Valkyria Chronicles Should Be Interesting

I would probably describe myself as a "JRPG purist", if you will. My favorite genre of games is traditional Japanese-style RPGs. Bring on the cliché stories, the turn-based battles and the spikey-haired, emo heroes.

However, once you start getting into the realm of strategy RPGs, I tend to lose interest rather quickly. The game play is usually incredibly different and, in my opinion, any complex stories that the writers endeavor to build get lost in the endless grind to level up your characters and their various classes which is, in many cases, required to advance.

This isn't to say I haven't enjoyed my fair share of SRPGs, such as last year's Jeanne d'Arc, which was a great game in which the story didn't get too bogged down in endless leveling. It was balanced, if you will. What turned me off of Final Fantasy Tactics almost right out of the gate was the fact that I actually had to stop and level my characters up for a battle that occurred after roughly 15 minutes of game play. In other words, right at the very beginning of the story, I had to drop everything and do random battles to level my characters up to progress. One of the most celebrated SRPGs of all time turned me off from the entire genre, with Jeanne d'Arc being the exception.

With all that being said, I'm actually rather interested in Valkyria Chronicles, which was recently released in Japan, exclusive to the PS3. For one, RPG fans who own a PS3 are rather starved for attention - the market is saturated with FPS titles and very, very few RPGs. That alone makes me interested in any form of RPG that will be hitting the console.

On top of that, however, its rather difficult to classify Valkyria Chronicles within the atmosphere of RPGs. Its a hybrid, no doubt. At its core its a Japanese-style strategy RPG, but it includes basic JRPG elements such as turn-based battles, as well as...first person shooting. Wait, what? Check out these in-game videos, especially the first two. How interesting does that look?

Needless to say, I'm keeping my eye on this one, which is looking to be released here in North America toward the end of this year.