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Sequels aren’t hard to come by these days, though it’s often hard to tell whether they’ll be as good as the first game or whether they’ll turn out to be really disappointing . With Valkyria Chronicles being one of the best RPG’s for PlayStation 3, it’s a curious choice that its sequel makes its way onto the PSP instead of being on the PS3.

The story takes place 2 years after the events of Valkyria Chronicles since Squad 7 defeated Maximillian in Gallia during the Second Europan War. A group of Rebels form themselves as the Gallian Revolutionary Army begins a civil war to wage an ethnic cleansing campaign against Gallians of Darcsen descent and taking back what’s theirs.

The plot mainly revlves around a 17 year old called Avan who enrolls to the Lanseal Military Academy after the death of his older brother who was killed in battle. As Avan begins his new life at the Academy he makes new friends and becomes the Leader for Class G to defeat the Rebel Forces.

Gameplay: If you were one of those gamers who played Valkyria Chronicles on the PS3, you would have no problem with gameplay controls as they’re pretty much the same but on the PSP. For those who are new to the series however you’ll have around 19 classmates for your group which you can select to use on each battlefield map.

If you’ve played the first game you’ll notice that most of the soldier class returns for your troops, whoever you have in your group you’ve got Scouts, Shocktroopers, Lancers and Engineers. But however soldiers like Scouts, Shocktroopers and other classes like Snipers can take out most enemies. But if there’s a Tank on the Battlefield you would have to use a Lancer in order to take that tank, or use a Tank which you’ll get later on in the story: you could say it’s a mix with Rock, Paper, and Scissors.

In order to attack you use the Square button to select your weapon, then you aim it to who you want to shoot at ,and use the X button to fire. Left analog stick is to move around, but each soldier class will have a Stamina bar/AP gauge letting you know how far you’ll able to move: if you use that character too much their stamina will decrease, making it harder to move where you want them to move.

Unlike the first game you’ll only be able to select 6 soldiers for each mission, which can be a little annoying – the first game lets you have as many troops as you like on the battlefield. In each battle you go through during the story the main object is trying to capture the enemy command post. The more command posts you capture the less likely that enemies will stop sending in reinforcements, but also each time you choose which character/soldier you want to use it will cost you one Command Point for each turn and action.

In most missions you are limited to 20 turns or it’s Game Over or unless the enemy captures the main command post. Command Points are also used to summon orders which can only be used if Avan is on the battlefield. If your character/soldier gets shot on the battlefield you can either rescue them or use two command points to get them Hospitalized but they won’t be able to be on the battlefield for a while.

Apart from capturing command posts there also other missions including capturing supply goods or defending the base from troops, or even escorting a vehicle to a certain location. As the months progress, the only way you’ll be able to move on and get through the main story is to complete around 2-3 missions in order to get to the main story/battle and end its chapter.

Also during the Academy Map, you can head to the Drill grounds and you’ll be able to level up your Troop classes and change classes for each character if you wanted to. Also you can also upgrade and customize your weapons, Tank ,and of course learn new orders from 2 familiar characters from the first game that make an appearance.

Graphics and Sound: I loved Valkyria Chronicles for its breathtaking art and stunning visuals, and the PSP version does a great job making it feel almost as the Playstation 3 version but with a few changes. Nearly all cutscenes are set as rendered as portraits, kind of like a Comic book, and does show off characters’ emotions and feelings.

Anime cutscenes are also added to some parts of the story which do look stunning to watch and does feel like you are watching an anime series; there is also a 3D map of the Lanseal Academy through which you access where you need to go to.

I would have to admit there is a small problem during most of the game, which is that most of the maps are small and can be a little repetitive to play through over and over again, though they are still well detailed and you’ll also be able to play through different environments from the snowy mountains, to desserts, to even the mining facility.

There is Data install which is 436MB if you want to avoid long loading times. One of the  stand-out features of Valkyria Chronicles is the soundtrack, which is memorable and also has quite a few emotional themes and moments during the story. Voicing does a great job too, however there are a few one or two charcters which do have weak voice acting which at times makes it feel like you are watching a bad anime – something which many of us have unfortunately seen before.

Overall: Beating the main story can take you up to 40 hours; it is a long, especially for a PSP game, so it should keep you busy for quite a while. On top of this there are still plenty of missions from classmates and of course buying missions from the store at the academy.

Valkyria Chronicles II also have multiplayer where you can play versus or do Co-Op missions if you have any friends who own a copy of this game; or if you own a PS3 and downloaded the Ad-Havoc Party you can connect your PSP to your PS3 and play online. There is still plenty of stuff to unlock from charcters, to stickers, and plus buy DLC content from the Playstation Store.

Fans of the series will get an awful lot out of the sequel which is worthy to pick up and also it gives PSP owners something to check out even if they don’t own a PS3 or haven’t played the first game. The sequel makes it almost perfect to the first game, but with a few changes added in and out.