Valkyria Chronicles 2

Valkyria Chronicles was one of those unique games for the Playstation 3 that came out when everyone was lamenting the fact that there were no good games for the Playstation 3. Having played through it, I was worried that this great game would be lost to obscurity. But it seems my fears were unfounded, as the Valkyria Chronicles franchise is back with a sequel, this time for another system that people say there are no games for, the Playstation Portable.

Valkyria Chronices 2, like it’s predecessor, is a blend of turn based strategy and third person shooter. You take on missions where you deploy troops of different classes (five to begin with, although there are upgrade trees for each class where you can change its overall playstyle) in different zones on the battlefield. You’re given a number of command points (CP) to use to directly control each deployed soldier in third person view (each soldier has a set number of action points or AP to use to move around the battlefield). Your turn continues until you run out of CP, then your opponent has a turn. This continues until you’ve completed your objective or you’ve failed the mission.

Like all good sequels, Valkyria Chronicles 2 adheres to the same formula as the first, but adds more features... some because of the limitations of the less powerful platform it’s on. To accomodate the PSP’s limited memory, instead of the sprawling fields of play in the PS3 version, each map is split off into separate sections, connected by enemy camps, which you can occupy and use to deploy more troops. It seems like a happy accident because the smaller sections of interconnected areas allows for more strategic play than the original.

Another welcome change is the addition of the upgrade trees for each class. All of the classes from the original return, but instead of being able to access all of them right away, some need to be unlocked on an individual by individual basis as you earn various credits by using them on missions. Initially, you start off with scouts (with the highest mobility, but are relatively weak), shocktroopers (who have less mobility, but higher firepower), lancers (anti-tank units that are resistant to explosives), engineers (healers who can also repair damaged tanks), and a new class for the sequel armored techs (heavily armored units who can only do melee attacks). You can upgrade each class to more powerful versions of their initial class or different classes entirely, like the sniper (which can attack from long ranges but have very limited mobility). The tank that you have access to doesn’t have an upgrade tree, although you can modify and upgrade the parts of it to fit the varying situations you’ll face in the missions. The upgradeable classes and customizable tank gives the game more depth than the original.

With these changes and additions, playing the game feels like a well-oiled machine. There’s something satisfying about using the scout to uncover enemy positions, calling in a sniper to take them out and retreating the unit only to do the same thing in a different part of the map, all the while escorting your tank from camp to camp. It’s a good thing the game plays so well because some of the missions are hard... and there are a lot of them. Playing through all the missions takes about 40+ hours (which at an MSRP of 40 bucks is about a dollar of game per hour... a steal at twice the price!).

Valkyria Chronicles 2 also adds a couple of multiplayer options, both co-operative and versus modes. In co-op, you can take on the story missions with up to three other players and in versus, you battle against another player to take over their camps. But like most other PSP games, all of the multiplayer modes must be played over an ad hoc network, aka playing with people in close physical proximity. It’s understandable why the co-op missions are done this way, since communication is key when completing the missions and the PSP has no real way of voice chat... but it’s still a little disappointing.

But not everything about the sequel has been improved upon. Most notably, the story which takes place two years after the original feels less mature and shallower. In the original you control a militia who are trying to protect their homeland from an invading force. In the sequel, you control cadets in a military academy fighting off rebel forces trying to incite a civil war. (Which, now that I write it doesn’t sound that bad.) But the stories of these cadets aren’t really that interesting. You’ve got the reporter who’s trying to uncover the “paranormal” activities of the campus... the little sister trying to live up to her sister’s stage performance career... your main character’s primary characteristic is that he’s hungry all the time. (Oh and he joined the academy to find out what happened to his older brother who he was told was killed in action... but I guess that’s actually not too bad.)

The graphics also suffer from the switch to the PSP. The first game had a nice hand drawn almost watercolor aesthetic to it. While Valkyria Chronicles 2 tries it’s best to emulate that style, the lack of processing power on the handheld yields mixed results. The game doesn’t look bad per se, it just doesn’t look as good as it’s console predecessor.

In spite of those minor stumbles, Valkyria Chronicles 2 is a worthy successor to the PS3 original. It may not look as pretty, but the gameplay is as solid as ever and even exceeds the PS3 version... and really, isn’t that what we play games for?

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