Valkyria Chronicles II was released almost ten years ago, in 2010, for the PlayStation Portable, but probably the easiest way to play it today is to get the digital version, which is available for the PlayStation Vita. Set a year after the events of the first game, VC II follows the adventures of Lanseal Academy’s Class G, a class of military student misfits led by hotheaded class chair, Avan Hardins. As civil war descends upon the already war-ravaged country of Gallia, Class G are thrust into the thick of battle, time and again, and emerge as the country’s unlikely saviours. Ultimately, they become Gallia’s best hope for holding back the rebel forces who are seeking to usurp power and carry out ethnic cleansing against the dark-haired Darcsen minority.
Valkyria Chronicles is set in a Crapsaccharine World which, despite its colourful art style, is defined by tragedy. Suffering, war, racism, and cruel and sadistic human experiments are a fact of life. Most of the students you meet in Class G are already damaged in some way; but Avan has a special gift for helping people come to terms with their personal trauma, and to move forward with their lives. What Avan lacks in academic intelligence, he more than makes up for with good-natured common sense. He has a genuine interest in other people, taking the time to get to know his classmates, and integrating them into the class so that they can partake of its unifying, healing spirit. In between missions, you’ll spend most of your time hanging out in Lanseal and observing Avan’s interactions with his school fellows, all of whom have a unique mission to unlock. Once their mission is completed, a previously negative trait will be transformed into something positive: an elegant demonstration of personal growth.
Valkyria Chronicles II has a surprisingly large cast, and an enormous amount of dialogue and voice acting, which must have been quite exceptional for a handheld game in 2010. Most of the characters are around Avan’s age – seventeen – and they range from typical teenagers to cynical gamblers and religious mystics. It’s amusing to see how the game combines stereotypical highschool scenarios, to do with dating and self-improvement, with displays of military derring-do; but there are occasionally much darker and more serious situations, like stopping a civilian massacre. The character portraits, and the infrequent still drawings that depict significant moments, are the high point of the game’s presentation, while the voice acting is high quality and boasts a number of recognisable actors.
Unfortunately, the decision to move the franchise to handheld meant sacrifices had to be made, and the most obvious loss is the original game’s distinctive art style. The in-mission environments and 3D models are generic and lack detail; while they still just about retain the familiar 1930s feel, the watercolour look is gone. The mission areas are also much smaller than before, with each mission being broken up into several smaller chunks. These are connected by a series of camps, which have to be cleared of enemies and captured. This allows you to send units between areas, as you seek to accomplish your mission objective. These goals vary, and can require you to reach a certain point, steal a particular camp, defeat all enemies, or hold out for a number of turns. Some objectives are worse than others: enemies will sometimes hide, and you can waste several turns trying to find individual enemies cowering in long grass, who you have to execute before you can end the mission.
Valkyria Chroncicles II uses the same gameplay system introduced in the first game. Combat is turn based, and each turn you get a certain number of action points, which you can use to select units from a map screen; once a unit is chosen, they have a certain amount of energy which allows them to move in real-time. They can also attack once per turn. Units are divided into five main classes; Scouts have limited firepower, but can move a long way, while Armored Techs are slow but have high defense and can deal huge melee damage. Welkin Gunther’s tank was one of the highlights of the first game, but its replacement here is comparatively ineffectual and costly to use. Unfortunately, that also means that Engineers are all but useless: they’re the weakest combat units, and their main attribute (tank repair) is irrelevant if the tank’s not on the field of battle. Every unit can be levelled up, and there are multiple, branching options which can lend some pleasing variety to your squad. But you need specific items to level people up, and these are awarded semi-randomly based on participation in combat. There’s no easy way to check what items a character needs for a specific level up, making this system more complicated and less fun than it should be. Eventually, I stopped bothering to look for specific items, and just levelled people up however I could.
VC II takes place over the course of a single year, and each month you must take on a certain number of generic missions before you unlock the story mission, which allows you to move forward. The early sections of the game are great fun, as you get to know the members of Class G, and different gameplay mechanics are gradually introduced. Sadly, the mid-game suffers from serious problems with pacing, and the 50 hours-plus it takes to complete the story is perhaps ten or fifteen hours too long. For all the charm of the character writing, after a certain point Valkyria Chronicles II is simply not that much fun to play. Missions quickly become repetitive, and soon start to drag. The game has a nasty habit of ensuring your attacks leave enemies alive with a smidgen of health, forcing you to use up extra turns; while enemies also have the infuriating ability to randomly duck your attacks. Things like this on their own might be a minor irritation, but in combination they can become a serious frustration.
There’s a surprisingly substantial post-game to be enoyed after you complete the story: a bevy of extra characters are unlocked, along with new weapons and missions. It’s a shame that, by that point, most people will surely have had enough of the experience. Valkyria Chronicles II sold reasonably well in Japan, but sales of the Western version were so poor that the third game didn’t even receive a Western localization. After a long hiatus, and a failed experiment with 2017’s action-oriented Valkyria Revolution, Sega decided to return the series to its roots with Valkyria Chronicles 4, which was released last year. Despite a favourable critical reception, the game has once again failed to sell well. Chances for a belated Western release of Valkyria Chronicles 3 must therefore be slim.
7/10
Visions From The Dark Side 