I'm about six chapters into Valkyria Chronicles.

...So far, as someone who isn't a huge fan of SRPGs (aside from Front Mission 3, which for some reason I adored,) Vaklyria is very impressive. I love the presentation style with the book, I love the obvious WW2 parallels (though I imagine this game would have difficulty procuring fans from Germany), and the main character is one of those rare JRPG heroes who has a unique personality, isn't constantly emo, and doesn't have a wacky hairdo.

I'm a particular fan of the dual-layer battle system, which actually gives something akin to a real-time sense of urgency to an otherwise turn-based strategic system.

I wouldn't classify it as a 10/10 or A++ game, though. Welkin has a solid voice actor, and so does the female reporter, but the rest of the voice acting so far has ranged from average to outright abysmal. The AI, at least in this stage of the game, is pretty terrible. (Doesn't realize it can attack with the same tank multiple times in a single turn kind of terrible.) The leveling up system eschews individual growth and favors leveling up one of four classes with a single stroke, and characters level up even when they're not fighting, which cumulatively leads me to not feel quite the same connection with the cast as I did in other SRPGs, where individual characters are customizable and losing them can be devastating.

The classes aren't really well balanced, either. Right now I use a single Engineer (just to heal the tank,) rarely bother with a Sniper and only bring along one or two Scouts and anti-tanks. The vast majority of the units I employ are machine gunners, because they are beasts in most situations (and Welkin handles everything else.) Hopefully the more specialized classes will get some better abilities to make them worthwhile later in the game.

So far Valkyria's been pretty good, though. Not incredible, but definitely worthwhile. And (in my opinion) certainly far better than FFT, and very different from it.

I'm interesting in hearing your thoughts on FFXIII and RE5 when you finally check them out. I was never able to get into the latter because I'm mostly a single player guy, and when I played the demo the partner AI was dumber than a dead cow.

I find this comment interesting. Why d'you think that German gamers wouldn't like it?

The demo AI for your partner and the AI for your partner in the actual, finished game are completely different. The demo was really unfinished in that regard. I played thru the whole game on Easy/Normal/Hard and didn't have much problems with the AI at all. I'm actually glad I didn't play the demo of the game because from what I hear (like from NonCon for instance) I think the AI would have turned me off to the game. That's kind of a bad move on Capcom's part I think.. but at least they DID fix it by the time of the actual release.

The stupidest thing the AI did, and what pissed me the fuck off most, was occasionally they'll park themselves behind you and start shooting at an enemy in front of you and empty a clip INTO YOU (thank god you don't take friendly fire damage). One funny way to avoid this is to give them a gun with piercing ammo, that way when they shoot you the bullets will go thru you and hit the enemy.

Another downside with the comp-AI is if you ever want to attempt the Very Hard difficulty. Most things kill or nearly kill you in one hit, or send your partner into the "Dying" status (where you have about 3 seconds to get to them and heal them before they croak), and the computer AI just isn't adept enough to deal with that because you have to really be light on your feet and not play "procedurally" like the computer likes to do.

Wait until later on when you see more of Sylvaria(And I don't mean her... talents), although in the main game they only really feature her as an enemy you can really give a damn about. There's DLC that shows more of her in action, but more importantly, other members of the enemy army you can actually have a connection to.

Seriously. Welkin's one of the most normal(In a releative RL sense) heroes in a Japanese game. He's not like Sazh from FFXIII in that Welkin is certainly quirky, but compared to most protagonists, he's a nice change in the norm.

Especially considering the enemy's intercepting fire is real time.

Eh, I'll admit a lot of the voice cast is "Generic Anime Voices", but that's forgivable on account of gay!Bender.

It gets better. Like, "I wish the game was easier auuuuuugggggggh" better. Either that or I'm a bad judge of this game's later AI.

This is dealt with by making the characters unique in the sense of personality, which is doubly reflected by their special abilities that trigger during fights, such as making a Lancer not use a round of ammo in a shot, or by a general increase in stats(Or decrease, in some cases). The game focuses less on the soldiers as a bundle of stats to determine things, and more on how they are affected by the environment and their own psyche.

Scouts are meant for recon and locating enemies once the game gets far enough, and have the most movement out of all units. They're advance units for your Shocktroopers, and are sorta kinda vital for taking enemy camps in some fights.

Snipers... well, they kinda aren't that important at first, but this is because a lot of battles have really shitty vantage points, and their starting weapons are only somewhat useful in hitting things(That, and not enough range to be anywhere to shoot without getting killed). Once you get more accurate weapons, the headshots get more plentiful, there are places they can camp out and not die in one turn, and snipers get more useful.

Lancers are meant for killing tanks and other structures. It is really fucking hard to get units behind a tank and not die before they can destroy it with an attack, because intercepting fire is a bitch from tanks. Lancers can take the hits and generally kill the stupid thing in one shot from behind. Of course, you could also just have them shoot the tanks from anywhere they can hit it, since Lancers can damage tanks anywhere. They can also kill foot soldiers in a pinch, but I wouldn't rely on them for that, obviously.

Shocktroopers are meant to be the most used unit, I think, considering they can take a beating and give it back just as well. They have limited movement, though, so always send a scout first if you have one.

You won't use Engineers a lot, but they do more than repair tanks. They can disarm mines(As long as they don't end up running over one by mistake, anyways), repair sandbags, and refill ammo for nearby units, which is kinda useful if a tank is bearing down on an area, and all you have is a Lancer there. You also eventually get a second tank, so you'll probably end up using two Engineers too.

Basically, have a couple of every non-Shocktrooper, and have Shocktroopers fill out the rest of your ranks, but only if your team starts together. If you have to start in multiple spots, stick a scout in each team, and other units as appropriate. Honestly, you might have to experiment for each fight to see what works.

From my experience, Sheva is easily one of the best AI partners I've ever seen. And she can actually use the blasted longbow, which is pretty difficult for a human player (or at least me and everyone I know).

On the procedural aspect, that's a good choice of words. Both the PS3 and 360 use in-order processing, which is great for rendering water reflections and stuff, but makes for lousy AI capabilities. The fact that they made Sheva as good as they did is pretty impressive.

I can't speak for what happens beyond the first five chapters of the game, but so far it's very much been a fantasy version of WW2, complete with the "Imperials" (read: Nazis) invading hapless countries to achieve sinister objectives.
I suppose in this sense Valkyria Chronicles is really like any other recent reinterpretation of WW2 (the Nazis don't come out looking sympathetic often) but based on my past experiences in Germany, it seemed like WW2 in general was one topic you just didn't discuss. A game that displayed in barely concealed terms how Germany crushed poor peasants in countries like Poland and Lithuania really wouldn't be a huge draw there, I'd bet.

(Kind of intrigued to see what Valkyria Chronicles' interpretation of Hitler is going to be like, though. Just in case he or his fantasy equivalent shows up.)


Hmm. Sounds interesting.
I'm going to have to get used to paying all kinds of money to purchase DLC for every PS3 game I buy, won't I? I noticed there was DLC for Uncharted 2, too. It's a relatively new phenomenon for me, not something I'm accustomed to as an old(er) school gamer.

You pretty much hit the nail on the head there. I like Welkin a lot. He has a real, bona fide personality that's unique and he has his kooky scientific expedition moments (as Alicia and the reporter frequently point out,) but he's a genuine guy. I can't help but compare him to Squall, because both he and Squall were essentially conscripted into leadership roles to protect their homeland, yet Squall reacted to his unexpected GARDEN wars by going all emo and wondering why is this happening to him, and that despite the fact that he's in a position of comparative strength. Welkin on the other hand is screwed, his entire nation is screwed, they're outmanned and outgunned and Imperial fodder and everyone knows it, he loses his homeland in a fiery blaze and his father may or may not be dead, his sister is the equivalent of Jewish and despised, but he keeps his head up, keeps his priorities straight, and solves fucking problems.

Note to Squall: That is how you be a leader.

...Is this a character I haven't met yet? So far, the extent of the "gay" characters I've met are recruitable folks in my squad who happen to apparently "fancy" people of the same gender.

That's interesting. I haven't really noticed the impact of the personality quirks yet.

I have noticed a bit of an elongated Rock-Paper-Scissors dynamic going on. Scouts seem to have a far easier time of taking out Snipers than the other classes (both in spotting Snipers and their rifles appear to be actually more effective than machine guns in killing them.)

Still, Sharpshooters are good against other Sharpshooters, Engineers and Scouts -- which means they're good against the overwhelming bulk of enemies that have been thrown out at me so far. I really think a cohesive strategy is to have just one or two scouts, an engineer (maybe eventually two if I do get another tank), maybe a lancer and the rest as Sharpshooters. It's not that lancers are worthless, more that at this stage my tank is the single best unit to concentrate on other tanks, and the Lancer's piss-poor mobility ensures Welkin almost always does all the work anyway.

Favorite recruitable characters? Well, there's Vyse, who seems clearly inspired by a certain other Sega character. I'm guessing Aika was similarly inspired. I also like Wavy, Freesia, and Hector. I seem to use Cherry a lot too, though she gets on my damn nerves. Karl's my engineer.

Not every game has DLC, and some of it is free anyways, but it is a big jump from the days of the PS2. It does get sneaky, though, as some games come with the DLC on the physical disk. In other words, you pay for unlock codes. You can normally tell when the download takes 3 seconds. I mean, some new possibilities open with DLC, but godammit.

He's not in this game. I think he's gonna be in the sequel... which is gonna be on the PSP, of all things.

There's a Lancer called Jan you can recruit. He's voiced by the same guy who's voiced Bender, with a positively stereotypically camp gay voice.

It'd be really offensive, if not for the fact that you normally hear said voice not giving a damn about meatbags, performing petty crimes, and coming by the occasional fembot.

They're called Potentials, and you gain them from either leveling up or having that particular person join you for enough battles. They also seem to activate randomly, but when they do, you'll generally notice the effects. I say generally because some effects don't seem to actually do anything much.

Snipers have the worst HP totals of all units. It's why they're pretty sucky for you at the start: They simply cannot take hits like anyone else, and it takes them awhile to get to where they can snipe and not die the next round. Like I said, once they get better guns with a longer range, this become much less of a problem, as a lot more places become viable vantage points. A Scout is naturally more accurate than Shocktroopers, and they can run circles around Snipers, so they can take them down easy. Of course, later battles will simply have Snipers placed absurdly far away from your units as well as behind much more hardy enemy units, so you'll eventually need Snipers just to take down enemy Snipers.

Eventually, the locations you'll be at make it really hard for Welkin to go where you want him to be, as well as the enemy having Lancers left and right just waiting for your shiny blue ass to be open for a one-hit-kill. Not only do Lancers have the ability to go where Welkin can't, if they die, the battle isn't instantly over.

Seriously, you'll need to be careful with Welkin. One good Lancer shot to the ass, and it's game over.

Welkin's tank is your best unit, but also the one unit you can't lose. This game will show you it knows this.

On Nazis and Germany: Germany's gotten into it, themselves.

The most disappointing aspect of that video was the author makin' fun of Valkyria Chronicles.
I happen to like this idealistic high school Persona 4 style version fantasy interpretation of WW2!