![]() Visually, it looks amazing the pencil-shaded anime visuals that were so striking at 720p look even more beautiful running on higher resolutions at 60 frames per second, though, the pre-rendered cutscenes are reportedly fixed at 720p. Of course, all this is old news to you if you've already played Valkyria on PS3, so let's cut to the chase: this is a mostly stellar port. However, it's not unusual to have to sit through 10-15 minutes of cutscenes before and after missions, and that quickly leads to a feeling that you're watching more than you're playing – particularly at the beginning, when Valkyria intersperses short tutorial skirmishes with piles of non-interactive dialogue and character exposition. Thankfully, many of them are fun or at least interesting to watch, especially if you're invested in the characters and how they develop over Valkyria's 30-40-hour runtime – and odds are you will be, because Valkyria manages to wring some unexpectedly emotional moments out of what at first seems like a fairly formulaic war story. The downside of the heavy focus on story is that it translates into tons of lengthy cutscenes, most of which are just conversations between talking heads. Practically speaking, these are really just brief, barely noticeable bonuses or debuffs (except for extreme cases, like a pacifist arbitrarily refusing an order to shoot), but they're a neat touch nonetheless. Individual quirks can also affect their combat prowess: someone with a pollen allergy will lose health if they get too close to plants, for example, while characters identified as "city kids" will have higher defense when standing on paved roads. Each recruitable squad member has their own personality, backstory, and idiosyncrasies, from head-in-the-clouds student-turned-tank commander Welkin Gunther, to panic-prone would-be actress Edy Nelson. Outside of combat, Valkyria puts an enormous emphasis on story and character. ![]() On the other hand, if you don't remember to save frequently, failure could fling you right back to the mission's start. ![]() There's also no auto-saving or checkpoints, although you can save manually at any time, which lets you create little safety nets before risky moves. All this risk adds up to some incredibly satisfying victories, but it also leads to a lot of frustration in the meantime – particularly if you realize, halfway through a long and grueling battle, that you've been pursuing a wrongheaded strategy the whole time, or left yourself totally unprepared for a second-stage surprise attack. Not only does correcting them eat into your limited supply of moves per turn, but errors tend to get your troops shot down – and if an enemy reaches them before you can, they'll die for good. Sudden realizations like that can lead to some incredibly satisfying victories, but in the meantime, mistakes are costly. You might, for example, endlessly hammer a powerful enemy with your Lancer rocket troops, only to realize that it's a better idea to simply group your lighter troops closer together so they all lay down supporting fire when one of them is actively shooting. Careful pre-mission squad selection, teamwork, and creative thinking are all encouraged. Valkyria's 30-odd missions (including non-story skirmishes and side missions) are elaborate, smartly designed, and frequently pit you against seemingly impossible odds and unique threats that include giant supertanks, indestructible machine gun nests, and a gauntlet of mines and searchlights that you'll have to navigate while injured. ![]() That's not to undersell the importance of strategy, though. Quickly aiming or exiting a move to keep a soldier from being shot at feels strange and artificial at first, but eventually Valkyria's unusual combat rhythms become second nature. And while enemies can't move during your turn, they'll open fire if your active soldier is in range (unless he or she is aiming, which is weird), making quick reflexes almost as vital as strategic thinking to keeping your troops alive. You're limited only by their Action Points – actually a meter that shrinks as you move – and their ability to snap off just one attack per move. It shares a few similarities with XCOM – turn-based combat, distinct heroes divided into classes, and a base where you can research new equipment and level up troops between missions, to name a few – but it infuses its battles with shooter elements, letting you freely move individual soldiers and aim their shots. Re-imagining World War II as a fantasy-tinged clash between a sinister, vaguely German empire and the scrappy little country of Gallia, Valkyria focuses on a single militia squad fighting small-scale battles in a much bigger war.
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