Completed: Suikoden IV

System: PS2 (Playing on PS3)
Status: Completed
Currently: Got all 108 stars, beat both optional bosses, finally beat final boss...game locks up.

As the currently states, the game decided to add insult to injury, and froze up right as the final boss died. The sad thing is, I care so little about the finale of the story, that I'm not even going to try again. I got all 108 stars, I beat both optional bosses, I can call the game completed with no remorse.

The sad thing is, my last post was pretty bashing towards this game, yet I was all up for it redeeming itself. Random encounters are annoying, but it could be overcome. The game didn't even try. I truly now believe the horrendous amount of random encounters and the tons of bland characters that serve only for you to spend more money on leveling up weapons and getting gear serve purely to pad out the game. I believe my final time clocked out to be around 25 hours...at full completion. Yes, I followed a brief guide on collecting all the characters, and used Viki to teleport everywhere (you try spending hours just traveling between islands), but the game literally has nothing there. The stars serve no purpose whatsoever. They don't have any plot significance, even the ones you have to get beyond a few lines, and really don't contribute anything overall. The entire story is basically 'go here, do a naval battle, free the island, recruit more characters' rinse repeat for every single island. You will literally go to an island, blow up two ships, and step on the island with hardly any scenes to commemorate them being rescued or anything further.

The game is just offensive, all around. Too many random encounters, too many entirely useless characters, too many bland point A to point B events, a complete lack of any true story to the game whatsoever. This game is utterly terrible, and I now regret playing it even for completions sake...it just felt like a waste of time.

Oh, and the final dungeon, the pinnacle of the entire story? A spiral staircase. 4 screens of the same spiral staircase with random encounters. In addition to half communicated story that we long stopped caring about five hours ago.

I am so glad Suikoden V turned this shit on its head, or I probably wouldn't have many fond memories of this series. I need to play something to wash the taste out of my mouth...

Daily Review: Suikoden IV

System: PS2 (Played on PS3)
Status: Unfinished
Currently: Just allied with Middleport.

I was still in the mood to play more Suikoden after I finished III, and since this was the only standard Suikoden game I haven't finished yet (and I couldn't find I to do a full completion at the moment), this one went in. I had tried playing it before...twice in fact, and both times I had been driven away by the noticeable and obvious flaws with the game. I actually have a bit more will to finish it now, since Suikosource has great star lists that make it nigh impossible to miss stars, and make completion (and only having to play the game once), so much easier.

This is easily the weakest game in the entire series, which is sad because they had some good ideas. The naval theme to the game is unique and was what got me really excited about it at first, sailing around and fighting naval battles is a nice change of pace. The game returns to the more 'standard' combat and storytelling from the first two in the series, in that its turn based, and your main character is more of a blank slate, and doesn't speak except in choices you make. The runes have been changed back, so you no longer nuke your party with fire runes and the like, and everything is more reliable and standardized.

The problem is, in changing it back...well, the three heroes of Suikoden III were interesting and unique, and you could reliably relate to at least one of them. The rest of the cast was pretty interesting, though the optional stars were limited and optional for a reason. This game has far more pure optional stars to pick from, but most end up being standard 'after this point in the story, go back to this place, talk to this guy', and the characterization beyond that is nonexistent. Without the skill system from III, which was one of the best features, there is nothing to differentiate the characters beyond their stats, unique runes, and sometimes combos. Most of the characters I do quick upgrades to their weapons, take them to a few random encounters to get them to a decent level, then let them sit while I use a more standard team of reliably strong characters.

The main character is the worst offender in the entire lineup....he's dull, he's boring, there's no reason for him to be in the story beyond the rune he gets, which other than being the Macguffin the bad dudes are looking for, really has nothing to do with the story. Being a blank slate doesn't help, in a voiced game, it just makes him seem utterly dull and a passive person in all thats going on. Far more interesting and sensible characters, like the king of Obel, will step aside and state you should be leading...but why? The character was a knight trainee who got framed for murder...that's it. That's a similar plot-line to the first two games, but it doesn't work here. In I, you were the son of a famous general, inherit a rune that gets you hunted by your own country. Your character was defined by the people who worked for your father and stuck by you, and that drive to save yourself and fight back. In II, you were betrayed by your own country in a false flag operation, nearly killed with your best friend, and end up joining and leading the resistance against them. There, you were defined by your sister, best friend, and other major characters you picked up. In this game, the blank slate really has no characters that help to define him. You can choose two other recruits who accompany you through the first part of the game, but they give no reason for being so attached to you, and after the opening part is over, they really have nothing to do with the story. This lack of grounding makes the main character feel entirely out of place, as others come up with weak excuses as to why you matter.

The worst offense in the entire game though, is the random battles. To be fair, I've played games with horrendously difficult and common random battles. This game however, makes the triple offense of random encounters so common you could get in two or three just turning your ship around, the random encounters themselves rarely being of note beyond hitting the auto command or a set few commands to kill them quickly, and lastly...the world map being bare of any detail. Yes, the ocean is vast and mostly empty, but this is supposed to be an archipelago. In the entire game, there are 13 places to go. Only thirteen islands to visit, and several of them have nothing beyond a treasure hunting minigame or a few characters to recruit. Sailing to a new location means about a solid hour of sailing over featureless blue water, holding down R1 to go a little bit faster, and reading a book. Occasionally, you have to put down anchor and rest, but the encounters really provide no challenge, or add anything to the game. They just take up lots, and lots of time.

Gah.

Daily Review: Diablo, Skyrim, and Monster Hunter

Daily Review: Diablo, Skyrim, and Monster Hunter

Going to be a bit of an odd daily review, since I've been playing three games...and its been a few weeks since my last posting. Mostly due to work and weird schedules, but also due to the fact that I've basically been playing the same three games, and really have nothing new to say about them each day.

Most of the time, I'm playing:

System: PSP
Currently: Up to 6 star village, still need to clear some 5 star.

The game is still great, I marvel at how different having a different full set of armor makes combat feel, and how easy it is to swap between various sets and weapons without ever getting locked in. You have so much storage space you never feel you -have- to get rid of armor to make room. Every hunt still feels like a new challenge, so much so that I do research on the wiki's before trying it, mostly to preserve my sanity of a half hour quest that ends in me croaking and gaining nothing. It is a very stressful game still, the quests never become easy even if you go down ranks to farm so old materials. I can not imagine playing this on the bus, though I may try on occasion when I come back from my morning classes. (Either that or a long walk to muse about my tabletop game). The only oddity I noticed is that often you will meet for the first time a new monster....yay, new armor set! And then immediately you'll get a quest to kill the offshoot version, which gives the same kind of armor from its pieces, just slightly better. Weird design choice, but doesn't really hurt the game itself. Some of them are true variations, so its not always bad (Garuga, while being basically a palette swap of a Yuan-Kut-Ku, has wildly different weapons and armor from its body parts). Still, its stressful enough that sometimes I need to play something more relaxing and easy:

System: PC
Currently: Actually finished Inferno, so Completed! Still playing of course.

Which I can't say is necessarily easy, I kinda died my way through the last bits of inferno then did a group for Diablo himself. I've gone back to Act 1 with the new Monster Power feature they added to farm gear. Always nice to have the 'shiny thing drops and fun times' mechanic to relax too, but it is a bit of a guilty pleasure now. Really not a game you'll ever finish, just get slightly better gear, and I know I should be playing other things in my spare time. Still, its easy to load up, do a quick run for the new keys for the uberbosses, and hop off and head to work. Much less of a large block of my time.

And when my wife is not on the PS3 and I get the urge to:

System: PS3
Currently: Completed a long time ago, trying a hardcore character for a 'Master' run.

I love this game, unabashedly. It has its flaws in some rather buggy parts, but I just can't get enough of playing it or watching my wife play it (and squeal and hand me the controller when she sees spiders). Still, I completed it a while back, and I don't consider the harder difficulties true difficulties, they just add more hp and damage to the monsters. That's it. So instead to have another reason to play, I decided to try playing a hardcore character. No reloads, if you die you stop playing the character. Otherwise playing the game normally and avoiding abusing bugs. Makes it actually rather stressful, because when that dragon drops down and snaps at you, that might be the end of things right there. Playing a Khajiit thief/archer, with a sword/shield for backup when bandits come swinging. My first hardcore died around level 11 to 'not noticing the second giant'.

Daily Review: inFAMOUS

Daily Review

inFAMOUS

System: PS3 (PSN Download)
Status: Unfinished
Currently: Almost done with the Warrens

I am very mixed on this game so far. So many elements of it to me are rather fun, but it is very telling when you stop playing a game due to frustration rather than at natural stopping points.

Guess I should start with the good first, so I don't forget to mention them. So far, the game feels very realistic, and does a good job of pushing you to play smart rather than just rushing in to enemies. Your character is very susceptible to bullets despite being a superhero, and the game reminds you of this. The powers you get are rather varied, though to be fair are mostly just different methods of 'electrical death', and I do find myself using the new powers to compliment the old, but the game makes sure to give you situations where you don't forget them (in example, enemies behind fences or guardrails where its a good idea to use that new electrical rocket attack). The parkour aspect is different, and while it takes you a while to get anywhere unless you ride the trains (and get motion sick), it does let you naturally discover the little items the game wants you to collect, and makes the city feel more realized than just something you skim past.

However, all that said, the parkour aspect itself is the most frustrating aspect of the game. Your character will cling to -everything-, which is good at some points, but you can never anticipate what he will cling to. Do the same jump twice, and you'll stick to different parts of the building for no apparent reason. Ostensibly you can see the 'lines' where you can grab and the 'knobs' where you can hold on, but the graphic style is so gritty that often times you start scaling to get to a spot, and wonder why you can stick to this ledge, but not this other thing that looks like a ledge. In addition, the thing will just glitch out on occasion, and while you're under fire, your character will dance around for a bit like he's trying to find a place to stand...on a perfectly level roof. This does seem more prevalent on angles and slopes, but it really detracts from the game.

The entire reason I quit today was due to a sidequest where you race rooftop to rooftop, connecting uplinks on them. So far, these have been difficult, but fair, you find the right path and rush, barely finishing after a few tries. This one was complete and utter bullshit though. The first two are seperated by wires you glide on, all good. The third one for some reason is on the other side of a ladder and a jagged outcrop of building, which requires about five jumps to get him to stop sticking to everything and just touch it. The one after that is across a gap too far to jump, so you end up clinging to the building and taking forever to scale up. The one after -that- is the same deal...and there were at least two more after it. Most of these tend to be one or two links, three at the most. I do get the feeling I'm supposed to have the 'flying' power before I do this, but there's no indication in game of that, and I make a habit to complete everything as soon as possible.

The other gripes are more in general. I hate silly polar alignment choices, in this game you're either a serial killer or a true hero, nowhere in between if you want to get the good powers and the trophies for being good and evil. The open world aspect has been fun in other games, but beyond little blue shards and quests that are marked on your map, the world itself is devoid of -anything- to do. All the sidequests are variations on the same subset of missions, and the combat while realistic, gets very frustrating. The game is only difficult because of the wonky controls, the normal difficulty is offset by very forgiving waypoints, so forgiving sometimes it is just better to die so you get ported closer to your next goal.

Still, I'm going to finish it, hopefully soon, but thoughts of beating it again on evil are making my brain twitch.

Beaten: Front Mission 4

Beaten

Front Mission 4

System: PS2 (Playing on PS3)
Status: Beaten
Currently: Just beat the game, need to go again and do the optional simulators.

Ah, another game that while great, took me forever to beat. I do love the Front Mission series, especially this game with how it portrays fairly realistic mechs. Its a fairly old game by today's standards, but the graphics still look very crisp (barring the wonky trees of course), and the little details they put into the terrain and combat make all the difference in the game and its presentation. The only odd spot there is when people are talking, they have a still image with their jaw moving up and down...which...looks really weird. The voice acting itself is pretty good though.

The characterization and story of the game plays out well. It never gets too deep into philosophical nonsense that has nothing to do with mechs, instead pretty much sticking to the people, their job (or goal), and having you follow them along. The oddity being that the game actually has two stories, one based on a team in Europe, and one based on a team in Venezuala. You would think that with an RPG with two stories like that, eventually they would combine to one final mission...nope. Eventually they do contact each other and exchange information, but you never have a mission where you use both teams. So instead you end up ping-ponging between the stories, following and enjoying each separately.

The game play is fun and enjoyable, though very slow at times. Some missions you can chew through pretty quickly, others are rather rough, and you have to go slow so as to not make any mistakes and keep healed...and that can lead to a mission lasting thirty minutes or so. There is a quick save function so you can resume in the middle of a mission, but sometimes the objectives you need to accomplish are borked by early decisions. The AI is both stupid and brilliant at the same time. They tend to lock on to one target and never change no matter what happens, which is dangerous for you, but it also means they ignore more vulnerable targets. Units that aren't close to you will either get 'pulled' by you getting close, or are activated on a certain turn. Usually this means you slow crawl across the map, pulling units one group at a time so you don't get overwhelmed. The mech designing aspect is simple enough, and you can tweak it to your play style, though there are noticeably better styles than others. Still, with two teams who have different skillsets, you get to experience a lot of different mechs without having to retool everyone, or worry about switching guys in and out.

Overall, a very good game, and considering I got it used for like 10$ it was well worth it. All I have to do to complete it is to do the optional simulator missions, but that requires a replay through on new game+, given by the time I realized they were there, I was already past the point of doing them for the European team.

Beaten: Bionic Commando: Rearmed

Beaten

Bionic Commando: Rearmed

System: PS3 (PSN Download)
Status: Beaten
Currently: Just beat the game, leaves super hard, the challenges, and the secrets.

Well, that was a little dissapointing. Picked the game back up on a whim, knowing I had been struggling on the final stage, and apparently somewhere along the line they patched the game to have infinite lives. So a stage where previously 3 lives didn't even get me through the first three parts of it, beaten in about ten minutes or so. Probably a good change though, I doubt anyone nowadays has the patience to do Ninja Gaiden level memorization of every jump and swing, especially with Bionic Commando's strange jumping mechanics.

Review wise, this is a great game and worth the price to pick it up. It is a true and true platformer, and very old school in design. The jumps are unforgiving, especially given they stuck to the original design in that you can't actually jump. You can only attach your arm and swing around, so a lot of the game kind of confused my wife until I reminded her that you can't actually jump in the game...so two platforms going back and forth is much harder, since to get from one to the other, you have to fall off one, shoot your arm up diagonally to catch the other platform, and then swing up top. With infinite lives this is less annoying since you don't have to start the entire stage back because you messed up 3 jumps. The boss fights are fun and quirky, though very short, once you learn the trick you can have them beaten in a minute or two. The game itself has far more replay if you're a perfectionist and want to get high scores, but for everyone else I doubt you'll play the harder difficulties. We'll see about them if I ever get back to completing this.

Completed: Pokemon Leafgreen Version

Completed

Pokemon Leafgreen Version

System: Nintendo DS
Status: Completed!
Currently: Completed!

It is always a great thing to add another game to my list of completed. I may have to touch this again to send up starters, but I think you can get them and the other fossils in the other games without issues. I have kind of adjusted my views on this game, since I remembered it was the first remake, and the games were still working on a few things back at this point.

If you go back and play it now, yeah, it seems very bare bones. You can barely catch anything beyond the original 150, and the post game content consists of a few small islands with some Johto pokemon, Mewtwo of course, and the ability to rechallenge the Elite 4, and one of the legendary beasts from gen 2 wandering around. I did the islands yesterday, and the rest of that basically took this evening to finish up. The Elite 4 were actually rather challenging the second time around, the first time I curbstomped them.

Overall, its a mixed bag for the game, it clearly shows its age, and it lacks the refinements that the 4th gen games have, and also lacks the novelty of a new story and mons that the other 3rd gen games had. Overall, I would say pass on this unless you can find it rather cheap (hah), or you really want to get the legendaries associated with it (of which, I think only Mewtwo is unattainable elsewhere, could be wrong).

Daily Review: Pokemon Leafgreen Version

Daily Review

Pokemon Leafgreen Version

System: Gameboy Advance (Playing on a DS)

Status: Unfinished

Currently: 4 badges, working through Silph Co.

I really don't have much to say about the Pokemon games. They are kind of review proof. You either know you like them, you know you don't, or you haven't touched them since a certain game. Since the Leafgreen game is a remake of the first ones, its a bit strange, since it has a lot of the changes that have made them more balanced since the first incarnations, yet because it sticks to the same monsters being found throughout the world as in the original game, you really don't get a lot of the balancing advantages.

So yeah, this is probably the most 'eh' of the two remakes they've made so far. There's very little added to the game that isn't entirely superfluous other than the post game area where you can catch some different monsters than the original. If you've played the first gen already, you'd probably only want it to get the exclusive monsters that you need this version to get (which I think is only Mewtwo at this point, since the birds can be caught in HG/SS), and if you haven't played this gen already, there isn't much here to surprise you over the other versions with much wider selection initially.

My biggest trouble with the game is the system though, since I'm playing it on a DS, I'm so used to being able to close it and walk away, and have to remember the GBA games don't let you do the idle mode. Minor issue though, and not to do with the game. Does suck when you walk away, forget about it, and it dies on you though.

Daily Review: Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions

Daily Review

Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions

System: PSP
Status: Unfinished
Currently: Near the end of Chapter 1

So yeah, I normally don't buy remakes if I already have the original, usually its not enough changes to spend more money on, but this one is well worth it. Mostly for one reason, and that's the redone translation. Say what you will about the purple prose and overly flowery and British language they go through, it doesn't dip into Dragon Quest "Thee Thou Thine" and it fits the tone...more importantly, it is far, far better than "Dragon casts Ice Bracelet!" that the original game had. That alone should be a reason to get this game even if you have the original.

My only complaint with this one is the slowdown...and it is horrendous, and I have no clue why. The original graphics were not that amazing, and yet the game slows to a dead stop whenever anyone uses any ability beyond basic attacks. Even if it doesn't have a complex animation, the game will sit and think about it for several seconds until it processes it. It doesn't seem to be a graphical issue but a processing issue, like the game has to switch gears to perform anything complex. Still, its not enough to sink the game, just makes the battles take a bit longer (while you watch the chocobo quiver in place preparing to attack).

The game itself is the Final Fantasy Tactics everyone remembers, great depth, a cool job class system, and a game system that is very unforgiving, along with story battles that range from easy to cheap. Yes, you will grind, you will grind very early, since the 4th story mission almost requires you to be 9 levels higher than the enemies to finish it without losing a character. Yes, you can still lose characters, someone keels over, you have three turns to revive them or finish the battle, or they are gone for good. Yes, for some reason protect and other spells that aren't straight up heals can miss outright due to low faith (even raise, which is great when you cast raise to bring a guy back whose death counter is about up...and it misses). Still, the game is never outright unfair. They give you tough challenges, which you can use the job system to beat with enough tactical acumen, and the tutorial actually makes sense now!

Definitely one to pick up if you own a PSP, even if you own the original. More review though as I get through it, now that I can actually understand the story.

Daily Review: Swords and Soldiers HD

Daily Review

Swords and Soldiers HD

System: PC (Steam)
Status: Beaten
Currently: Just finished the campaign.

So this was a short and quick little game, definitely what I would call bite sized. It has multiplayer elements, but I definitely can't see myself playing them. I'm actually debating to just call this completed, since all that's left otherwise is achievements, which I can't fully complete since I won't play the multiplayer. Either way, this will be my only post about it.

The game is pretty straightforward, and reminds me of numerous flash games I've played before. You create troops, they walk right until they run into enemies and die. Your objective is to usually just destroy the base on the other side of the map, building certain combinations of troops to overcome what they're sending you. It is a very simple design, which isn't a bad thing, once you get the hang of the game the difficulty curve is nice and even right up until the end of the campaign.

There are three 'races' to play, though the differences are there, in essence all you need to learn is which units are best against whatever race you're playing against, and make them over and over. If you play Aztec, you want the priest to make zombies and the melee dudes to rush in. If you play China, you want the old men to instakill anything, and a mix of warriors and rocketeers. If you play Viking, you make regular melee and ranged and just lightning bolt everything else. Other than just clicking the buttons to create the units and occasionally casting spells to help them work through blockages, there's really little strategy to it. Some of the campaign missions throw weird things at you, but after you overcome them, it boils down to the same thing.

The campaign is 30 missions, and can be completed in one sitting if you're determined, two if less so. There are three challenge maps that just serve to get achievements, obviously a skirmish mode and the multiplayer. They really think that people will play the multiplayer, because the campaign bugs you to go play it...every three missions. Seriously.

If you see it cheap on steam, it might be worth picking up, but if I had the choice to buy it individually I wouldn't even bother. I got it as part of an indie pack, and the other games made up the value, not this one.

Daily Review: Q.U.B.E

Daily Review 

Q.U.B.E

System: PC (Steam)

Status: Unfinished

Currently: Sector 5

Just some quick thoughts on this game, its obviously rather short and probably will only do one more post on it when I finish it.

Portal comparisons are obvious, so I'll avoid them. Suffice to say its a rather simple puzzle game in a first person engine, where you control various cube objects to get through each area. Each color has a set function, that you learn rather quickly through trial and error, and each puzzle gets slowly harder. Rather standard. The atmosphere is nice, a wierd grey-tone broken up by the colorful puzzle pieces that kind of reminds me of a children's playset at times. The addition of new elements is gradual enough that you never feel there's a huge jump...except for my one major gripe of the review so far.

When you get to sector five, you can tell rather quickly that its a one trick pony that is more annoying than challenging. Sector five is dark, and after the second or third puzzle, you can only work elements you have 'turned on' by hitting their power switch for their color. Essentially, this means you can't see anything but the currently on elements, and have to swap which ones are on to work with them. Given you have to move green pieces through the area and thus have to constantly check their location by turning that part on...this is really annoying. It adds nothing to the difficulty of the puzzles, it just makes you constantly have to turn the pieces on and off to make sure you didn't screw it up. If it was lit, it would be like the puzzles in the area right before it (albeit without the timing elements for obvious reasons). This entire sector is more frustrating than anything else, and really jerked me out of what had been a fairly simple and fun game.

I'll get back to this later and finish it, but gah, what a terrible design decision.

Daily Review: Avadon: The Black Fortress

Daily Review

Avadon: The Black Fortress

System: PC (Steam)
Status: Beaten
Currently: Just finished normal mode. Need to play on harder difficulties to complete.

So, finally finished this game after working on it all week (hence the lack of posts, didn't want to post about it till I finished up the last bits.) My thoughts are still unabashedly positive about it, it is a more than worthy game to purchase, especially if you like old school PC RPGs, and was a fun adventure game I will probably play again. It did have some flaws, though they were minor.

The first major flaw is the bossfights are...well..boring. Either the boss is far too easy and you overpower them rather quickly, or they come in two flavors: Minion deluge, and way too much HP. Due to the battle system's style (which I liked overall), there's really not much variety in the boss fights. They will throw around some buffs or debuffs you can't really do much about unless you want to waste a turn you could be doing damage, and you wail on them. If they have minions, you either ignore them because they don't do enough damage to be a pest and just make it hard to move around, or you have to track down the one minion shielding the master, then wail on them till it is resummoned. This is not a major problem in and of itself, except that due to the class system being rather limited (you advance, get some skills through a tree), your skill choices are at most 8-9 skills, most of which are variations of AoE damage or some status. So pretty much every boss fight runs down to whether or not you can deal damage faster than they can.

The other major flaw is the game seems seriously weighted towards the difficulty being foes dealing a lot of damage, getting a lot of attacks, and swarming you. Admittedly, while only playing on normal, I was going for the achievement where you only use one ally (instead of two) throughout the entire game. My partner for this was the mage, who I thought complimented my main character (warrior) rather well. The warrior class once you get to a point if you build it well...is near indestructible. I had over 80% or so damage reduction to most things, parried/dodged most attacks, and had a good chance to just start regenerating whenever I got smacked.  The mage was great at dealing damage, but couldn't take many physical hits, and with the abundance of archers, she often went down like a wet sack. This usually left my warrior to slowly slaughter every single enemy, so I could leave combat and have her auto-revive (still got the achievement for no-revives too). As it stands, I can't see how you could ever play this game without using the warrior, every enemy gets 2-3 attacks or turns to your one, constantly buffs themselves and their friends, and deals enough damage to take out the squishier classes in a single turn if you're unlucky. What makes it worse is that with the daze and charm spells being thrown around constantly, you can be either chainlocked/stunned for the entire combat and just die...or your warrior gets charmed and murders your other party members brutally, leaving him to solo the encounter. Again.

Still, with those two flaws being apparent, I will still be playing it again on a higher difficulty later. For some reason, the game reminded me of fallout, mostly due to the high amount of personal choices you were allowed to make, and how they actually affected things later, including little blurbs at the end talking about unresolved quests or changes you made to lands for the better. They definately put a lot of work in making you feel that all these grey and grey choices you make in the game actually matter to various characters, and not making you feel like you have to take a quest you think is wrong to max out your level.

A very well done game.

Daily Review: Valkyria Chronicles

Daily Review

Valkyria Chronicles

System: PS3
Status: Beaten
Currently: Just beat it, finally!

So yeah, I love this game, its unabashed. I'm really regretting it took me so long to beat it, especially since there are sequels on the PSP, and I actually have one now. Not to say its perfect, but it is definately a great game. Its really surprising that lately Sega has been making awesome games (Yakuza series as well), as long as it isn't Sonic franchise.

The game is beautiful, it is drawn in this 'paintbrush' style that makes the entire game look like a painting (including whitened out sections at the top and bottom). The world is a stylized Europe, set in pretty much World War 2, barring certain technology (Its all land war). As a strategy RPG, it works well, you have to carefully consider your movements, jump from cover to cover, guard your approaches, lay down covering fire, hide behind tanks, etc. The missions are usually quite fun, tossing you into situations where you have to adapt and adjust your tactics, and at the same time try to rush to get a good grade for more experience and cash.

Any gripes I have are really nitpicks, and some of them were misconceptions on my part, I'll handle those first. First of all, I played this game like Fire Emblem, and that was wrong. At first I would restart a mission if I lost someone who wasn't important....except all but the character's who you can not let die during the particular mission, anyone who falls you can run up next to, call a medic...then call again in the same mission. Once I realized this, I abused it, in one mission I had a mechanic who would run up, repair the tank, and get nailed by crossfire. I would call the medic, then at the next base I captured, call her up again, and go again. I literally had her shot down four times, and called back into action four times. As long as the enemy doesn't get to that person, they don't die permanently (but will if an enemy touches them).

The other weird part was realizing I could save scum. You can save in the middle of missions...I put the game down at first because I would go through a 5-6 turn mission, and screw up near the end, having to start all over. Once I realized I could save mid mission, I would save at the beginning of a turn where nothing really went terrible, and be able to reload if I made a really bad move. This saved me from having to start all over, and at times wasting hours.

So, other than those two misunderstandings, my main gripes lay in some minor elements. The first, is that for most of the game, the game is played as a straight war stories. There are some 'land battleships' that are too big to be believed, but its kinda acceptable with the mysterious fuel source they use. However, at the later part, you have super-powered beings tearing up battlefields, and the final enemy general goes 'one wing angel' and takes on your entire squad by himself. It doesn't ruin it, but its rather weird since the game would have worked fine as a war story (an idealistic one, but still a good war story).

The other nitpick is on certain missions, you're going to have to go into it, fail, and reload entirely. This is because halfway through the mission, something happens, and then suddenly the team you brought is useless for what the 'real' objective of the mission is. This is in general a complaint for a lot of RPGs, where you have to trial and error a boss, going back through once you find out what they do. Its not really good in any game, you should be able to figure out the boss as you go. In a rather realistic war story, its kinda silly that you have to presciently position your troops to get enemies before they can screw you over. Again, its a nitpick, once you know the happening you can usually give it one more shot and make it.

The story is good, the game is great (albeit stressful at times), the whole thing is very solid. If you see it and you like strategy games or war games, pick it up, completely worth it.

I have it listed as beaten, as the game has in-game medals that you can acquire, and you need to A rank all the missions along with getting all the weapons, maxing troops, etc. I'll consider it completed when I get all of those.