VALKYRIA CHRONICLES (Zero Punctuation)
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- čas přidán 20. 07. 2011
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This week, Zero Punctuation reviews Valkryia Chronicles.
Fast-talking Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw reviews a new game each week in this animated series that combines informed critique with cutting humor. Watch the next episode of Zero Punctuation a week early, only on The Escapist.
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Are you sure you want to join the reich?
(Y)ahtzee (N)ahtzee
Which one?
Ja oder nein, meinen Bruder? Der Vaterland ist warten für dich.
(Forgive the crappy German, I'm trying though... Sorry if I offended anyone either.)
That was out of mein kamfort zone.
genius
I think it's more like:
Ja oder nein, *mein* Bruder? Die Mutterland waert für dich.
(My new gringo keyboard doesn't have the punctuation for "wart", but I emulated the sound using "ae", intelligent me.)
(Mein is not needed, really, but you messed up and put mein on plural for some reason)
Holy shit he never found out you can save during missions.
Wait you can save during missions?
Vinland Yes. It's pretty simple, too.
I...Oh, dear god, that would have saved me so much frustration. Thank you. D:
Don't know why I thought I could only save between missions.
reorseX "Autosave"
reorseX Honestly my game play experience changed drastically once I discovered it. It stopped being a game where I was playing carefully and planning out moves. It instead became a game to see how much bull I could get away with before I needed to reload. Still a great game though, wish they would do a fire emblem style of in battle saving though. Maybe then I wouldn't abuse snipers for every fight >.>
I'm honestly curious as to what he'd think of Fire Emblem.
me too
I think he would love it because he is allowed to kill off most of them in classic. It will probably screw him over, but he won't care.
Daniel Bryant personally you got to make your charscter whoever you want him/her to be. Personally I only ever had once cynical character who trated everything the same way someone would treat a class of water
I hope he’ll play some of the older ones, the ones that have an actually good plot.
@@asiangamer0413 to be honest, awakening and (especially) fates aren't exactly popular in the FE community either.
Welcome to Fantasy!Sweden: where everyone's combat performance is based on what kind of ground they stand on, medics can heal 50 machine gun wounds in a single turn, and your dad gave you an anachronistic Abrams-style turbine-driven Tiger II that for some reason your superiors never confiscate to reverse engineer into more tanks.
Also allied air support is non existent since no one thought to use the weird mineral to power an engine with a propeller strapped to it.
Actually, I'll defend the setting there. Powered flight isn't just "Strap an engine to a propeller and add wings". You require a very high power-to-weight ratio that this world may not have had before, you require the right wing shape (Most of the Wright Brother's competitors used a symmetrical wing design, and it was a massive step forward when it was realized that extra lift was produced when you move the "hump" of the wing forward), and you need to develop the proper control surfaces to steer the plane (The wright brothers were not the first to achieve powered lift, they were the first to perfect a *controllable* powered aircraft)
+Barley Sixseventwo posed flight is no doubt a complex feat of engineering, it just seems odd that with how long they have relied on this mineral to power machinery that they have yet to develop a light weight, high powered engine.
It's mentioned in game that the Edelweiss was too expensive for mass-production.
Except, spoiler alert, in the end there's actually a functioning plane, that the main couple use to get away from an exploding superweapon (because of course there's a superweapon).
Valkyria Chronicles has been released on STEAM for PC. It has pretty low system requirements and costs $20. So if you missed it on PS3 you can now own it on PC.
Great port too, though the PS3 to PC controls haven't been quite perfected (no mouse support in menus? Really? For a game with this much menus?...). My only real issue with the game is the anime plot is..eh, to cliche.
I agree, I actually plugged my PS3 remote into my tower and used that. Though sometimes when I don't feel like digging it out I use Mouse+Keyboard. "My only real issue with the game is the anime plot is..eh, to cliche." Man, I grew up on Anime and it seems like from the title screen I know how the Anime will play out now a days. Back in an era where you could enjoy the hijinks of the Smurfs or G.I. Joe where no one can get hurt Anime (Early 80s-late 90s) wasn't pulling punches. I remember watching Gundam 0080 War in a Pocket where the story is told from the point of view of the Zeon (Futuristic Germans) Where they send in a team of 6 to destroy a new Gundam prototype called the Alex that is being built on a civilian space station. 5 of the six are killed in a gun fight with the Federation (Futuristic Allies, the Japanese love that motif) and the last one is given Orders to evacuate, that the Space Station and the hundreds of thousands of civilians are to be nuked in an attempt to cease production on the new model. These were plot war series that had bitter victory conditions and next to none if any "Cutesy moments" Modern Anime is plagued with by the book stories now and to much ....cuteness.....
I'm sure this got off topic, I came back a forth to this over 30 minutes :(
I never owned a PC and I'm quite ecstatic that I get to play it now. Great game, though it swings wildly between freaking hard and hilariously easy a bit too much. But I still love it to death.
Scouts are still ridiculously overpowered, though. Can't tell you how many missions I won with Alicia solo running to the end control point, killing the guards, then capping it. Lul.
The port is not very good though. Found myself switching to a controller a couple minutes into the game because there is no mouse support.
I didn't mind the whole "bad guys shooting during movement" bit. It was kinda neat going cover to cover waiting for the enemy to reload.
on another note, I agree, with such an abundance of chest-high walls and crates, more cover would have been nice, as well as corner cover.
I enjoy Valkyria chronicles and certain anime but by god listening to him rip into them is hilarious
I personally dislike it... And now a whole lot more.
@@makosensei9998 I love VC even if it is anime game because it isn't filled with cringy anime tropes.
VALKYRIA CHRONICLES
I agree with all the criticism of the mechanics *but* I think this game deserves some praise for unique aesthetics. Yes, the characters are in traditional anime style as far as faces and hair go, but the developers somehow used a combination of complex partial cel shading and voodoo texture manipulation to make everything look like a *painting*, which is pretty rad. I mean just making it look convincingly like anime alone would have been fairly impressive (many have tried and failed, though I do like cel shading most of the time anyway), but they went one up on even that, and made it look like anime that was a bit ambitious in the style department.
They deserve the trademark royalties on the graphics system!
It's funny, if he actually scrolled down on the R&D menu, he would have found that guns eventually split into two or three variants that you can change in and out of and develop separately.
Aconcernedrifleman
Took me a while to figure it out. Mostly when I was getting shredded by Imperials at the beach level.
The army the main characters join in the game is basically a Militia. Everyone was more or less drafted for the fight. The reason teenagers are in the army is because everyone in the country is given some army training during school. Basically everyone in the country is a National Guard.
Also the reason that Welkin was assigned as a Captain and granted a higher rank isn't because of the tank but more based on his lineage and education. Welkin is the son of a General / War Hero and is quite wealthy, he is also a University Graduate. That puts his worth a few step above everyone else in the military's eyes. Welkin's friend Faldio was also granted the same rank as Welkin, and he was also a University Graduate.
xxJing Just picked up the game, and I'm pretty sure arriving with a tank and some kills under his belt didn't hurt. Faldio had clearly been there a little longer, and his qualities earned him the rank the more traditional way,while Welkins pulled in with his dad's old tank in excellent working condition, was like 'yo, they took our town, evacuation went pretty smooth except for the burning wreck of a tank I left on main street' and had citizen witnesses and the local police's corroboration.
@@DetectiveLance I think arriving with a tank gives you a boost in any recruitment campaign, whether it's for an actual war or just a supermarket job.
Welkin isn't an androgynous teenage boy he's 22
HES AN ANDROGYNOUS YOUNG ADULST XD
Is it me or is it sad I know exactly which sniper he's talking about.
There was like 3 snipers in that game to be fair.
Siiixers Good point.
Guns can actually be upgraded in more than one way once you get past tier 4.
+Softman Armstrong and also, the point is that you have currency to choose what to upgrade in what order!
But i guess accuracy and facts would be one less joke he could make.
Honestly I watch yahtzee for entertainment but the more I've played a game he reviews the more I find glaring flaws.
I'm honestly not sure it's him deliberately being inaccurate so much as he just didn't get very far into it.
He doesn't address that the game decisively picks one love interest and that the whole "Valkyria" thing which takes up a significant portion of the plot from that bit with Faldio onward. I was making several jokes about the direction the narrative went in my first playthrough and I'm surprised he didn't.
Like, the stuff he says makes perfect sense assuming he didn't get past around the halfway point.
@@sentientsardine9729 He did only have a limited time to play the game and make the video, so it's conceivable that between getting used to a new genre and a few rage quits, he didn't get that far.
@@benhockley Doesn't he have a week or something to play the game and write the review?
You can skip the cut scenes by pressing "enter" for the PC version.
I'm not normally this vocal, and I realize this is (highly) opinionated satire, but this guy can screw *riiiiiiight* off with his review. Been playing through Valkyria via Steam lately, and even as someone who isn't a big fan of turn based strategy, I'm loving it.
Story is told almost exclusively through fully animated or partial (think visual novel style) cutscenes. The voicing is 9.5 times out of 10 top notch as well (with the odd awkward bit due to the necessity of having to sync the english dub to the original japanese mouth movements. Yes, the dub is great. Give it a try, you I-compulsively-play-these-games-in-japanese-only purists).
Core gameplay falls more or less solely on your missions, which all the micromanagement that's griped about here will alter significantly depending on the choices you make during preparation; what squad members you have, what you arm them with, how you've leveled them up, who you have them working with, etc. There's a huge array of options which multiplies on themselves to create a whole spectrum of choices and strategies in how to approach and advance through a fight. Interception fire and counterattacking elevates the battles from a glorified game of chess to a much more cognitive and visceral turn based experience. Though I found the difficulty curve to be fair, the game is tough and will punish you harshly for poor positioning and wasted moves.
Despite the ignorant claim in the video, there is indeed a save feature acessable at any time during your turn in battle (barring action phases when you're moving units around), so you can stop and pick up any mission from where you left off.
The game doesn't pull it's punches with the story. Keeping things spoiler free: While it's a JRPG and has it's fair share of those sugary "friends/love/peace will always win" moments, exaggerated gestures, dramatic one liners, and animu romances, it never fails to remind you that you are, in fact, in a war. You will lose friends along the way, and not all wins will be victories.
All in all, it's a really good game. This critique of it, even considering the source, is garbage. It's a must-play for anyone who likes these genres, and even if you're only somewhat of a fan of JRPGs, and can tolerate turn based strategy, I'd still highly recommend it.
tl;dr - video's critique is biased, shallow, and petty. It's good. Give it a try.
did you manage to defeat Gadolf Smitler?
*****
I included one at the bottom for you, you shmuck.
Biased, shallow and petty.
Yep, sounds like him.
In every god damn review.
I agree with you but I can see where he is coming from this game is a little less friendly those not into turned based strategy/jrpg/towerdefence esc games. this was an interesting concept but I would love to see it continued further and I hope its new found home on steam draws enough attention for it to do so.
I agree. I like the game....reminds me of Advanced Wars for the GBA.
I think I've come to the realisation that i have to play every JRPG that Yahtzee reviews because to me it sounds like the best game ever every time despite his constant complaints about them as a whole.
IMO, the fact that he enjoys the game, despite his hangups on JRPGs and anime, is a pretty glowing endorsement for this title.
OverbearingUrge But the only thing he liked was the gameplay, which according to Yahtzee Xcom did much better and without the anime stuff he didn't like. So, yeah, if all you want was the gameplay its not like you *have* to play this.
Mind you, he *subjectively* rates the story and characters; you may very well enjoy those aspects of the game regardless of the review, because the story is crafted quite well, structurally, and the characters are well developed throughout, using cutscenes, voice clips, and general narrative. That's just the technical bits, and you may well get attached as per your biases.
I didn’t really get why he hated this game. Maybe not enough uploads of cool playthroughs online
Fucking weebs
Welkin's an "androgynous pretty-boy" and Alicia's an "angry girl" who "secretly" loves Welkin? Maybe it's just me, but those are all REALLY big stretches.
I agree
He said that the weapons only upgrade one way, he has not played it much.
It looks like he just saw the anime not the game -.-
*****
I honestly feel like Yahtzee doesn't even play the games. I feel like he just gets handed some brief description of the game then writes an episode based off of that only.
50Calabyte If there's anything I've learned from watching Adam Sestler play Kingdom Hearts (nothing against the guy, I really enjoy his work), it's that people who don't like JRPG's really, REALLY don't like JRPG's.
Holy shit!!! I LIVE IN SWINDON!
WHAT A RANDOM THING TO SEE!
***** yess i do.
***** random doesn't equal funny.
***** haha...no.
how old are you?
God I would love to be able to see Yahtzee's face when he records this stuff
As someone who genuinely enjoys VALKYRIA CHRONICLES for its steadfast need to tick every anime box including beach episode, this is one of the review of ZP that I absolutely will always come back to for giggles
"and some things just don't combine; like republicans, and compassion."
- Yahtzee
The shaaaaaade.
and some things just don't combine; like Hillary Clinton and consistency.
You say that as a Trumpian? If so, don't bring up consistency. Mr. Drumpf said less than 10 years ago that the Clintons were his friends, and look at him now.
Attila the Hung I am saying that as a person who can't wait for her to go to jail!
Attila the Hung
Yes, years ago. Things change. Friends turn into enemies easily
I love how critical this guy is. No one beats his. Fuck gamespot, fuck ing, fuck everything.
Zero Punctuation is were its at.
Welcome to the dark side of game reviews...
"fuck ing" was fucking confusing
You forgot to mention the strange buddy system that encourages you to team people up with other people because they might shoot out of turn as a team, but also don't like standing on the same ground as each other, don't like their friend's friends and 1/3 of the classes are incapable of shooting out of turn due to ammo limitations.
It was a nice game... my biggest problem with it was how easy it was...
"oh one of your soldier has been KIA? well you have 3 turns to evacuate him (free action) and then he can respawn in the next turn"... WTF... the enemy could mow down your entire squad and you would just respawn them 10 meters back endlessly
Maybe this is trying to replicate soviet strategy?
So the soviets used cloning?
Matt Just matt Yes. The Soviets had developed cloning in early 1930s, and during the Second World War they fully utilized this technology to create armies of soldiers, even though they were poorly trained. If it weren't for this unlimited supply of troopers, Stalin would've never issued the infamous Order 227.
Yahtzee dude... you can save at any time, and when you los you get the option to leav the battle compleatly, save, then level grind. if you forgot to save, thats your fault!
I find it funny how often Japan pulls the big-evil-empire trope in games and anime considering at one time they too were a big-evil-empire, more so than most others which had become quite cosmopolitan in modern times.
Also, they're the only country left in the world which still has an emperor who is referred to by the rest of the world as His Imperial Majesty. Go figure.
Also, this game was shit, and that's coming from someone who does like the occasional J-RPG
tiakpark Why?
The Shouwa expansionist period was a very, very brief slice of all of Japanese history, though. Prior to the Meiji Restoration Japan was relatively isolationist--if less than commonly perceived since it interacted with China and Korea a fair bit--and no kind of empire at all. After that it became somewhat Westernized, industrialized, and democratic (parliamentary elected government, constitution with guarantees of rights, rule of law etc. etc.), and only for ~15 years was in the hands of a military junta who pressed an expansionist agenda, a state religion, racial/ethnic hierarchy, and of course militaristic values throughout society. And throughout pretty much all of the ~1700 years it has had a Yamato emperor or empress, the monarch has been very weak and often an outright figurehead who did nothing but perform ceremonies.
In spite of the "worship" of the emperor (really the whole imperial line supposedly descended from Amaterasu but whatever) stressed by State Shinto in the imperialist period (which was *not* traditional, normal Shinto, mind), Hirohito wasn't even running the show in any way during that time.
So yes Japan was a militaristic, expansionist imperial power ... from about 1931 to 1945, which is a lot less time than a lot of other countries not perceived in such a light today have been up to that sort of thing (*glances over at Britain ... notices they also still have a monarch and an hereditary aristocracy with seats in Parliament ... ).
Anyhoo point being people only see Japan in this way because the events in question happened fairly recently, but looking at the whole span of history, and making fair comparisons, it really has been far less imperialistic than most any nation that had the power to be imperialistic.
TreasonousBastard By interacting with Korea you mean constantly invading and treating as a more-or-less vassal.
Dedfaction
There was only one major pre-modern invasion (Hideyoshi's). Before that you have obscure references to the "Wa" attacking Korea who some historians are convinced are Japanese people but really no one knows.
This guy now likes persona 5 lmao
I wish he had done VC4. I actually liked the gameplay and style of VC, but share his opinions on the story and character writing, and I can't tell whether or not VC4 improved in that regard.
I don't want to waste my money on it if it's just another anime story that forgot to bring the oversized magic swords.
"We all know whose bratwurst you lot were snacking on then." Hahahaha awesome
But Europa is what we call Europe. That's not weird.
I am curious as to how he would take Fire Emblem games.
Please rip my favorite game series to shreds, Yahtzee!!!
Yeah I imagine he would Rip into conquest.... Which i have heard is one of the hardest games in the series.
I enjoyed warriors and still do.
He would probably say something like "eww a marriage macanic?"
heh. or he might do conquest on Lunatic Classic.
VC is actually a really good game, especially for those who likes tactical games.
asiangamer0413 VC sorry, I was thinking about turning on the air conditioning at the time and wasn't paying attention to what I typed XD.
The story telling is disgustingly bad, the game play feels like busy work and the graphics and style are nice but aren't enough to carry this game.
littlee300 The gameplay is actually very good, I think Yahtzee didn't understood the game.
littlee300 Yeah, and for people accustomed to the Anime awkwardness the story isn't bad at all. Put simply, if you can stomach the stupidity that is the story of the grand majority of AAA titles then VC's story isn't hard to swallow in the slightest.
In truth, it is a pretty alright game. Even if it seems to fall into some anime tropes, and I don't even play Jrpgs that much because of the same ridiculous nonsense, but its make an OK turn-based strategy game, had lost a majority of my guys when one of those tanks came bashing through a wall and then picked off by snipers in the following courtyard... Thank for Welkin's tank.. Lol.
the Gallia is third and smaller force ,not the federation.
You can save in your turn .
play with more attention.
This is one of my favorite games. I love the combat engine and the art style, and, unlike some people, I enjoy micromanagement :P.
I love the little cut scenes at the end of every video :)
When I beat that thing, I was so happy, then a few chapters later came the Super Train.
0:33 Oh no, Yahtzee is being attacked by the Orb of Confusion!
I didn't know it is a 3-year-old game. I got it only recently. Obviously a late PC port. But I actually like it. The menu/UI or whatever is horrible but the actual game is fun. Also, no mouse control in the menus. Grrrr!
I like how I can select and micromanage my squad. Reminds me of XCOM. There are some more unique attributes, like "being more accurate with ladies nearby", but near the beginning I haven't really used any of them. Maybe later, or on harder difficulties. Also, you never complained about having to upgrade guns in XCOM. Here it is exactly the same.
The combat bit also resembles XCOM. There, the enemy also shoots while you move (Overwatch) and keeps shooting after but will miss when you no longer control that guy. The only difference is that here this "overwatch" is automatic (even XCOM had some untis with automatic reaction shots) and instead of shooting in the air, they actually stop firing. It is a turn based game. You could imagine that units don't move one after the other but all at once.
The graphics are suprisingly good for an anime game. I hate it when they use still pictures in cutscenes, but here most things actually move. And they move well. When I saw the tank move, I could actually feel like that is a tank moving and not a box being pushed around. And every conversation is voiced. Something, most anime games don't do. Sure, it has the anime style, but clearly it wasn't meant for those who despise that particular style.
There is one thing wrong here. Valkyria Chronicles isn't an anime game. The game came first, THEN the anime was made (similar to Devil May Cry)
V Arclight Pretty sure he meant that the art style is very reminiscent of anime (Well not even reminiscent - the entire art engine is supposed to replicate anime art style).
And I suspect most people don't even know it has an anime :D
Apparently it's pretty good, I might watch it.
I'll agree about the lack of mouse control. For the most part, only annoyance in the game. Though, I find it interesting that he says "Teen aged boy" when the main character is 22 years of age... The only technical "Teen" in the story is his adopted sister, which is 16 years of age.
Though, I did have some problems with the fact that an optional member of your squad is 12 years of age.
Valkyria Chronicles was released in 2008, not 3 years ago.
Anti Skillshot
>an optional member of your squad is 12 years of age.
And a shock trooper at that!
You know the one thing that ruined this game for me? The discovery (upon consultation with a FAQ) that the end of mission rating system is based _entirely_ on a single thing- how quickly you completed the mission objective. Not how many enemies you killed, or how few casualties you took, only on how quick you speedran the mission. And this completely discouraged me from playing the game, because I'm a methodical, systematic sort of gamer who tries to do everything "the right way" (advancing my troops in formation so they can provide covering fire, methodically singling out and eliminating the enemies to provide a clear, secure path to the objective), so being told that "the right way" is to rush straight for the flag (or whatever the objective is) and bugger all the optionals just really cheeses my onions. And yes, I know you don't HAVE to give a shit about your rating, but considering the game still fucking gives you a C+ score and an implicit "tut tut" at the end of the missions (and there are Steam achievements for getting A ranks), I can't shake the feeling that the game resents me for it. Combined with the first really frustrating mission where you encounter your first major boss, who massively outclasses your force, it was enough to make me just put the damn game down and never pick it up again in the more than 5 years since.
Oh that warm delicious feeling of finding a another new ZP video!
I started playing this game recently, and I can sympathize with Yahtzee's problems. Firstly, the chapter select thing really is a pain in the ass. If you want to give players the option of rewatching cutscenes, that's fine, here's how you do it: You add a pause menu to the cutscenes which has the following options: Save, Quit, Chapter Select, Headquarters, Restart Cutscene, Skip Cutscene. Boom, big problem solved.
The shooting at you while you're moving... I can see where they're going with it, trying to make the game feel frantic like a real battlefield, but it's just a little too... specific to the character who's acting. On the upside, your troops will also shoot enemies moving near them, but it just ends up being a bit of a pain in the ass. Speaking of ass, the tanks control like them. Seriously, these things will get caught on anything and everything from a sidewalk to a pebble.
Also, the voice acting is mediocre. You'll find some good performances in this game, but most of the characters don't emote nearly as well as they should, and some of their lines just sound awful. I'm definitely having fun with this game, but I can totally see Yahtzee's frustrations.
+imaloony8 As someone who loves this game to death, *fuck* trying to get those tanks *anywhere*.
+The Shade Sorcerer the tanks control like shit especially when you have to move them like in that one mission with the massive ship tank thing when you have to drive the tank across the map. i cant count how many times my tank would start spinning around and hit like 3 anti tank mine while my mechanic died because i accidentally stepped on a fucking landmine which then threw her onto 3 more mines
+deathblade5421
Well,
You could have,
Defused the bombs,
before,
stepping,
on them.
+DManVI i didnt notice the mine she stepped on sooooo thats why she died
+deathblade5421 that's often the point of those kind of things, isn't it?
funny that he describes the main characters as teenagers even though they're adults
HMM
SO i take it Yahtzee will not be reviewing fire emblem fates than?
+MegAnimefreakx3 A shame. He may finally learn who Marth is.
+awelcruiz to be fair, Fire Emblem Fates isn't out in Australia yet, though I hope Australia's localization team does a better job.
lobster123burger okay didnt know that :/
OH GOD PLEASE NO, the fire emblem games all suck now! Fates single-handedly fucked the series!
PLAY SENGOKU RANCE YAHTZEE!!! There are dolphins in it!!
Although it's hardly without flaws, I think I really liked Valkyria Chronicles. Then again I think most of the things I liked weren't intentional, too. While avoiding spoilers since the game is out on Steam now, the game has a really, REALLY bad habit of trying to set up a moral or point and blowing it. The game tries to paint the whole idea of "War is horrible and when a soldier dies, s/he was a human being!" but the characters, from the tutorial on up, don't seem to be really all that bothered by people dying around them. Imperial soldiers gun down civilians and mock people (not always in that order, mind) like they're hoping this will be good resume material for joining Cobra Commander. Did invading soldiers just arbitrarily attack civilians, kill your fellow town watch mates and you had to personally kill them? No reason to not get right back into polite chats about bread and going to college.
Might I add on the one scene near the end?
SPOILERS:
The scene were Selvaria blows herself up, killing THOUSANDS of people? I love the fact that Welkin and friends don't bat a fucking eye at their own country men dying, but the fact that Selvaria loved the Emperor, but didn't love her. REALLY NOW? The same women who killed their countrymen in droves deserves sympathy because of unrequited love? This game fumbles every fucking morel or aesop it tried to build with such efficiency, its as if this game was written by two entirely different groups of people.
TankBus I felt like they were trying to keep a lot of different plot threads going and by the end every one of them just kind of fell apart. A lot of individual events that could have filled a game plot as an arc sort of just petered out.
SPOILERS (also):
Early on, when you visit the War Cemetery, Welkin waxes on about the significance of being a commanding officer and how people under his command could die. Later on there's the 'Fritz' scene that pretty much exists to hammer home the idea that all those Imperials also are people with lives that mattered in some small way. Then Isara dies. Sure Welkin seems a upset at the moment but that moment could have been a character-arc. Up until then, Welkin is all about daring strategies and seemed oddly carefree. What if that event caused him to become taciturn and staid? No longer trying anything creative for fear of losing more friends and needs to learn about sometimes sacrificing one for the sake of the mission? Heck, what if he just straight up blamed himself for having a mechanic hop out of a tank in an active warzone without responsibly setting up a perimeter? But nope, everyone mourns before hoping right back into it and it pretty much just looks like the writers said "Man, we wrote ourselves into a corner with Rosie being racist. We should off someone to make her get over it. Wavy? Nah, he's my self-insert."
James Koch I have to agree, They could have done so many interesting things, but they just don't. Welkin loving nature and the study of life could have been interesting to his character. He could have been torn between the love for nature and life, and his duty as a soldier to protect his country. It could have left him a little unsettled about taking the thing he invest so learning about. But instead, its just used to make him look like some sort of crazy good commander.
Honestly, fuck Welkin and Alicia. I hate them so much.
@@TheTankbus To be fair, I can understand them not batting an eye at General Damon's death; that guy was the main reason Gallia almost lost the war.
let me summerize my feelings: ''ngaaaauuuhaaaaauuuuhaaah!'' xDD
Best Credits animation EVER!
Having watched just about every episode of Zero Punctuation (twice) it is entirely possible that a little bit of Yahtzee got inside of me.
0:57 If he made it further through the game he'd know that they rather quickly reveal that *every* side in this game has a hidden underbelly.
The empire is rather the obvious villain, and they make no real effort to hide that.
The Federation only views the Gallia (the game's setting) as a tactical point in their idealistic war and don't actually give 2/10ths of a shit about them.
And Gallia itself has cultural issues of systemic racism against the game's rather obvious anthology for Romani/Jewish people.
Is it the most subtle story in the world, no. But at least give it the credit it deserves for the work it does.
Edit: Yes, I know that this review is 11 years old, but still I want to defend one of my favorite games.
Why are you doing reviews of games you clearly didn't get to the half? Weapons can be upgraded in different ways, someone important does die and you can save between turns inside the missions.
+Krelian Why are you playing a shit game to the full? are YOU NOT ABLE TO SEE HOW SHIT IT IS FROM THE FIRST 10 minutes????
Do you read twillight aswell fully without realising in the first 10 minutes its shit.
+Reinstalt moska then don't review it, you don't have to play something you don't like but if you are going to make a review of a game people expect at least the reviewer to play it. Posting wrong info because you didn't bother to get to half the game on a review of said game is just plain retarded.
+Reinstalt moska you are to fucking stupid to even understand what i said, go back to elementary school and learn to read first.
+Krelian all moska does is talk unsubstantiated shit. He's got an unnatural tendency of hypersexualizing and an obsessive compulsion with "cucks".
Honestly he was pretty gentle with this review.
There is actually branching upgrades for guns once you get far enough into the tree. And unless you grind, you don't have the money for it all, so I'm quite happy they aren't filching my money without my permission.
Well The Empire in Elder Scrolls is a good empire.
No they're still good.
+Ben Chenery Well, that brings the grand total to one. XD
+Ben Chenery My ancestors are smiling at me Imperial, can you say the same?
+Thoraxis Well yeah..... They were Imperial too.
I still don't know if the Empire is good or bad. All I know is that the Stormcloaks are literally fascists. I mean this. Look up the definition.
(And also, less literally, racists assholes.)
This game is have too many cutscenes, but you could say if they just melded each of the cutscenes between battles into one big one, you wouldn't complain.
I think the "the enemy can shoot at you on your turn" thing is good. Obviously, it works both ways and means you can actively defend on the enemy's turn by strategically placing your units. I bet if this didn't happen, he would complain that you just stand around like idiots as they run up and shoot you in the face.
I liked this game.
The enemies firing at you during your turn forced you to apply tactics that don't involve a suicidal head-long charge and raised the importance of cover-before-attack. The game was meant to create a lovable set of characters that gave you a genuine sense of responsibility over them. When they die, they're gone from the game, some deaths have permanent effects, including "grieving friends" joining your squad, or ultimately change your strategy all together when you loose a keystone character.
"Another missing housepet"
I got that reference.
Rewatching this review after so many years, I get the feeling that Yahtzee didn't play through much of the game. His review helped me decide to buy it, though: all I had to do was filter his opinion through the "he doesn't like anime storytelling and JRPGs, I do" filter.
I bought it back in 2008, and it firmly sits in my top 10 all-time favourite games since then. I even bought it again when it came out on Steam. I'm pretty sured I poured more than 200 hours into it, in total. It has flaws, of course, a certain naïveté to many design decisions, but even those contribute to making it quite unique, even when compared to its sequels. The story is simple, but I loved the way it touched themes like racism, the horrors of war that comes to ruin everyday life and all that, in a smart yet "PG-13" way. But most importantly, I absolutely LOVED the way it treated secondary characters (squad members): they have unique lines, unique potentials, unique relationships to other characters, unique reactions to the situations, and the more you play them, the more of their biographies you discover and the more of their potentials you unlock, and they also can permanently die if you make bad mistakes on the field. This is the kind of interactive storytelling that I would have expected Yahtzee to appreciate.
+MordredMS Sorry, but if you, like Yahtzee (and me), really don't like neither the anime artstyle nor the writing that seemingly obligatorily tags a long, then there really isn't much to like about this game's story nor its characters. I never bothered finishing the game (think I got through 2/3) even though I mostly enjoyed the gameplay, and this was for two reasons; A) the user interface is crap af and B) I simply didn't care about the story or the people in it. If you don't like the writing, then the fact that the squad members are unique and diverse doesn't really matter all that much in the end.
+Michael Cider I must add that it is understandable that you and Yahtzee can feel less than engaged or attached to the story and characters.
Yet Yahtzee's authority on these comments compel many to believe that "the story and characters suck" and believe that that critique is an unbiased report on the narrative. Had it been a thorough tearing apart of the story's construction, or a thoughtful analysis of the story's use of devices, or an in-depth examination of the characters' developments or lack thereof, then, I would accept your and Yahtzee's critique of that aspect of the game.
That wasn't the case. The story and characters aren't to your liking, which is fine; but it shouldn't be used as a point against the game. The negative experiences are rooted in your, and Yahtzee's, bias, not a flaw solely of the game. Yahtzee's reputation as an honest critique would precede him and viewers would think the story is/characters are badly written, when really, it was a biased opinion.
+Em See
Everyone's biased. If eastern sites can give FF13 a 10/10 and most western reviewers give it barely 5... who's the biased one here? The answer is both. If the ridiculous stupidity of animes appeals to you, that's fine, just don't make it look like we're the biased ones and you're the smart, unbiased one.
Em See As David Fischer pointed out, all opinions are biased. That is the nature of opinions. This is especially true when it comes do something as subjective as the quality of writing. It is not possible to form an opinion about the quality of art without being biased; it is a necessity.
David Fischer that's exactly the point, Yahtzee's rep as an UNBIASED/OBJECTIVE reviewer makes it easy for people who didn't even check out the game to believe his OPINION on the game. Because he says so, people will think the game has aspects that are universally bad to all people, because his rep precedes him, when really, it will only be bad to some people who share his dislike.
N-odd years and Z-who knows how many rewatches of this video later, I've come to the realisation that I have to pop up in defense of Valkyria Chronicles here: None of the protagonists are standard JRPG fare (or rather, they're much toned-down versions of standard JRPG fare with normal-colored hair and everything), the non-blood-related sister is not sexualised in anyway and the reason her adoption is pointed out is because she's part of another race, and the protagonist isn't made a squad commander because he brought his own tank but because he went through mandatory officer training in the university he was studying, all of which was clearly explained. Meanwhile Largo and Rose, despite being older, didn't do academia and thus got stuck with being NCO's for him.
This game was an outstanding breath of fresh air from the crap floating around these days passing as games. The guns can actually be customized between different specialties namely range/accuracy, damage and Mag Capacity, and a special effect (gradual health loss, decrease in accuracy etc). I feel most people completely miss what this game was supposed to achieve. It is a serious commentary on War, but also showcases the bond many soldiers develop and the need for humor to cope with the emotion
Lol. That "last Crusade" reference at the end
All I could think about when I watched this, was how much Yahtzee must really suck at this game.
To clarify, though, that's not a statement of but-hurtedness. Nobody watches a Zero Punctuation review not expecting to see a game being ripped on. I just couldn't help but notice that a lot of what he ripped on were game-mechanics that you either learn to master, or get owned, such as crossfire, and the masochistic frustration with having to learn oddball mechanics made up a lot of why I enjoyed the whole experience.
One caveat: The Snipers. Boy do I hate how utterly useless snipers are in this game. I'd be cool with how painfully easy it is for them to die if this balanced out their uber-awesome-sniper-ness, but in reality, there are very few missions where they are actually useful. I should know-I was pretty damn stubborn in trying to force a use out of them.
Mid-game, snipers are guaranteed kills on any non-crouching unit. Just make sure you use Marina. She has the best accuracy stat and gets 100% accuracy late game.
*****
Ya, I noticed that after I looked up a game play video and I immediately deleted my comment hoping you hadn't seen it yet. However, something about these mechanics still rubs me up the wrong way and I just can't think of a reason why.
***** Err . . . turn-based strategy, not real-time strategy. The only game in the genre I've ever played was WWII-based game on the Sega-Saturn called 'Iron Storm'. I can't remember if you end a phase after a certain amount of actions, like VC, or if you en a phase after you run out of money or the ability to move units any further.
one thing that really shows that Yahtzee just threw the game in for less than an hour is that he brings up mention of Isara being adopted and that she's a love interest... yeah, anyone that played the game knows her story went nowhere.
Luke Ferguson
I don't know what your talking about, snipers were my favourite units to use into the game.
He should have tried Fire Emblem.
The end of his videos are always the best, good review, still gonna keep playing Valkyria though.
Yahtzee: either you hate him, or love him.
in earthbound you were 10 year-olds killing GOD
I'm watching this at 0.5 speed and it's hilarious, Yahtzee sounds so drunk
The numbers of times I have said something is “A bloated fractal spreadsheet nightmare.” To come and find where I first heard is refreshing.
I love the fact that he has a review on every game I have so far XD
I have a sneaking suspicion that Yahtzee is "Hiding his power level".
AKA Actually likes anime but hides it for fear of retaliation . I wasn't entirely sure for a while, but he's been literally referencing Evangelion, Ghost in the Shell, Cowboy Bepop, So it's kind of hard to believe that "all anime is androgynous shit" Garbage he keeps spewing.
I mean, I don't blame him, It's a pretty shitty situation, and anyone who talks publicly about anime knows that feel.
I don't know if you described Yahtzee but you described me... me and my big mouth
He never says anything about all anime, just anime RPG's/ this
He fucking hates it as he makes clear constantly.
You're sounding like one of those idiots that go "he hasn't reviewed this game yet so he must like it"
tbh Yatzee strikes me as the kind of man who would be brutally honest in his reviews, so i still think he detests Anime i just think he probably ethier been around it in a reviewer sense for so long its stuck or his friends may be fans and some of its references have rubbed off ethier way.
Entirely possible, but it kind of takes an inside knowledge to know the exact episode of Evangelion that the main character masturbated in front of an unconscious girl. So either he has a close friend who does nothing but talk about anime all the time, or he has seen up until that episode himself.
(Yes that shit actually fucking happened, he wasn't just being funny, thanks Japan)
I love how he reviews everything in a way that you know it's just his personal opinion on things, but it's a damn well-explained and logical opinion. Respectable, humorous and crude all at the same time.
just love the credits
this is my pen, this is my pencil. this one's to write and this one's to draw
Does this guy like actually like games?
he's sarcastic. If he says anything in a review that is positive, then it's probably a very good game. Not something to take seriously.
That's the joke, man. Even the games he likes are ripped on. It's like a roast for games.
Just Cause 2, Far Cry 3, Portal 1&2, Saints Row 2, Prince of Persia, Thief 1&2, and Spec Ops The Line he gave positive reviews for.
Yahtzee is honest in his reviews and when he hates on a game he does hate it, but his reasons are legit, his character in those reviews is exaggerated to be more entertaining, and there are many video games he loves.
To add to Wilm's list: Painkiller, Minecraft, Modern Warfare (only the first one), Saints Row IV, Alien: Isolation, Silent Hill 2 and more...
You seen the part around 3:50? He admitted that in some way he had sometimes fun, this is basically a: "7/10 or better" if you translate him to "normal" rating systems.
I can understand that Yahtzee's style is to find anything bad and expand much more on that than on the good, but I can't help but wonder if he, during the cutscenes, somehow ended up playing an entirely different game, as the main three are basically nothing like he described (Welkin's not androgynous, nor terribly pretty, and is in fact considered to be great at his job from the get-go. Alicia's... Fairly mature actually and not at all tsundere. The sister's more just a cheerful emotional support sort of thing.)
Wow, let's back up here for a second... just a disclaimer: I actually really liked the *gameplay* of VC, but come on! Welkin is only not-androgynous if you compare him to other, even worse, offenders of the anime genre. By any normal standards, he is the definition of androgynous. On a more important note; they really, REALLY should have laid off the anime cheese in general when tackling such a serious topic... I honestly felt like that was the main reason why they changed all the names of factions and countries, etc. Because they new if they'd used real names, it would be downright offensive with such childish and immature characters and such a stupendous bullshit story (in the context of WW2)
That mission where you have to liberate a jew(sorry, "Darcsen") labor camp and they introduce this ridiculously anime character who has one eye closed half the time for no reason(I know it's supposed to be because he's used to closing it while working, but that makes no sense, the snipers have both eyes open), spews out anime cliches about the real meaning of strength and humanity all the time and is voiced by Steve Blum(he also voiced Bebop and a lot of other anime characters). The whole thing felt way too cheesy and I forgot we were talking about fking death camps in WW2.
And Welkin is definitely androgynous, there's that report about the squad being on a beach and his legs don't have a single hair on them. He's supposed to be 22 years old. At least they gave him a nasal voice so he sounded like the nature loving nerd he's supposed to be rather than a bishounen for ladies to fawn over. Though a lot of the secondary characters in your squad aren't androgynous teenagers, but they're still littered with anime tropes. Isara isn't given a romantic interest, which is nice, but she's still a perfect Mary Stu who's only there to get killed and give other characters their development(And give Isara her final potential that makes it super easy to wreck the final boss in 2 turns).
At least they avoided making the whole situation completely black and white, aside from the player squad(And even then some of the recruitable characters are racists with the "Darcsen Hater" potential).
On the gameplay front, I actually liked that enemies fire at you when it's not their turn, it means you can't just run up to the enemy base ignoring all the enemies(at least not until you get some orders and your scouts unlock "Resist crossire"), then it's just kekekeke scout rush, all your camps are belong to us.
+Mustachos m but we all know this an anime game, and so anime standards hold, and Welkin is far manlier than many pretty boys in the anime world. Comparing Welkin's manliness, of lack thereof, with western art style depictions of men, is like comparing how shapely the characters of pixar are to the characters and animals in minecraft. They're different art styles.
When war and racism are depicted in a politically correct way, it is always dark and gritty. This is a game about people coming together instead of being driven apart, so its tone is naturally positive.
Don't mix up the topic and the purpose of the topic for the work. War is the device meant to show camaraderie and progress in the game, and so its darker tones are subdued to allow its core themes to be expressed.
+Mustachos m but we all know this an anime game, and so anime standards hold, and Welkin is far manlier than many pretty boys in the anime world. Comparing Welkin's manliness, of lack thereof, with western art style depictions of men, is like comparing how shapely the characters of pixar are to the characters and animals in minecraft. They're different art styles.
When war and racism are depicted in a politically correct way, it is always dark and gritty. This is a game about people coming together instead of being driven apart, so its tone is naturally positive.
Don't mix up the topic and the purpose of the topic for the work. War is the device meant to show camaraderie and progress in the game, and so its darker tones are subdued to allow its core themes to be expressed.
Tbh I liked Valkyria chronicles but yeah, they exaggerated with the anime positiveness. Even Trails in the Sky could spare some scenes to express the brutality and horror of war, and Trails is probably the most optimistic thing on Earth.
I am looking forward to your review for the new one being released this year I believe, maybe they might address some of the things you mentioned
I was so glad when I found out you can't just stack all your units into a ball and bum rush their frontlines. Them being able to fight back within a certain range and area makes your strategic thinking more diverse.
If you need to charge a street and they have sandbags, you can't just dogpile each in turn and overpower whoever is behind them. No, instead you need to take cover and place your units defensively.
I thought it worked well, taking turns with gunplay just doesn't feel right.
3:51 Voice crack.
actually its around 3:41
can't agree with the review. Probably my favourite strategy game ever. Along with disgaea, and civilization. Still love this review though, cracks me upp everytime :D
Were you listening to this review(rant) at all? Have you seen some of Yahtzee's other rants? If you have than you should know that he clearly enjoyed playing this game, much more so than 99% of the other games he's reviewed. This is a high rating for him.
AuthorityCat I could tell that he was nitpicking, on very small things. So yes, that might mean that he actually liked it (not finding any major flaws in the game). But even a review, with some small negative elements in it, Isn't a bad thing. This is a popular youtube channel. And I'm glad such a great game get's some attention. So that other might get the chance to play it, if they hadn't heard of it before :D
RAFL94 you can't really watch a review from Yahtzee and expect good aspects of the game to get more then 30 seconds of exposition. The guy is out to expose everything bag the game has going, and that's what makes his chanel unique. If after watching one of his reviews you notice that none of the flaws annoy you too much, then you can safely assume that it is a good game for you. Besides, if he even coments on a good aspect of the game, it means he probably enjoyed it. If he spends somewhat close to a minute talking about good aspects... Just buy it.
disgea where you are sociopaths that fucks loils
It's not holland, it's the Netherlands. I so wish someone would get that right for once
Yes, but maybe he means explicit holland. Think about it.
The enemy attacking you is just basic Table-top RPG attacks of opportunity but with guns. It makes perfect sense that they can re-actively shoot when, in fact, you can and do too. Its a bit weird that they *stop* during turns but as you said you do lose some realism in return for turn based combat. Still you can both utilize the tactic and its very interesting and effective if you use it to set up choke points or cover your own team movement. Although I also thought that when the enemy exited cover to reactively shoot at you then your allies would reactively shoot at them too. Maybe that was a buff/ability one of them had back when I played. I can't remember now.
Welkin's an androgynous pretty boy?
No, that's Claude in VC 4. Welkin's a nerd.
@@FlorisDVijfde They're both nerds, though Claude is the more androgynous of the two.
"Some things just don't combine, like Republicans and compassion."
Perfect.
I don't know. I think that's a pretty snide political shot. And this coming from someone who is socially progressive and has never voted Republican.
Personally, I find demagoguery like that really distasteful and I think this piece was weaker for it.
ThatTop10Guy Yeah hate to break it to you, but Republicans are the most accepting, caring political group out there. If you take away the prog hyperbole, you'll find Rs legitimately care for the constituent that actually do something, everyone else knows you can just throw money at poverty and get votes.
In the US, the Democrats are in favor of killing 7 pound babies, enslaving those that do not 100% agree with them, and killing people because they managed to capitalize on an idea. If anyone fails the compassion test, it's the left.
Oh and they constantly threaten to firebomb peaceful religions while madly protecting ISIS...yeah.
Joshua Walters Welp, you just proved the joke correct. Either that or you were being sarcastic and joking, I honestly can't tell.
BoySamusMetroid He's right about Democrats thinking you can just throw money at problems and solve them. When the people you throw money at are entrenched bureaucrats whose livelihoods depend on the problems continuing to exist, you can't act surprised when the problems never go away.
All politicians pretty much suck. If you don't have money, odds are almost nil that they'll listen to you (unless there's something in it for them.)
theproplady Yeah, all politicians suck, but his last two paragraphs are just paranoid bullshit.
Keep in mind that he stated at the very beginning how he felt about JRPG's in the first place, as an attempt I'm assuming, to highlight his bias about the genre. I agree with many of the points he had to make although i say there was a greater degree of complexity to the game than he let on.
Without my pen, I am nothing. Without me, my pen is nothing
Any comparison of this game's cover system to XCOM makes exactly zero sense man. JRPGs don't work like XCOM. And yes, if you're not into the anime stuff, you're really not going to get into a game like this. Not in a million years. It would be like forcing an FPS gamer to play freaking point & clicks. They wouldn't 'get it'. Valkyria Chronicles is a great game series and well worth having for an JRPG enthousiast. In fact, quite likely people into turn-based combat will like this rather fresh spin on combat. I think this Zero Punctuation review says more about the reviewer himself than this actual game.
+PHeMoX Ya Valkyria chronicles is one of the greatest games ever made, but all Yathize talks about is "I don't like JRP's, game logic is weird, and if only there wasn't all this story and progression in my gaming experience. Seriously man if your going to judge something by what label it caries, do us all a favor and don't bother.
David Fischer You can't say that based upon on ZP video right here though...
PHeMoX
I think I can. If he says "it has all the typical JRPG flaws", then I pretty much know what he means. If you don't think they're flaws (say, because you like JRPGs), then you can just filter it out.
David Fischer I think that is really nothing more but a cheap empty statement on his part to simply justify his hate on JRPGs. I am not saying JRPGs aren't without their specific flaws (on a case by case basis, not as a genre), but so is every open-world game coming from Ubisoft or every shooter coming from Treyarch. I think it's a very uninformative statement and I think it is uncalled for knowing Valkyria Chronicles is actually one of the more innovative games in the genre and better games overall. I'm sure plenty of people will avoid JRPGs like it's the plague, similar to how I currently avoid all the new Point & Click games on Steam that have no right to even exist IMHO. But that still wouldn't justify hating on Point & Clicks just because of a severely strong personal bias. And that's exactly what happens here in the video.
Like said above, the guy obviously displays his complete lack of understanding JRPGs or which other games in the genre exist, let alone appreciate what they do way better than plenty of other games in different and similar genres.
By the way, for what it's worth.... you said "Nobody judges it by the label", yet your argument for it is "it has all the typical JRPG flaws"?
How exactly is that not judging by label? Just because you agree JRPGs have 'typical flaws', doesn't mean Valkeria Chronicles actually 1. has them and 2. is some kind of proof for JRPGs being 'all bad'. Because the latter is exactly what ZP claims. It's hard to miss his poor familiarity with the genre when he uses arguments like that.
PHeMoX
Well, I'm not a fan of JRPGs either and "typical JRPG flaws" tells me exactly what I want to know, therefore it is not uninformative or empty. It's just a shorthand for "cheesy dialogue, dumb costumes, archetypical Japanese characters (childish 15-year-old ditsy, silent tough guy who looks like a girl...) etc. Why would he have to name all these things one by one in every review of a JRPG when it plagues all of them?
Just like "complete lack of understanding of X" is shorthand for "does not like the things I like in X" Only it's not really shorter. Games do not need any understanding. Is it fun for you? No? Don't play it. The end. I don't see where "understanding" fits into this.
About "judging by the label" -
1) If the trait being judged defines the label, then it's okay - for example: I don't like bald people. Is John bald? Yes? Then I don't like John.
2) He didn't do it anyway - if he'd never played the game and just *assumed* it had all those flaws because it's an JRPG, then he'd be judging by the cov... I mean label. Playing the game and then confirming that yes, the game indeed has those flaws, it's not judging by the label anymore.
Oh, and he's never said JRPGs were all bad. He said he didn't like them. Big difference.
Okay, now I just think Yahtzee has an irrational hatred towards Japan.
I don't think he has an irrational hatred for japan. Just JRPG's. I think he is secretly a casual anime fan. He has name dropped a lot of titles through out the years (only the really good ones and not the shitty popular ones). Actually now that I think about it. He likes Silent Hill 2 which he won't shut up about and the first 4 silent hill games were made in japan....which he also keeps pointing out.
Actually Crowshaw is pretty neutral when it comes to japan. He does enjoy their games and admits that he likes a few of their animes as there's always some anime that will appeal to someone in the world but he has a real hatred for JRPGs and a confused disgust for their culture's likes such as their porn which is pretty fucked up to anyone who isn't desensitized from it.
Netherwolf6100 I am afraid to ask for more information.
max larsen If you have to ask about japanese porn, consider yourself lucky you still have your innocence on the subject and do your very best to stir clear from it.
Netherwolf6100 Yahtzee has admited to watching Hentai on his channel....honestly surprising.
You're troops shoot at enemies during their turn. Its not really unfair. They also need to see you in order to shoot.
The last straw for me in this game was when my ridiculously overpowered unit somehow missed every shot with a fully upgraded gun at close range only to then lose to the target who was a much weaker, generic unit & yet somehow managed to land every single shot with the same gun & take out my unit in one attack & then my unit died immediately even though you're supposed to get a chance to revive them.
No game I've ever played cheats anywhere near as badly as this one. They'll give you a unit who can take out an entire army singlehandedly in no time because they're too lazy to balance their game but they'll "make up for it" by suddenly breaking every single rule in the game whenever they feel like it or by just giving a generic unit god stats even though the whole point of giving different types of units different generic names is to let you know which ones excel at which stats.
It's like you're playing chess & you have to follow the rules but occasionally one of the opponents' pawns turns out to be able to do everything every other piece can do & more but the opponent has enough sense to only reveal that fact after you've put yourself in a situation where you can't stop them from taking one or more of your pieces.
There's a reason this game lets you save on each turn & totally break the game in the process. It's because they took the lazy way of making the game hard, which is to just suddenly turn the game into trial & error partway through with no warning.
It spends a ridiculous amount of time being way too easy & then it suddenly becomes ridiculously unfair. I'm glad I quit when I did. Later on, there are stealth missions where you have to drive a tank. In a turn based game where tanks can barely move.
The writing is garbage too. There's a long scene where the characters find a pig who makes horrible sounds that bare no relation to pig sounds & they spend the entire scene talking about making him the captain or something.
There's a scene where soldiers break into a girl's house & are gonna kill her but then they just stand & watch her slowly roll across the room, slowly grab a gun, slowly get into position, stare at them, & slowly shoot them. At no point does she go out of sight even for a moment. She's in full view right in front of them.
At the beginning of each mission, the tank man gets out of his tank to say something moronic while no one's around to hear it & then he just sits & stares at the screen for like ten seconds like he's hoping someone will snipe him so he won't have to be in such a shitty game anymore.
In every mission, the entire time you're playing, some moron keeps talking on your radio to give you horrible advice that has literally nothing to do with what's happening so you couldn't even follow it if you wanted to.
And, because this game is Japanese, 2 of the best units are the token racist scumbags you're supposed to like for literally no reason who are heavily involved in the plot for no reason even though they don't contribute anything to it.
Two racist units who apparently haven't quite worked out how the military works. I don't hate the game as much as you do, but it did make me laugh how one of them bold-facedly said that he wouldn't obey orders, at which point tank man just let them off and promised to prove his worth as a commander, agreeing that if his plan failed they didn't have to listen to him. Apparently nobody explained to any of these recruits what a court marshal was for. Or how orders work.
I'm playing the 4th game in late 2019 and a lot of these issues still remain lol
Stupidly biased reviews are stupidly biased.
VC is easily the best turn-based strategy game ever after the original X-Com.
Which is also a stupidly biased review from yourself, seeing how reviews are still personal opinions and are warranted to the persons interests. I personally liked it my self but hated the fact that I would get on average a fucking ton of led pumped into my body when I moved, witch fucking killed me so much to the point I stopped playing.
Notice biased weeaboo
Erreul
I review isn't supposed to be biased though? I know Yahtzee is biased for the sake of satire, but his final conclusions were just plain wrong at times. You can't blame him if anime and tactical gameplay isn't his thing, but he's bashing it for the stuff that makes it great for other people. It's like saying Call of Duty is shit because it's fast paced and full of action. Some people love that.
I'm glad you liked the game too, but if you're complaining that you're getting riddled to hell before you can even move, maybe consider the fact that dumping your squad members right in front of the enemy isn't the best approach? Imperials get a second or two at the beginning and end of your turn to fire to prevent you from just waltzing around the map, going where you please.
Petroleumish The amount of times I've been shot through cover, moving to cover, is not acceptable. And a review can be as biased as it wants, once again being an opinion of their experience. Thusly yes, people will say COD is shit because of the fast action, and other people will love it, yes. Defending a thing like a game, with an opinion, versus another's opinion, will either warrant either an argument, a conversation, or an agreement. More so than not the average person takes offence and defends the game, feeling their own experience more important than the other person's enjoyment. Either way, this is a pretty civilized conversation thus far, and I think I'll take my leave from this comment chain, have a fine day, Sir/ Madame.
Games are about overcoming challenges. Shooting an enemy, winning a race, collecting things. Portal is about a woman trying to escape a lab. it's a challenge which involves jumping and solving puzzles. It has a detailed setting, but the actual story is very straightforward. The Wire is about a city and how the institutions within it work, or more specifically how they don't work and crush the individuals within them. Both are outstanding but neither would really work in the others medium.
He should have played Fire Emblem: Awakening. He would have had a field day with the support convos, DLC, and permadeath.
this isn't a review its a rant
I disagree in almost every regard with the creator's opinions. It seems it has been sensationalized a bit for the sake of gaining ad revenue, but this game, when taken into the context of jrpgs and turn based strategy games in the same vein, Valkyria Chronicles demonstrates very few of the tropes the creator ranted about.
In my opinion, the graphics were interesting, the story heartfelt and refreshing (aside from a couple pretty obvious otaku pandering moments), the score awesome, and the gameplay was addicting. In short, this is a very underrated game worthy of a look if you're into this sort of thing. How this game could receive negative press is beyond me (even the covering mechanic and strategy elements ranted about are quite literally nowhere near as bad as the author made them out to be).
Except he's right about having to watch every cutscene before a battle. I really wish they could at least autoplay the cutscenes. It really screws up the pace. You fight a battle and then watch 10-20 minutes of cutscenes before the next one.
That's really the biggest complaint about the game. Other than that, it's definitely a good game that's a worth a try.
I love the intro
The credits :'D oh my god Yahtzee you're a genius
Oh yeah I allmost forgot!! Japan "helped" the Nazis in WWII!!
Mind blowing huh?
+Drake Stevens well not really.... thats why they attacked pearl harbour.
+Chareater hilter didnt even want the usa to be involved at that point.
It all makes sense now....
To be fair, Japan and Muraka were allies according to a treaty. But the Murika refused to trade with Japan. So they got pissed and attacked.
You break a treaty, you get attacked or did nobody ever play grand strategy games?
If you consider crashing a bunch of planes into boats for 3 months and then getting fucking nuked to oblivion "helping" then yeah, they sure fucking helped.
The death for characters with less screen time joke was awfully misplaced, it was obvious that the sister was going to die the moment you saw her character design, she's the designated tragic death character and Yahtzee should have seen it coming even if not playing as far.
It sounds a lot like he avoids anime and anime-ish games like the plague, so he's not going to be immediately familiar with common tropes. I, on the other hand, absolutely love JRPGS and anime, and I did not fucking see this coming. Isara struck me as a moe throw-in and a rather cringy nod at Japan's obsession with implied incestuous compulsions than anything else.
I mean to say that it felt like Isara kind of had a thing for Welkin, and despite absolutely loving this game, this aspect was a little uncomforatble. Eh, what the hell, I'm an anime fan-I'm used to this bullshit.
@104341554413212939723 I don't know, to me she didn't seem to lust after her foster brother, maybe I missed something, but maybe the fact that it is indeed so common that it made you see things that weren't there? Anyway, since they are only foster siblings and her seemingly still remembering her father means they weren't together since birth, which would make it slightly less icky.
To your first point I can't say much, when she started to talk, I though, "my god she's dead", I don't know if I'm just used to other kind of tropes, after all shool comedy anime tropes aren't exactly the same as anime drama tropes. But whatever the case, I though her death extremely telegraphed.
I may not have watched enough anime to have been exposed to that particular trope.
As for implied attraction, it was only that, and I could easily be wrong. The big red-alarm for me was the beach scene where it sort of panned on her attire and had her blushing as she talked to Welkin.
I'm a little squicked by non-blood relations due to my own status as having a step-mother and step-siblings, but that's a very personal thing.
Luke Ferguson It's not like I watch many anime, I generally don't watch many movies or TV series of any type. But I do play a lot of video games, several of which are japanese.
Not that the japanese origin of the game is important, I would have thought her to be doomed if it was a western game as well.
+Luke Ferguson you mean like episode 18 where rem confesses?
The good thing about VC is that you have the same features as enemies do. So you can fire at enemies when its not your turn either. The problem comes when the enemy has 3 tanks or some demi god and you don't.
Well since it involves anime and japan... I MUST PLAY