Battle against the Empire and take back your homeland Gallia.
The game takes place in a fictional region called Europa. Welkins country, Gallia, is invaded by the Empire forces to take control the ragnite resources, a rare resource that powers up the daily and war appliances such as the tanks. After a battle in his hometown, he decided to join the militia along a newfound friend, Alicia and his own adopted sister, Isara.
The games story is fairly unique and very interesting, The games story is an alternate retelling of World War II in a fictional country, and the game tells the story from both sides of war fairly good. Major characters are fairly fleshed out, with good amount of development spent on them. I like all of the major characters in the game, whether they are good or evil. Minor characters such as your own Squad 7 units are highly likable, as they have their own characteristics and side-stories that can be unlocked upon playing the game. However, there are no major cutscenes for most of your Squad 7 members, so you have to unlock their own Character Entries to read their own history further.
Gameplay
1) Exploration and Progression Section
View regular story cutscenes and complete story battles to progress in the game.
The games progression is very simple. The games story is told in a book, and you have to click an entry in a Chapter, and you will view a cutscene, and possibly engage a battle. Many of a Chapters entries are mandatory to view, and they are the most important entries in the Chapter. There are optional entries in certain Chapters, where they can be viewed to get insight in other characters or the games sidestories. There are also optional Chapters that can be bought which are called Reports, where they also contain side-stories and possibly reward you upon completing it, such as unlocking Hidden Potentials for certain main units.
Virtually, there are not much exploration in the game other than during battles, which will be explained later in the combat section. You can however, visit different locations to obtain Medals and new weapons after certain story battles, learn new Orders, and other tasks.
2) Upgrading, Leveling, and Customisation Section
Upgrade your weapons via R&D to get upper hand in battles.
Leveling is done a bit different than standard RPG or strategy games. First, you obtain EXP by completing story battles or skirmishes. Depending on how fast you complete a battle, you will obtain higher amount of experience points and money, as well as defeating certain targets such as Enemy Aces or Tanks.
Once you have accumulated enough EXP, you can spend them to level up a Class, or multiple Classes if you have enough EXP. For example, to level up the Scouts class to level 2, you need to spend around 500 EXP. You can do this as many times as you want as long as you have enough EXP. The best part about this leveling system is that if you level up a Class, all units of that class will level up as well, so you dont have to worry getting underleveled soldiers as you progress in the game. Also, leveling up a class to certain levels may earn you a new Order to be used in combat, and the units of that particular Class will learn new Potentials.
Money also can be obtained by completing story battles and skirmishes. You can use the money to upgrade your weapons for every Class, Tank parts, and your soldiers gear such as Grenades or Blast Suits. You may also customise each soldiers weaponry in the game differently, or you may also assign the same weapon to every units in a Class. This however, applies only to standard issue weapons that you bought via R&D.
Not only you can upgrade your soldiers weaponry, you may also upgrade your Tanks weaponry, defense, and buy new Tank parts. Tank parts have certain size allocation, and you can only allocate a certain amount of Tank parts within a limit. They can be helpful to increase certain stats for your Tank unit, such as its Accuracy.
3) Combat Section
Spend CP to control your units in the game.
The combat system of this game is certainly the major highlight. The games combat is strategy based RPG, where you can command your units (soldiers) of different classes to attack enemies, move around in the battlefield, and do other actions. Before you start a battle, you need to place a number of units at designated areas. Some key units like Alicia will give you extra CP, so deploy as many as key units to gain the maximum amount of CP for every battle. You can only have maximum 20 units in a roster, and you can swap your units anytime with the backup units. In certain battles, you may only assigned a limited amount of units, or you might not be able to assign them at all.
At every turn, you will be given a certain amount of CP (Command Points). Controlling a foot-soldier consumes one CP, whereas controlling your tank consumes two CPs. You can use as many CPs as you want during the turn as long as you have enough. Otherwise, you can pass the current Turn, and save up the CPs for your next Turn. You may also deploy any units in by spending one CP for each one if you have extra spots for them during battle. As your current Turn is over, enemies will now use up their own CP to control their own units to attack you, to move to better locations, and others. In some of the major battles, enemies also can use Orders to increase their units stats.
When commanding a unit, you will go into third-person view of the unit. You can move him or her around with your given AP, which differs for every Class. For example, Scouts can move further than ShockTroopers or Snipers. While controlling them, you can attack enemies, get behind sandbags for cover, or do other actions such as going back to reserve or activate a switch. Strategic placement of your units are vital to finish every battle in this game. Be aware that moving your controlled unit around enemies may cause them to crossfire against you. This goes to your units as well, as any enemies that enter your units range will cause your units to crossfire at the enemies.
Aim at enemies vital spots.
As you aim to attack an enemy, enemies will not attack you and you can freely aim at the enemys head for easy headshots, which deal more damage than regular body shots. As you attack an enemy, they may either dodge your attack or suffer your attack. Should the enemy survive, they will counterattack against you. It is highly recommended to fire at enemies blindsides to prevent them from counterattacking or evading your attack, such as their backs or sides. Also, having units with the same Class as the one control nearby while attacking may allow them to assist fire with you during your attack. Tanks also have vital areas to be destroyed easily, so you must find it our during the battles.
Killing off certain enemies such as the red-coloured soldiers will deplete their maximum CP. This is highly recommended as the computer A.I. is quite smart in utilising their CP to attack your units if they can. Likewise, if they managed to KO your key units like Alicia, your maximum CP will drop as well. To KO an enemy, you need to deplete their HP, and KOed enemy units will not be able to do anything.
Be also aware that any of your KOed units can be dead permanently if they are not rescued quickly. Should this happen however, you can take new recruits and use them in future battles.
The objectives of different story battles are varied. For example, you need to take over enemy main camp to win the battle, control a certain unit and move him to the designated objective point, and others. The methods to achieve the objectives in this game are fairly varied, so you wont feel bored playing in this game as many of the games story battles fairly unique and not repetitive much.
Certain Potentials can be a lifesaver or a bane in battles.
You have control on five different Classes for your units. Scouts are specialised for movement and can spot enemies from afar, but have only moderate firepower of their own and moderate defense. Shocktroopers are specialised in taking out all regular enemy units as well as having high defense against gunfire, but has poor movement range like Lancers. Lancers are specialised in taking out tanks and have high defense against explosive attacks, but has poor movement range.. Engineers are specialised in repairing your Tank as well as healing your units. and Snipers are specialised in taking out enemy units with their sniper rifles, but have poor HP and movement. Depending on what kind of battle, deploying the correct units with the correct Class can win the battle for you easily. Most of the time however, it is wise to deploy a balanced amount of units of different Classes to suit most battle conditions.
Each unit is unique, with their own sets of Potentials and stats. Potentials are abilities that can trigger during battle. However, there is a small amount of negative Potentials and positive Potentials. Certain Potentials may activate with different conditions, such as the Tank Slayer Potential has a chance of activating when the Lancer is near to tanks. There are two categories of Potentials, which are Personal Potentials and Battle Potentials. Battle Potentials are achieved by leveling up the Classes, whereas Personal Potentials can be unlocked when certain units achieve great things in combat, such as taking over enemy camps. Utilising the correct units with good sets of Potentials are highly recommended to play in this game.
4) Gameplay Conclusion
Overall excellent gameplay.
Despite the linear story progression, the games variety of battles make this game fairly great, and less monotonous as each story battle in this game will not be exactly same with the other. The high diversity of units with different Potentials make this games highly fun, as experimenting on different units is highly recommended. The combat system is also extremely effective and fun to play. Overall, this game has excellent gameplay.
Graphics
Creative and beautiful graphics.
This game has amazing and beautiful graphics, utilising cel-shaded graphics for both characters and environments. Characters are well-designed with distinct appearances, and even the regular soldiers that you use in the game have recognisable appearances. Enemy soldiers, tanks, bosses, and the environments are well-designed as well.
Sound
Good soundtrack as well as great voice acting.
Overall soundtrack is good, fitting each of the situation in the game. However, many of themes played in the game feels cinematic, yet they may feel appeal to casual listeners out of gaming.
The English voice acting is well-done, with each voice actor did great job for their roles, for both main characters and regular soldiers that you control in the game. There is also Japanese voice track available in this game, so anyone who is not interested with the English voice acting should try out the Japanese voice track.
Replay Value
Moderate replay value.
This game has moderate replay value. You can play the whole game again in the second playthrough and unlock any hidden weapons that you have missed, get A ranks on all Battles and Skirmishes in three different difficulties, collect all Medals, and others.
Conclusion
An excellent game.
Personally, I think this game is excellent. With great story and characters, well-done gameplay, beautiful graphics and music, and most of all, great combat system make this game a worthy purchase. It is one of my favourite PS3 RPGs, and I highly recommend people to check out this game.
Score
Story: 9/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 9/10
Final Score: 9.0/10.0 or 36/40
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Well-done, great and emotional storyline.
- Many likable characters, both major and minor characters.
- Amazing gameplay.
- Exciting combat.
- Varied and fun story battles.
- Great diversity and specialisation of Classes.
- Beautiful graphics and art style.
- Good soundtrack.
- Good English voice acting.
- Dual-audio.
Cons
- Minor technical issues such as slowdowns at certain points in the game.
- Occasionally dumb enemy A.I..
