Valkyria Chronicles

[Cigol]

AHah, my bait worked.

Now, that you're here, entertain us. It's been a while.

Yes, what this thread needs is further derailment.

[Salka]

Did you know 30% of The Sun readers can't point out Islam on a world map!?? Waheyheyyy!

Thanks for the review, Cigol. I'm going to kinda bump Nowak's question since it got lost under a tsunami of crap:

I'm very curious about this game, it's one of my most anticipated, but I worry that the whole strategic element is going to be simpler than it could be. I worry that it'd fall into the whole Japanese SRPG routine of leveling up, buying gear until you can overpower everyone -- which undermines the whole unit placement and flanking and strategic elements that the game seems to have. Any thoughts about how the game feels in that regard?

[Spaff]

WTF is that gif omg new smiley time.

[Cigol]

I'm going to kinda bump Nowak's question since it got lost under a tsunami of crap:

I'm very curious about this game, it's one of my most anticipated, but I worry that the whole strategic element is going to be simpler than it could be. I worry that it'd fall into the whole Japanese SRPG routine of leveling up, buying gear until you can overpower everyone -- which undermines the whole unit placement and flanking and strategic elements that the game seems to have. Any thoughts about how the game feels in that regard?

The demo is limited, with no campaign mode and only a short single tutorial and skirmish on the same map, so there's no way of knowing. I've not played a lot of these type of games on the console either so I have no experience with them to draw from but I'd say your concerns are pretty relevant from what I've played. Time will tell I guess.

...

I decided to play it through one more time last night. The units are all specialised, so you do actually have to put some consideration into how you organise and move them around. Pairing them up provides a greater base of fire for example. You also can't just run up to the enemy, shoot them and expect to get away with it, you have to play it with a modicum of caution like any turn based title. But in saying all that, I'd find it very surprising to hear someone fail on the single level they provide. Assuming you don't run around like a madman and play it properly there's simply no way you can lose. Not that I can see. The AI just isn't pro-active or challenging enough and although it remains entertaining to go through the motions I do hope there is some higher difficulty settings in the full version.

The AI is almost as bad as in Cr...

[Nachimir]

WTF is that gif omg new smiley time.

It looks like it should be approaching a child.

[Cigol]

Well I picked this up the other night and it's all kinds of awesome. Anyone who remotely enjoyed the demo should love this. I feared the main game would be pretty empty - a series of loosely connected and simple battles - but from my time with the game I'd say it's the opposite.

Following on from my last post; whilst there are no difficulty settings in the main game the challenge is much greater than that of the skirmish in the demo. It can actually be a little tricky, particularly as characters die permanent deaths. The AI is admittedly pretty banal but like I mentioned earlier it's not something that diminishes the experience, and in spite of this they still pose a threat.

I've only played the introductory half of the game so far but in a nice touch it unfolds as the recounting of an old story and has been chock full of cut-scenes and talking heads dialogue. I'm willing to bet the light, fluffy and anime generic style isn't to everyone's tastes, and I'm also going to wager there's a number of people who think cut-scenes died with Half-Life - but I like them, lots. They lend gravitas to the battles, and make them appear consequential as opposed to the main portion of the game, which they really are. Mostly they're just so damn pretty.

...that said, some interactivity in these interludes would have been welcome. Instead of watching a character run towards a house for example let us run towards the house and then switch to the cut-scene. It seems like a missed opportunity to add some (real-time) variety outside of the battle sequences - I mean it uses the same engine so why not?

The game could flow a little better as well. Instead of full screen animations of people yahoo'ing the death of a bad guy why not stick it on a pip overlay and let us get on with the game. The zooming and rotation in and out of the real time mode can get annoying as well, sure it's nice the first few times but not for long. I'm a little disappointed there's no multiplayer or trophies implemented as well, as there's no doubt it would have made the game a more attractive purchase.

I would recommend playing the demo and seeing for yourself. The full game is obviously a more fleshed out experience, and as I said; more challenging, but it'll give you an idea of what to expect and if you enjoy the game mechanics you'll know the full version is worth picking up or not. I'm loving it.

[frizby]

Dredging up an old (and bizarre) thread since Gamestop has this on sale for $30.

I picked it up based on the demo, and I'm genuinely impressed. It's sort of like a third person Advance Wars with new Prince of Persia graphics. It's gorgeous and fun. Highly recommended for $30 if you can get it.

[frizby]

Found a video review. It's IGN, but it's not excessively hyperbolic:

http://ps3.ign.com/dor/objects/950634/battle-field-valkyrie/videos/valkyria_vidreview_102908.html

[Tanukitsune]

OH MY GOD! AIKA IS IN THIS GAME! Best game ever!

[Tanukitsune]

I'm baffled at how much I'm enjoying this game... It's technically a WWII game, an animefied one, but it's still pretty obvious.... And I DESPISE WWII games!

It's strategy... And I usually flee in terror at the mention of that genre because I'm always afraid of screwing up...

I think I'm terrible at strategy, and yet I've been getting "A"s on most missions now... Most of the time I just rush to the enemies main camp with a scout and I somehow survive!

Yesterday, I did something stupid and left my tank's radiator exposed to the enemy... Which MISSED completely..... TWICE!

[Nachimir]

Could someone help me please? I'm on the [edit: second] tank level and about to snap the disc. The one where it's trying to destroy the gate.

Attempt one: Bullets ping ineffectually from shocktrooper. Shocktrooper flattens Alicia while she's behind cover, game over.

Attempt two: Think about throwing grenade at shocktrooper. Pitiful range means I have to run out of cover to throw it, Alicia dead more or less as soon as it lands.

Attempt three: Wonder if tower increases grenade range. Climb it, everyone flattens Alicia before I can even hit the button to climb back down. Game over.

Attempt four: Think about using grenade on tank. Dash Alicia out behind it, throw grenade, take about 1/8 off the treads. Alicia dies in a flurry of bullets.

Attempt five: Attempt to get all characters well clear of shocktrooper+tank and into cover. Shocktrooper flattens them at range.

Attempt six: Skip first phase to see what will happen. My units shoot several people dead. For a few seconds, I'm doing better than I've done so far by doing nothing at all. Then, Mister Shocktrooper nearly flattens one of watchmen. On my turn, strange bug occurs: whenever I start to use a unit, it switches to a first person view, and I can't control them, bring menus up or anything. The only way out is to press the PS button, which puts it back into third person view behind the playstation menu, allowing them to be killed by enemy fire.

Attempt seven: Retry mission. Same weird camera bug.

Attempt eight: Quit game and restart. Realise I'm right back at the beginning of the game because there's no fucking autosave between missions. Start first level. Same fucking camera bug not allowing me to play :(

I want to love this thing because it's so beautiful, but it's making me feel the same way as the PS3 version of Far Cry 2.

Edited September 8, 2010 by Nachimir

[Tanukitsune]

Well, Alicia is a scout, she might be able to move the fastest and furthest, but she can't take as many hits or do that much damage.

I saved between phases, that way if I really screw up I just have to start that turn again... You can also save manually between levels...

I never encountered that bug that you mentioned though...

If you are going to restart, try to ace as many levels as you can, you get a ton of XP if you beat the level quickly which makes the game much easier.

I have no idea what you're doing wrong, I'm terrible at strategy and pretty kamikaze, but I beat the game without much trouble... although like I said, I reloaded a turn when I wasn't happy with it...

You do know head shots do more damage, right?

[Nachimir]

Yeah. With my extremely limited sample of missions, it seems to reward kamikaze style behavior rather than planning and use of cover. Except when it doesn't reward either of them.

Edit: Fuck it. Rebooting the playstation, starting new game, nothing stops the camera jumping out from behind the characters and preventing me from doing anything. HUD disappears too. I'm going to spend no more than an hour trying to find out about and fix it, then this PoS is going on ebay stat.

[Tanukitsune]

Well, there was a method to my madness and I did use cover, it's just that I was being a kamikaze while trying to reach the cover...

Don't the only shoot at you while you move? I'm pretty sure they leave you alone while you try to shoot at them.

What I did is mostly use the scout to shoot an enemy and they run to cover?

[Nachimir]

The problem was that getting anywhere near close enough to shocktroopers to get a headshot equals death. I found a way to survive until my own tank rolled up, then mortared the bejesus out of them.

Whatever was going on with the camera eventually stopped, and I'm through the tutorial. That was one mighty shit tutorial, throwing enemies at me that I couldn't actually kill until later.

Game seems pretty good now I have all the troop types available

[Cigol]

I hadn't experienced any of those bugs either so that was a surprise to read - but glad to see you've overcome the glitches and the mission

The beginning is more difficult than the missions that immediately follow for some reason, but there is a sort of puzzle element to some of the later missions that will typically require you to retry a couple of times - so prepare yourself mentally. Once you've got used to its quirks such as engagement distances and stuff like that I found it a lot of fun to just replay missions going through the motions.

Skip first phase to see what will happen. My units shoot several people dead. For a few seconds, I'm doing better than I've done so far by doing nothing at all.

This is actually part of the games strategy though. Placing your units into good positions to fire upon the enemy in the same way they defensively fire at you can make all the difference. Setting ambushes with shocktroopers can be devastating for example, whilst scouts are good for stopping enemy advances if you have them overlooking wide expanses. Again it's the sort of thing you get a feel for once you've played it for a bit longer. Of course most of the time you'll be on the defensive, trying to make the best of the command points you have to balance attack without leaving your units open to easy enemy counter-attacks.

[Nachimir]

I felt pretty bad that that worked better than getting them into cover, but I've also come to accept that it sometimes rewards speed and kamikaze tactics more than careful planning.

Anyway, I'm on chapter 8 or so now, and am loving this. It's a fine game, and takes me back to XCOM in a way Advance Wars really didn't.

Especially now I have all the troop types available, it strikes a really nice balance of futzing around with resources and combat. Occasionally a mission is really hard, but working out I could use the Eidelweiss to block the Batomys and give me more time to take down the machine guns was very satisfying, likewise twigging that I should lower the health of all radiators before killing one of them.

Also, in typical XCOM style, I had to go back to a save when Selvaria took out a lancer then a shocktrooper inflicted permadeath. Her reinforcements meant my troops, positioned safely on the right of the Batomys, didn't stand a chance the first turn she arrived, but a few tweaks to positioning and the tank was gone in one more turn with no casualties.

The lack of autosave between missions was unpleasantly retro at first, but this is an excellent game

[Squid Division]

I got to mission 10 or 11. It was a really really fun game and it depresses me that the 2 sequels are/are going to be on the PSP.

[TheLastBaron]

So I started playing this, and I'm liking it, but man are there a lot of cut scenes. Is this like an initial hump I have to get over, or is the whole game a battle followed by a whole bunch of setting the controller down and watching TV for a while?

[Nachimir]

There are quite a few cutscenes IIRC. I don't generally like cutscenes, but some of Valkyria Chronicles' are really good.

 

Man, it's weird to read back up and see how much I struggled with this at first. The latter parts of the game were so good I only remember enjoying it.

[melmer]

I tried playing VC2 on my vita, the game just makes your do tutorial missions for hours. Well it's set in a high school and your missions are you going to lessons, so it all just felt like a pointlessly prolonged tutorial. Then I read somewhere that the game requires a bit of grinding and redoing of missions which massively put me off and I haven't touched it since

I saw a game the other day that gave me super good VC vibes. If only I could remember its name....

Natural Doctrine
http://www.allgamesbeta.com/2014/03/natural-doctrine-game-guide-gameplay.html
I could see myself properly sticking my teeth into that....if it's good

AHHHAHZhGHzh that sucks
Natural Doctrine received higher than average reviews from Famitsu, with the PS4 and PS3 versions given scores of 31/40, whilst the PS Vita version received a score of 30/40.[18] However, the game sold relatively few copies within the first week of release in Japan,[19] with only 18,000 physical retail copies sold across the three separate platforms that week.[20]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_Doctrine

30/40 from famitsu these days is proper shit. Shame

Little more research
http://otakuoverdrive.com/2014/04/15/game-review-natural-doctrineps-vitaps3ps4/
The game is a broken mess. Sadface

[tberton]

I got about halfway through this game and stopped. I liked it, but there were too many gimmicky battles. Maybe I'll pick it up again someday though, although every time I play t I just find myself wishing for Skies of Arcadia 2.

[sclpls]

Enjoyed this game until I got to the super tank battle.

[BobbyBesar]

If anybody's interested, there's a fan translation for VC3 (PSP), which wasn't released in the US. It doesn't appear to be mentioned in this thread.

http://vc3translationproject.wordpress.com/

 

They just provide a patch, so you need to acquire your own Japanese copy of the game. Which can be done by importing or creating a fake japanese PSN account, among other less savory methods.

 

It appears to be playable on the Vita? although I don't know anything about the Vita custom firmware scene.

[Griddlelol]

I really, really loved VC. I had fallen out of gaming after getting minorly addicted to WoW and then cutting any sort of game out of my life for a while. 

Picked up VC and a PS3 after about 6 months of not touching a game and I fell in love again. Really VC has a special place for me as one of my favourite games of all time, despite its flaws and over-the-top anime story. It's been a while since I've played it, but after selling my PS3 I kept this game as a reminder of the good and the bad.

 

If you liked any sort of strategy RPG then VC fits the bill perfectly. What are the sequels like? I'd quite like to try them but I bet they're terrible.