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[TekGryphon]

Thanks for this review. I always hear praise about this game but no one says exactly why the game is good, I suspected it was mostly people in love with the art style/presentation.

The art style and story is the one area of the game that doesn't suck, actually. It's pretty damn charming. I'm not an anime fan but I did appreciate the story, and found it exceedingly deep. The presentation style was a mess, though. Conversations that, with another presentation style, could have been done in a minute or less, would drag on forever with the stilting slide shows. And, as I mentioned earlier, you have zero interaction. Hardcore fanboys will say this is usual for Japanese games, yet so many of the most famous JRPG/Strategy games do have that interaction, just look at Ogre Battle or FF Tactics.

The real issue is the game play. It's just bad. Horrendous AI that takes away any sense of satisfaction from victory (watching the enemy have like 4 actions left, with a sniper and a tank in range, and just waste them moving a soldier back and forth way back in the fog of war).

I'd rather steer you towards something like Ogre Battle or Ogre Battle 64 (Densetsu no Ōga Batoru). Japanese Strategy RPGs that are superior in every possible respect, both from an RPG and a Strategic sense. Only thing its missing is massive amounts of face time by skirt wearing anime girls.

 

[Giriath_89]

Buy it if you haven't already!

 

[Hasney]

Probably the single greatest PS3 exclusive in its time at a steal of a price. Such a great game, if you don't have it already, you really should.

 

[volgihn]

Thanks OP. I have been meaning to get this game for a long time now cant wait to play it.

 

[Love Deterrence]

[thread-wide avatar changing]

Thanks, OP!

 

[Icarus]

Bought! Thanks for the heads up.

 

[iRAWRasaurus]

Just looked it up.

F-S-S-Space-Space-Space-S-S-S-Space

10 keys to get into the menu, save, and get out.

This is part of what I'm talking about. I'm not going to surprise anyone in the world by pointing out that anime fans are some of the most painful people to debate with, as 99% of their rebuttals to any criticism will be a circle jerk of one-sentence categorical rebuttals or, as in this case, outright bullshittry.

My review is my own. I expect this thread to be filled with hundreds of posts of praise, nearly all of them by people with anime avatars, but my purpose is to warn those that aren't desperately on the hunt for B-tier anime in a D-tier game - avoid this game.

Lol that alone makes everything you said basis.

 

[pahamrick]

Good lord I made a terrible decision grabbing Valkyrie Chronicles. "Oooh, a strategy-RPG with Japanese influence? What could go wrong!?".

RPG mechanics are non-existent. You don't have a single dialogue option anywhere and conversations between characters are slideshows with every anime trope imaginable.

The Strategy elements wouldn't challenge a child. The two most challenging parts of the game have both come from poor design choices that make it easy to hit obstacles you think you can shoot over/around, and trying to control your tank which literally wigs out every 10 seconds unless you're using an Xbox controller.

And that's the worst part. Beneath all the shallow design elements this is a game that can be defined by 4 words: "Another shitty PC port". 50-60% of the game is spent in menus and you need to use the keyboard for everything. There's not even an auto-save feature between the boring-as-shit dialogue chapters, so you have to hit a chain of keys (F-S-S-Space-Space-Space-S-S-S-Space) just to manually save so that when the game crashes (and it will crash) you don't have to repeat it.

Oh, please, we both know who the troll is. I've been playing JRPGs back since the NES era. This isn't the first time I've seen how JRPG fans defend bad titles.

Regardless, I made my points in case anyone else was thinking of grabbing the Valkyrie Chronicles. For you guys, notice how there wasn't a single rebuttal of substance. This is on NeoGAF, mind you. That says something about the game's quality.

How do you specialize soldiers? I'm on Chapter 5 and right now I can give them experience to progress them on a linear leveling system (Snipers Level 3 -> Snipers Level 4) which doesn't give you any indication of what you're doing beyond occasionally handing you new orders.

I can also upgrade their weapons, which are also linear progression systems (SMG 2 -> SMG 3), and their armor (Armor 1 -> Armor 2).

The game is handing me money hand-over-first so at no point have I had to choose between SMG 2 -> 3 vs Rifle 2 -> 3. I can always get everything.

Is that "technically" RPG? Yes, which is why I never said it wasn't an RPG. I said it's such a simplistic RPG that it's lack of depth would raise eyebrows as a premium tablet game, much less as a release for PC.

Here is a few posts last time Tek talked about the game.

The art style is actually pretty charming. I'm not an anime fan but I did appreciate the story, and found it exceedingly deep. The presentation style was a mess, though. Conversations that, with another presentation style, could have been done in a minute or less, would drag on forever with the stilting slide shows.

The real issue is the game play. It's just bad. Horrendous AI that takes away any sense of satisfaction from victory (watching the enemy have like 4 actions left, with a sniper and a tank in range, and just waste them moving a soldier back and forth way back in the fog of war).

I'd rather steer you towards something like Ogre Battle or Ogre Battle 64 (Densetsu no Ōga Batoru). Japanese Strategy RPGs that are superior in every possible respect, both from an RPG and a Strategic sense. Only thing its missing is massive amounts of face time by skirt wearing anime girls.

And here's the latest.

First: VC is nothing like Ogre Battle in terms of strategy, and it's not supposed to be. The first 6-7 chapters of VC is supposed to be easier, to get players used to it. The fact you complained about no conversations, for one, was laughable and hence why so many people dismissed your original complaints.

As far as 'wasting' turns far back in the fog of war. How far did you get in the game, really? Because if you never got any farther than chapter 7 it's no wonder you felt that the AI is terrible because as stated, the game eases you into the strategy.

There were multiple times that the AI supposedly wasting turns where you couldn't see, they were actually setting up flanking and blocking maneuvers on objectives where I couldn't see them, which caused me to lose the match and have to start over with a better strategy. Which again, seems like you didn't play far into the game at all.

You don't like the presentation style? Matter of opinion, I think it's great. You present your points and claims with such an aggressive antagonistic style that it disrupts any real point of discussion from the beginning because of instead of presenting your opinion and points of view you're basically shitting on the game and those who like it from the get go, then wonder why no one bothered to offer a counter-point.

 

[SuperStiltzkin]

No. Addressing the points in my review will make your opinion more valid.

Shame that won't happen.

I'm one of the few people who didn't reply to your initial post in a reactionary manner, that is until you started dismissing positive opinions with sweeping generalizations. If you want to derail your argument with "only blind anime fans who want to see cute anime girls like this game" then don't be surprised by the replies you get.

 

[LurkerPrime]

If anyone's curious about VC's gameplay, check out Giant Bomb's Quick Look of the old PS3 version from years ago. It's an early mission and gives a decent showcase of how the game actually works. They also did a QL on the PC version, but I haven't seen it.

Don't let the people of Gallia down - they need your help.

Maybe look at the store page and see the countdown^^

Well, "some reason" mainly because it's not being featured as a weekly, weekend, daily, or event sale of any kind. It just sorta happened.

The silent nature of the sale makes it seem like a mistake.

 

[Falk]

I said my review was going to be met by a never-ending circle jerk of one-liners and gifs. I was right.

 

[bigace33]

What does B-Tier Anime mean? What would A Tier and C Tier be?

B tier would be Dragonball Z, A tier would be One piece. B^P

 

[bomblord1]

Does the game have full controller support. I would be using a wired 360 controller.

 

[Sami+]

I got it during the winter sale, but haven't played it yet. Should probably do that haha.

 

[pahamrick]

Does the game have full controller support. I would be using a wired 360 controller.

Yes it does.

 

[MAtgS]

*Buys*

*Also buys Sonic Adventure 2 while on Steam*

Why'd I do that? I'm just gonna end up playing SA2 more than the other Sega game again.

 

[bomblord1]

Yes it does.

Thanks

 

[TheSeks]

Worse is the nature of the port itself.

You keep saying this in every Val Chron thread, but you seriously have no clue what you're talking about.

People: This dude is a troll, you can safely ignore anything he says about Val Chron or the PC port.

 

[jblank83]

That was the price I was waiting for.

Sold.

 

[motorised mallard]

Does the game have full controller support. I would be using a wired 360 controller.

Yes.

 

[Lautaro]

You keep saying this in every Val Chron thread, but you seriously have no clue what you're talking about.

People: This dude is a troll, you can safely ignore anything he says about Val Chron or the PC port.

Is he lying about the AI?

Because that sounds like a deal breaker for a strategy fan like me.

 

[TekGryphon]

As far as 'wasting' turns far back in the fog of war. How far did you get in the game, really? Because if you never got any farther than chapter 7 it's no wonder you felt that the AI is terrible because as stated, the game eases you into the strategy.

That is hilarious. Assuming you listen to all the dialogues and read the reports, Chapter 7 will take, what? 15-20 hours to reach?

Civilization BE, Men of War, Hearts of Iron 3, and Crusader Kings 2 get through their tutorials in 30 minutes or less, and Valkyrie Chronicles is like a toddler in a PHD course compared to those games.

There were multiple times that the AI supposedly wasting turns where you couldn't see, they were actually setting up flanking and blocking maneuvers on objectives where I couldn't see them,

That's great. And there were multiple times that I was 1-2 turns away from the main objective, and the AI wasted half its turns manuevering around units on the other side of the map instead of using the tank or sniper right there to kill my men.

 

[pahamrick]

Is he lying about the AI?

Because that sounds like a deal breaker for a strategy fan like me.

In my opinion, the AI ramps the further you get into the game. Some of the later missions were killer.

I'd say the first 6-8 chapters can be a cakewalk, but from that point on each one ramps it up a bit further.

 

[SnowFlakeCake]

I'll buy it for £10 when in a humble bundle, to support charity.

If not, £2 to support Sega in bottom barrel steam sale.

 

[jblank83]

Is he lying about the AI?

Because that sounds like a deal breaker for a strategy fan like me.

The AI can be clumsy and there are definitely ways to break the game, including late game.

It's still a fun game, though, and at $10 its virtues outweigh its flaws.

 

[Deified Data]

Time to double dip, I guess. My favorite SRPG of all time.

 

[pahamrick]

That is hilarious. Assuming you listen to all the dialogues and read the reports, Chapter 7 will take, what? 15-20 hours to reach?

Civilization BE, Men of War, Hearts of Iron 3, and Crusader Kings 2 get through their tutorials in 30 minutes or less, and Valkyrie Chronicles is like a toddler in a PHD course compared to those games.



That's great. And there were multiple times that I was 1-2 turns away from the main objective, and the AI wasted half its turns manuevering around units on the other side of the map instead of using the tank or sniper right there to kill my men.

Yeah, seems you didn't realize it the first time I pointed it out.

You present your points and claims with such an aggressive antagonistic style that it disrupts any real point of discussion from the beginning because of instead of presenting your opinion and points of view you're basically shitting on the game and those who like it from the get go, then wonder why no one bothered to offer a counter-point.

That is why you don't get the counter-points you seemingly want so badly.

You don't like the game? Fine, fair enough. But shitting on it and those who do doesn't fit well when you're trying to make a point, however legitimate.

 

[TekGryphon]

Is he lying about the AI?

Because that sounds like a deal breaker for a strategy fan like me.

Just do a search for "Valkyria Chronicles bad AI" on Google. Thread after thread with stuff like this:

The AI for story mode really IS that bad. It does get harder as the game goes on, but it's only hard because you aren't sure where the enemies are located and stuff like that yet.

Thankfully, there is Hard mode for Skirmishes. The AI here is quite tough. Which is a good thing.

 

[PandaPandaPanda]

Is he lying about the AI?

Because that sounds like a deal breaker for a strategy fan like me.

I wouldn't say the AI is spectacular but i'd say it's moreso how bad the class balance is in the game. Scouts in particular pretty much too strong and you won't want to use Shocktroopers because of their abysmal movement bar. Sure you can unlock

Spoiler

the Shocktrooper gun from Selvaria's DLC

but it still doesn't change the fact that their movement bar sucks.

 

[cwistofu]

This isn't an SRPG the way FFT, Tactics Ogre, or Fire Emblem are SRPGs. But anyone who's done the slightest bit of research (aka looked at a single screenshot of the game) will realize this immediately. If you go into VC expecting FFT, then it's your own damn fault if you're disappointed.

It's got balancing issues, for sure, but that happens late in the game, and the ride to that point is a ton of fun. It's certainly worth $10.

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

The game is worth getting for $10 but I do agree with some of the negative points in this game.

The learning missions go on for way too long and the class balance isn't good.

Just like with most game stories, it isn't anything to write home about.

 

[InaudibleWhispa]

I haven't played this game since it released on PS3, but I can say for sure its anime art style isn't the only appealing thing; the only anime I've ever seen is Ghibli films and I enjoyed it.

 

[Coxy]

The art style and story is the one area of the game that doesn't suck, actually. It's pretty damn charming. I'm not an anime fan but I did appreciate the story, and found it exceedingly deep. The presentation style was a mess, though. Conversations that, with another presentation style, could have been done in a minute or less, would drag on forever with the stilting slide shows. And, as I mentioned earlier, you have zero interaction. Hardcore fanboys will say this is usual for Japanese games, yet so many of the most famous JRPG/Strategy games do have that interaction, just look at Ogre Battle or FF Tactics.

The real issue is the game play. It's just bad. Horrendous AI that takes away any sense of satisfaction from victory (watching the enemy have like 4 actions left, with a sniper and a tank in range, and just waste them moving a soldier back and forth way back in the fog of war).

I'd rather steer you towards something like Ogre Battle or Ogre Battle 64 (Densetsu no Ōga Batoru). Japanese Strategy RPGs that are superior in every possible respect, both from an RPG and a Strategic sense. Only thing its missing is massive amounts of face time by skirt wearing anime girls.

You cant recommend Ogre battle then accuse other games of having bad AI lol, they throw themselves suicidally into units they literally cant hurt

you're also disingenuously or perhaps cluelessly trying to pass off the streamlined levelling system as the only method of character customisation which is far from the case, you have to use the character individually and have them experience battle to unlock their personal potentials as opposed to just the class based ones and you also have to work through the technology tree and defeat aces to unlock further customisation through equipment

 

[Tik115]

Just looked it up.

F-S-S-Space-Space-Space-S-S-S-Space

10 keys to get into the menu, save, and get out.

You can make any game with a save system seem long and tedious by saying every key press to get into the menu save and get out, besides it's not like time wise it takes long to save, damn thing is instant when you press save

 

[TheSeks]

Is he lying about the AI?

Because that sounds like a deal breaker for a strategy fan like me.

The AI can be hit and miss with it's commands at times, but that's really class balance and difficulty settings more than anything. But bad AI is generally a SRPG norm.

 

[motorised mallard]

The AI can be hit and miss with it's commands at times, but that's really class balance and difficulty settings more than anything. But bad AI is generally a SRPG norm.

Haven't tried many Hard or any EX Hard skirmishes but I have heard that the AI is better in those. Also unless they have patched the interception fire rate bug then playing in 60fps fixes the class balance to a degree, making shocktroopers actually a valid choice unless you are trying to break the game.

 

[TekGryphon]

You can make any game with a save system seem long and tedious by saying every key press to get into the menu save and get out, besides it's not like time wise it takes long to save, damn thing is instant when you press save

Just alt-tabbed out of Dragon Age Inqusitions to say "lol, f5".

Later on I'll play Gnomoria, a game by a single developer. Somehow he figured out how to do autosaving and 1-press saves.

Keep making excuses for shit design. That'll surely convince people this game is worth it.

 

[pahamrick]

You cant recommend Ogre battle then accuse other games of having bad AI lol, they throw themselves suicidally into units they literally cant hurt

you're also disingenuously or perhaps cluelessly trying to pass off the streamlined levelling system as the only method of character customisation which is far from the case, you have to use the character individually and have them experience battle to unlock their personal potentials as opposed to just the class based ones and you also have to work through the technology tree and defeat aces to unlock further customisation through equipment

Good post, but it's wasted on a troll who only picks and chooses what to respond to despite whining that no one brings up any good points to counter his posts.

 

[JudgmentJay]

Just alt-tabbed out of Dragon Age Inqusitions to say "lol, f5".

Later on I'll play Gnomoria, a game by a single developer. Somehow he figured out how to do autosaving and 1-press saves.

Keep making excuses for shit design. That'll surely convince people this game is worth it.

You seem really upset that people like what you don't like.

 

[IamSuperman]

This game is worth buy!

 

[motorised mallard]

Just alt-tabbed out of Dragon Age Inqusitions to say "lol, f5".

Later on I'll play Gnomoria, a game by a single developer. Somehow he figured out how to do autosaving and 1-press saves.

Keep making excuses for shit design. That'll surely convince people this game is worth it.

You aren't making a strong case for the opposite either btw. Yes, the lack of autosave and more clunky console game save system is a bit old fashioned but you are making sound way worse and bigger issue than it really is.

 

[YianGaruga]

Just alt-tabbed out of Dragon Age Inqusitions to say "lol, f5".

Later on I'll play Gnomoria, a game by a single developer. Somehow he figured out how to do autosaving and 1-press saves.

Keep making excuses for shit design. That'll surely convince people this game is worth it.

You're not doing a good job convincing people otherwise you know.

 

[Wagram]

Valkyria Chronicles is far and above one of the best games of last generation. Pick it up!

 

[LurkerPrime]

Just alt-tabbed out of Dragon Age Inqusitions to say "lol, f5".

Later on I'll play Gnomoria, a game by a single developer. Somehow he figured out how to do autosaving and 1-press saves.

Keep making excuses for shit design. That'll surely convince people this game is worth it.

Oh dear.

For anyone concerned: if you think the Dragon Age: Inquisition PC port is fine, then Valkyria Chronicles will be absolutely no problem.

 

[Uthred]

Such an over-rated game. Neither myself nor my friends enjoyed it.

You hear all these people talking about what a great Strategy RPG it is, but its audience is geared to one group: anime fanatics.

It's one of the shallowest RPGs you can ask for. On the story side, you have zero interaction, just watching stilted anime slides that drag on forever. On the mechanic side, advancement is as vague as possible. Instead of advancing soldiers, you just advance soldier types, and instead of picking how you advance them, you just move them along a linear progression path. Leveling them up is just holding down a button while your XP fills a bar, then "ding!" they level up and you assume something changed.

It's also one of the shallowest Strategy games. The enemy AI is pathetic, and will frequently waste turns bouncing units back and forth in the fog of war rather than take another shot with a unit that's clearly in LOS. Enemies are clearly running under a very simplistic script that can easily be abused, and it sucks all the challenge out of the game once you understand the massive gaping holes in the AI's capabilities.

Worse is the nature of the port itself. We're talking Dark Souls bad, but without the fan patch to fix it. 70% of your time in-game will be spent meandering through menus, yet you can't even use the fucking mouse. I remember it takes almost a dozen key presses just to save the game, and that's something you need to remember to do because the game doesn't auto-save between chapters. Have a game crash (which will happen) and you could lose hours of progression.

It's just a mess, and I'd only recommend it for people desperate to consume some B-tier anime story in a D-tier game.

Serious case of deja vu here, didnt you post this more or less word for word in another thread a while back? Apologies if that wasnt you, just odd seeing someone make the same factual errors in the same context.

Edit: Ah, yes, here we go http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=144286792&postcount=3707

Just looked it up.

F-S-S-Space-Space-Space-S-S-S-Space

10 keys to get into the menu, save, and get out.

This is part of what I'm talking about. I'm not going to surprise anyone in the world by pointing out that anime fans are some of the most painful people to debate with, as 99% of their rebuttals to any criticism will be a circle jerk of one-sentence categorical rebuttals or, as in this case, outright bullshittry.

My review is my own. I expect this thread to be filled with hundreds of posts of praise, nearly all of them by people with anime avatars, but my purpose is to warn those that aren't desperately on the hunt for B-tier anime in a D-tier game - avoid this game.

This really is a masterpiece, the group attack on fans of an entire medium, the persuasive definition of same as well as the pre-emptive dismissal of any criticism or disagreement. Then as a bonus we have "Its like my opinion" mixed with some bullshit about peoples avatars and topped off with a big dollop of concern trolling and ersatz martyrdom. Masterclass in shit posts.

 

[Eternia]

Just alt-tabbed out of Dragon Age Inqusitions to say "lol, f5".

Later on I'll play Gnomoria, a game by a single developer. Somehow he figured out how to do autosaving and 1-press saves.

Keep making excuses for shit design. That'll surely convince people this game is worth it.

You're mixing auto/quick saves vs hard saves, two completely different features. Making hard saves takes a lot of button presses in practically every game. This goes against your complaint about it being a navigational issue (why no mouse controls) to missing an actual feature. Adding mouse controls wouldn't fix whatever you're complaining about now.

You're all over the place.

 

[Steel]

You call me antagonistic, yet anyone reading this thread is going to go "Damn, he called it like it was".

I said my review was going to be met by a never-ending circle jerk of one-liners and gifs. I was right.

Man. if you think the majority of people are going to say "Damn, called it like it was" en masse then you're delusional. Oh and hey look, I don't have an anime avatar and I rather liked Valkyria chronicles. Imagine that.

 

[bomblord1]

You aren't making a strong case for the opposite either btw. Yes, the lack of autosave and more clunky console game save system is a bit old fashioned but you are making sound way worse and bigger issue than it really is.

You also have to consider that a quicksave style system would completely ruin the challenge and flow of the game. Imagine quicksaving before every move.

 

[TekGryphon]

You're mixing auto/quick saves vs hard saves, two completely different features. Making hard saves takes a lot of button presses in practically every game. This goes against your complaint about it being a navigational issue (why no mouse controls) to missing an actual feature. Adding mouse controls wouldn't fix whatever you're complaining about now.

You're all over the place.

VC has no quick saves and no auto saves. Or are you forgetting this?

Manual saves are time consuming in other games, but thankfully you don't have to worry about it. I'm near the end of DA:I and haven't made a manual save yet. Three auto-save slots plus quick saves has been fine.

You also have to consider that a quicksave style system would completely ruin the challenge and flow of the game. Imagine quicksaving before every move.

Yes, imagine. Maybe this time instead of the AI wasting half its turns moving around a unit across the map to the West when you're 1 turn from the victory point, it'll move a unit around across the map to the East.

 

[Tik115]

Just alt-tabbed out of Dragon Age Inqusitions to say "lol, f5".

Later on I'll play Gnomoria, a game by a single developer. Somehow he figured out how to do autosaving and 1-press saves.

Keep making excuses for shit design. That'll surely convince people this game is worth it.

I'd rather be making excuses then throwing a temper tantrum about a game.

We get it, you hate Valkyria Chronicles, move on instead of trying to start fires for your own amusement