Yesterday Valkyria Chronicles came to PS4, and if you’re looking for a new strategy-RPG, you could do far, far worse.
Although the folks at Sega haven’t added anything to this new remastered version of the 2008 PS3 game, they didn’t really need to. Thanks to some fantastic art direction and a really cool battle system, Valkyria Chronicles is as good today as it was back then. On PS4 it’s 60fps and 1080p and all that jazz. I’ve played a few hours now, and it’s pretty damn great.
If you haven’t played the game, here’s what you should know: Valkyria Chronicles is set in a fictional version of Europe that faces its very own version of World War II. Playing as two heroes — Welkin and Alicia — your job is to fight a series of army battles that grow more and more complicated as the game goes on. You can manage your own base, run an army full of shocktroopers and snipers and even drive tanks around the battlefield. There’s even a bit of magic, because of course there is.
What makes Valkyria Chronicles unique is the combat system, which blends turn-based strategy with real-time gunplay. You start each fight with a top-down view of the battlefield, where you’re given a specific number of Command Points (CP) with which you can give your characters orders. Once you use CP on a character, the camera zooms down to give you their perspective, and you can then move around in real time. Each character has a certain amount of Action Points (AP) that you can use to move and attack. Once you run out of AP, you’ll zoom back to top-down view and repeat, until you end your turn or use all your CP.
It’s a smart, challenging system that picks up interesting new wrinkles as the game goes on. Add the art (which is gorgeous) and the story (which has its moments) and I’d have to say Valkyria Chronicles is well worth your time.
Comments
18 responses to “Valkyria Chronicles Holds Up Pretty Well”
It’s worth mentioning that it comes with all the previously released DLC included.
Mmmm…. Selvaria.
Article didn’t mention trophy support, which I believe has been added (the original didn’t have it).
I could have sworn the original did have Trophies, but it was patched in far after it was originally released (the original was released before the PS3 had trophies). Most people had long finished the game before the patch came out.
I think you’re thinking of a different game. I know they did it with MGS4 and Killzone. I did a search and there was nothing I could find about a trophy patch for VC. Certainly, when I played it in about 2010 there wasn’t one.
Yeah I think I must have been, I couldn’t find any Trophies either.
But has it modernised the menus and controls?
Tried to play the steam version but was so damn clunky I lasted about 5 minutes before giving up.
Played on Steam with a controller. Worked fine. Probably not that good for keyboard + mouse though
Sold!
Have been wanting to give this a try for a while now.
As much as I love this game, i would really have liked if Sega had bundled ports for the PsP VC 2 and 3 with the original for the PS4, as neither was greatly marketed West yet played just the same with more characters; which i felt is what really drove the series.
it really was a missed opportunity by Sega to tie together this trilogy before the release of Valkyria Azure
I believe we all would have loved to see VC2 & VC3 on the PS4, maybe as a dual pack.
Perhaps if VC1 sells well enough that dream may come true.
i doubt it, mostly because of the graphical leap from psp to ps4, as well as the length of the two game compared to first, it would have made more sense to bundle them together, hell i’d even had accepted a digital download key for the psp ports and used valuable hdd space on the ps4
i’m just sad and bitter that this is how VC will end on current consoles as i’ve little hope in Azure so far
I would have been happy with digital only as well. Maybe IF Playstation Now ever comes to Australia and IF the catalogue includes more than just PS3 games, then MAYBE there will be a chance. Unlikely though if VC3 is judged solely on cost of translation.
Did VC3 even get released over here? I’ve only seen VC2 on the PS Store.
I think only VC2 got an official English translation. With initial western sales of VC1 being mediocre and the move from PS3 to PSP, there was no business reason to release VC3 in the west.
Picked up the PC port and loved it.
Just picked up a PS3 for peanuts and this game was recommend to me from the otaku crews, shame its still $60 on PS3 at EB… (cbf buying online)
Looked it up on the PS Store and it looks like it is $24.95…seems like a pretty good price? $39 in store at the moment. Hard to take the plunge though…
I got this on sale for Steam after having nearly clocked VC2 on PSP a few years back, i found it much more challenging but in a good way =)
The DLC being included is also great, it’s on my big steam pile of shame of games to finish haha