it quickly by giving lots of EXP (to upgrade unit squad/classes) and DCT (to upgrade weapon, armor and tank). Overall I would say the gameplay is decent. However, few mechanics don't feel intuitive while few operations simply have terrible design. For example, [spoiler] Diverting the Marmota [/spoiler] has very confusing mechanics where I believe you need several retries while [spoiler] Final Showdown has an HP sponge boss who can "respawn" 3 towers on each turn which makes him  invulnerable [/spoiler]. Some unit squads/classes also feel unbalanced. Just like other players, I also heavily rely on Scout to kill majority of enemies and fulfill some of operation's goals. Lancers also feels very tanky, especially against explosive-type damage. I almost never use Engineer either. The difficulty of combat operations in the main story is heavily varied. My result varied from getting A-rank in one try to having to use a guide after failed a few times. I didn't perform any grinding though, which means you don't have to do it either if you're good at strategy games or use a guide. This game also lacks some quality-of-life features. There's no auto-save feature or at least reminders to make a manual save. More importantly, there's no 2x/4x/8x fast-forward during enemy turn on the combat operation. That means you'll be forced to see many enemy moves and transition animations which could take few minutes on each enemy turn. It's even more annoying since the game will pause if you Alt-Tab or have had to restart the combat. [h2]Side story[/h2] There are 2 side stories, which can be accessed by choosing "Extra" on the main menu. Both of them are very short, where you should see them after finishing the main story. Each of them also has exactly one combat operation. I find both of them are harder than combat operations in the main story, where I had to use guides. [h2]Other[/h2] This game runs well on my Linux device, without any manual tweaking or configuration. Other reviewers mentioned crash issue, although it never happened to me. [hr][/hr] If you're a fan of tactical RPG games, you probably will like this game if you don't mind some flaws. However if you happen to own PS4 or PS5, you should know there's a remastered version exclusive for PS4. You may want to do some research to see which version is better for you.

One of the best games I played while in college. At the time I was studying to be a biologist and I had just gotten out of the army. It has some of the most engaging story for a tactical game that I have ever played. I absolutely love it!

this is the best turn based strategy war game of its kind, the whole series is great.

[h1]TIRO, PORRADA E BOMBA NUMA EUROPA VERSÃO ANIME[/h1] Um jogo de estratégia onde a frustração anda de mãos dadas com a dúvida: será que você é incompetente ou o jogo simplesmente é cagado? Maaas, quando tudo se encaixa e a estratégia dá certo, a satisfação é imensa. A história começa bem, mas perde força conforme avança, com lacunas temporais e momentos confusos que te fazem apenas aceitar e seguir em frente. Além disso, eventos importantes acontecem de forma abrupta ou desajeitada. Talvez tenha um desenvolvimento melhor na adaptação em anime do jogo. Pelo menos não é abobalhado, então não vão achando que só por ter esse estilo de arte, vai ser como qualquer jogo genérico que é lançado na Steam. Vão de mente aberta e vão se surpreender. Nas mecânicas, a experiência oscila entre extrema frustração e a oportunidade de explorar falhas do jogo a seu favor. O ritmo é imprevisível: algumas batalhas podem levar uma hora, enquanto outras são resolvidas em minutos. E isso é completamente possível. Prepare-se para lidar com inconsistências, como causar menos dano que o inimigo mesmo nas mesmas condições. Você morrerá de formas absurdas, golpes improváveis acertarão quando não deveriam, e, quando for sua vez de finalizar um inimigo, ele sobreviverá com 3 de vida só para acabar com você logo em seguida. No fim, é um jogo que vale muito a pena. Oferece uma quantidade generosa de conteúdo por um preço extremamente acessível. [h2]Notas Finais[/h2] [b]História:[/b] 7 — Super empolgante, mas o desenrolar deixa a desejar em alguns aspectos [b]Arte:[/b] 7 — Bonito, bem feito, mas deixa lacunas para aproveitar brechas de má level design [b]Som:[/b] 7 — Bom, mas nada marcante [b]Personagens:[/b] 8 — No geral são muito bons, mas algumas motivações e consequências são ilógicos [b]Diversão:[/b] 9 — Aqui vai ser extremamente polêmico. Alguém pode achar um lixo, outros bom, e alguns podem achar equilibrado [b]Geral:[/b] 7.6 — Vale muito a pena. Pelo preço na promoção é só pegar e aproveitar

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.

I have a good time with it even if I'm not into the gameplay too much and the story is just ok, but the squad 7th journey is good enough to keep me going. B+

only play if one is a masochist