Valkyria Chronicles - Episode 13

Things may be going much better for Gallia in the war these days, yet still their military machines wants more; in particular, their higher-ups are looking to boost morale, but they are yet to consider stopping to the level of employing anyone from the Militia to aid with that particular task. Thus, it appears that it's time to set Welkin and his team (oh, and squad one of course) yet another impossible mission to complete.

This time around, their task is to liberate the town of Fouzen - An important Ragnite mining town which makes it a key stronghold for whoever controls it. At the moment this location belongs well and truly to the Empire, who have literally rolled out the big guns (well, gun) in an attempt to protect it from Gallian troops. Thus Welkin, Faldio and their respective troops have to infiltrate the town in an attempt to liberate it from the inside.


As has been the case with the depiction of previous missions such as this one, this initial episode could almost be described as a "scouting mission" for the viewer, appraising us of the situation, introducing us to any necessary characters and throwing up whatever moral dilemmas of the day are required ready for the real action to begin next episode. In this particular case Rosie is clearly the focus of that latter point, with her prejudices towards Darcsen (who the series are obviously trying to depict as the equivalent to Jews in World War II here) coming to the fore once again throughout the episode.

I can't really complain about this episode as build-up instalments go, as it does everything that's necessary without ever becoming too fascinating - It's up to the next episode to really build up the scenario that has been laid out into something of genuine interest, and there's certainly plenty of action-oriented meat for the show to get its teeth into on this occasion if it so wishes. Let's wait and see if it's bitten off more than it can chew, or whether so many tasty morsels can be gulped down in a single attempt.