Suzuki Yu
True Gamer
في اول بريفيو للعبة بالمواقع الغربية
كلام قوي ذكره IGN عن اللعبة بعد تجربة النسخة اليابانية
Australia, May 6, 2008 - It's been a while since we played a truly brilliant RPG from SEGA. Thinking about it, the last one was probably Skies of Arcadia on the Dreamcast back in 2001. Part of the problem in recent years has been SEGA's lack of focus, with a handful of mediocre Shining Force spin-offs and dilution of Phantasy Star Online doing little to remind us of the Big S that was responsible for publishing such awesome RPGs as Shining Force III and Panzer Dragoon Saga. From what we've played of the Japanese version so far, Valkyria Chronicles could be right up there among SEGA's finest.
Valkyria is set during the 1930s, in a parallel-reality Europe where EWII (that's European War II – apparently there was no World War in Valkyria Chronicles' version of the 20th century) is kicking off. There are two major forces involved in the conflict: the Atlantic Federation, which seems to be made up of the countries we'd refer to as Spain, France, Belgium, Switzerland and the UK; and the East European Imperial Alliance, which looks like it represents Germany, Russia and the Baltic States. In the middle of this huge clash, more or less where Holland is in the real world, is a tiny kingdom of windmills and rolling hills called Gallia. And it's as part of the Gallian defences that you play in Valkyria Chronicles.
Aside from the twisted history and geography of everything, the first thing you'll notice is how distinctive Valkyria Chronicles looks. This is thanks to a piece of programming tech dubbed the Canvas Engine. We have our suspicions that this is just a slightly modified version of cel shading, but the results speak for themselves – Valkyria looks like a watercolour videogame, if such a thing is possible (and obviously it is), and in motion the brushstroke effects are quite remarkable. Probably the last game to really grab our attention like this was Okami, so you can count on Valkyria Chronicles to impress your art-fancying side.
It's not just the watercolour overlay that's impressive, either. The game moves at 60fps throughout, running at a native 720p resolution. It's generally sharp and solid. There are a few glitches here and there, but overall Valkyria is one of the most eye-pleasing RPGs we've seen in years. So, how does it play? Again choosing to move away from accurate history, Valkyria Chronicles drops the menu-based battle systems of old RPGs and even manages to find a new way of presenting its story – in the form of a book.
When you begin the game, you'll literally be on the first page. Outside of storytelling movies and battle sequences, the game's main window is displayed as an open book, with each page broken down into four or five frames like a comic. Starting from the top of the first page and working down, new 'episodes' appear inside previously blank frames, which when clicked on lead to cutscenes that move the story along. There are also playable frames, though, and it's in these battle scenes (which appear at a ratio of about one battle section for every four narrative 'episodes') that you get to do your thing.
Appropriately enough, considering the game takes place in the middle of EWII, battles are mostly fought between units of soldiers. No monsters or orcs here, you'll be happy/disgruntled (delete as applicable) to know. Many of the early battles take place in the towns of Gallia, which are being overrun by forces from the East European Imperial Alliance, and it's your job to defend Gallia's towns (even though most of the country's civilians have long since fled these towns and cities for the relative safety of the countryside), initially as a team of three characters – Welkin Gunther, Alicia Melchiott and an anonymous uniformed soldier.
Before battle begins, you're given the chance to assess the situation from an overview screen which displays the positions of your soldiers and those of the enemy, as well as any objective points. You can then use Command Points, which you have a limited number of, to take control of your characters. Typically at the outset you'll be able to use three Command Points, enabling you to move and attack with each character once or, if you like, with the same character three times.
Switching from the map screen to control of a character brings the camera out of the sky and right down to a close-up third-person view of the battlefield. From here you have full control of your character, so you can run, jump and hide behind conveniently placed stacks of sandbags until your time meter runs out. Of course it's best to make an attack before that meter depletes, and the effectiveness of your attack will depend on your position and that of the enemy soldier/tank, so it pays to take up a good position and then hit R1, which puts you into a slightly zoomed-in perspective and displays a crosshair so that you can aim and fire.
From our early experience with Valkyria Chronicles' battle system, it's obvious that tactics play a big part in the action and that there's plenty of potential for knife-edge conflicts later on. One silly move and you can find yourself outnumbered and out-positioned without enough health to stand a chance, and the Game Over screen appears if one of your key characters is killed, so there's the constant danger that a lot of good work in battle will be undone by one foolish decision.
Valkyria Chronicles is innovative in some places and surprisingly traditional in others. The book format of its storytelling is fresh and done well, but on the other hand this spells a fairly linear experience. Still, it's great to find an RPG using elements from tactical military combat games – sometimes Valkyria Chronicles seems to be related to the Rainbow Six games, of all things.
The English-language version of Valkyria probably won't be finished until much later this year, but the Japanese voice acting in place here is generally excellent. The story, too, treads a fine line between reality and fiction – it's not so daft you can't believe it to be true, yet it's not at all historically accurate. If you like your Japanese RPGs in human, believable settings, but with touches of visual flair (the watercolour graphics really are one of Valkyria's standout components) and complemented by satisfying, strategic battles, SEGA's latest shows all the signs of being able to satisfy your wish list. It could end up being the best SEGA RPG in almost a decade.
كلام قوي ذكره IGN عن اللعبة بعد تجربة النسخة اليابانية
Australia, May 6, 2008 - It's been a while since we played a truly brilliant RPG from SEGA. Thinking about it, the last one was probably Skies of Arcadia on the Dreamcast back in 2001. Part of the problem in recent years has been SEGA's lack of focus, with a handful of mediocre Shining Force spin-offs and dilution of Phantasy Star Online doing little to remind us of the Big S that was responsible for publishing such awesome RPGs as Shining Force III and Panzer Dragoon Saga. From what we've played of the Japanese version so far, Valkyria Chronicles could be right up there among SEGA's finest.
Valkyria is set during the 1930s, in a parallel-reality Europe where EWII (that's European War II – apparently there was no World War in Valkyria Chronicles' version of the 20th century) is kicking off. There are two major forces involved in the conflict: the Atlantic Federation, which seems to be made up of the countries we'd refer to as Spain, France, Belgium, Switzerland and the UK; and the East European Imperial Alliance, which looks like it represents Germany, Russia and the Baltic States. In the middle of this huge clash, more or less where Holland is in the real world, is a tiny kingdom of windmills and rolling hills called Gallia. And it's as part of the Gallian defences that you play in Valkyria Chronicles.
Aside from the twisted history and geography of everything, the first thing you'll notice is how distinctive Valkyria Chronicles looks. This is thanks to a piece of programming tech dubbed the Canvas Engine. We have our suspicions that this is just a slightly modified version of cel shading, but the results speak for themselves – Valkyria looks like a watercolour videogame, if such a thing is possible (and obviously it is), and in motion the brushstroke effects are quite remarkable. Probably the last game to really grab our attention like this was Okami, so you can count on Valkyria Chronicles to impress your art-fancying side.
It's not just the watercolour overlay that's impressive, either. The game moves at 60fps throughout, running at a native 720p resolution. It's generally sharp and solid. There are a few glitches here and there, but overall Valkyria is one of the most eye-pleasing RPGs we've seen in years. So, how does it play? Again choosing to move away from accurate history, Valkyria Chronicles drops the menu-based battle systems of old RPGs and even manages to find a new way of presenting its story – in the form of a book.
When you begin the game, you'll literally be on the first page. Outside of storytelling movies and battle sequences, the game's main window is displayed as an open book, with each page broken down into four or five frames like a comic. Starting from the top of the first page and working down, new 'episodes' appear inside previously blank frames, which when clicked on lead to cutscenes that move the story along. There are also playable frames, though, and it's in these battle scenes (which appear at a ratio of about one battle section for every four narrative 'episodes') that you get to do your thing.
Appropriately enough, considering the game takes place in the middle of EWII, battles are mostly fought between units of soldiers. No monsters or orcs here, you'll be happy/disgruntled (delete as applicable) to know. Many of the early battles take place in the towns of Gallia, which are being overrun by forces from the East European Imperial Alliance, and it's your job to defend Gallia's towns (even though most of the country's civilians have long since fled these towns and cities for the relative safety of the countryside), initially as a team of three characters – Welkin Gunther, Alicia Melchiott and an anonymous uniformed soldier.
Before battle begins, you're given the chance to assess the situation from an overview screen which displays the positions of your soldiers and those of the enemy, as well as any objective points. You can then use Command Points, which you have a limited number of, to take control of your characters. Typically at the outset you'll be able to use three Command Points, enabling you to move and attack with each character once or, if you like, with the same character three times.
Switching from the map screen to control of a character brings the camera out of the sky and right down to a close-up third-person view of the battlefield. From here you have full control of your character, so you can run, jump and hide behind conveniently placed stacks of sandbags until your time meter runs out. Of course it's best to make an attack before that meter depletes, and the effectiveness of your attack will depend on your position and that of the enemy soldier/tank, so it pays to take up a good position and then hit R1, which puts you into a slightly zoomed-in perspective and displays a crosshair so that you can aim and fire.
From our early experience with Valkyria Chronicles' battle system, it's obvious that tactics play a big part in the action and that there's plenty of potential for knife-edge conflicts later on. One silly move and you can find yourself outnumbered and out-positioned without enough health to stand a chance, and the Game Over screen appears if one of your key characters is killed, so there's the constant danger that a lot of good work in battle will be undone by one foolish decision.
Valkyria Chronicles is innovative in some places and surprisingly traditional in others. The book format of its storytelling is fresh and done well, but on the other hand this spells a fairly linear experience. Still, it's great to find an RPG using elements from tactical military combat games – sometimes Valkyria Chronicles seems to be related to the Rainbow Six games, of all things.
The English-language version of Valkyria probably won't be finished until much later this year, but the Japanese voice acting in place here is generally excellent. The story, too, treads a fine line between reality and fiction – it's not so daft you can't believe it to be true, yet it's not at all historically accurate. If you like your Japanese RPGs in human, believable settings, but with touches of visual flair (the watercolour graphics really are one of Valkyria's standout components) and complemented by satisfying, strategic battles, SEGA's latest shows all the signs of being able to satisfy your wish list. It could end up being the best SEGA RPG in almost a decade.
