Valkyria Chronicles 2 (again!)

[Sonic#]

I got this game for my birthday. I love it! I hadn't played the original, so this was a leap of faith.

The non-battle character art is great, and the cutscenes are okay. It's done in a pretty lighthearted style. With the focus on the military academy and the art style, I like to imagine that this is an answer to Growlanser II. Like that game, I enjoy dawdling over all of the different character interactions. I just recently learned that I can unlock battles for individual characters! There's a plethora of them, so I've been focusing on a few initially for simplicity's sake. Now Anisette and Joachim have nothing to complain about.

As for the battles, I like that the characters are relatively proportionate (for anime), and that I can freely control how they run around a battle field in real time, while still being able to pause for aiming and firing. It also has an easy learning curve, but one that slowly increases over time. For instance, a common tactic early on was to blitz with scouts and stormtroopers. I forced myself to use a greater variety of units anyway, but I easily could have done that. From about March on, I can't do that for every mission. I need lancers, engineers, tanks, and the guys with the funny war-wrench-hammer things.

Has anyone else played? Has anyone gotten to play multiplayer?

[Ardent Fox]

My lack of funds/PSP/interest keeps me away. I've heard it's a great game and while I have a bunch of other games banging down my door, I wouldn't mind giving it a try considering I haven't played the original. Not sure if that would affect the experience in any way, like if it would mean I wouldn't understand certain things.

I have heard some pretty good things about the game though, so who knows. Maybe in the future if I get my PSP back I'll give this game a grab and play it.

[whitedragon_nall]

Great game! So much content in it too. I've heard some people played it close to 200 hours to get everything. I haven't tried multiplayer yet, so I can't comment on that. The newer classes are great and really help balance things out a bit. There are some story elements that might confuse those who haven't played the first, but nothing TOO major. Mostly just cameos and stuff.

If you ever get the chance, I'd recommend playing the first. It's more story driven than VC2 is. Sega announced a third entry in the series too, so keep an eye out for that!

[Alunissage]

I have it, but like far too many games I haven't opened it yet. Loved the first one, though I didn't do any of the playing for that.

If you ever get the chance, I'd recommend playing the first. It's more story driven than VC2 is. Sega announced a third entry in the series too, so keep an eye out for that!

The story and character development and all is so well integrated into the first that it wasn't until after we finished the game that I realized that there were absolutely no choices to make with the characters outside of battle. No walking around and talking to people, etc. All of the conversation occurred in cutscenes, so no options selected. And this most basic RPG element was not in the least conspicuous in its absence.

And there'll be a third? Cool! ^_^ Hopefully I'll have played the second by the time of its release.

[Nobiyuki77]

I have it, but like far too many games I haven't opened it yet. Loved the first one, though I didn't do any of the playing for that.

If you ever get the chance, I'd recommend playing the first. It's more story driven than VC2 is. Sega announced a third entry in the series too, so keep an eye out for that!

The story and character development and all is so well integrated into the first that it wasn't until after we finished the game that I realized that there were absolutely no choices to make with the characters outside of battle. No walking around and talking to people, etc. All of the conversation occurred in cutscenes, so no options selected. And this most basic RPG element was not in the least conspicuous in its absence.

And there'll be a third? Cool! ^_^ Hopefully I'll have played the second by the time of its release.

According to early interviews, the 3rd will be more streamlined, like the 1st game.

[Sonic#]

That's interesting, Alunissage. I don't know how the first game works. The second game certainly has a minimap outside of battle, where I can go to mostly practical locations, with other locations popping up if there's a cutscene there. But in those cases, it's clearly a choice to choose most cutscenes, but you're right, there's no choice within them. I end up choosing them all though and really enjoying it. I think I like it better when the cutscenes aren't limited by the sprites onscreen. It'd be cool to see what happens when it's even more streamlined (Nobiyuki, what do you mean by that?). '

I've heard some people played it close to 200 hours to get everything.

I can believe it. I've made a point of trying to do every battle, and I'm only now getting to May. I know I'm not repeat-playing battles right now to get A-level or anything.

[Alunissage]

The first game effectively has the same thing of selecting cutscenes and battles or skirmishes, but in the format of a book (you're clicking images on a "page") rather than a map. Nice because you can go back and view earlier scenes and all. And yes, in that particular game I don't mind the cutscenes being animated and voiced, perhaps because there was no visual difference between cutscene and battle graphics. ^_^