Valkyria Chronicles

In PlayStation 3 there was only two games that I really wanted to play. One of them was Metal Gear Solid 4 and the other was Valkyria Chronicles.

My brother owns a PS3, but I didn't have a chance to play with it extensively because before my leave to Japan he was living on his own and had the PS3 with him, but now that he left the console in my house I have the chance to play with it.

He already had Metal Gear Solid 4, so at the beginning of November I purchased Valkyria Chronicles via eBay since is now discontinued.


Valkyria Chronicles was in my wishlist when was first released in Japan, because the character designer is Honjou Raita, most known only as RAITA from circle Zettai Shoujo.

RAITA's style is pretty characteristic. His most known trait is to draw extremely slender lolis (borderline anorexic), but he also draws stylized grown-up women with large breasts. He also likes to draw tanks, girls in uniform and hooded women.

Random image from his web.

Pretty much all of those traits were carried over to the game, and the watercolor style of the graphic engine fits perfectly with RAITA's style.

Selvaria and Alicia drawn by RAITA.

Is hard to expalin the gameplay without play it. Is turn-based, but you move the characters in real time and you can move them more than once during your turn.
You can control about 50 characters, and each of them is unique, each with his/her own special traits, likes and dislikes. Friends are foes are very likable characters.

Right now I'm almost over with the game (I'm missing to A rank some of the Hard skirmishes) and I can clearly say that is my favorite PS3 game by far, even surpassing MGS4. Is unfortunate that the overall sales of the game have been rather weak...

An anime was aired in spring (I didn't watched it so I can't give an opinion) and a sequel made for the PSP will be released in Japan next month, causing rage among the fans because the PSP is a step down compared with the PS3... It will be released in Europe, so is a compulsory purchase for me.

Omake: Miku with Alicia's outfit in Hatsune Miku -Project DIVA.