$19.99Valkyria Chronicles™ War, painted in watercolour
A war story told like a watercolour painting, with tactics to match. Command Squad 7 in a fictional 1930s Europe, mixing turn-based planning with direct control of every soldier and tank. A heartfelt story, a hand-drawn look that still holds up, and all the DLC on board.
Is Valkyria Chronicles™ worth it?
Valkyria Chronicles™ is worth it if…
- you like turn-based tactics with a story that carries the whole game
- you want a war story about the people fighting it, not just the battles
- you enjoy XCOM or Fire Emblem and want something with a different rhythm
- you care how a game looks, and a hand-painted style sounds like your kind of thing
Screenshots
A battlefield that looks painted by hand
The CANVAS engine renders everything like watercolour paintings in motion: sketchy characters, soft backgrounds, gunshots that burst into comic-book letters. It is a look that has aged gracefully, and the animated cutscenes carry the big story moments with real care. Nearly everything is voiced, and the orchestral score does a lot of the emotional lifting. Between battles the war is framed as chapters, like a book being retold, which suits a story this personal. Few games look like anything else; this one genuinely does.
Tactics you play with your own hands
On your turn you pick a soldier, then personally run them across the field, take aim and fire, all while enemy fire keeps ticking. Position matters: thirty different battlefields give you terrain to use, from trenches to open ground, and each class, scouts to lancers, handles a different job. You also drive a tank, upgrade weapons, and issue orders that buff your troops, which can turn a losing fight around. Missions can be saved mid-battle, so a wasted shot does not cost you the whole chapter. One honest note: enemy turns cannot be skipped, and they can drag.
