PS3

Two battles last night. I had two hour-long sessions, so I didn’t think I had the time to get stuck into chapter seven, so I first did a side mission – The Vegetable Incident. A great change of pace, this was a night-time operation with only three characters sneaking through a village to take out some tanks that were blocking a trade route. As well as the darkness and the limited squad, the other change was that one person being taken down meant mission failure. The first time I tried the mission I died about two-thirds of the way through the village, after coming across an unexpected gun emplacement and trying to take it out by, er, running at it with a character on half health. That was an idiotic move and I paid for it.

The second time I tried I used Largo to take down the gun emplacement from afar, then moved in on the tanks. Unfortunately, I’d wrongly assumed I’d taken out all the enemies bar the tanks and that I was well-hidden in some grass, so I was surprised by an enemy shocktrooper throwing a grenade at my guys and knocking them out of cover. I just managed to survive until my turn and with my three command points I got Welkin to kill the enemy trooper, then got Largo to take out the two tanks with two shots. Job done. Phew.

So, that’s the first mission I’ve had to redo. Entirely my fault – and I was very lucky to finish it off the second time I tried. I must try to be less careless. I have a feeling that any carelessness is going to be heavily punished in missions to come.

For my second session I decided to tackle the third skirmish map, which is basically a replay of the woodland mission I’d done in the story previously. This time things went better, as nobody died permanently, but it was a bit messy. I tried using a sniper only to discover a fence in his way and spent far too long dithering over how best to approach the southern enemy camp. Still, the final assault on the eastern camp was beautiful. I’d already taken out the tank there – thanks Walter! – and stormed in from all directions. I concentrated on approaching from the rear to soften things up, then took out a couple more guys from the west, than ran a shocktrooper down from the northern entrance to mop things up and take the camp. Lovely.

Well, golly.

Had an epic battle this morning. It was the chapter five fight and I had to take out an enemy supply base in some woods. I chose a reasonably good set of soldiers for the fight but unfortunately, not knowing what was ahead, I positioned them badly. I won in the end, but it was hairy. Several scouts were knocked out and I only rescued them by the skin of my teeth and my shocktropper Alex died permanently. On the plus side, though, Vyse was an absolute hero in his solo raid to take out an anti-tank gun and Largo and Dallas made a great team when it came to getting behind the tank in the enemy’s main camp.

So, yes, I won, but I think I only got a D rank, I think.

I then bought some new cut scenes, read all the background information I’ve unlocked so far and tried to do the first skirmish map in one turn. Turns out it’s very easy to do using two CP with a single scout at level five.

Brilliant game. Just brilliant.

An Easter weekend seems to be a good time to start a time-consuming game you’ve been wanting to play, but haven’t started because you don’t think you have enough time to devote to it.

So, then, Valkyria Chronicles. Lots and lots of cut scenes, an interesting story with likeable characters, some of the most gorgeous graphics ever seen and, when you’re not watching cut scenes or fiddling with your squad and weapons, some incredibly fun turn-based strategy battles that don’t feel quite like any other game.

I’ve put in about four hours so far and I’ve been loving it. I don’t even mind all the cut scenes, for some reason. I think it’s just because I’m starting to care about what’s going on, even if the main character is a bit too good to be true.