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jp's Valkyria Chronicles (PS3)
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| [May 9, 2016 05:36:07 PM]
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I eventually did beat the giant boss-tank (somewhat infamous as an "unfair mission" it turns out) with some help - not a walkthrough but an explanation of stuff I hadn't realized (like, that shooting the tank didn't help even if the reticule changed to a color that indicated that it might/would). Anyways, since then I made progress on a few more missions until I realized that...hmmm, this was taking a lot longer that I wanted to, and then I started to play something else, and then...well, I've run out of excuses other than the fact that I want to make more headway on the PS3 unplayed list and I feel like I got a lot of fun out of this and that the future looked a bit more grim in that respect (as in, harder missions, more restarting, but essentially the same game mechanics).
If memory serves (plus a short look at an online FAQ), I finished episode 10.
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| [July 31, 2015 05:33:53 PM]
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Played a few more missions and everything has been going well until mission 6. It's a "boss fight"-type mission I've only played once (and failed) but I'm really disappointed. It feels like an arbitrary mission that's really hard and that I'll eventually beat through a combination of meta-gaming (learning what not to do based on past attempts) and saved-gaming (saving the game after every turn if things went well, reloading if they didn't). That feels like a real drag because it takes a way a lot of the fun in the game - which is trying to work your way through a tactical situation. The enemy boss (giant tank with guns all around) seems powerful enough that there is no real strategy other than the only strategy, and trial and error (combined with reloading when my guys miss their shots) is the only way to figure that out. Sigh.
I'll probably try this a few times, play some skirmish levels for fun and then give up.
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| [July 26, 2015 05:31:14 PM]
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A few nights ago I decided to boot this up and play a few more episodes. The next one up was episode 3 so I figured I had enough time to pay 3 and 4 and call it a night. Although I did get there eventually, it took a lot longer than I thought!
It turns out that episode 3 is the one where the game (well, as far as I know so far) really opens up. A bunch of tabs along the campaign book (the UI really is beautiful!) open up and now I can spend XP earned during battles to improve my teammates (level them up), also spend DX(?) points on improving items, equipment, the tank, and so on. I also had to add 15 people or so to what is now squad 7! All the possible additions were presented as actual humans with stats, benefits/weaknesses and a rudimentary social relation to others (likes So and so). Oh, they also come in five(?) classes: scouts, assault, sniper, anti-tank, and mech. So, I made sure to hire ones without awful weaknesses and enough variety in terms of the classes.
For some reason this whole setup got me really excited! On the otherhand I know I won't be diving into the nitty gritty of any of it. I must be crazy.
I did like the fact that when you level up a "class" - all the soldiers in that class level up. The game is quite clear that they want you to mix it up with different troopers and don't want you feeling like you have to stick to a few so they'll level and get more powerful.
I then went ahead and beat level 3, an easy skirmish (optional missions for grinding), and 4. I had to play 4 twice because the tank got destroyed AT THE VERY END. Sigh.
Still, really fun game so far. :-)
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| [June 14, 2015 08:29:02 PM]
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A friend recently recommended I play this game. He said it was one of his top 10 games of the last generation. That sounds like pretty high praise to me. He also said it was a tactical combat game (turn based) which made it even more attractive to me.
So, I picked up a copy a few hours ago (yay! I was worried it'd be hard to find, since it's quite a few years old now) and I've since played the first two missions. I'm REALLY excited because the game does something interesting in the tactical sense. So, you take turns (you have command points to carry out actions with your troops) but when you use a soldier - it switches over to a first-person view! Also, curiously, you can use multiple command points on the same soldier. Also, at the end of your turn your guys all heal a little bit (I don't think the enemies heal). I think this is to encourage you to be a bit more aggressive? I guess I'll find out.
It's quite heavy in the story - lots of cut scenes so far, but the art style is really interesting as well. I would describe it as anime characters in a pastel/soft color world that's been post-processed to look like it was sketched/drawn on paper with colored pencils.
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jp's Valkyria Chronicles (PS3)
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Current Status: Stopped playing - Something better came along
GameLog started on: Sunday 14 June, 2015
GameLog closed on: Monday 9 May, 2016 |
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