Valkyria Chronicles is unlike anything you have played before. It is an astonishing game that deserves to be heralded along with the many other high profile, high quality games that have already come out this year. But unfortunately, this diamond in the rough will no doubt get lost in the churned sea of quality and overhyped mediocrity, and that is a real shame.

It is a game that sits slap bang in the middle of several genres, and unlike most games that sit on genre divides rather uncomfortably, like a thorn is jabbing their arse-cheek, this one is settled on a stack of down filled pillows, seeking enlightenment amongst the chaos.

A Japanese role playing game (JRPG) real time strategy, (RTS) and a third person shooter (er…) all wrapped in to a package that eschews the greys and browns of modern gaming titles in favour of proper blue skies and lush greens. The bright, vivid colours splash everything in the game world and the game presentation.

It is the presentation that will strike you first. From start to finish Valkyria Chronicals is presented in such a way as to look like a water colour painting in motion. And it truly, sincerely does. The art style is high concept, and works beautifully. Every cut scene is like watching a stylised anime. The story is presented in a book, and you view each cut scene as episodes, or paragraphs that you select in the book which proceed to come to life. The menus are laced with the same beautiful artwork; in fact, the entire package exudes a touch of class that carries it to a level beyond nearly all other games of its category, and of many “blockbuster” titles.

The voice acting and story line really are a cut above the rest. Too often you are ripped out of the immersion of a game by shoddy voice acting (see: Oblivion) but not here, and the tales of warring continents, a young mans sudden rise to power, a love story, racism, prejudice and redemption will keep you gripped and leave you spellbound.

The concept of Valkyria Chronicals is as simple as it is beautiful. Neutral country Gallia is being invaded by the evil empire, naturally, and Gallia’s Lieutenant Gunther (that’s you), is put in charge of a squad that has to repel the invasion force after Gallia’s rich natural fuel resources.

Before you get to the business of battling, you can recruit soldiers from 5 different character classes each with their own abilities – Sniper, Scout, ShockTrooper, Lancer and Engineer. Each soldier has their own “potentials” which are essentially the same as perks and traits in other RPG’s, and add a personal touch to each recruit. As there are only 20 spaces in your squad, and some 60 recruits, you have to think carefully about the make up of your team, although you can sub-in, and out at any time between battles.

Battles lead us nicely to the game play. The game is turn based strategy played out in real time. The battle starts with a top down view of the area map with slots and icons that somewhat resembles a Risk board. You can deploy your troops in to the empty slots available on the map and the objective of the battle helps you define who you should draft in to fight.

Do you need to assault a base full of tanks? Then use lots of lancers. Got a heavy troop defence to plough through? Whack in a team of ShockTroops. The “paper, stone, scissors” style of troop balance works tremendously well and lends itself brilliantly to deep strategy and methodical thinking towards your victory. And methodical is the word, a fair few epic battles took me well over an hour to get through.

Once you have deployed the troops the strategy begins. You can order your squad around by using “command points” the number of orders you can dish out in a phase is relative to the number of soldiers that have the “Born Leader” perk in your squad.

Once you pick which of your troops you wish to control, the third person mechanics kick in and the unique blend of styles really become evident here. The view zooms down to ground level and you take control of that soldier for the duration of the turn. You can move the soldier a limited distance based on that units class and then perform an action, either healing, attacking, or a class specific action like healing or repair. Battles are won by fulfilling set objectives such as wiping out the opposition, capturing certain enemies, or occupying enemy base camps.

Once you have played a few battles and skirmished through the story you have the options to develop weapons and armour for your squad, improve your tank, raise the experience levels of character classes and much much more. Between cut scenes and fights it’s easy to burn hours on customizing as the level of detail is staggering, but thankfully is presented in a delightfully accessible and easy to learn manner.

The strategy mechanics in Valkyria Chronicles are complex, deep, and rewarding while the third person controls are solid, enjoyable, and unique in style. The game is wrapped up in a stunning art direction and presented to you as an incredibly involving RPG that will eat up the hours like there is no end in sight.

Despite the glowing praise and the fact that I fell in love with this game, I have a serious word of warning to those intending to purchase it. The methodical nature of Valkyria Chronicles means it’s certainly not for everyone, if you like Command and Conquer, XCOM, Risk, or JRPGs then this game is one of the very best of its class. If you like your action more immediate, and bloody, then steer clear of Valkyria Chronicals, because you will certainly be disappointed. Despite the superb genre straddling routine, the game is very much in a niche, and won’t appeal to everyone, but then it is all the better for it.

Who buys? RPG fans, Strategy fans, Anime fans, 3rd person shooter fans.

Who doesn’t? Impatient people. Thrill seekers

Verdict? 5/5 (strategy)

Three new launch titles managed to claim the top three spots on the UK Top Ten this week, with Call of Duty: World at War simultaneously attaining the No. 1 spot and becoming the UK’s 3rd fastest selling game of all time (1st and 2nd go to GTA IV and GTA: San Andreas respectively).

World at War has surprisingly managed to outsell its predecessor, Modern Warfare, at least in terms of sales to date. I’m a little stunned considering the massive strides forward COD4 made, whereas WAW is merely the same engine with a lick of paint, astonishing.

No.2 is World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, which is apparently the fastest selling PC title in the UK, not that I give a flying shit.

Fifa ’09, the behemoth of UK gaming is currently sitting at number 5, don’t expect a massive drop anytime soon either. Guitar Hero: World Tour, has moved up to No. 6, as THQ have released the complete instrument packages. I’m amazed that this, and Rock Band sell as well as they do considering the UK is being royally butt-fucked with regards to prices. Luckily the PS3 is not region locked so users can purchase a US one for almost half the price

Mario Kart Wii sits at number 8. Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 stays at 9, while WWE Smackdown VS Raw 2009 drops to tenth.

The full UK top ten follows below:

1.Call of Duty: World at War (Activision Blizzard)
2.World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (Activision Blizzard)
3.Football Manager 2009 (SEGA)
4.Gears of War 2 (Microsoft)
5.Fifa 09 (EA)
6.Guitar Hero: World Tour (Activision Blizzard)
7.Professor Layton and the Curious Village (Nintendo)
8.Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo)
9.Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 (Konami)
10.WWE Smackdown VS Raw 2009 (THQ)

This weeks charts also include the laughable debut entry of Wii Music at No. 16 – seriously, what an awful piece of software. I could perhaps understand its place in the market if other peripheral based music games had not been released, but someone actually green lighted the concept of “pretending” to play instruments. What the fuck?
Games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero World Tour give you something akin to the real deal, Wii music is a joke.

Surprisingly, Mirror’s Edge debuts at No. 20, which may climb, but considering the evolution it brings to traditional first person games it’s disappointing to see it chart so low. The fat person’s new best friend, Wii Fit, has dropped to No. 12, this time NOT due to hardware shortages, but instead due to novelty value shortages – expect this to power back up the charts come Christmas.

Fallout 3, this years best game, has dropped to No. 14, and in another huge surprise (for me at least) LittleBigPlanet has dropped to number 19 from 4 last week. The most innovative games package of the year not selling its way to a well deserved top spot is a fucking travesty. Look at the top ten, and tell me what is in there that deserves to be over Fallout 3 and LBP. Because I can’t see it.

Now, I don’t know what in God’s name Square Enix are advertising with this teaser on this website, but it looks fucking heavy.

I have no idea what they are planning, kotaku believe it may be a Bahamut Lagoon remake

This image contains the two staple Final Fantasy monsters/summons/espers/gfs/etc/etc, Bahamut and Alexander, although Alexander seems to have been taking growth hormones.

I never played Bahamut Lagoon, but I’m excited as to what the anouncement will actually be. Watch this space for updates…