I've put about ten hours into this game thus far, not enough to constitute a review yet, but here are some thoughts.

If you have read some of my reviews then you realize that I put great stock into the characters of a game. Characters are what the player is going to spend the most time amongst, and they often shape a huge part of the story. The most important part of a game to me is this story -- without a good story, there is no reason to play a game. This is why I'm not a big fan of sports and puzzle games. There needs to be a motivating factor for me. I'm also a huge fan of literature, so character depth is a huge issue to me and it often makes or breaks a game in my opinion.

Valkyria Chronicles is a quality game thus far. It's innovative, it plays well, it looks beautiful. However, I simply cannot stand one protagonist in the entire game. I know this is utter sacrilege to any fan of the game, but I can't get myself to like them. They're empty vessels filled with artificial character stereotypes.

Welkin himself has no conflict. He's joined the militia simply because he has to. There is huge potential laid by the story for him to grow into his father's character, and it has dragged along so far without even touching on the subject. Small, cutesy sequences of him admiring insects and talking to animals do not make the character worth anything to me, and will save the character only in the eyes of the most shallow minded anime fans.

And Welkin isn't the only one. The more minor characters like Largo and Rosie are similarly shallow and uninteresting. And the squad members you can choose from are basically cookie-cutter molds of the anime style. You have the ditzy blondes, the tough guys, the loners. And none of them are the least bit interesting. The game aspires to be like Chrono Cross, with many characters, but fails miserably due to the fact they're all nameless husks relegated to the role of a dramatic caricature.

The most interesting characters I've encountered are the Imperial generals. They're the only ones with any real depth thus far.

Now, I've heard that the story and characters pick up towad the later part of the game, which is why I have written this as a blog entry rather than added it to the game itself. I will update when I've finished the game and let my thoughts be known.