10 Massively Underrated Japanese RPGs You Must Play
2. Valkyria Chronicles
Valkyria Chronicles is essentially Japans answer to XCOM: Enemy Unknown (despite being released a good few years beforehand), and by that I mean Valkyria Chronicles is XCOM with an animé makeover. Considering how good Chronicles is, its no wonder the latter did so well. Despite that, Chronicles remains an underrated and under-appreciated game. The gameplay is divided into missions you choose your squad members (and theres several different classes to pick from), and off they go to capture a base, or take down an enemy commander. You move your squad around the field in third person, then switch to first person when its time to fire. So far, so good. Unlike XCOM though, in this game, tanks are king. They take more of your turn to move, but in return they are ridiculously powerful (if slightly bad at aiming). One of the small niggles that Chronicles suffers from is that later in the game, the enemy tanks become so ridiculously overpowered that its more a matter of luck than skill when taking them on. There are all sorts of little details in-game which add to the experience too; like how every squad member (and you can recruit dozens) has their own personality and friend group, or how you cant just equip every single upgrade to your tanks because theres only a limited space. Honestly, this game is just brilliant, and theres no better way to see that than by playing it yourself.
