Valkyria Chronicles makes a good transition to the PSP, and as such, is a fantastic PSP game.
Story - Valkyria Chronicles 2 tells the story of Avan Hardins , a young citizen of the nation of Gallia , now struggling to rebuild itself following the war with the Empire. In the midst of a brewing civil war , Avan is informed of his brother's death ,and decided to enlist into the Lanseal military academy, where his brother studied, to find out why.
Joining him in the academy are a whole cadre of characters, from the somewhat Cheerful Cosette, to the overly sarcastic Zeri and the overproud Juliana, as well as a many others.
VC2 does not seem quite as grand as its predecessor, wether due to the characters, or the very nature of setting much of the game in the Lanseal academy. The majority of storytelling is done through either still images and text, or in some cases, cutscenes, rather then opting for the real time engine of the original game. The story is good enough though to shine through the limitations and capture the attention of the player.
Gameplay - Valkyria Chronicles 2 shares very similar gameplay to the original game. Battles are a mixture of strategy RPG and 3rd person shooting. On each turn, the player is given a number of command points to spend on using any unit in his/her squad . The game then shifts to a 3rd person shooter mode where the player can move around the map to a certain extent, and shoot any one enemy unit in range.
All of the old unit types such as scouts, shocktroopers lancers and engineers return , as do the potentials for each unit which can occasionally enhance their abilities, and the addition of fencers is a welcome one. Each unit type is more effective against some enemies then others, and thus allows for plenty of strategy,
One impressive feature lost, is that now all battlefields are split up into smaller chunks. wether this is due to the limitations of the PSP, or a creative decision , it can make combat frustrating by having to split up the squad to different areas.
Outside of combat money and experience earned in battle can be spent on upgrading both soldiers and their weapons.
It can be said that the gameplay in VC2 has made the transition to the PSP exceptionally well, as the game runs smoothly and has the same feel and strategic depth of its predecessor .
Graphics and Sound - One of the most notable features of the Valkyria Chronicles were its graphics, which used a special cell shaded look to make the game appear like a painting in motion.
Thankfully, this look has been preserved on the far less powerful PSP. While the overall graphics could have probably been done on a Sega Dreamcast, the look and feel of the graphics are still there, despite the lower polygon count, and still have a charm to them.
From a sound perspective, VC2 is exceptional . While some music is recycled from the original , much of the music is new, and is on par with the quality of the original game. In regards to voice acting, while there is less then before (most likely due to the lesser storage space), the voice acting present is well done , and about as good as expected.
Overall, VC2 performs well on the audio and visual aspects.
In conclusion , Valkyria Chronicles 2 is an exceptional game for the PSP . It takes the original PS3 game, and manages to put it on the PSP , with little to no features lost. Valkyria Chronicles 2 is a must for fans of RPG games and is one of the best games on the PSP.