Choosing a Unit

Valyria Chronicles is a tactical RPG for the PS3. That's really all I knew going into the game, since I don't own a PS3. However, after spending just 15 minutes with the title makes me regret not owning the system. I had Chris play first so I could have a basic idea of how the game worked. I picked up the idea pretty fast, so I dove right in with a bit of help from a friendly SEGA representative.

First I had to choose my units. I had a tank (which I was required to take) and a dozen other positions to fill. I grabbed some lancers (high defense, okay attack, but strictly melee), a couple snipers (long distance shooting but laughable for defense), an engineer (the SEGA fellow told me it was "a support unit that didn't suck;" I gave him a patently disbelieving look, but he was right), and filled the rest with random units who had pictures or names I liked. It's a demo, I'm allowed to be somewhat shallow, right?

I started my turn and there were some symbols at the top. These are my movement tokens. Regular units consume one, but the tank consumes two. Some units can be re-used during the same cycle, but with diminishing returns: they can't move as far and don't attack as well. I only had eight movement tokens and I needed fourteen to move everyone, so I also had to make choices on who would advance and attack. First I advanced my tank, and I erupted into peals of laughter as I did. My tank let off a very cartoony "Rrrrrrr" (yes, actual floating r's) as it idled, and it said "Vroom!" as it took off, and more "rooooommmmm" as it moved forward. Awesome! Not enough tactical games make just moving the units really fun. I wanted to drive the tank around a bunch, but I had limited movement and so I parked it and took a shot at the nearest unit, blowing him sky high -- literally, he went flying upwards then flopped down to the ground in a cartoony manner. Harmless cartoon violence at its finest.

Next I picked a sniper, and she immediately had an event happen called "Big Sister." I asked our friendly SEGA fellow what was going on, and he explained that sometimes special events are triggered. Big Sister is one of the best ones you can get, and occurs when a bunch of units are near each other. While "Big Sister" is active, all her stats were improved! Sadly, I couldn't shoot while the buff was active so I moved forward (taking a bit of enemy fire), crouched down behind some cover and took my shot. RATATATATATATA on the screen while I shot, and I just about fall over laughing. This is really fun. I moved up a couple lancers since the enemy had a heavy lancer unit itself waiting, and a couple more gunners; I carefully aimed so the least number of shots would kill an enemy, then I let loose a volley, leaving one unit with a measley five HP. Drat! Next turn.

Moving Under Cover

Then the enemy got to move. They were under the same restriction I was with movements. One unit on the enemy side got a critical miss -- it was interesting to watch since my unit ducked down behind cover and took absolutely no damage. Then to my astonishment, the enemy shot out my tank's treads. Uh oh, I'll need to do something about that. Once the AI had finished moving and taking cover, something they did intelligently and with minimal fuss, it was my turn again.

Now it's time for the engineer to shine. I ran her over behind the tank, selected a wrench, and tada! My tank was fixed after some clanks and clunks. Even better, the engineer had a decent weapon, so I vowed to move her forward again. The tank rolled out and shot at a unit; it missed the unit but blew up the cover in front of it; excellent time for my lancer to move in and finish the unit off, which she did. I went to advance my gunner forward, but another event occured -- she was panicked and she had a lowered stat this time. I moved up my other sniper instead. Then I tried to move my engineer, but she also got a negative event -- allergies to the grass, oh no! I quickly moved her onto some road and ended my turn.

I finished off the enemy in the next two turns and that's where the demo ended. I had a lot of fun and I really wanted to replay the level right then and there. You'd be insane not to grab this title if you own a PS3.