Usually I don't want to take game's story too seriously, but Valkyria Chronicle prompt me to think about some serious issues. I am not expert in history etc, but since the game gave me some thoughts, I might as well write them down.
Yep, the title is my semi-conclusion of thoughts and view of Valkyria Chronicle's story after playing it. When I say fairy tale I don't mean its story is for kids or it's dumb. I mean it's a David VS. Goliath story that cheers people up. It's a struggle of a group of people that might stir the emotion of players. It also has a not too bad love story...although I am not expert on love story so can't say much about it. I might be exaggerating the word "Epic," but certainly I felt some sort of "epicness" after playing the game, especially with the music.
The game touches on some serious issues in human history, especially WW2 history, such as racism, history manipulations and culture manipulations etc. In the real world, those issues occur in various parts of the world. Some are more well known, some aren't. Sometimes you wonder how can human beings come up with such insidious schemes to harm and suppress others, but indeed those schemes occur and some are quite successful. False conception becomes truth...this element also forms one of the backbone of the story. During war, those issues can create gruesome results, such as an massacre. The game touches upon all these issues, with emotional and deep thoughts behind them, but the shocking realism are "water down" because the game is rendering in cartoon water color style, not photo realistic style. And I think that's what the developer intended.
Indeed the game itself is obviously a reflection or parallelism of WW2. The world map and names etc corresponds to WW2 situation. The situation are not exactly the same, of course, and in some respect very different, but the idea of a situation in which arm conflicts of 2 sides, both with substantial arm forces, with smaller nations getting swallowed are similar. Now here is an interesting question I thought of...which real country during WW2 had similar situation as Gallian Principality in the game. An excerpt from wikipedia:
"Gallian Principality: Gallia is a land very much like Switzerland in its policy of mandatory military service despite a stated position of neutrality in armed conflicts."
While the policy of universal conscript might be similar, Switzerland wasn't invaded during WW2, plus it doesn't border a sea like Gallia. The 2 countries which I can think of that had similar situation as Gallian are Netherlands and Poland, but both weren't as fortunate as the fictional Gallia. Most Netherlands territories are overrun and its government exist as exile in London during the rest of the war. Poland were invaded by both Nazi and Soviet and split into 2 zones. That's why I put "fairy tale" in the title. A fictional country accomplished something its real world counterparts (meaning prosperous but relatively small, peaceful and militarily weaker country) unfortunately failed, that's why it's inspiring.
I am sure both Netherlands and Poland fought hard to repel the enemy, maybe they even have heroes like Welkin Gunther from the game, but the reality is of course harsher than the game. Indeed the game itself also bought up a question, how do smaller nations survive? Even the game doesn't really offer an answer to this question. Yes, Gallia survived and has a happy ending, but the cause of their victory contains not just talents of each characters, but also some good fortune. In a real world, both talents and fortune are usually not there, especially at the same time, are they?
When we look at those ambitious, power hungry villains in the game and all those troops and people that follow and support him/her, we would often say to ourselves "that's madness." But when I look back at our own real world, I realize the reality is actually worse and contains even more madness and cruelty.
Yep, the title is my semi-conclusion of thoughts and view of Valkyria Chronicle's story after playing it. When I say fairy tale I don't mean its story is for kids or it's dumb. I mean it's a David VS. Goliath story that cheers people up. It's a struggle of a group of people that might stir the emotion of players. It also has a not too bad love story...although I am not expert on love story so can't say much about it. I might be exaggerating the word "Epic," but certainly I felt some sort of "epicness" after playing the game, especially with the music.
The game touches on some serious issues in human history, especially WW2 history, such as racism, history manipulations and culture manipulations etc. In the real world, those issues occur in various parts of the world. Some are more well known, some aren't. Sometimes you wonder how can human beings come up with such insidious schemes to harm and suppress others, but indeed those schemes occur and some are quite successful. False conception becomes truth...this element also forms one of the backbone of the story. During war, those issues can create gruesome results, such as an massacre. The game touches upon all these issues, with emotional and deep thoughts behind them, but the shocking realism are "water down" because the game is rendering in cartoon water color style, not photo realistic style. And I think that's what the developer intended.
Indeed the game itself is obviously a reflection or parallelism of WW2. The world map and names etc corresponds to WW2 situation. The situation are not exactly the same, of course, and in some respect very different, but the idea of a situation in which arm conflicts of 2 sides, both with substantial arm forces, with smaller nations getting swallowed are similar. Now here is an interesting question I thought of...which real country during WW2 had similar situation as Gallian Principality in the game. An excerpt from wikipedia:
"Gallian Principality: Gallia is a land very much like Switzerland in its policy of mandatory military service despite a stated position of neutrality in armed conflicts."
While the policy of universal conscript might be similar, Switzerland wasn't invaded during WW2, plus it doesn't border a sea like Gallia. The 2 countries which I can think of that had similar situation as Gallian are Netherlands and Poland, but both weren't as fortunate as the fictional Gallia. Most Netherlands territories are overrun and its government exist as exile in London during the rest of the war. Poland were invaded by both Nazi and Soviet and split into 2 zones. That's why I put "fairy tale" in the title. A fictional country accomplished something its real world counterparts (meaning prosperous but relatively small, peaceful and militarily weaker country) unfortunately failed, that's why it's inspiring.
I am sure both Netherlands and Poland fought hard to repel the enemy, maybe they even have heroes like Welkin Gunther from the game, but the reality is of course harsher than the game. Indeed the game itself also bought up a question, how do smaller nations survive? Even the game doesn't really offer an answer to this question. Yes, Gallia survived and has a happy ending, but the cause of their victory contains not just talents of each characters, but also some good fortune. In a real world, both talents and fortune are usually not there, especially at the same time, are they?
When we look at those ambitious, power hungry villains in the game and all those troops and people that follow and support him/her, we would often say to ourselves "that's madness." But when I look back at our own real world, I realize the reality is actually worse and contains even more madness and cruelty.
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