Valkyria Chronicles
A European version was then released on October 31, 2008, followed by a North American version released on November 4, 2008. The success of the game spawned multiple manga titles, a televised anime series, and most recently the development of a sequel, Valkyria Chronicles 2.
The game is set in Europa, a fictional version of Europe, in 1935.
Because of its abundance of Ragnite ore, which can be refined into a powerful fuel, the neutral nation of Gallia comes under attack from the East Europan Imperial Alliance, which is itself engaged in a war with the Atlantic Federation. Players take control of a militia squad of Gallian nationals, dedicated to repelling the invasion. Its growing scarcity results in the Empire declaring war on the Federation, sparking the Second Europan War. The Empire uses its military superiority to quickly put the Federation on the defensive.
Emboldened by their progress and momentum, the Empire decides to invade the neutral Principality of Gallia in order to seize its rich Ragnite deposits.
When Imperial forces launch an attack on the Gallian border town of Bruhl, Welkin Gunther, son of late Gallian national hero General Belgen Gunther, is forced to fight for his life alongside the town watch captain, Alicia Melchiott. Together with Welkin's adopted sister Isara and using Belgen's prototype tank from the first war, the Edelweiss, they escape to Gallia's capital, Randgriz, and subsequently join the country's militia forces.
Welkin is given the rank of lieutenant and assumes command of the newly-formed Squad 7, with Alicia acting as his non-commissioned officer. Initially, members of the squad question Welkin's qualifications due to a lack of combat experience; however, he quickly earns their trust and loyalty with his tactical genius.
Welkin and Alicia soon become romantically engaged.
After Squad 7 wages a successful campaign against Imperial forces, the crown prince Maximilian deploys one of his commanders, Selvaria Bles, equipped with the Ragnite lance and shield of the ancient Valkyrian race, thought to have saved the ancient world from the Darcsen race. Alicia is shot by Welkin's archeologist colleague, Faldio, in order to awaken her own latent Valkyrian powers.
Alicia is able to drive Selveria back, allowing the Gallians to advance to the border. Selveria commits suicide in defense of the Ghirlandaio fortress, killing the self-serving Gallian commander but sparing Squad 7.
Maximilian, wanting to create his own empire, uses his ultimate weapon, a "land dreadnought" called the Marmota, to break through Gallia's defenses and steal a giant Valkyrian lance from within Randgriz Castle.
The princess reveals herself to be Darcsen - the Valkyrians rewrote history to make themselves into heroes, while an allied Darcsen tribe gained Randgriz as the spoils. With Alicia's help, Squad 7 are able to board the Marmota, destroying its engines and defeating Maximilian.
Alicia and Welkin are rescued, and return to Bruhl, where they marry and raise a child.
Gameplay
The overhead map view of Command Mode.
Valkyria Chronicles features a unique turn-based battle system called BLiTZ (Battle of Live Tactical Zones). Between turns the player views an overhead map in Command Mode, but zooms in to control each individual unit on the battlefield during Action Mode. Movement and other actions are handled in real time during Action Mode, though limited by an AP gauge that varies for each character. During Target Mode, the player is in direct control of characters' aim while the action freezes, allowing for head shots and other maneuvers. Taking command of individual units during the player's phase costs Command Points, which can be used to either grant movement to many different units or the same unit consecutively with diminishing AP, depending on what the player wants to accomplish.
Each character in the game fulfills a specific role — for instance, Alicia is a mid-range rifle-toting scout, while Welkin is a tank commander.
The foot soldiers (Scout, Shocktrooper, and Sniper) are effective against slower anti-tank units, anti-tank units can quickly destroy tanks with a well-aimed shot, and tanks are generally devastating against infantry, whose anti-personnel weapons are unable to inflict any significant frontal damage. By gaining experience and completing missions, the player's army will receive new recruits and their materiel can be upgraded.
The environment also factors heavily in combat.
In an urban level, for example, snipers can be sent onto rooftops to eliminate unsuspecting enemies below. Tanks can knock down walls and other obstacles to open new paths.
As the Gallian forces advance across the battlefield, control points can be captured, giving the player a tactical advantage and offering additional locations in which to call reinforcements. Together, they desired to create a game that combined facets of their previous works: strategy elements from the Sakura Wars series, third-person action elements from Nonaka's Nightshade, and role-playing influence from Tanaka's Skies of Arcadia. The team concentrated on making the strategic and action portions of the game of equal importance. Planning aspects of game play were emphasized through the Potential skill system that distinguishes individual militiamen and -women under the player's command, giving them affinities for certain environments, conditions, and each other.
The use of a warm color palette took emphasis away from the "grotesque, realistic nature of war itself," as Nonaka put it, and focused instead on the characters and story. Tanaka added that, "we wanted to show that realism isn't the only thing you can do with 3D graphics." Character designs were created for the game by Raita Honjou, who, along with the rest of the development staff, aimed for a look that was described by 1UP.com's Jeremy Parish as "rustic." In early stages designs drew more directly on examples from World War II, however they proved to be too modern for what the team wanted to achieve. Thus, Raita aimed for a motif closer to that found in World War I, first creating Alicia and Welkin's concept illustrations and using them as a basis for the rest of the Gallian cast. World War II influence can still be seen in the designs of Imperial characters such as Gregor, whose uniform is heavily based on German officers' uniforms from that period. The end result of these efforts was described by Japanese director Mamoru Oshii as giving him "an impression similar to ...
the Nausicaä manga," and Nonaka admits to aiming for the style found in World Masterpiece Theater.
Musical composition was led by Hitoshi Sakimoto, who explained that the entire process of composing, recording and editing the game's tracks took a total of eight months. The game's "Main Theme" was initially composed in a variety of arrangements by Sakimoto, who then incorporated those arrangements into other pieces with contrasting tones. Like those in charge of the game's visuals, Sakimoto cited the game's story as its center and biggest inspiration for him, adding a "military color" to the score after this consideration. Press and public were both invited, and SEGA used a raffle to give away Valkyria Soundtracks, Japanese figurines of the characters, matted art posters signed by the Japanese Producer Ryutaro Nonaka, and an 80 GB PS3.
A fourth DLC, titled "Edy Detachment's Formal Challenge!" was made available in Japan on June 26, 2009, and in North America on February 25, 2010. Valkyria Chronicles was re-released in Japanese retails stores under its The Best label on March 5, 2009 with a retail price of 3,900 Yen. This version of the game includes Edy's Mission without need of download.
Reception
Valkyria Chronicles has been critically acclaimed by numerous sources, including writers for IGN, RPGland, RPGFan, G4TV's X-Play, Gametrailers, and Gamespot.
Multiple publications were impressed with the title's gameplay design, noting that it gave players a new sense of tactical freedom absent in other games of the same genre via the removal of certain staples such as a grid-based map. The active nature of combat generated positive feelings towards a more involved strategy and produced, according to Game Revolution's Chris Hudak, "nail-gnawingly tense" situations that kept the player emotionally involved in the game. Both Valkyria Chronicles' story and the way in which it was presented were cited as strong points. Longevity was also attributed to the game, with James Quentin Clark of RPGFan noting that, "the game gets better the more you play it." While pleased overall, multiple reviewers issued complaints about the sometimes questionable activity conducted by the enemy forces' artificial intelligence. While it sold 77,000 copies in its first week of release in Japan, it only sold 33,000 copies in the United States during November 2008. It was the 93rd best-selling game in Japan in 2008, selling 141,589 copies. Despite weak initial North American sales, Valkyria Chronicles recovered somewhat with sales sharply increasing in April 2009 following a price cut and the simultaneous release of an anime based on the game.
It is serialized by Enterbrain's Comics B's Log magazine and centers on two characters made for the manga named Mintz, an orphan and engineer, and Julius Klose, a sniper, with both of them in the Gallian army's militia force. It is written by Sega and authored by Kyusei Tokito, which was serialized on November 12, 2008 with a volume released on May 1, 2009.
Another manga is written by Sega and authored by Kito En, using the same title. Some of the events depicted has diverged a bit from the game. http:www.gamespot.com/ps3/rpg/senjounovalkyria/review.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=gssummary&tag=summary;read-review.
http:www.comptiq.com/ace/index.php?%CB%DC%BB%EF%2F2008%C7%AF%2FVOL.27.