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Valkyria Chronicles |OT| Beautiful art meets genre-redefining gameplay
- Thread starter Durante
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Lord Phol
Member
After about six months I've finally plowed through the game, it's been both enjoyable and frustrating, but much worth it in the end.
The music is what makes this game godly, along with the beautiful and interesting graphics.
Storywise it's pretty generic, but with some interesting characters and good direction.
As for the gameplay which feels quite original, it has its hits and misses.
The basics of it are good, though I do feel the enemy phase could of have been sped up.
So I'm instead gonna focus on the few complains I had.
My first issued has allready been adressed on this very page, which is how you're ranked at the end of each battle.
Another issue I have is how useless some classes are compared to others. 70% of the time I had scouts do all of the work since they can move the farthest and can take down most enemies in about 3-5 headshots. I almost never used the full rooster available in a mission, all to preserve those precious turn-medals.
Both of these issues can be traced back to the ranking system and how it urges you to finnish a mission the fastest way possible.
The last thing on my mind, which I had the most problems with is how insanely difficult some of the last few missions became. Lots of Trial & Error, which wouldn't be too annoying if it wasn't for the time it takes to redo everything. Loading times, coupled with the characters talking and the slow pacedness of the game itself, makes for some frustrating moments.
Now this might sound like alot of complaining, but I really enjoyed this game faults and all, it's one of my favorite PS3 games currently.
The music is what makes this game godly, along with the beautiful and interesting graphics.
Storywise it's pretty generic, but with some interesting characters and good direction.
As for the gameplay which feels quite original, it has its hits and misses.
The basics of it are good, though I do feel the enemy phase could of have been sped up.
So I'm instead gonna focus on the few complains I had.
My first issued has allready been adressed on this very page, which is how you're ranked at the end of each battle.
Another issue I have is how useless some classes are compared to others. 70% of the time I had scouts do all of the work since they can move the farthest and can take down most enemies in about 3-5 headshots. I almost never used the full rooster available in a mission, all to preserve those precious turn-medals.
Both of these issues can be traced back to the ranking system and how it urges you to finnish a mission the fastest way possible.
The last thing on my mind, which I had the most problems with is how insanely difficult some of the last few missions became. Lots of Trial & Error, which wouldn't be too annoying if it wasn't for the time it takes to redo everything. Loading times, coupled with the characters talking and the slow pacedness of the game itself, makes for some frustrating moments.
Now this might sound like alot of complaining, but I really enjoyed this game faults and all, it's one of my favorite PS3 games currently.
Definitively. I think they should look at Advance Wars scoring system...Lord Phol said:
I kinda disagree on this one... While I agree that scouts are often swiss knives and all-powerful in several situations (play a second walkthrough and you'll see that all characters are useless compared to Alicia... I must have used Alicia and Alicia alone on ~70% missionLord Phol said:
), I wouldn't say that others are useless.In fact, I used all of them to speed up a lot of missions (not for A rank, but for fastest completion time), and in hard/ex modes, they are definitively valuables. For example :
Shocks: you can make far more kills with a shock than with a scout with the same action points. First, you can do multiple kills with a single shot (especially with the elite weapons), and second, this is the only class that can do a lot of kills during enemy turns when you place them carefully. See e.g. the special mission where you need to kill everyone.
Snipers: quite obvious, you can kill enemies from farther better than scouts, without even the need to move. See e.g. the mission in the fortress, finishing it turn 1 with scouts would be... difficult at least!
Lancers: I agree that they are really slow, and that's what camp teleportation is for. But there's a couple of things they can do more quickly, with the heavy damages, than scouts (of course, you can spend 10 points in orders to kill a tank with a couple of shots using a sniper rifle, but that's more expensive in action points), and there's even objectives they're nearly to only one that are able to take down.
Engineers: there's missions where refills are unvaluable (see the mission before the last one, you would need to bring more lancers or use more turns to finish the objective)
I must say I've yet to see a real use for tanks beside the Isara weapon, though.
That being said, I agree that too often a scout assault is far more enough to win a map, and quickly, and that the fact that other are slow means you often don't bother make them participate in the fight. For A-Rank, that's not a necessity, anyway. But going for fastest completion time require more usage of all classes.
Again, I prefer the balance of Advance Wars (1, 2 & DS) where all units are useful, even those you would think otherwise at first. And Alicia herself make every other people useless, which I think is worse... She's really far too powerful (even if it's quite enjoyable sometimes). Stay in the middle of the enemies troops, and they'll die from friendly fire trying endlessly to hurt you without success.
You know that there's a save option during battles? You shouldn't have to redo everything if you don't want to.Lord Phol said:
Besides, I don't know... I don't remember a lot of failures over for my first walkthrough... Maybe half a dozen for the whole game, with three being the Shamrock destroyed (even if I don't use it doesn't mean I accept loosing it), two of them in the battle before the final one (quite heavy fire and space too open, especially if you don't want to spend points into moving into cover). I admit that I was lucky in Basel, since the AI make a big strategic mistake turn 2.
In fact, one of my regrets on this game is that I found it far too easy, especially since I finished the game without playing skirmishes at all, so without grinding (and still got nearly only A-ranks on first try). I don't think I'm especially good at this game, but maybe I found a couple of tricks that made the game easier. I'm playing a lot of strategic games, also, so that probably helped. Different feeling, I guess.
But apart from the difficulty, a agree with your points, especially the first one. It lacks a real way to estimate how well you play the game. That's the first game, though, and should we see more games similar, it'll probably get better.
marathonfool
Member
Wow...this DLC is hard. I'm liking it so far.
Dr Bad Dude PHD
Banned
This game have trophies yet? I'll buy all the DLC when they throw in trophies. There you go Sega, the $20 it will cost to put trophies in is covered.
Does anyone know if this DLC is separate from the main game and can be played without finishing the main game or if it's like the DLC that included new difficulty levels for the skirmishes and required that you have those skirmishes unlocked in the main game.
I ask this because I got the YLOD a while back and lost my save file for Valkyria, but I would like to play this DLC so would that be possible?
I ask this because I got the YLOD a while back and lost my save file for Valkyria, but I would like to play this DLC so would that be possible?
So I bought the new DLC, installed it, loaded a Cleared save file for a New Game+, finished the first challenge - everything's great. Decided I wanted to try the third challenge (Snipers) next... then ran into an issue. I don't have any Snipers. I thought maybe I needed to progress a bit into the story (been quite a while since I last played it, can't remember exactly when you start to get the non-major squad members), and so I did the first 3 missions. Then when I went into the 4th mission (Chapter 3 - West Bank of Vasel City)... I still didn't have any squad members except Welkin, Largo, Rosie, and Alicia, and seemed to be fucked.
Anyone know/remember/can check what squad members you start off a NG+ with when you load the Cleared save file? I'm hoping that mine isn't corrupted somehow. >.<
Edit: Nevermind, I was able to find an Epilogue save that I had backed up, and creating a new Clear save file from that seems to have worked. Whew.
Anyone know/remember/can check what squad members you start off a NG+ with when you load the Cleared save file? I'm hoping that mine isn't corrupted somehow. >.<
Edit: Nevermind, I was able to find an Epilogue save that I had backed up, and creating a new Clear save file from that seems to have worked. Whew.
marathonfool
Member
There are no ENG voices. Set the voice option to JPN and you'll hear the JPN voices in the new DLC.
Classic_Gs
Member
I am looking forward to jumping back into VC this weekend with the new DLC.
I didn't even notice about the voices since I had them set to Japanese anyway.
I like that this DLC integrates into the game better than the first Edy one (I think that one could have just been added to the book as a bonus chapter).
This one adds an additional 2 pages about "Professional Military Operations" to the skirmishes tab:
I did Susie's (scout) challenge:
And Jann's (lancers):
The challenge level is nice. Not nearly as insane as Hard EX mode (which is worth it if you really are into VC's gameplay btw.), but also not too easy particularly if you want an A grade. If the other 4 missions hold up it's probably my favourite DLC.
I like that this DLC integrates into the game better than the first Edy one (I think that one could have just been added to the book as a bonus chapter).
This one adds an additional 2 pages about "Professional Military Operations" to the skirmishes tab:
I did Susie's (scout) challenge:
And Jann's (lancers):
The challenge level is nice. Not nearly as insane as Hard EX mode (which is worth it if you really are into VC's gameplay btw.), but also not too easy particularly if you want an A grade. If the other 4 missions hold up it's probably my favourite DLC.
PartlyCloudlike
Member
Bah, just ordered this off Amazon.com for 31.99 including shipping even though I didn't much enjoy the demo. But my traditionally moderate gaming appetite has seen a sudden explosion recently, probably beginning with Uncharted 2 and Demon Souls but more recently with the God of War Collection and Heavy Rain(!!!). This thread always piqued my curiosity too. The demo didn't draw me in as much as I would've expected given the amount of praise it garnered, but I think it had more to do with me than the game. Lately, it's as though my love for gaming has been reawakened. VERY recently. Not even the mighty PS2 was able to do that nor some of the major PS3 releases like MGS4 or Killzone 2. Now I want it all! Tuesday I bought Heavy Rain and tonight I preordered GoW III and will be receiving a $10 coupon for doing so, then decided "Fuck it, let's add Valkyria Chronicles to my collection." This game does look more badass the more I read about it in this thread.
No English voices for the DLC?!? :O
Thats a shame, still I'm more grateful for the fact I get to play more VC though.
I downloaded the DLC last night so I'll give it a good playthrough this weekend, glad to hear positive things about it. to be honest as long as get to play as Marina then I'm all set!
Thats a shame, still I'm more grateful for the fact I get to play more VC though.
I downloaded the DLC last night so I'll give it a good playthrough this weekend, glad to hear positive things about it. to be honest as long as get to play as Marina then I'm all set!
Lord Phol
Member
I totally missed this! that would REALLY have helped x.xKoren said:
The thing is, I had no problems with the first part of the game, almost breezed through the game (with some minor replaying here and there) until I hit chapter 16 I think. Cannons and lancers would just blow up the Edeilweiser in one turn, and other things ending the mission abruptly x.x.Koren said:
I'm also a fan of Advance Wars and they way they ranked you in days of ruin.
Something similar for this game would awesome, but it was an enjoyable ride.
After the PS3 internal clock issue passed, I finished up the new DLC Skirmishes tonight. Found it to be very enjoyable (no surprise there), and absolutely worth the cost. Difficulty is kind of uneven between the missions (due in no small part to the sheer overpowered-ness of the Ruhm in certain situations), but then again, I'd say that makes it a fun series of skirmishes, whereas the EX-Skirmishes can often become more annoying than fun (especially if you're going for A rank on everything like my OCD compels me to do). The only thing I can really complain about is the annoyance of tracking down the last enemy on the Scout challenge, and the fact that the location of the Ace on Engineer challenge means you almost have to abuse save/load to get Undodgeable Shot in order to kill him.
I am somewhat saddened though, by the knowledge that this will probably be the last time I play the game that I still rank as my favorite of this generation. =(
I am somewhat saddened though, by the knowledge that this will probably be the last time I play the game that I still rank as my favorite of this generation. =(
The Frankman
Banned
Finally beat the game... despite having certain plot holes that you can fit a semi through closer to the end, still a nice story. Was ready to one-and-done it since I'm not remotely interested in the DLC, but my sis loves how the storyline came together (and loves characters like "Rosie" and Maria) so now I might have to get a DLC... which of the DLC's lack English VA's? That's just about a dealbreaker.
Giolon
Member
The Frankman said:
Only the newest one that came out last month. "The Challenges of the Edy Detachment" is its title. I should point out that the lack of English VA is really not a big deal. There's really no story to it. It's just a series of challenge missions, one for each class (pertaining to the members of "Edy Squad"). The VA is only missing from the outside of battle dialogues. All the same in-battle quips and comments are still there.
User 10639
Member
That's good. The English VA in this game was surprisingly great overall, but the battle dialogues were just hilariously awesome.Giolon said:
The Frankman
Banned
Ok that's good. Depending how things go may go for "Enter the Edy Detachment" down the line if family is around, for now it's time to prepare for the GOTY.Giolon said:
For anyone looking for a cheaper price on the development artbook, hlj is taking advance orders to fill their backorder for slightly under retail price (Will go over after shipping though).
http://www.hlj.com/product/ENT26301
http://www.hlj.com/product/ENT26301
CornBurrito
Member
Is Jann male or female?
He's a very feisty, fabulous and feminine man, honey.
I still haven't started the DLC yet. I've been working on my 2nd playthrough of VC but unfortunately I haven't had much gaming time lately. The only DLC I haven't bought is the Hard EX mode, I might give it a try one of these days. You can use your leveled up crew for it, right? If anything it would just rebalance the game for my superpowered characters from my first playthrough. I don't need a tank when I have the Bruhm, I can single handedly take out an entire crew of Imp's with that godly weapon.
I still haven't started the DLC yet. I've been working on my 2nd playthrough of VC but unfortunately I haven't had much gaming time lately. The only DLC I haven't bought is the Hard EX mode, I might give it a try one of these days. You can use your leveled up crew for it, right? If anything it would just rebalance the game for my superpowered characters from my first playthrough. I don't need a tank when I have the Bruhm, I can single handedly take out an entire crew of Imp's with that godly weapon.
The Shocktropper one is really fun. There's only four of you against wave after wave of Imperials. The best advice I can give is to be as conservative as possible when engaging the enemy; you have to keep two exit points guarded, leaving only two others free to take out everyone else.Durante said:
radiantdreamer
Member
Dogenzaka said:
reminds me of this subliminal ad way back when:
oh Sega. Never change.
"God's Beard!"
Member
not quite subliminalradiantdreamer said:
Joei
Member
Well, I bought the game yesterday and am finally having a chance to install it now and maybe get a few minutes play time in before going to sleep. I keep hearing so many good things about it and I liked the demo, I just hope that I'll be able to find time to playing it with FF13 coming out this week (which should arrive at my doorstep Friday)... I love the art style and the battle system seemed really, really fun from the demo.
harriet the spy
Member
Whoa, I didn't realize that VC2 had actually released in Japan! So, any gaffers tried it? what's the consensus (among gaffers, or on the internet)?
I can't seem to find reviews of the game. Was it the best PSP game evar??!
I can't seem to find reviews of the game. Was it the best PSP game evar??!
harriet the spy
Member
A bit LTTP...
Marina is indeed pretty awesome <3. I kept hearing (I think?) that boosting scouts was the way to go, since at the end of the game they could run ludicrous distances, all while headshotting anything from a distance.
So of course, to make things harder, I decided not to I leveled scouts and shocktroopers fairly equally (it was a chore to use shocktroopers sometimes...), left lancers completely behind (can' stand the utter garbage accuracy), engineers very low as well (who needs tanks ), and decided to ridiculously overpower snipers just for the hell of it.
Very early in the game, Marina had become a death machine, often headshotting 3 enemies per turn, sometimes more when I didn't feel the need to 'run' through the map.
It actually breaks some levels.
Very close to the end now (Ghirlaoio?), can't wait to be done.
Durante said:
Marina is indeed pretty awesome <3. I kept hearing (I think?) that boosting scouts was the way to go, since at the end of the game they could run ludicrous distances, all while headshotting anything from a distance.
So of course, to make things harder, I decided not to
I leveled scouts and shocktroopers fairly equally (it was a chore to use shocktroopers sometimes...), left lancers completely behind (can' stand the utter garbage accuracy), engineers very low as well (who needs tanks ), and decided to ridiculously overpower snipers just for the hell of it.Very early in the game, Marina had become a death machine, often headshotting 3 enemies per turn, sometimes more when I didn't feel the need to 'run' through the map.
It actually breaks some levels.
Very close to the end now (Ghirlaoio?), can't wait to be done.
I just got this game yesterday, and it really is amazing (not that any of you need to be told). I've got to the mission
It's pretty frustrating.
Is there anything I should know before it's too late into the game and I've screwed everything up? I've been upgrading every class and weapon equally so far. I'm really not sure what the benefit of upgrading engineer is, but I have been anyways. Does it just heal more tank HP or something?
where Maxamilian has a giant tank and you have to blow it up.
Is there anything I should know before it's too late into the game and I've screwed everything up? I've been upgrading every class and weapon equally so far. I'm really not sure what the benefit of upgrading engineer is, but I have been anyways. Does it just heal more tank HP or something?
rdelaney said:
It's been awhile since I've played but there shouldn't be anything to miss. You should use a sniper or two to pick off a couple of guys when you start off in the trench, then proceed to mobilize the tank and take down those walls (or whatever they are..sketchy memory) whilst destroying the Maximillian's weaponry, you'll probably need to position your tank well enough to shield infantry from Sylveria and Max. Use grenades to take out the tank's ragonite generator things when you get the chance, it'll one shot them instead of using a Lancer and wasting 2-3 turns. Worked for me, cheers.
SouthernDragon
Member
Hmmm
Should I get the DLC for this? Especially since there won't be anymore...
Great game, too.
I remember i beat that mission the hard way; by using lancers to take out the heat dissipators.
That's right, bitches.
Should I get the DLC for this? Especially since there won't be anymore...
Great game, too.
I remember i beat that mission the hard way; by using lancers to take out the heat dissipators.
That's right, bitches.
:\ man, by ignoring lancers you're missing out on elysse. thats a crime.harriet the spy said:A bit LTTP...
Marina is indeed pretty awesome <3. I kept hearing (I think?) that boosting scouts was the way to go, since at the end of the game they could run ludicrous distances, all while headshotting anything from a distance.
So of course, to make things harder, I decided not to
Very early in the game, Marina had become a death machine, often headshotting 3 enemies per turn, sometimes more when I didn't feel the need to 'run' through the map.
It actually breaks some levels.
Very close to the end now (Ghirlaoio?), can't wait to be done.
for that matter, without engineers you're missing homer and claudia!
harriet the spy
Member
Pandaman said:
Well, there's always New Game +
I still have really no idea how to use lancers, though. They move super slowly, and they always miss!
And while that could be cheating, I find that using a beefed up scout or shocktroopers + damage up (or rarely demolition), to be more than enough for any tanks.
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