#5
Change YoY: = My Rating: 9.7 / 10
I remember buying a PS3 in 2007 mostly for the promise of something great to come later, and then spending much of the following year and a half looking for games to play on the thing. Titles like Assassin's Creed and Uncharted:Drake's Fortune were fine enough, but I wouldn't consider either among my favourites on the console, so it wasn't until the release of Valkyria Chronicles in late 2008 that the first truly great game was released on the system. Initially, it caught my attention thanks to its art style and how the game looked in motion, but in the end it was the gameplay, story, and characters that turned it into one of my all-time favourite games.
If it wasn't for the next game on my list, Valkyria Chronicles would be the best game of its whole generation. While I was thoroughly enjoying my time with the game from the start, the alternate history second world war backdrop and the intriguing characters instantly hooking me into the story, there's a moment roughly around halfway through the game where it effectively cemented its place as something truly special for good. I won't spoil it, but it remains one of only two times I've literally had to walk away from a game for a time because of how much it affected me emotionally. Naturally, things like that are different for everybody, but in my case there's almost no other game that has hit me quite as hard as Valkyria Chronicles.
The deep, tactical gameplay with various characters classes and units, beautiful visuals, and one of Hitoshi Sakimoto's finest scores make for an excellent experience. I've since played two of the game's sequels, and while they're both great (Valkyria Chronicles 4 in particular), none of them have quite reached these same heights. I recently replayed the original as well, and that only cemented its position near the top of my all-time favourite games list.
