Valkyria Chronicles™ Reviews

I played a demo for this game on the PS3 about 10 years ago and it stuck with me so much I finally played it in 2025, and it holds up. The strategy game play is great, the story is solid enough, and the visuals are at least good enough I think. Definitely worth it

One of my favourite strategy games ever made. good gameplay (Some balance issues), good story and a beautiful artstyle that makes the game still look good even now. This game released back on the ps3 and stayed rather unknown for a long time, very happy to see people have found this gem.

I think we'd all like to forget some stories to be able to experience them again, and Valkyria Chronicles is definitely one of them.

As someone who runs away from strategy rpg games, Valkyria Chronicles action side of gameplay kept me tied to my desktop. I love feeling like I'm saving private Ryan when I realized I f*** up and put my units in a dangerous situation. What's nice is this game gives you a chance to save your squad and gives a chance to replace them. it doesn't baby you either. Everything is a risk and reward. Also love how units who have no interactions in the main story were still given loveable personalities because of how well it translated to abilities in gameplay good or bad. Even if you failed a mission 3 times you take what you learn and finally get that sweet sweet victory. Don't worry if you're afraid losing many times will make the game take forever. There are 19 chapters each with their own story mission and many optional missions. You level characters up as units, so if prefer having certain characters or want to try out a character you gained, no worries they are leveled up make sure they have the right weapon. there are frustrations but the good overtake the bad.

Don't let my hours fool you, this is a good game. I played on PS3. Uhhhhh writing is very dry but the gameplay is really good.

"If birthright is all it takes to win a battle, you must find war so very boring" -General Jaeger. Battle proceeds to be decided by birthright.

First part of game is great, you in alternative universe protect Estonia agains invading Russian Federation with 1./2. world war technology (tanks are everywhere, trucks exist, planes are only starting being developed). Game is very tactical, you research better gear, train your troops, very important where you position them ... and then ... Oposing side starts losing and starts to use ever more crazy future-magic-megatank tech. It is just riducolous. I still like the game, but it was somewhat spoiled to me by tech that by laws of physics shouldn't work. I don't mind that on its own, but ... when Fire nation in Avatar gets a giant tank, its logic mostly works, it is big, but slow. This one, big as a castle, has no problems navigating mountains faster than a racing car. Just ... no. So anyway, fun game. Many very frustrating missions because they can be very long, but no autosave, so anything goes wrong, repeat. Also, there are bugs that might just close your game. And if that happens after you won a battle, do it again, because no autosave. Once it happened because my headphones disconected near end of the mission. Yea. But outside of that, I really enjoyed first 3/4 or the story, you can feel someone really cared in making this game. And one advice, do not bother habing an A (best) score in fist few missions. Those numbers are for when you replay everything from the start, but keep training and tech.

Such and underrated game and series. Don't let it's anime-themed characters turn you off. This is a very addictive strategy, turn-based tactical shooting game that rewards your planning and thinking 3 turns ahead (like chess). Easy to pickup and play with many different ways of approaching missions.

Kinda finicky port, don't play it fullscreen (use Windowed) and don't play it over 60Hz to avoid some annoying crashes and weird behavior. As a game however it is pretty good and still holds up great to this day.

[b]TLDR: 7.5/10 [/b] I played this game when it first came out. That time in 2008 ( jeez that was a long time ago ), it was quite unique in its gameplay mechanics, i.e turn based shooter but needs to aim. I havent seen another game does this so there is a possibility this game might be patent or one of its kind. In any case, I replayed the game cause it was selling for cheap and it was kinda nostalgia so why not. That being said. here is what I thought about the game [b] Pros [/b] Game mechanics: As I mentioned above, not a lot of games that is turned based and requires literal aiming. While its cool, it also can be frustrating as sometimes, shooting straight can just missed. The snipers are the one that mostly this happen but its not annoying, its just RNG. Game mechanics 2: While the above is about in the battlefield, there are some other stuffs that adds elements to the game such as potentials, orders, training, disarming and etc to ensure the game isnt boring. While this assists the player to make it more easier, "if you know what to do", you can break the game easily by doing "certain scenarios". Art Design: Not often you would see the art direction uses a water color theme as their identity. That being said, it was made in 2008 so its still holds up. [b] Neutral [/b] Story: Story is iffy. Storywise is pretty good, i.e war is bad, here are the views from soldiers in the front line part. But then there are questionable moments that makes you go "Hmm ? Okay?". Music / Soundtrack / BGM: ? . I know there is a battle theme music but I dont recall one being rememberable. [b] Cons [/b] [b] The 2 worse aspect of the game [/b] : Firstly, for those who want to do achievement hunting, that means you gotta NG+ it as well as spend a lot of time grinding because I manage to get 250 soldiers achievement and finish the game by then....And also to get most of the achievement, it requires NG+ to a certain extend. Yes, you could in theory just play the game once and grind it there but its no difference than just NG+ and redoing it. The other aspect is the enemy turn animation. Once you are done with your turn, the enemy ai has to do all their walk animation + aim animation + shoot animation. While its kinda fine but if there are, let say 10 enemies in the screen + reinforcement, it eats up A LOT of time. And those entire animation varies depending if the ai wants to run all the way from their camp to your soldier face and blast them or they just turtle down or they use their tank to go 1 whole loop for no reason. In summary, every turn could take from 2 mins up to 5 mins. Lastly, for w/e reason, there is a specific map in the game where if you climb the ladder, your unit will clip out and goes out of the map. Unless you have a specific order, that character is done.... I am surprised it still hasnt been patch or fixed. So yea, thats my review of the game. If I were to ask Sega to patch this game, my first suggestion is to have a 4x / 16x / 32x fast forward for the enemy turn or skip button.