Buy Valkyria Chronicles Remastered

Available exclusively on the PS4, Valkyria Chronicles Remastered is a next-generation remaster that offers players a chance to see the PS3 classic, Valkyria Chronicles, in all its glory. The title is set in a fantasy world that lightly parallels Europe in the early 1900s. The continent of Europa is divided between the Empire and the Federation, both of which are warring over a rare and powerful material known as Ragnite. Caught in the middle is the small but Ragnite-rich country of Gallia. When the town of Bruhl is attacked, Welkin and Alicia, two members of the militia, are forced to fight off the Empire's soldiers to save their village. On the run from Empire soldiers, they enlist in the Federation's army, hoping to end the war and bring peace to Gallia. The Empire hopes to control Ragnite and use a power called a Valkyria to bring Europa under its control.

The plot is relatively enjoyable but slightly scattered. You can have a wacky beach episode followed by a character being brutally murdered. The ongoing mascot character is an adorable flying pig that exists in the same story as dramatic and depressing depictions of ethnic cleansing. The characters are generally likeable, but the villains are unfortunately weak. The side characters are more enjoyable than the main cast, and the side missions are some of the most enjoyable in the game.

For combat, the players and enemies take turns. On your turn, you can take a certain number of actions per turn. You get more by having certain characters in your party. Each action allows you to take control of one of your party members and maneuver him or her around the battlefield in real time. Each time you take an action, a character can move a certain distance (tied to his/her action points) and take a single action, such as shooting or using an item. The trick is that you're not tied to picking one character a turn. You can spend all your actions on the same character if you want, but characters see a reduction in available action points each time they move in a turn. You can also choose to not spend actions in a turn, so they carry over to the next turn.

Later in the game, you unlock more options that also take up your available turns. You gain access to a tank, which requires multiple actions to move but is heavily armored and has special weapons and abilities. You'll also find orders, which can give massive buffs to your party but take up actions. It's an interesting economy in that you must determine the most worthwhile selection of actions for the available number of turns. Enemies have the same action limit, but you can reduce their available number of turns by killing their commander. Of course, the same applies to your own team, and if you lose an important character, you also lose the actions they grant.

The real-time element is what really defined Valkyria Chronicles. You can't patiently plan out every action the way you can in a traditional turn-based strategy game. If you are near enemies, your character takes suppressing fire, which slowly begins to wear down their hit points. To best survive, you need to plan how to move around the environment. You have to duck behind sandbags to take minimal damage, sneak along walls outside of enemy fire, or figure out the fastest way to dart through open air to the next piece of cover while using as few action points as possible. If you're not careful, you can get killed on your own turn. On the plus side, you won't take damage if you end your turn, so you can play defensively while you plan out your next options.

The RPG elements are simple but robust. Each of the classes share experience points with other members of the same class, and you distribute experience points between missions, so the character's growth is entirely up to you. Characters can be customized with different pieces of equipment and weaponry. The major difference between characters is their potentials, which give characters specific boosts or penalties. Some characters fight better behind cover, others prefer to be in the open, and so on. Some fighters only do well in squads with women, and others won't fight alongside Darcsens, an ethnic minority in Gallia. Lots of little things comprise your squad, and you'll want to make sure your party works well together.

As you progress, combat gets more complex. Early on, you face relatively weak enemies, but later, you face specialized enemies with improved defenses or special abilities and boss characters who are significantly tougher to defeat. Each stage usually has a gimmick that you have to figure out. Some are simple, such as a large map with multiple routes, and others are more complex, such as a giant mechanical monstrosity. Some of the stages are pretty fun, while others are tedious. Oddly, one of the earlier missions is probably the most difficult, as it involves a combination of fighting a giant boss tank and an unexpected run-in from a super-powered enemy Valkyria. It's tough because of tight timing requirements and reinforcements who can obliterate your party in moments. Once you get past it, you won't face anything as difficult again. The two biggest end-game bosses went down in a single round of combat. Valkyria Chronicles is never punishingly hard, but it is sometimes inconsistent. A good portion of that is due to how the scoring system is handled.

The game is designed to reward speed above everything else, and this badly impacts the rest of the game. The scoring requirements emphasize finishing in as few turns as possible, which in turn punishes tactics that focus on careful planning, forethought or proper positioning in favor of a technique generally called "Scout Rush." The game rewards picking one or two characters (usually Alicia the Scout, due to her passives and high base abilities) and using every turn to have your near-invincible super-soldier run around and capture the enemy's flags. You can finish many stages in one or two turns this way. Occasionally, you may swap in a Lancer or other soldier for the few stages that require more proper positioning.

Many games have degenerate strategies, but Valkyria Chronicles almost demands them. It's impossible to score a coveted A-rank on the very first tutorial stage if you listen to the instructions. Instead, you need to finish the level in a single turn to achieve the ranking. A-ranks earn you additional money, items and rewards, which in turn mean you scale faster than someone using a slower strategy. You can balance this by hunting down the enemy aces scattered throughout the missions, but at the end of the day, the game encourages A-ranks. It's perfectly possible to play the game without going for A-ranks, but to some degree, you'll feel that you're fighting the game's expectations. Fortunately, it's never too punishing, since the bonus items are rarely game-changing, and you can trivially grind for experience points by using the Scout Rush on skirmish missions.

Valkyria Chronicles Remastered includes the DLC released for the original version of the game. One of these puts you in control of Selvaria, one of the Empire's elite generals, as you take her through a series of missions against the Federation elite. The other stars one of the minor characters, Edy, as she takes on her own detachment in a series of side stories separate from the main plot. In addition, there is an EX Hard mode for the skirmishes, which limits your combat options and puts you up against difficult enemies and a series of challenge maps that test your mastery of the various classes. None of the DLC missions is particularly exceptional, but I found them to be fun and more tightly designed than the main missions. However, they're also more plain and lack gimmicks, so they tend to blur together.

Valkyria Chronicles Remastered is a lovely-looking port of an already great-looking game. While it may have been released early on the PS3's life cycle, the painted canvas style combined with the strong cel-shaded graphics mean it aged wonderfully. The remastered visuals run at a higher resolution and frame rate, which really emphasize how good the game looks. Some of the animations are a little awkward, but that's about the extent of it. The soundtrack and dub are both very strong, and there are a lot of nice touches to both. It might not be as impressive to players who took on the PC version, but it's a gigantic step up from the PS3 iteration.

Valkyria Chronicles Remastered is about as straight of a port as you can get, but that isn't a bad thing. Valkyria Chronicles looked great to begin with, and the visual improvements only help. It's a little disappointing that the mechanics, story and gameplay haven't seen any noteworthy updates, but it's a great port. Fans of the game should be happy to have one of the smoothest-running versions available, and newcomers will find it the best way to experience the cult classic. Throw in the addition of Trophies, and it's a nice package, but it's strictly average as far as HD remasters go.

Score: 8.0/10