I completely forgot about Valkyria Chronicles. I knew some people that hated the game, some that adore it. I personally think it's amazing. If you were to pick up an RPG today, I would recommend that one over all others.

But that being said, it's a tactical RPG. Some people hate them, some love them. But don't think that you would hate it if you dislike tactical RPGs, I really didn't like them either (in fact, I still hate FF Tactics). It's not gird-based, but it is heavily turn-based. There's basically 2 rounds in a turn, and you can pick individual units based on how much CP you have and move them in a limited fashion and attack once. It combines units on a map, to real-time interaction with the environment, to a attack/counterattack system. By the time the game introduces environment hazards, it gets pretty confusing about how you manage your units and etc. The units themselves are not generic gunmen, you can grow bonds with them and they each share a past of why they went into battle. The more you become friends with them, the better you work together. So only about 10 units are in a battle at once on one side (at least, for you. The enemy could have 10 times the number of units you have). It also introduces a leveling system that makes each unit pretty even. Instead of individual levels, you level up classes of units. So shocktrooper A and shocktrooper B will be the same level, no matter what. Each character can individually graduate into a more powerful and sophisticated ranking, but they would still be in the same class.

It's an interesting game with pretty good gameplay and character development, take it for what it's worth.