Because I was bored...

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Nobiyuki77
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Re: Because I was bored...

Post by Nobiyuki77 »

The only thing I dislike about the Valkyria Chronicles design is the short skirts mentioned above. They make no sense whatsoever for a war setting, and were just thrown in to add moe appeal. >_<. Otherwise, I generally love the designs.

There is a character in the 3rd game, Imca (otherwise known as "Ace") who wears pants though. She's awesome.

I haven't thoroughly explored all of the extra character content in 3 yet, but the story is more in line content-wise with the first game, since it takes place during the same time frame. The story is presented more linearly as well, making it a bit more stream-lined. The challenge is MUCH higher though, but you can now take up to 9 people in battle at the same time (though only 5 per map).
-Nobi

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Alunissage
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Re: Because I was bored...

Post by Alunissage »

Nobiyuki77 wrote:The only thing I dislike about the Valkyria Chronicles design is the short skirts mentioned above. They make no sense whatsoever for a war setting, and were just thrown in to add moe appeal. >_<. Otherwise, I generally love the designs.
Me too, though I just remembered two more that bothered me: a particular thirteen-year-old's initial scene and her mentor's uniform. And, of course, in the two years between game one and two, swimsuit design apparently aged several decades... though I suppose that's representative in general. The first game could reasonably be set in the 1930s (alternate universe edition, of course); the second one's characterization and esthetic is definitely more modern, though not so much as to evoke extreme cognitive dissonance. I would guess that's largely because of what seems like a much bigger cast (though I suppose it's just that the non-major cast is given considerably more story screentime) that happen to be almost entirely highschoolers in effect, so they're made to sound like more or less current highschoolers. The first game's cast, of course, came from a greater diversity of background since they were supposed to be just ordinary citizens who enlisted in wartime.

I guess this is a minor spoiler, though it's a pretty obvious detail about a minor character who shows up partway through:  Did it bother you that Vicky referred to herself in the third person in the scenes? I groaned when she showed up -- we finally get a character of color (though I kind of read Raymond as such) and she's a Noble Savage stereotype -- but I got used to her and liked her okay eventually. But it drove me nuts that her written dialogue had her name instead of first-person pronouns, while her battle comments and possibly other verbal dialogue, while accented, did not do this. It's one of the only mismatches between written and spoken style that I can think of. The game really had some of the most convincing voice acting I can think of.

I'm really looking forward to the third game. Thought about importing it but as character-driven as the game is for me (even though I obviously love the battle system) it just didn't seem worth the effort. But let me know if I should change my mind. ^_^ I'm fine with linearity -- after all, I didn't even notice the first game was one hundred percent straight-line until after we'd finished it -- and I'm used to the five-person per map limitation now. Being able to still have four more people active while at the limit on one screen would be nice.

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Sonic#
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Re: Because I was bored...

Post by Sonic# »

I recently beat VC2 too. I think your comments are mostly spot-on. I had to resist spending a lot of time trying to upgrade my equipment. I didn't end up with some of the best tanks or other equipment, but I was suitably leveled because I would play every mission once from month to month.

I probably overused some classes more than others, indicating my play style. I relied on Shocktroopers a whole lot for both defense and offense, which meant that most of them were fully leveled by the endgame. I used Lancers for taking down heavy positions (hardly ever for mortaring). I used Scouts and Engineers interchangeably as light infantry, though I heavily favored a couple of them, and used the snipers obsessively once I got them. The Armored class? I hardly used it. By the time I tried consciously leveled them, they couldn't take down enemies in one hit.

I wish I could play the first game, but I will likely never get a Playstation 3.
Sonic#

"Than seyde Merlion, "Whethir lyke ye bettir the swerde othir the scawberde?" "I lyke bettir the swerde," seyde Arthure. "Ye ar the more unwyse, for the scawberde ys worth ten of the swerde; for whyles ye have the scawberde uppon you, ye shall lose no blood, be ye never so sore wounded. Therefore kepe well the scawberde allweyes with you." --- Le Morte Darthur, Sir Thomas Malory

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Monde Luna
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Re: Because I was bored...

Post by Monde Luna »

I'm a little late in responding but I wanted to thank you all for your input on VC2. Now it seems like a must own, I really enjoyed the first game. Alun I appreciate your detailed description of the game it was a good read very informative!

I also am not a big fan of the female wardrobe it seems impractical and ridiculous, I'm sure its just a tactic used to get more guys interested in a game but seriously like you all said who wears a skirt while in combat?

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Alunissage
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Re: Because I was bored...

Post by Alunissage »

Sonic# wrote:I probably overused some classes more than others, indicating my play style. I relied on Shocktroopers a whole lot for both defense and offense, which meant that most of them were fully leveled by the endgame. I used Lancers for taking down heavy positions (hardly ever for mortaring). I used Scouts and Engineers interchangeably as light infantry, though I heavily favored a couple of them, and used the snipers obsessively once I got them. The Armored class? I hardly used it. By the time I tried consciously leveled them, they couldn't take down enemies in one hit.
Yeah, it's kind of hard to resist just throwing shocktroopers at enemies, especially when they've been all the way promoted to commandos. The flamethrowers are insanely effective.

I thought the armored techs were pretty useless for a while, but then I got to  the event battle at the Academy halfway through and in the hours it took me to work out a strategy for that I more or less accidentally discovered that those shields really do do a good job when you know the enemy is only likely to be hitting you head-on. It was the only way I could keep one base. Though it helps that the enemies in question tended to have lousy accuracy.

As attackers the techs were pretty pointless because they'd still usually need two hits. But making them fencers, well... they became invaluable against the aforementioned enemy types. As were the mortarers, even when they needed several hits.

I actually found myself rarely using snipers because of their very short movement range. Gunners were basically only useful as base defense or at close range. More advanced techs (as opposed to fencers) were mostly useless to me, with one exception:  the special tech with the chaff grenades, which basically made that enemy unable to fight for a round -- useful when you really need to hoard CP and can't afford to use enough for the tech to take the trooper or whoever out. I also only used the anthem corps when I was just trying to get everyone's potentials, but they were more useful than I'd expected. It really helps that switching people in and out of battle at camps is so easy.

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Nobiyuki77
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Re: Because I was bored...

Post by Nobiyuki77 »

Alunissage wrote:I'm really looking forward to the third game. Thought about importing it but as character-driven as the game is for me (even though I obviously love the battle system) it just didn't seem worth the effort. But let me know if I should change my mind. ^_^ I'm fine with linearity -- after all, I didn't even notice the first game was one hundred percent straight-line until after we'd finished it -- and I'm used to the five-person per map limitation now. Being able to still have four more people active while at the limit on one screen would be nice.
Well, I imported 3 because I got tired of waiting for Sega to announce it for release. Frankly the best hope I think we have is either a PSN release, or if we can somehow convince them to do one of those fancy PSP HD remasters Sony's braggin' up in Japan. ^^;

What I like about 3 versus 2 specifically are

1) 9 characters in a battle as mentioned above. Really increased the possibilities.
2) Darker story (though still every bit as character driven as ever)
3) The artwork and anime cinematics are a lot nicer and better animated.
4) Significant increase in battle difficulty (though admittedly there are a few battles that go from "hard" to "just plain unfair" where I cleared them by the skin of my teeth)
5) Classes are tweeked a bit. Scouts aren't nearly as godly as in the past, and snipers are now not only useful, but practically required for many of the later levels.

The major thing I dislike (though it was kind of inevitable) is there's some retconning to accommodate the time frame. But they handled that pretty well all things considered. One minor gripe from me would be that many maps from 2 are reused here as well, so there's definitely a sense of deja vu at times.
-Nobi

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