Valkyria Chronicles

[easytarget]

This one is easily good enough to warrant its own thread, so here it is. For those not aware this was easily one of the best games that ever came out on the PS3, and Sega, showing a bit of what I'd call unusual wisdom decided they owned some quality IP that could without too much effort be ported over to the PC and decided to do so.

The PC version launched yesterday and amazingly enough launched itself into the top spots on steam, for a game this old and an art style that some might find a bit off putting that's really rather amazing. It speaks to the strength of the game play, and if you enjoy turn based gaming, as I suspect some of you do, this is worth a look.

I never played it through on PS3 (which I only own because a gaming website I purchased PC games gave it to me for free in a drawing) because to be honest I'm so old school PC I owned the original IBM PC. But I've made it through a few missions so far since the launch on the PC and the console port is tolerably workable and the game play mechanic of the battles as brilliant as everyone has always raved about it.

I'll circle back to discuss as I play through it, I'm glad I picked it up before launch on sale for 13 bucks because this is looking like a true gem, I'd recommend anyone remotely interested in turn based combat pick it up even at full price (20 bucks).

http://www.pcgamer.com/valkyria-chronicles-review/

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/11/...s-steam-charts

[Fragony]

Oh so seconded. The price may seem steep for a port of a game this old but it aged gracefully, and it's HUGE and full of little touches, I can't imagine how much time it must took to make and how much it must have costed to make it. Things are going to get very tricky halfway the game (it's never not pretty challenging) and you are going to get your butt kicked if you make a stupid decision, and you WILL feel like like a faillure if you lose soldiers you have grown attached to, but simply cannot save.

A classic for sure.

[easytarget]

Yeah, I'll admit to being a little concerned about what I'm researching and what I'm putting XP into for the team, but there's no way to know where it best fits till you see how it plays out in action. So far it has given me the impression in battles there is often more than one way to succeed and usually one critical element you need to pay attention to in order to make the battle winnable. As an example, I just finished a battle yesterday where we went across into an enemy held town and in order to take it you had to overcome like 8 tanks. I didn't know this in advance of course, so I didn't have a bunch of the right class to deal with this. But as it turns out the layout was such that containers of explosive material (ragnite) they use to power everything in this alternate world were positioned near tanks and could be set off by anyone with a gun. So even though I was not well situated in terms of the unit make up for this mission I managed to complete it (under some pretty tight time pressure).

I can only hope this sort of intelligent level layout for battles continues such that it doesn't turn in the late part of the game into a save scum exercise where the only way I can win is by recon'ing it the first time, going back to a save, loading out the right team, and playing through. I'll be ok if that's the case, just hopeful it's not. On that same note, it is nice they allow a bit of grinding through the skirmish feature where you can basically farm some money and XP if you need to update your team a bit before the next mission.

So far for me this year, this and Divinity are GOTY, and given what I see on the game horizon for the rest of the year I doubt that will change.

This one so far is really rather brilliant.

[Fragony]

It's going get much better and you (checks watch and date) got about at least 30 hours more of it comming your way. This game is HUGE. And you WILL make a second playthrough, trying to do everything perfect (you won't). You are probably already thinking of starting a new game and get everything right if you are like me.

[easytarget]

Finished the game, played a bunch of skirmishes to rank up my guys, some of the chapters you encounter in this one have difficulty spikes that are rather dramatic. Came in right at about 60 hours to complete first run through, I'm heading back in again, not sure if I'll play all the way through again or not, we'll see.

This is a really well made game, I'm a bit surprised that back in the day, seemingly out of the blue, SEGA saw fit to develop and publish such a unique and well crafted work.

This ranks in my top 10 or 15 games of all time.

On a similar note, that of older games brilliantly made, I was digging around in the attic looking for my CD of Homeworld (they are re-releasing it on steam and it made me wonder if I still had it, I did, but it's really graphically a bit of a mess, so I'll just wait for the re-done version to go on sale and pick it up) when I stumbled across another game masterpiece that I sure hope some day gets updated: No One Lives Forever. I installed it and got it working, the graphics are a bit blocky but workable enough to play, having a great old time in this one, the comedy that runs through the entire game stands the test of time, rarely has a PC game done a better job of infusing humor into the whole design of their work so well.

[Neric]

This one really looks interesting, especially the combination of real-time and turn based action. Also the style of the art seems to fit - although normally not my cup of tea. Is the campaign absolutely linear, or are there some choices to be made? You mentioned doing some skirmishes before continuing with the story mode.

[easytarget]

Even if you hate anime and hate linear story lines you absolutely need to play this game for the battles, there's absolutely nothing else like it. The real time unit movement allows for freedom on a turn that's completely unique, even how you spend your actions is up to you, you can move the same unit over and over or spend them on multiple members of your team or even not use them at all and save them for the next turn. There really is no way to exaggerate how brilliant this game design is.

The story is linear in that you are not ultimately going to steer it off it's path for the core combatants. But you can get anyone else on your roster permanently dead. So it's not to say there aren't consequences that will be unique to your play through. And what classes you decide to rank up affects your decisions of how to approach battles. And there are side chapters you can play that further develop the core characters. Besides, the complaint of linearity in games is somewhat false, no RPG actually lets you play it your way in the end, there are typically only a couple branches and you're forced down one.

Skirmishes are just the ability to replay battles, you can do this to collect money and XP you can use to rank your troops up (which is why I played them, that and it proved amusing to just jump in and play a battle for a quick 30 minutes rather than formally jump into hours of playing the game during the week). For those who have found the game too challenging (5% have finished it according to steam, there are a few difficulty spikes that will hit you in the face, or they did me) and get stuck on a hard chapter this is a way to rank up their units, when they hit level 11 they become elite and for some this matters a good bit because they get an additional weapon option that is rather useful.

For last year this is my GOTY w/o reservation. I'd really really love to see other developers make use of this game mechanic, just as I've waited a decade or more at this point for someone, anyone, to make use of Battlefront's WEGO turned based system to no avail. ;)

[Neric]

You convinced me to give this one a try. Linear gameplay is not a dealbreaker for me, but I do like to have options - branches and sidequests generally do the trick for me, especially when its connected to character developement. Valkyria Chronicles seems to balance it out nicely by your description, with more emphasis on story than sandboxing, which is fine by me.

In regards to manga/anime - I don't know the difference (suspecting comic/film?) and that rather sums it up. I never really played games or read books in this kind of style, so VC might be a good starting point, to get more into this :)

[Fragony]

You will still be making tough choices as you will really hate losing carefully nursed troops. You will lose them, it's not an easy game. It's one of the best ps3 games, it hasn't aged at all.

[easytarget]

Neric,

You can pick it up 50% off on steam for the next 44 hours, easily the best 10 bucks you're likely to spend on a game for some time to come. Let us know what you think, and don't let those difficulty spikes deter you, this one is worth the time and effort you put into it. There aren't many games I say that about, usually only one every 3 or 4 years gets my thumbs up as a truly great game.

The last one I unreservedly endorsed is Shogun 2, that was 2011. The only other game I recommend from the last 4 years is Combat Mission, but that's so narrowly focused in its target audience w/ a fairly high learning curve I usually don't bother bringing it up to anyone.

[Neric]

Thanks for the update, I still got in the sale. Hopefully I will get to play at the weekend. Losing characters is always painful and I have to restrain myself from loading an old savegame. Had this problem while playing JA2 a lot ;) Also the first time in CK2, but there I got really used to it, almost made a habit of losing family members...
As far as games go which still linger long after playing: M:TW more than the other TW-titles, JA2, Mafia 1 and Mount&Blade.

[easytarget]

Look forward to hearing what you think, should be a fun and challenging ride.

[Neric]

I have played the first few missions, which seem to serve as a tutorial, and have now been ordered to put my squad together and upgrade a few things. Hope I didn't make very bad decisions. Next up ist "Varel Urban Warfare", and I'm looking forward to start that mission this weekend.

So far I really like the gameplay, althoug the real time competent irritated me at first. While I was standing around, pondering if should take cover, the enemy continued shooting at me - totally not cool.
The art is fine, but the storytelling seems, well, weird. Nice, but weird. Same for the characters, but maybe its a cultural thing and typical for anime and such. Still, I'm enjoying myself much with this game.

[Fragony]

It's totally Japanese in style, I hate anime personally. But the battle system is what got me hooked. Once you come to terms with the mechanics you will see how good this game really is. I am kinda surprised that it hasn't been copied by now because it's really solid. My advice, get Chinese food instead of sushi just to annoy the Japanese, anime is annoying. But don't let it hinder the awesomness of the excellent battle system.

[Beskar]

It's 75% off at the moment.

[Fragony]

No excuse to not at least try it then. It isn't for everyone but a good TBS is pretty rare on the pc.

[easytarget]

Brilliant game design is what this one is, I would absolutely love it if someone, anyone, would put it to use in a different game setting.

[HopAlongBunny]

Picked it up for $6 CDN.
If its any good at all that will be money well spent :)
The download is taking forever :p

[Fragony]

enjoy :)

[Beskar]

I keep having a problem with land mines though, keeps crashing my game if I touch them accidently.