First off, I would like to say, congratulations Sega. You are a company responsible for so many terrible Sonic games (expect more Sonic bias later in this blog) where anything you make not starring that guy manages to be alright. Then you come out of left field and come out with Valkryia Chronicles, the second game that made me question what I like and don't like. The first game was Shadow of the Colossus, and that game made me question the whole "Game = Art?" thing and a few other small thing. VC, though, has made me ponder five times as many things. Allow me to explain.

Valkyria Chronicles, as you should know (if you don't know, shame on you, you should know about it), is a game on the PS3 published by Sega. Of course, it's not Sonic and it put a new spin on the third person shooter genre so I looked into what this had to offer. Immediately, I had fallen in love with the characters, the setting, the story, even inanimate things. Yes, the Edelweiss had its own personality and even damn trees had personality. I could discuss how many characteristics a tree in the background has, but maybe another time. Anyway, there were so many things that I loved about this game, but there was one small thing: I just couldn't get into the gameplay.

At first, I believed that it was because it was one reason why this game didn't sell well; it was something new so people were scared to try it. I continued on and I think it may be because you have squad members that you have to control and make sure that they don't die. I am not a huge fan of real time strategy as it puts a lot of emphasis on the micromanagement thing, and I am pretty terrible when it comes to that. VC did a similar thing where I had to ensure that little if at all none of my troops died. Now that I think about it, VC is too unique so it wouldn't work well in almost any other genre.

Third Person Shooter? Too bland, needs something more. First Person Shooter? Way too played out. Real time Strategy? As a PS3 exclusive, a pure RTS would just be weird. I get this feeling that Sega was trying to find a gameplay mechanic that would work for their game, and after I tried other scenarios as to what mechanic would work for the game, TPS meets RTS seems to be the best approach for it in my opinion.

It was something I had to get used to but, on a separate note, the other thing that irks me is the continuity between cutscenes and the actual gameplay. What I mean by that is I saw one cutscene where Welkin and Alicia are in a shack, an enemy soldier comes in and he is wounded to death. This then leads to how enemy soldiers aren't all monsters and how war is bad, blah blah blah, enough stuff to make me feel bad. Then I get to the next skirmish, and hearing Alicia say "ENEMY UNIT SPOTTED" and giving a satisfying "hmph" when she kills someone just bothers me. Didn't she acknowledge how all this killing is terrible then she kills someone and seems to hit her climax when she gives her little smirk? Maybe a few days have passed in between the events or I missed a scene where Alicia has a mood swing and becomes a killing machine. Regardless, the transition is awkward and that bugs me. This little problem makes me think that another reason why the game didn't do well was the whole "WAR IS BAD" attitude the game pressed on you constantly and it kept pressing you until you were the size of a rug.

I must say that this game was able to alter my view on the gaming scene. How so? It tells me if the people behind VC decided put a lot of energy and time into making something unique such as a story where everyone is lovable...okay, except three or four people because they were arseholes, then they had to make some changes in the way the game plays. But I must ask this: Are gamers afraid of new ideas? If it isn't the newest FPS or the game focuses on story and development rather than how much blood can fill the screen, will it be played? Sega has made something that managed to make me wonder if new ideas or new spins to those ideas will become shunned if it doesn't focus on how many different guns your character can somehow carry.

So again, I congratulate Sega on making something that made me think more deeply about the gaming scene today than it should have. I used to hate you so much for milking Sonic terribly. But ever since you have released this game...well, I can't hate you but I can't love you. You've managed to change the way I see the game scene forever with one game. Bravo, good sirs.