Sega have been on a bit of a downward
spiral in the last decade or so. Their premier mascot, Sonic the
Hedgehog has been nothing short of abysmal except from Sonic
Generation which was actually all right. Still, there was a time in
this descend into mediocrity when Sega released a war-based Japanese
Role Playing game and it was amazing. That has been remastered and
time has been very kind to this off-the-wall and sometimes ridiculous
but always enjoyable game.
Developed by Sega and out now for
PlayStation 4, Valkyria Chronicles Remastered doesn’t change a
whole lot to the game that released in 2008. This is down to laziness
or poor optimisation. Instead, it’s a testament to the almost
timeless nature of the game’s aesthetic. Visually, the game is
still striking with water-coloured battlefields and distinctively
detailed characters.
The game is set in a fictional European
war based on World War II. You take control of two main heroes,
Welkin and Alicia as you command a series of ever-increasingly
complicated army battles. What starts out simple enough increasingly
gets deeper and surprisingly even more satisfying as the time goes
on. The story itself is also bonkers. There are moments of true
sincerity of the devastation war incurs on the world only to be then
followed up by the absolute weirdness you would expect from a
Japanese Role Playing Game. It may not always be coherent, but it
never fails to entertain one way or the other.
The core of the
game though is the combat. Every battle, and round for that matter,
begins with a top-down view of the battlefield. Each turn sees you
have a certain number of Command Points (CP). When you select a
character, it will then zoom down to them and you can then freely
move them around the battlefield shoot at the enemy. Each time you do
this though, the character you control has a limited Action Points
(AP) gauge. Once the character’s AP gauge is empty, the view moves
back to the top-down perspective and you make your next move until
all Command Points are used up for your turn.
It may sound complicated but it’s
pretty straight forward. The game also has some excellent twists on
that core combat as the game goes on that becomes an absolute treat
and challenge. It’s smart, with plenty of depth as the game goes on
and doesn’t feel like any other game out there. . You even get the
opportunity to drive a tank into battle and wipe out enemies. There is plenty of management within
the game too. As you progress through the adventure, you can manage
your base and build an army of soldiers to fight for you. The
strategy lends itself well to the combat and gives a meaningful sense
to everything.
Valkyria Chronicles is still a shining
beacon in Sega’s history in the last decade. When thinking about
this game and what Sega have done with it and what they could do led
me to realise that this game had two sequels, both of which landed on
PlayStation’s handheld the PSP. Giving a new console this title, I
can’t help but wish that Sega are simply testing the waters for a
true sequel that harnesses the full power of this generation of
consoles.
One of the forgotten JRPG gems. 4/5.
★★★★☆
Jason Redmond
Valkyria Chronicles Remastered at CeX
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