Valkyria Chronicles

[Solivagant]

I finally bought Valkyria Chronicles after waiting out on it for a bunch of time. It was mentioned around here when it shipped, how come there hasn't been any follow up discussion?

It's a PS3 exclusive so that thins out the number of codexers that might be playing it, but still... The SEGA team responsible for it has basically created the best looking Turn Based squad game ever.

It's great how they managed to make a turn based game in 3d without any kind of grids, and making the action feel fluid. It could have been a real-time crap game! Or they could have went the usual JRPG strat game with over the top view and restricting gridlines. That's what puts me off JRPG strategy games, even recent ones on the DS like Luminous Arc. It's just a bunch of characters on bumpy (read: square blocks) terrain!

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

What's wrong with grids? It's nice to know exactly how far you are from something and how far your attacks reach. Especially hex grids are awesome.

 

[obediah]

Since this is the only PS3 game I'm interested in, the economics don't work out real well.

 

[denizsi]

Don't maim grid based movement just because the JapAss get it wrong. Combat encounters in their games are absolute shit. They're only going with turn-based combat because they would likely be risking alienating their market base, which is only interested in the sirius bizinness teen drama they produce and with high quality cinematic CGIs, with burden of twitchy combat.

Valkyria Chronicles does indeed seem to be a damn good exception.

 

[Solivagant]

I don't hate grid, like denizsi said, I just hate the usual Japanese developer implementation. It chops the world into square blocks and elevation is made to look like some kind of brick construction. And I don't feel any real strategy vibe coming from the way most of them use turn based. It's like they just use it so it's not chaotic, it seems.

Valkyria Chronicles is divine, though. You got a set ammount of Command Points, and it costs one CP to use a char. You can, however, use the same char several times in the same turn. You get a smaller AP bar for that unit each time, so there's a penalty. But I've finished some missions using only a Scout unit and moving it up right to the enemy's base and capturing it on first turn (Victory Condition in most of the missions, not all).

The game just takes me back to the X-Com days of setting up two units near a UFO entrance and opening the door with a third char. While you don't get to open doors (haven't seen anything indoors so far), I get the X-Com feeling when I get a Sniper unit and place it on a tower, with an Engineer covering their backs and feeding them ammo.

The way interrupts are used is great as well. You don't get to control your character during the interrupts like in the Jagged Alliance series, it works more like D&D's Attacks of Opportunity, in that the char gets to fire at the moving enemy when they get in range. Different classes have different ranges for interceptions (as they call it). I get a lot of direct kills during interceptions from the Tank (main character unit, the only one that will make you lose if its destroyed).

Squad management is awesome. You choose 20 members from a 40+ list that increases randomly, and use 9 out of those 20 during a mission, and you can trade units during the battle itself. Building a good squad includes getting folks that are friendly with each other, so that they get bonus during attacks and have a higher chance of activating potentials.

I also love how death is handled. The 5 main chars won't die permanently, but the rest of your squad can die forever if you let them wounded on the floor for three turns or an enemy gets to reach them and deliver a final blow.

Death works well way because every squad member has its own name, face, personality, voice, favorite quotes, attitude, favorite friends, and perks (they call it Potentials), so when they die, you really feel sorry for them (well, I did!). They'll call out for their loved one, if they have one, or will medidate on life's mysteries, and bam, they're dead.

 

[Hümmelgümpf]

How are the story and charcters?

 

[Mantiis]

It is actually quite good, the presentation is great, the mechanics are good but the AI is somewhat lacking in some regards. The only thing I really don't like is that the main characters are the only ones featured in the story - the other squad members only show up in combat which makes the squad seem small/lonely when it really shouldn't be.