Let me clear this up first of all:
I have not completed the game, I've only got up to the part where Maximilian pulverises you with his bullshit God-tank. So if you wish to complain about my opinions being invalid due to me not having completed the game, (which I doubt will happen, I'm just making sure) do so knowing that I don't care.
I would also like to say that I do not think VC is a bad game. I can understand why it may not appeal to some people, but you cannot deny that it is a well-made, occasionally enjoyable RPG-RTS-TPS-thing.
Now, on to my main point:
I'm not going to complain about that it's one of those games where there are way more cutscenes than gameplay. I think we all knew what we were in for the moment we spotted a unique art direction and overly androgynous protagonists/antagonists. No, I'm going to complain about something completely different.
Unlike other games of its kind, when playing Valkyria Chronicles, I do not feel that the cutscenes are bonuses or rewards to enhance the story or the overall experience. I feel that they serve as a drive to get you to complete the missions as fast as possible to find out what happens next in the story. This wouldn't be such a bad thing, normally. But Valkyria Chronicles does it to the point of annoyance.
I feel that the sole reason I play the game is to find out what happens next in the story. Maybe that's how it's supposed to work, I don't know. But it doesn't feel right, for some reason. The missions (or 'Operations') don't even really feel that they take the place of cutscenes as experience-enhancers. They feel like obstacles that you have to get around as quickly and efficiently as possible to get your next big slice of cutscene-pie. The main problem lies in the 'efficiently' part being optional. As long as the red guys are all dead at some point and the big, bright orange letters "OPERATION COMPLETE" appear on my TV, I'm satisfied. Do I even care that I got a crappy rank for letting most of my squad die in the process? Hell no, I just want to watch the damn cutscene.
Like I said, I don't know if this is how it's meant to feel, but it doesn't feel like they made it right. You could say "Sega are doing it wrong." Like they've gone and turned the whole game-making process on it's head.
And this concludes my rant.
And then I realised that nobody will pay me any heed because I'm probably the only person who owns the game on these fair forums.
I have not completed the game, I've only got up to the part where Maximilian pulverises you with his bullshit God-tank. So if you wish to complain about my opinions being invalid due to me not having completed the game, (which I doubt will happen, I'm just making sure) do so knowing that I don't care.
I would also like to say that I do not think VC is a bad game. I can understand why it may not appeal to some people, but you cannot deny that it is a well-made, occasionally enjoyable RPG-RTS-TPS-thing.
Now, on to my main point:
I'm not going to complain about that it's one of those games where there are way more cutscenes than gameplay. I think we all knew what we were in for the moment we spotted a unique art direction and overly androgynous protagonists/antagonists. No, I'm going to complain about something completely different.
Unlike other games of its kind, when playing Valkyria Chronicles, I do not feel that the cutscenes are bonuses or rewards to enhance the story or the overall experience. I feel that they serve as a drive to get you to complete the missions as fast as possible to find out what happens next in the story. This wouldn't be such a bad thing, normally. But Valkyria Chronicles does it to the point of annoyance.
I feel that the sole reason I play the game is to find out what happens next in the story. Maybe that's how it's supposed to work, I don't know. But it doesn't feel right, for some reason. The missions (or 'Operations') don't even really feel that they take the place of cutscenes as experience-enhancers. They feel like obstacles that you have to get around as quickly and efficiently as possible to get your next big slice of cutscene-pie. The main problem lies in the 'efficiently' part being optional. As long as the red guys are all dead at some point and the big, bright orange letters "OPERATION COMPLETE" appear on my TV, I'm satisfied. Do I even care that I got a crappy rank for letting most of my squad die in the process? Hell no, I just want to watch the damn cutscene.
Like I said, I don't know if this is how it's meant to feel, but it doesn't feel like they made it right. You could say "Sega are doing it wrong." Like they've gone and turned the whole game-making process on it's head.
And this concludes my rant.
And then I realised that nobody will pay me any heed because I'm probably the only person who owns the game on these fair forums.
