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.