Valkyria Chronicles - A Match Made in Heaven?

To explain this shortly from the beginning, my dad got a membership in the Blockbuster online gig. Personally, I never was a fan of getting things mailed to you, when you can just go to the store and get it, but this was actually pretty cool. So anyway, I ordered Valkyria Chronicles a few days ago (unlimited online rentals) and I received it in the mail last night. Interested in how the game is, I put it in the PS3 and started the installation.

Actually backtrack a bit. I had to download a 34 MB update. No biggie. While it was downloading, I was playing 4Story with one of my friends. Anyway, after the download finished, I installed the game to reduce load times and such.

By the way, the last few days have been really RPG-like. Especially yesterday. I was playing .hack//infection pretty much all day yesterday. Anyway, back on topic.

When I finally started playing Valkyria Chronicles, I first realized how gorgeous the game looks. It has a cell-shaded anime art-style with comic-style effects that pop up on screen. The music was great, and the voice-acting was believable (I was playing on Japanese dub, simply because I like it better). The real meat of the game, though, is the gameplay, and it is a blast.

First off, this is an RPG, but not like Final Fantasy. This game is a tactical, turn-based RPG. A perfect match. There are many gameplay mechanics such as different character classes. However, a cool thing about the different character classes is that even though many are the same class, non of them are the same. They each have their individual pros and cons which you must use to effectively overcome your enemy.

In order to defeat the enemy, you must strategize ahead. This isn't Call of Duty where one person can take down an entire team. You must use team-work and coordination. For example, you might use a Scout to run ahead and take down an Anti-Tank in order to let your Tanks roll in. This in turn would provide cover for your Scout behind the Tank. From then on, the Tank can take out clusters of enemies using a Mortar Strike. The strategies you can use to allow each class to complement each other are limitless. There are even some characters that do better when around certain other characters and thus receive boosts in their stats.

I just love this game so much and I just barely started playing it. Overall, I'd say if you're into RPG's of any sort, check this game out. Even if you just like tactical games too. This game is a beast to behold.