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Valkyria Chronicles |OT| Beautiful art meets genre-redefining gameplay

bigswords said:
I played the demo and it's awesome, going to grab this. Oh how do you use the engineer to give ammo to the other characters?
Walk near them and brush up against them and you'll automatically fill them with your ammo.
 

Dyne

Member
Hahaha. Holy shit. You have to be joking me. That's like complaining about Final freaking Fantasy Tactics not having multiplayer. It's a complete and utter joke.

Furthermore, it goes AGAINST logic. You SCORE a game HIGH so you can see SEQUELS which may CONTAIN MULTIPLAYER.
 

bigswords

Member
Gryphter said:
while moving the engineer, just run up to whoever you want them to give supplies to, you'll hear a chime. You can run past them too, you don't have to stop and hit a button or anything, just make contact and you got it.

What if I just left my engineer next to a lancer (both behind cover), will that replenish the lancer's ammo count as well?

Thanks for the replies, damn I really love the art style of this game.
 

Dyne

Member
bigswords said:
What if I just left my engineer next to a lancer (both behind cover), will that replenish the lancer's ammo count as well?

Thanks for the replies, damn I really love the art style of this game.

Yes, I think it's like a 5 foot radius. Plus, you can just place you army in a bowling-pin style setup as they move and keep your engineer in the middle. : )
 

Drahcir

Member
Damn it, I gotta unwrap and play my copy tonight. It's been sitting on my desk for the past week due to Fallout 3, LBP, and Dead Space.
 

Tempy

don't ask me for codes
I'm going to hit the next person who suggests VC needs multiplayer and doesn't realize how much the existing game mechanics do NOT make this possible unless you change everything.
 

Durante

Member
Tempy said:
I'm going to hit the next person who suggests VC needs multiplayer and doesn't realize how much the existing game mechanics do NOT make this possible unless you change everything.
I already had my meltdown about this a dozen pages back, I now just take such requests as a compliment to the games' mechanics and strategic gameplay depth. Much more relaxing that way. I still agree with you though.
 

Baha

Member
bigswords said:
What if I just left my engineer next to a lancer (both behind cover), will that replenish the lancer's ammo count as well?

Thanks for the replies, damn I really love the art style of this game.

Yes but remember one thing, you can only replenish ammo on the engineer's turn. So any other soldier running up to an engineer or near one won't get their ammo replenished on their turn.
 
Just starting, and I think I'm going to enjoy this... but the beginning kills me. There's war coming, we've seen civilians gunned down in the streets and they are just so cavalier and cutesy about it in the story that it makes me want to shoot them...

Everyone is going to die, stop flirting and drawing fish sharing your aspirations and bringing over 'I'm sorry' bakery items...

Get out there and dig some damn trenches and lay some barbed wire! Where the hell are your scouts? Why are you flirting!

rykomatsu said:
it's been said from the get-go that VC is about human drama, not war drama.

That's fine, but don't totally ignore what's going on around you... and isn't war drama also human drama? Or are we talking about chimpanzee war?
 

rykomatsu

Member
frankthurk said:
Just starting, and I think I'm going to enjoy this... but the beginning kills me. There's war coming, we've seen civilians gunned down in the streets and they are just so cavalier and cutesy about it in the story that it makes me want to shoot them...

Everyone is going to die, stop flirting and drawing fish and bringing over 'I'm sorry' bakery items...

it's been said from the get-go that VC is about human drama, not war drama.
 

Dyne

Member
frankthurk said:
Just starting, and I think I'm going to enjoy this... but the beginning kills me. There's war coming, we've seen civilians gunned down in the streets and they are just so cavalier and cutesy about it in the story that it makes me want to shoot them...

Everyone is going to die, stop flirting and drawing fish sharing your aspirations and bringing over 'I'm sorry' bakery items...

Get out there and dig some damn trenches and lay some barbed wire! Where the hell are your scouts? Why are you flirting!

There's a certain amount of realistic logic towards the story you should just throw in the trash when you start the game. That's when you learn about the ridiculous Ragnite plot device. Miracle element that does everything? Seriously?

Just sit back, don't worry about little things like this. Enjoy the game. : D
 
Dyne said:
There's a certain amount of realistic logic towards the story you should just throw in the trash when you start the game. That's when you learn about the ridiculous Ragnite plot device. Miracle element that does everything? Seriously?

Just sit back, don't worry about little things like this. Enjoy the game. : D

Understood, and I'm sure I will. It just bugs me so I needed to vent.
 

Tempy

don't ask me for codes
frankthurk said:
Just starting, and I think I'm going to enjoy this... but the beginning kills me. There's war coming, we've seen civilians gunned down in the streets and they are just so cavalier and cutesy about it in the story that it makes me want to shoot them...

Everyone is going to die, stop flirting and drawing fish sharing your aspirations and bringing over 'I'm sorry' bakery items...

Get out there and dig some damn trenches and lay some barbed wire! Where the hell are your scouts? Why are you flirting!



That's fine, but don't totally ignore what's going on around you... and isn't war drama also human drama? Or are we talking about chimpanzee war?

The war is between the Federation and the Empire - Gallia has remained neutral until the Empire started pounding on their door. But at the beginning the war still seems "far away". I don't see people in the USA stopping their usual lives despite being in two wars.
 

sonicmj1

Member
Durante said:
I already had my meltdown about this a dozen pages back, I now just take such requests as a compliment to the games' mechanics and strategic gameplay depth. Much more relaxing that way. I still agree with you though.

I can understand the reasons why it wouldn't work. The attacker has a pretty huge advantage in combat (kinda like Fire Emblem, in a way). It'd be hard to make sure that things were equitable. You might have to seriously reduce command points or something.

For me, though, I want multiplayer because, at times, it seems as though it was built for multiplayer in some ways. Many mechanics feel underutilized in the singleplayer, but very viable in multiplayer. Setting up defensive perimeters (and intercepting fire in general) seems to come up more as something you need to avoid, rather than something that you should be attempting to create, since you are so frequently on the offensive in missions. And picking up enemy bodies only comes up when they (by accident) do it to your soldiers, as it's totally meaningless when you do it to them.

The only reason I want it is because the system is so good, so I don't begrudge the game anything for not including it. But I do think it could really work in a fun way, to create action-packed, exciting, dynamic skirmishes between two human players.
 

Farnack

Banned
frankthurk said:
Just starting, and I think I'm going to enjoy this... but the beginning kills me. There's war coming, we've seen civilians gunned down in the streets and they are just so cavalier and cutesy about it in the story that it makes me want to shoot them...

Everyone is going to die, stop flirting and drawing fish sharing your aspirations and bringing over 'I'm sorry' bakery items...

Get out there and dig some damn trenches and lay some barbed wire! Where the hell are your scouts? Why are you flirting!
Sorry that this isn't the 120th game that is with the Saving Private Ryan atmosphere ripoff that I'm only caters to the American crowd.
 

Dyne

Member
I think they would end up doing something like Fire Emblem GBA's multiplayer, which wasn't very fun at all, AND based on shit like what level your characters were in the game currently.

However, given the time and dedication, I could see player vs. player working, but only on a few maps. Most of Valkyria's maps seem tuned to player progression, not balance. They would have to spend even more time making balanced maps.
 

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
If people don't mind PBEM style multi gaming, VC would be perfect for that (assuming scenarios are balanced enough so that both sides can win). Of course, you're never going to get through a whole game in a short amount of time.
 

sonicmj1

Member
Dyne said:
I think they would end up doing something like Fire Emblem GBA's multiplayer, which wasn't very fun at all, AND based on shit like what level your characters were in the game currently.

However, given the time and dedication, I could see player vs. player working, but only on a few maps. Most of Valkyria's maps seem tuned to player progression, not balance. They would have to spend even more time making balanced maps.

This is true. It wouldn't be an easy process. It's just something I think would be cool, and would like to see.

I wonder how the game would play out if you alternated CP point use between players, and you could give turns to your opponent to use more CP at a time.
 

Dyne

Member
sonicmj1 said:
This is true. It wouldn't be an easy process. It's just something I think would be cool, and would like to see.

I wonder how the game would play out if you alternated CP point use between players, and you could give turns to your opponent to use more CP at a time.

Hahah, I actually like that! It prevents team-attacking in one turn. Plus, a lot of bad blood would be prevented. Imagine a tank is rolled out into the open on player 1's turn, and then Player 2 has 20 turns to get behind this tank and rip it open from the inside - with weak characters. And if you wanted to move a tank you would have to wait one turn to stockpile 2 CP. : )
 

Tenkei

Member
I'm really enjoying the combat system; it's a nice blend of action and strategy that I've never experienced before. I also like that the game gives each unit a voice, a unique look, and some flavour text that gives them some personality. It would be cool if you could unlock side-stories involving characters you use frequently, instead of just more flavour text, but I've just finished episode 5, so I don't know if it eventually happens.

There are a few issues I have with the gameplay, though. For one thing, I hate how you can't adjust your vertical view when you're in target mode with your grenade; when I want to take out enemies below me, I'd like to be able to see where the grenade will land. The grenade throwing distance bothers me as well, but I assume that's more because they want to discourage its overuse. :lol

The aiming system also causes me problems when I'm trying to shoot around corners with a non-sniper; the camera is centred around units when I move, so I think that I can position them about a third behind a wall to reduce counterfire exposure, but when I switch to target mode, the camera moves to the right of the unit and I can no longer see around that corner. A similar problem happens when I use the tank; I've wasted a few turns hitting trees that I didn't expect to be in the line of fire.

To be fair, I don't know if the game offers a first-person targetting mode other than snipers, so I will tip my hat to anyone who explains to me how to toggle it. :D
 

zoku88

Member
anddo0 said:
It took me 14 turns but I beat chapter 7 with one try (C Rating). I didn't lose anyone in battle either:D
I had to quite during the my try because of how my troops were laid out (
I was stupid and thought I was supposed to use lancers to shoot the rangite things...
)

I eventually got a B rank on my 2nd try. I would've gotten the faster possible, but
I think I may have stopped the tank from moving one time with my tank, therefore my winning was delayed by 1 turn
 

Baha

Member
Tenkei said:
I'm really enjoying the combat system; it's a nice blend of action and strategy that I've never experienced before. I also like that the game gives each unit a voice, a unique look, and some flavour text that gives them some personality. It would be cool if you could unlock side-stories involving characters you use frequently, instead of just more flavour text, but I've just finished episode 5, so I don't know if it eventually happens.

There are a few issues I have with the gameplay, though. For one thing, I hate how you can't adjust your vertical view when you're in target mode with your grenade; when I want to take out enemies below me, I'd like to be able to see where the grenade will land. The grenade throwing distance bothers me as well, but I assume that's more because they want to discourage its overuse. :lol

The aiming system also causes me problems when I'm trying to shoot around corners with a non-sniper; the camera is centred around units when I move, so I think that I can position them about a third behind a wall to reduce counterfire exposure, but when I switch to target mode, the camera moves to the right of the unit and I can no longer see around that corner. A similar problem happens when I use the tank; I've wasted a few turns hitting trees that I didn't expect to be in the line of fire.

To be fair, I don't know if the game offers a first-person targetting mode other than snipers, so I will tip my hat to anyone who explains to me how to toggle it. :D

For the 1st bolded part, there are side stories but for main characters (those with CP) which you can unlock later on. Just remember to buy the reports from Ellet. For the 2nd part, I totally agree although there is a bit of a workaround that since the targeting arrow changes color when it's on an enemy so you can use that to hit the enemy if you can't see them.
 

Ryuartyi

Banned
I don't know if anyone has posted this yet, but for Phantasy Star Zero one of the pre-order bonuses is Selvaria's lance. I can't translate, but I'll give the link.

http://news.dengeki.com/elem/000/000/117/117220/

c20081030_fszero_02_cs1w1_290x.jpg
 

Farnack

Banned
sonicmj1 said:
This is true. It wouldn't be an easy process. It's just something I think would be cool, and would like to see.

I wonder how the game would play out if you alternated CP point use between players, and you could give turns to your opponent to use more CP at a time.
A better way is for both players to choose one of their units and have them both actively moving and doing actions at one time, because it's already an unfair advantage for the first player to go and get some lucky headshots.
 

sonicmj1

Member
Farnack said:
A better way is for both players to choose one of their units and have them both actively moving and doing actions at one time, because it's already an unfair advantage for the first player to go and get some lucky headshots.

Lucky headshots are just the nature of the beast. I think you'd have to have a fair bit of distance between the two sides, so that it isn't easy to close the distance right away before anyone can get set up. Maybe even give a setup phase for the defending player, where they can move their units into a good position, but can't attack.

The problem with your proposal, I think, is that then it's impossible to tell what the other player is doing. The problems with what happens when a player aims are relatively small (if you're in real time, your opponent might sneak up and snipe your aiming character when you aren't paying attention before you get a shot off), but when your opponent is moving around, you'd have no idea what they did or where they went, which adds a bit too much uncertainty for this sort of game.

Headshots for the first attacking player are one thing, but I think it'd be even more annoying for one of your characters to get killed without you even knowing what's happening.
 

Farnack

Banned
sonicmj1 said:
Lucky headshots are just the nature of the beast. I think you'd have to have a fair bit of distance between the two sides, so that it isn't easy to close the distance right away before anyone can get set up. Maybe even give a setup phase for the defending player, where they can move their units into a good position, but can't attack.

The problem with your proposal, I think, is that then it's impossible to tell what the other player is doing. The problems with what happens when a player aims are relatively small (if you're in real time, your opponent might sneak up and snipe your aiming character when you aren't paying attention before you get a shot off), but when your opponent is moving around, you'd have no idea what they did or where they went, which adds a bit too much uncertainty for this sort of game.

Headshots for the first attacking player are one thing, but I think it'd be even more annoying for one of your characters to get killed without you even knowing what's happening.
Dude, you're not suppose to know what the other player is doing AT ALL unless you can see them. If both players can take their one turn at the same time and decide which unit they want to move, there is no unfair advantage of taking the first turn. When a player decides to shoot, the game would pause until the shots are fired.

If you're leaving it turn based with one player taking a turn first, it's already unfair for this new kind of game.
 

zoku88

Member
Farnack said:
Dude, you're not suppose to know what the other player is doing AT ALL unless you can see them. If both players can take their one turn at the same time and decide which unit they want to move, there is no unfair advantage of taking the first turn. When a player decides to shoot, the game would pause until the shots are fired.

If you're leaving it turn based with one player taking a turn first, it's already unfair for this new kind of game.
Yea, that's why Civilization IV (online) makes players turns happen at the same time.
 

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
zoku88 said:
Yea, that's why Civilization IV (online) makes players turns happen at the same time.
Damnit zoku, I've been trying to recall who that is in your avatar and I'm seriously drawing a blank here... :lol
 

zoku88

Member
XiaNaphryz said:
Damnit zoku, I've been trying to recall who that is in your avatar and I'm seriously drawing a blank here... :lol
Horitaki Maki. She played Ashiya Mizuki in Hana Kimi and Nobuta in Nobuta wo Produce, I'm going to guess that you watched one of those. She was in some other dramas, but the other ones aren't that high profile, me thinks.

EDIT: I'm prolly going to change it to a better picture of her, though.
 
Tempy said:
I'm going to hit the next person who suggests VC needs multiplayer and doesn't realize how much the existing game mechanics do NOT make this possible unless you change everything.
As was said 12 times, it doesn't need multiplayer, but multiplayer could be nice.
But yeah, i'm probably wrong. Your fact'opinion says so, right?
 
Rosie just did an awesome bit of intercepting fire in Chp16. I had her positioned near an enemy sniper. The sniper took his go and ran past her, all the time she's shotting him but doesn't manage to finish him off. He runs in front of one of his machine gun placements, and shots at Rosie. She evades and counters but the sniper evades as well, but her shots hit the machine gun, destroying it, then she gets the final shot into the sniper and finishes him as well.
 
since the mere thought of multiplayer has blown up half of our minds here, how about time trials with online leaderboards?

Make some challenge boards or just use the skirmishes and see who can beat them the fastest, highest grades, amounts of kills, etc. You could set the difficulties just like the skirmishes do and each one would have their own leaderboard list. Yay or nay?
 
Gryphter said:
since the mere thought of multiplayer has blown up half of our minds here, how about time trials with online leaderboards?

Make some challenge boards or just use the skirmishes and see who can beat them the fastest, highest grades, amounts of kills, etc. You could set the difficulties just like the skirmishes do and each one would have their own leaderboard list. Yay or nay?
Sure.
Now, about that multiplayer.... ;)
 

jsrv

Member
bigswords said:
I played the demo and it's awesome, going to grab this. Oh how do you use the engineer to give ammo to the other characters?

Just have the engineer walk nearby your other allies, there should be a sound and an icon popping up to signal the resupplying.
 

Baha

Member
Finally beat the game tonight with a total playtime of 42 hrs 56 mins. My thoughts are below, spoilers obviously:

I, for one, loved the ending despite how 'rushed' some may argue it felt. For a love story/war story there was significant closure for all the main characters, the side characters got a 3rd paragraph which is nice considering how many there are in total. I totally felt a sense of accomplishment and didn't feel like there could've been more, imo 18 chapters was just the right length without being stretched out for the sake of it like some other rpgs tend to do sometimes. Maximilian was two-dimensional and while they could've elaborated more on his past or made him sympathetic, they kept him evil and twisted which was fine. The epilogue at the end was excellent and the kind of ending I would expect from a game attempting to tell a love story with a happy ending. That's right, I'm looking at you FFVIII, Grandia 2, etc.

I really hope that somewhere there's a scan or wallpaper of two particular scenes they showed in the ending. The 1st being the one with all of the recruits and the 2nd being the beautiful watercolor of Welkin giving Alicia the Lion's Paw ring. I'm kind of curious if the number of living/deceased recruits affects the 1st scene I mentioned.

Finally, I will be giving this game another playthrough for the rest of the medals and personnel pages. I'm glad I stuck with this title back when it was announced and released back in April and I hope Sega does a sequel. I'm looking forward to the anime adaptation (see what they add or omit). When I bought my ps3 back in late January, mgs4 might've been my #1 reason for it's purchase (among other small things) but this game, this game justifies my purchase. Don't take that to mean that I didn't enjoy mgs4 or think any less of it. This game just blew all my expectations away and brought me back to that summer in '98 when I first played Final Fantasy Tactics. I've waited a long time for another srpg to grab me like FFT did and to hold my attention all the way to the end. Thank you SEGA.
 
Man, I felt so cheap beating Chapter 9.

I finally said fuck it to strategy and reloading and
managed to sneak Rosie behind the car and proceed to shoot at it for the remaining CP. But of course, that wasnt enough to take it down. Luckily i had left a scout near the botten of the map along the road they took who finished the job the next turn.

I managed to get a B ranking which made me feel better.

Is there a legit way of doing that because i tried several other ways and was fustrated to learn nothing else worked.
 

Baha

Member
Gamer @ Heart said:
Man, I felt so cheap beating Chapter 9.

I finally said fuck it to strategy and reloading and
managed to sneak Rosie behind the car and proceed to shoot at it for the remaining CP. But of course, that wasnt enough to take it down. Luckily i had left a scout near the botten of the map along the road they took who finished the job the next turn.

I managed to get a B ranking which made me feel better.

Is there a legit way of doing that because i tried several other ways and was fustrated to learn nothing else worked.

That mission is about speed so don't worry about strategy so much, I'd line up Rosie + another scout or trooper and attack the radiator.

Also, I completely forgot this when I wrote my earlier post but
I would pay upwards of $2 for dlc that let me use the Alicia model from the ending over her regular model any day. She looks great with her hair like that instead of ponytails.
 

ixix

Exists in a perpetual state of Quantum Crotch Uncertainty.
Baha said:
Finally beat the game tonight with a total playtime of 42 hrs 56 mins.

I guess tonight's a popular night for people to finally finish this game, 'cuz I just did too. Almost 40 hours on the dot for playtime.

Great game, and I really hope future console strategy games take some cues from it. The presentation, progression, and the core game system are all fantastic, and more games could really stand to emulate them.

Only real complaint is how the difficulty really started to fade during the final third or so of the game. It seemed like I hit a tipping point in terms of power and just started completely bowling over everything the game threw at me.

And I really wish there were more missions like Chapter 17. That mission was really the first time in the late game where it felt like all the classes had a legitimate use, and a diverse team was actually the way to go. In the latter parts of the game I tended to just deploy Largo and Rosie then spam Scouts and maybe a Sniper, then blitz the objective and walk away with an easy A-rank. Didn't work in Chapter 17, and for that I greatly appreciated it.

Also really wish the last boss wasn't so last boss-y. I realize that superpowered prettyboys are something of a video game last boss tradition, but I was really hoping for something with a bit more substance than "Squad 7 Versus Maximilian's Faux-Valkyrian One Man Band" for the grand finale.

What the final mission really needed was to be a lot more like Chapter 17, is what I'm saying.
 

Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
Buffed Alicia = Bane of the Empire

Is there anywhere she can't go when she is fully buffed? I can end a medium tank with 4 shots in the rear. Hmmm, I wonder how many it'd take for a heavy.... I've only used lancers against them.

Chapter 14
Haven't fought the battle yet but man oh man Alicia was all zen badass. I knew she had the power from the intro movie, but I didn't know she'd be good at using it. The more recent chapters have been really interesting, but I think I might be too powerful. I got a little carried away after I figured out a buffed Alicia can win the Fouzen skirmish in two turns for 40k exp.
 

ixix

Exists in a perpetual state of Quantum Crotch Uncertainty.
Dice said:
Chapter 14
Haven't fought the battle yet but man oh man Alicia was all zen badass. I knew she had the power from the intro movie, but I didn't know she'd be good at using it. The more recent chapters have been really interesting, but I think I might be too powerful. I got a little carried away after I figured out a buffed Alicia can win the Fouzen skirmish in two turns for 40k exp.

Level up Scouts enough for her to gain her last Potential and she can do it in one turn.

You're about at the same point where I started really thinking the difficulty was dropping, and I barely did any grinding until the very end of the game. I think you just hit a point around then where your squad's strong enough and you know enough about the game that there's just not much the game can do to mount an effective challenge.
 
matmanx1 said:
Rosie is seriously freaking awesome. She's usually the spearhead of my attack and she's never let me down!
Yeah. Rosie and Vyse are the only Shocktroopers I ever use. I don't understand why anyone would use Edy. She panics and hates Rosie, so, fuck that.
 

Tempy

don't ask me for codes
Enron said:
man, i wish this game had multiplayer.

FINE.

I'll use my level 20 units against your pitiful level 5s.

Let's pick that beach level.

Hell, I'll give you the Empire side to start from. I'll give you all those turrets/cannons they have for free too!

Now just let me start, okay?

....

A few minutes later

....

So how do you like being beaten in 1 turn without getting a chance to move?

AWESOME MULTIPLAYER.
 
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