seen: Valkyria Chronicles PC 2014

Valkyria Chronicles is a turn-based strategy, third-person real-time shooter, alternate-reality World War II JRPG, and miraculously that all comes together beautifully. Confused? It breaks down like this: You command a series of turn-based battles from the perspective of a top-down map, and are given a fixed number of command points per turn. However, when you use command point to select a unit, the camera zooms in to put you in an over the shoulder perspective. Your movement and weaponry is limited based on that unit’s class—Scout, Shocktrooper, Lancer, Engineer, or Sniper—and enemies will shoot at you if you get too close. When you aim, enemies stop attacking and you are shown a circle cross-hair to line up, representing that unit’s accuracy—but you only get one shot each time you select a unit, so a miss can be devastating to a strategy with no backup plan. When you are out of command points the enemy takes their turn, so positioning is incredibly important.

Valkyria Chronicles was an incredibly unique game when it was first released, and six years later I still haven’t found an experience quite like it. Apart from the cutscene resolution, its beautiful watercolor style and challenging gameplay haven’t aged a day. Yet it’s now bundled with all of its DLC for only $20/£15; a fantastic value for strategy fans and PC gamers who didn’t get a chance to play it the first time around. While the port quality might not win any awards, it does the game justice and brings Valkyria Chronicles to a platform where it can shine with other strategy game elite.