Valkyria Chronicles 2

About Valkyria Chronicles 2

Sega CS3 released Valkyria Chronicles 2 on January 21, 2010 for PlayStation Portable. This tactical RPG sequel arrives two years after the original story ends in 1930s Europa. You command a squad of Gallian Military Academy cadets fighting a civil war against the fresh army. The game runs on a redesigned CANVAS engine that renders over twenty unique environments across more than two hundred missions. It brings the signature watercolor aesthetic to the handheld format while shifting focus from established soldiers to inexperienced students learning the harsh realities of combat and revolution.

Gameplay

The BLiTZ system handles real-time movement with tactical pause points where you issue orders. You navigate squad members across multi-sector maps that expand as you capture enemy bases. New unit classes let you swap roles or upgrade existing soldiers mid-campaign to suit changing threats. Ad-hoc multiplayer adds versus and co-op modes for local battles. A typical session involves selecting a squad, moving units through cover to flank enemies, and executing special attacks during the action phase. The interface feels fluid on the PSP despite handling complex positioning and resource management without lag or confusion.

What Players Think

PlayPile members have logged this title with an average completion rate of 87 percent. Critics gave it a Metacritic score of 83, while our community averages a solid 4.2 out of 5 stars. Users cite the mission variety as a major plus, with 60 percent of players reporting over twenty hours of playtime. Community moods lean heavily toward nostalgic appreciation for the art style and frustration with occasional difficulty spikes in late-game campaigns. Review snippets frequently mention the emotional weight of the story but note that some unit classes feel underutilized compared to the roster depth of the predecessor.

PlayPile's Take

Valkyria Chronicles 2 is worth your time if you like tactical combat on handhelds and want a solid 200-plus mission campaign. The price on second-hand markets remains reasonable given the content volume. Players who finish the game unlock every available achievement, which takes serious dedication. It lacks the polished narrative flow of the first entry but offers more strategic variety through its map expansion system. Skip this if you prefer linear storylines over grinding through tactical scenarios. The multiplayer modes provide enough replay value to justify picking it up today.

Storyline

From the wikia: "Set two years after the events of Valkyria Chronicles, the story revolves around a civil war within the small Europan nation of Gallia. A rebel group made up of dissatisfied aristocrats and like-minded soldiers and citizens calling themselves the Gallian Revolutionary Army rises up in arms in order to wage an ethnic cleansing campaign against Gallians of Darcsen descent. However, with the intense fight against the Empire having left Gallia's regular army in an exhausted state, there is initially little to stop the insurrection from gaining momentum. Laws preventing the formation of a national militia to fight fellow Gallians force the government to deploy military academy cadets to the front lines in order to combat and defeat the GRA forces."