RPG Talk: Valkyria Chronicles

In which I talk (write) about RPGs from a storytelling perspective...

Platform: PS3 (also on PS4, Switch, and Windows)
Release: 2008

Valkyria Chronicles won my second Reader's Pick poll for my Ko-Fi supporters, and it's a game I've been meaning to play for years.

Taking place in a pseudo-WWII setting, Valkyria Chronicles follows the story of Lieutenant Welkin Gunther and his squad's exploits during the Second Europan War as they defend their small nation of Gallia against the invading East Europan Imperial Alliance (hereafter called the Empire).

Though the bulk of the war is actually between the Empire and the Federation, the two superpowers on the Europan continent, Gallia is closer to being Switzerland, being politically neutral and opposed to forming alliances with other countries. Similar to Switzerland, Gallia also requires all citizens to receive military training as part of their education, so when Welkin is conscripted, it's not surprising that he's quickly given a command (being university educated) and thrown on the battlefield. He probably needed a refresher, but not the full boot camp.

Unsurprisingly, the Second Europan War is over resources, specifically the MacGuffin known as ragnite. It fuels everything from tanks to medicine. The Empire wants more and invaded the Federation; and later, to get at even more ragnite, it invaded Gallia. This means that Valkyria Chronicles is centered around just one smaller front in a larger war. In fact, the game itself is presented as a book by the narrator Irene Koller called On the Gallian Front. We really don't know much about what's happening in the larger war, whether things are going well or poorly for either side. But we know how Gallia is faring, and for our characters, who are the ones with boots on the ground, that's all they care about.

Welkin is perhaps an unusual protagonist for a war story. He's introduced as an easy going nature lover and a bit of a doodler. Though he's the son of an important general from the First Europan War, he's not interested in following in his father's footsteps. As a recent university graduate, he wants to become a teacher. The only reason he ends up in armed conflict, even after the Empire drives out the people of his hometown, is because he's conscripted.

It takes a lot for Welkin to get upset. In fact, the only scene in the game where he really gets angry is when he confronts Faldio, his best friend and fellow officer, over whether Faldio intentionally shot Alicia, Welkin's sergeant. Even the death of his sister, Isara, doesn't get as much of a reaction out of him (though narratively I think that's because Isara's death was to focus on Rosie's transformation, which I'll get to in a separate post because addressing the game's handling of the Darcsen is going to take up too much space here).

By making someone like Welkin the protagonist, Valkyria Chronicles is able to insert more humanity into a game about modern warfare. Even though yes, our hero and his squad are killing a lot of people as part of their operations, Welkin never loses sight of what needs to come after; the peace and the rebuilding. He's not out to get anybody.

One of the best scenes that captures a glimpse of humanity in the middle of a warzone is when Welkin and Alicia are separated from their squad and take shelter in an abandoned cabin while evading enemies. A mortally wounded imperial soldier stumbles into their cabin, and instead of finishing him off, they choose to comfort the dying man. When he passes away, they bury him.

That's when they're found by General Gregor and his men, who are looking for their missing soldier. On seeing Welkin and Alicia's treatment of their fallen comrade, Gregor is appreciative of the kindness they gave him and leaves them be rather than taking them prisoner.

And the thing is, prior to this Gregor is presented as the most severe personality out of the three enemy generals. After this, the next time we see him, he's presiding over a concentration camp that is close to working the enslaved Darcsen laborers to death. He dies when we free that camp, but the fact he acknowledged a human kindness with a mercy of his own made him a more complex character that he otherwise looks and I was actually disappointed when he died. His capacity for both empathy and racism made him a surprisingly realistic character and I would have liked the game to run with him longer.

In general though, the imperial generals are fairly interesting characters. I wish I could say the same for Maximilian though. He's one of the princes of the empire, but because his mother is of lower birth he's not the heir, which probably explains why he's off invading a small country like Gallia instead of hitting the Federation.

I wanted to like Maximilian, because the guy wants better than he got (due to his low birth), and he's not afraid of doing his own dirty work. Welkin first faces him just before the halfway point in the game and Maximilian is on the front lines in his own tank. (Granted, it's a super tank, but he's definitely not a pampered snot afraid to risk his own neck.)

But the game squashed my only other reason for liking him, and that has to do with Selvaria. Selvaria is the first powered-up Valkyria to appear in the game. She has the power to wipe out multiple enemy squads single-handedly and not even artillery shells can harm her. Her story is unfortunately common for villainous powered women, in which they use all their power to help a man who rescued them and showed them their worth earlier in their lives. But I thought I could tolerate it because Maximilian genuinely seemed to trust her.

Then, after Alicia awakens as a Valkyria and Selvaria loses, Maximilian suddenly decides he no longer has a use for her and has Selvaria sacrifice herself in a rear guard action. Granted, it was a really effective sacrifice, taking out almost the entire Gallian army, but why he would throw away any further use he could get out of her, especially once his enemies have a Valkyria of their own, doesn't make any strategic sense. While he neutered the Gallian military, in exchange, if things went wrong (and of course they did), he would no longer have Selvaria for backup.

Because Valkyria Chronicles follows Welkin throughout the war, it's perhaps not surprising that the story is less about him than the portion of his life he spends in it. The ending isn't Welkin freeing his hometown (that actually happens just after the halfway point). It's Welkin defeating Maximilian, who he does not have any personal grievance against aside from the fact he's the enemy commander.

The heart, the emotional highs in the build-up to the finale, are the principles on which Welkin decides they will win this war.

He first meets Alicia during a visit to his hometown, just before the invasion, and while they start off on the wrong foot, they quickly come together as a team, which is fortunate because when they're conscripted they're placed in the same squad. Though Alicia is not Welkin's only NCO, she's clearly the one he has the most affinity for.

Considering that she's his direct report, Welkin is generally pretty good about keeping any attraction buttoned down. While it's clear that they become close, given the number of scenes they have featuring just the two of them, none of their early to mid-game scenes are overly romantic, and it's possible to read Welkin as being simply too thick to realize that Alicia might actually like him. (This is a guy who compliments his sergeant's uniform because it reminds him of a rhinoceros beetle.) Neither of them flirt. They mostly just talk.

Though Faldio certainly seems to think Welkin loves Alicia, because he wrote as much in his notes, there's nothing to suggest more than a possible crush for most of the game, which I liked given that they're in the same unit and she's his direct report. It wasn't hard to see the potential, but they kept things professional.

Until they don't, but to be fair, it was a good moment, and if you're going to break decorum that was the time to do it, and this is where the emotional climax comes in.

Alicia, having awakened as a Valkyria, sees that the last ditch attempt to stop the land dreadnought from reaching the capital of Gallia has failed and realizes that there's still one thing left she can do. Like Selvaria did, she could sacrifice her life and essentially nuke the enemy into oblivion.

Alicia didn't appreciate the change in her life or the pressure of having become a Valkyria since it set her apart from the rest of the army and she realized other soldiers had begun worshiping her as their salvation. Blowing herself up would save the day and she wouldn't have to deal with the pain anymore.

Welkin is the one who talks her down and makes her realize that there are still people who look at her as one of their own, and he talks about after the war and wanting to spend the rest of his life with her. He gives her a future to look forward to and assures her that winning the war by using her power isn't the right thing to do. (And it doesn't hurt that he makes a temporary engagement ring for her using the flower she put in his uniform the other day.)

So when he and his squad face Maximilian they do so without Alicia turning into a Valkyria (thus preserving game mechanics) and without escalating things to the point that other powers in the war might consider finding Valkyrur of their own. Shortly thereafter, a ceasefire is called and the war ends between Gallia and the Empire.

Perhaps because the characters are a little older, I also appreciated the epilogue which runs over the fates of all the major characters after the war. Welkin and Alicia do return to their hometown where Welkin becomes a teacher like he wanted and Alicia now owns a bakery. Unusually, the epilogue is also far enough forward that the two of them now have a daughter who's old enough to "help" with the baking herself.