Genre: Strategy RPG
Developer: Sega WOW
Publisher: Sega

The instantly recognizable character designs from the first title are even more front and center in Valkyria Chronicles II than they were in the original, what with the sequel's more character-centric focus. The distinct cut-scene style from the first title has been replaced with cheaper-to-create anime-style still shots supplemented with clever animation use, without missing a beat. The stages themselves are aesthetically pleasing, but the engine suffers from enormous amounts of dithering artifacts.

Hitoshi Sakimoto was thankfully retained from the first game and aptly continues his rich vein of form. The songs he writes for the game are full of perfectly-fitting motifs that perfectly represent the game's themes: war, comraderie, and scholasticism all. The North American UMD does not contain the Japanese voice acting, which is unfortunate because the English acting's quality is adequate, though a little spotty.

The PSP has sold over 60 million units world-wide, many of them to the subway-riding Japanese public. As such, Valkyria Chronicles II's extremely short missions and grind-happy mechanics are a logical decision. Unfortunately, this direction was taken to too great an extreme, with the game separating the satisfying, challenging episodes with sometimes dozens of meaningless filler missions. The actual combat and character movement mechanics are every bit as whole as they were in the first title, thankfully.

Releasing this title on the PSP was a very wise choice; with the series unlikely to ever achieve anything more than a cult following, the revenue stream simply cannot justify the development of a twenty or thirty million USD budget. But a better trimming choice for the title's formula would have been to still have lengthy, engaging missions, but allow for saving at any time. As it is, Valkyria Chronicles II is pleasing enough, what with its newfound focus on some engaging albeit cliched character development, and solid mechanics all around.