This game gets a bad rep from being a sequel to a ps3 game on PSP so the maps gets scaled back signifcantly but this causes the game to hit a different gameplay feel that felt more strategic than a majority of 1's missions. Maps are cut up into chunks which causes a shift in how you take on missions. Scout rushing is still pretty good in this game and doesn't punished that hard until the 3rd game but having a variety of units in this is improved compared to 1.

Upgrading classes is extremely grindy and annoying, you don't need to go out your way to grind to get super units to beat the game but its implementation here feels too random due to it being based off drops you get at the end of missions. The story is definitely extremely mid and the cast of the characters are the worst in the series. Still the game is worth playing and i hope more people look at it with a open mind.

It's okay to skip to 3 if your mid resistance isn't high enough.

Es difícil no ver a este juego como un downgrade en comparación a su predecesor. Los cambios hechos a las unidades ya existentes y el sistema de cambio de clases genuinamente agregan a la experiencia, y si bien en ocasiones se pueden llegar a sentir como limitantes, son estas mismas las que te incentivan a experimentar con las formaciones y el uso que le das a las unidades en las misiones.
También me gustó el como profundiza la presencia y tu relación con los demás personajes secundarios que sirven como unidades. Si bien en el primer juego las unidades tenían rasgos de personalidad bastante bien marcados, su relevancia fuera de las misiones era prácticamente nula en comparación a Welkin, Alicia, Largo y Rosie. En comparación, la presencia que tienen los personajes secundarios con sus secciones de "Vinculo" y sus misiones de compañero en verdad me hace creer que existe un vinculo genuino de compañerismo entre todos los personajes. Aún así, siento que muchos personajes secundarios terminaron con personalidades extremadamente arquetípicas. Esto también podría decirse de las unidades del primer juego, pero en ese caso, viendo que su rol se limitaba a solo aparecer en las misiones, era de hecho algo positivo, pues era su único momento para exponer su forma de ser al jugador y hacían un buen trabajo en dejártela clara, acá por el contrario, su simpleza hace que puedan llegar a caer en lo cliché la mayoría de las veces que aparecen fuera de las misiones, y si bien las misiones de compañeros por si solas son bastante buenas y presentan escenarios interesantes a superar, muchas sufren de que la historia que te lleva a esa misión es bastante... boba.
En algunas esta no es el caso, pero muchas misiones de compañero se dan por estupideces como "Ponerle laxante a la comida de un miembro del grupo y tener que superar la misión en menos de 8 turnos antes de que se cague encima" o "Otra clase esta ocupando el escenario de la escuela, así que hay que ganarles para quedárnoslo", y esta clase de tonterías llegan a afectar la historia principal.
Es interesante también el como decide continuar la historia tras los acontecimientos del primer juego. Es bastante lógico que tras la revelación hecha sobre la monarquía al final del primer juego, el conflicto social en Galia escalara hasta una guerra civil. Por desgracia, pese a lo interesante de la premisa y los momentos genuinamente buenos que tiene la historia, siento que sufre bastante de una disonancia tonal debido a lo cómico que pretende ser en la mayoría de ocasiones. Pese a eso, la obra es bastante consiente de la importancia del drama y el tono mas jocoso del inicio se reduce en gran medida llegando al acto final de la historia principal, lamentablemente debido al ritmo que esta avanza, esta parte de la historia puede tardar demasiado en llegar, ya que el ritmo en general se siente algo lento debido al sistema de avance de las misiones, el cual te obliga a completar misiones menores antes de seguir con aquellas que avanzan la historia.
En general, si bien en mi opinión el juego no llega a igualar a su original, puedo notar el esfuerzo por suplir las limitaciones que debe haberles generado el pasar a trabajar de la PS3 a la PSP con cosas nuevas, y si bien al inicio no me dejo con un buen sabor de boca, al final del día fue mucho mas lo que disfrute que lo que odié.

School setting and war never work well together and here is another example. The story is hard to take seriously. Compared to the first game (and third game), side characters are more fleshed out with their own quests, but the main characters are completely charmless and cliche. Both graphic fidelity and art style toke a huge blow. Maps are segmented due to hardware limitation as well, which does not hurt the core combat system too much. The nonexistent difficulty, on the other hand, reduces the fun factor quite a bit. The new elaborated class system is a plus and gives the game a stronger RPG flavor. Overall Valkyria Chronicles 2 is a step down from the excellent first game, saved by the solid core gameplay mechanics.

Valkyria Chronicles II sets you right in the middle of a war between a government and rebels of Gallia, but what you really get into are the characters themselves and how they cope with each other. The game is set in a fictional WWII type setting and is completely original. This turned based strategy game can get pretty complex, and is a lot to swallow at first, but after a while, you’ll get the hang of it.

The game is pretty menu heavy, especially before deploying into missions. You can level up your classes (instead of individual characters) as well as produce weapons for each class, and your tank. These are simple enough, but you have to unlock new weapons by leveling up. What disappointed me about this is that the weapon upgrades are very minimal and it’s not until later levels that the stat boosts are large.


Once you do all this you can re-arrange your groups because each mission requires the right kind of people. There are different classes like Lancers (anti-tank), Scouts, Shocktroopers (Heavy Machine Gunners), Engineers (medics), Armored Techs (melee) etc. You can only have 6 people deployed per missions, and only 5 for each area. While this may be a pain since you’ll have 5 guys in one area and 1 in another there are strategic workarounds for this. Once you start missions you get an overhead map that shows your guys and the enemies. Killing enemies is as simple as moving them around in real-time, but each character has a different stamina meter, so watch out.

Each character uses one CP (turns) and tanks use two, so you really have to choose your moves wisely. While you’re moving around to position enemies can shoot at you, but you can take cover behind sandbags. Killing enemies consist of getting the right amount of shots in before you reach your limit. Instead of relying on just draining HP you have a shot limit and when you aim at an enemy (depending on their type as well) another number will show how many shots it will take to kill that enemy. Headshots are always your best bet, but getting in close works too.


You can also find shortcuts throughout the map since most have you moving to different areas. Using a tank you can build bridges and flank the enemy or build ladders. Once you capture an enemy camp you can put your troops on standby and deploy them on captured camps in other areas. Be aware though because of enemies and recapture those and render you unable to deploy in the new area unless you have at least one person there.

The battles can be pretty intense, but they also require perfect strategy and it seems that most of the time only one will work. Certain missions have special requirements like escorting, or certain players must be deployed. If you find that you need other abilities you can retrain troops to different classes (if you’re short on one class) or change their abilities like making a scout a sniper, or make a Lancer a Mortar. Sometimes perks will be activated on the field that does good or bad depending on the character. If a character doesn’t like one it’s near it’ll have a negative effect. Details like this can really let you pin down a strategy, but most others can ignore it.


Outside the battlefield, you move around campus and talk to people to progress the story, but that’s pretty much all there is to it. The game looks really good with a nice anime art style, and the voice acting is decent, but not amazing. The small map size will make fans of the PS3 original angry, but it’s perfect for a portable system. The game is pretty stat and menu heavy, and the difficulty spikes may make you actually give up altogether. I couldn’t get past the second story based escort missions due to the insanely powerful enemies, and you have to get the strategy down perfect or it just won’t work out. Other than this the game is superbly fun and with about 40 hours of gameplay, you should be kept busy.

How did this series survive to get us to the excellent number 4? 1 was a breath of fresh air when it came out on the PS3 and remains one of my favorite games to this day, but 2 should have absolutely killed the franchise. Uninteresting characters and really horrible map design (due to hardware limitations) that leads to really uninteresting gameplay. If you thought the scout rush was overpowered in 1 and 4, you've seen nothing. There is no reason to use anything other than a scout or shock trooper unless the game mandates you destroy a tank.

I remember thinking this game sucked back when it came out, but I decided to give it another chance because seriously. How bad could it be? Did you even PLAY 4? That shit rocks! ...Nope, I was right. Avoid it.