Recent reviews by echochrome

A wonderfully cozy time commemorating one of the best times of the year. I love all the effort that went into these levels, and it's hard to beat the price point. Give it a spin, and remember to support the Jingle Jam!

This is honestly one of my absolute favorite games of all time. If you are a fan of turn-based strategy games, I would highly recommend giving this game a look. It offers a unique take on the genre with a combination of standard turn-based strategy and 3rd-person-shooter-esque gameplay, and it creates a beautiful world in which every single character (even non-story ones) has a unique personality and identity. The story is perhaps not the most revolutionary, but it is still compelling enough to keep the player interested until the end, and it creates a number of intriguing protagonists and antagonists. This is a game which may have flown under a number of gamers' radars when it came out on the PS3 in 2008, but it is more than worth a look for fans of strategy games. It's a fresh approach to the turn-based strategy genre and an overall beautiful game.


Story-wise, the game is fairly decent, although it admittedly isn't exactly on the level of a BioWare game. The game is set in a fictional version of Europe in a small nation called Gallia which is caught between two warring super-nations to the east and west. Gallia is a neutral nation, but as it holds great mineral wealth the eastern Empire one day invades. You'll be leading a regiment of the nation's militia forces in battle to defeat the Empire, who are rumored to have a near-invincible mythical being known as a "Valkyria" on their side. There is heavy emphasis on the characters in the game, and although some of the character development is perhaps a bit predictable, the game does an excellent job of really bringing each character (even the minor, non-story ones) to life and giving them distinct personalities.

So, the concept of the game: your role is to carry out the actual battles between the militia and the Empire. Battles are turn-based and proceed by moving your units one-by-one throughout the battle field. Where this gets interesting is in what happens after you select a unit on the overview map. Once a unit is selected, the game changes into a 3rd-person shooter: you will be able to move the unit in a 3D environment and must avoid enemy fire while moving into position to execute an attack. During their turn, a unit will only be able to move a limited distance (represented as the resource "AP"), and they will get one attack per move, during which you line up their actual shot yourself. This may seem slightly strange, but once you play the first few missions in the game it will all make perfect sense. It's a battle system which is fairly unique in the world of strategy games and is executed very well. Perhaps the only thing I'd criticise is the inability to see a preview of some enemy positions on the map when you are choosing which units to deploy before a mission, but that's far from a game-breaking flaw. The mouse-and-keyboard controls are more than serviceable, and the game also supports using a gamepad, which may feel slightly more natural, but is by no means necessary to enjoy the game.

Part of the fun of the game is in building your squad that you will be leading into battle. You can select from five classes of units in the game: scouts (high mobility but low power), shocktroopers (high offense but low mobility), lancers (anti-tank units), engineers (can resupply and disarm mines), and snipers (low mobility and defense but excellent range). You also have one tank in your squad, which you must keep alive at all costs (failing to do so causes a game over). Perma-death is a feature of the game (once a squad member dies, they're gone forever), so fans of Fire Emblem should feel right at home here.

The game becomes a bit like an RPG by allowing you to hand-pick the units to use in your squad and how to upgrade their equipment and provide experience. Each of these units will have unique inherent characteristics (called "Potentials") which will activate during battle and either increase or decrease their combat capability in certain situations. For example, one unit may get improved attack when firing on a particular unit class, while another one might receive reduced defense when crouching behind sandbags, while still others may suffer a steady HP drain when in a sandy environment. These inherent qualities make you genuinely have to think when selecting the units to use in a mission, and they also do a very good job in bringing the characters to life and creating their own distinct identities even without them playing roles in the story. You can start to feel quite attached to the characters in your squad over the course of the game, particularly with the threat of perma-death looming in each engagement. You can also buy a number of upgrades for each unit class, including choosing different paths for weapons to be used by that class in battle. For instance, you can choose to equip one lancer unit with an anti-tank rocket, while another could use an anti-personnel mortar. Finally, when levelling up units in the squad, you level up entire classes at a time, which removes the need to babysit certain units to level them up (a la Fire Emblem).

In terms of graphics, the art is absolutely phenomenal. Everything looks like a painting in motion. This is one of the first games I've seen that manages to make war look beautiful. The soundtrack does a very good job of bringing the game's world to life, although some of the tracks can become slightly repetitive. Still, it shouldn't really be a cause for annoyance, since the music is still quite good (composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto, composer of the music in the Final Fantasy Tactics Advance series and for FF XII).

Overall, the main campaign can take maybe 20-50 hours to complete, depending on how much time you spend customizing your squad and performing side missions for extra experience. For replay value, you are able to freely go back through the campaign missions after completing it once. There are also a number of side-missions (called "Skirmishes") which you can complete on various difficulty levels. The higher difficulty levels for skirmishes are also quite genuinely challenging, and give you a real sense of accomplishment when you complete them.

So, my verdict. This game is a unique experience, and it's a very good strategy game which fully deserves your attention. If you are at all interested in turn-based strategy games, I completely suggest giving this game a try. I could not recommend this game more highly.

I'm so happy that it's come to Steam since it didn't really get enough exposure on the PS3. So, would I recommend buying this game? 100% YES.

Slightly simplistic JRPG with relatively basic story, but a truly gorgeous world with some of the best artwork I've ever seen in a video game. Worth it for ~10ish hours of a unique experience and a decent JRPG.