Valkyria Chronicles (PS3)

[Tanis]

So I recently started playing Valkyria Chronicles for the PS3, again.
-Had it borrowed out while I was playing some other games, and, you know...life.

Anyways...

Even though the game is 4 years old or so, it STILL looks pretty damn amazing.
Sure, you don't see the pubic hair pressing against the latex from some dudes' crotch after you've killed him, but it STILL so darn pretty.

Also, it's FUN...which is saying something in this age of 'pretty game, mediocre game play, online assholes is best online'.

So, yeah...ANOTHER thread about VC for the PS3.
...
...
...
And another 'WHY GAWD WHY DIDN'T VC3 COME OUT IN NTSC-U OR PAL!!!!'.
:/

 

[Casual Shinji]

It's a pretty nifty game, but I've never been able to finish it due the ungodly amounts of ham, corn, and cheese.

 

[Sp3ratus]

I'm not really sure how much discussion value is in this thread, but anyway...

I agree with you, it's a beautiful game and thanks to the water colour art style, it'll continue to be that several years from now. The gameplay was fun and well executed, no doubt about that, but I think the reason that I stopped playing was because the game was a little too... I dunno, a bit too silly for me. I quit right around when Hans the pig was introduced and I just thought "urgh, just why?" The story before that was quite decent, I just saw no reason to introduce something silly like that.

I might and probably will continue playing some day, but for now, I have enough of a backlog and other awesome games to play, to continue delaying that.

 

[Catfood220]

I quit right around when Hans the pig was introduced and I just thought "urgh, just why?" The story before that was quite decent, I just saw no reason to introduce something silly like that.

To be fair, I felt exactly the same way when they introduced Hans the pig but I played on and found that Hans really didn't play that big a part of the story.

As for the game itself, its possibly one of my favourite games of all time, sure it has a few flaws, but it looks lovely and is the only game that at a certain point still makes me cry.

 

[Sp3ratus]

I quit right around when Hans the pig was introduced and I just thought "urgh, just why?" The story before that was quite decent, I just saw no reason to introduce something silly like that.

To be fair, I felt exactly the same way when they introduced Hans the pig but I played on and found that Hans really didn't play that big a part of the story.

As for the game itself, its possibly one of my favourite games of all time, sure it has a few flaws, but it looks lovely and is the only game that at a certain point still makes me cry.

Hmm... that's actually good to hear. You've piqued my interest for the game again, maybe I'll give the game a chance again sooner, rather than later. Thanks for the reassurance about Hans, because as I said, I did quite like the game up until that point.

 

[Mistilteinn]

I quit right around when Hans the pig was introduced and I just thought "urgh, just why?" The story before that was quite decent, I just saw no reason to introduce something silly like that.

To be fair, I felt exactly the same way when they introduced Hans the pig but I played on and found that Hans really didn't play that big a part of the story.

As for the game itself, its possibly one of my favourite games of all time, sure it has a few flaws, but it looks lovely and is the only game that at a certain point still makes me cry.

Hmm... that's actually good to hear. You've piqued my interest for the game again, maybe I'll give the game a chance again sooner, rather than later. Thanks for the reassurance about Hans, because as I said, I did quite like the game up until that point.

Yeah, any moments of extreme cheesiness in this game only last for, at most, one chapter. It gets a lot better after that chapter--trust me on that. And Hans only has like, two or three scenes throughout the rest of the game.

 

[neonsword13-ops]

I've been wanting to try it for a while now.

It's looks incredible and the gameplay is just my type of turn-based bad-assery.

Are there any major flaws with the game that I should be cautious about before I pick it up?

 

[BoogityBoogityMan]

problems with the game: cringe inducing story at times, they grade your performance based soley on how quickly you complete the missions (casualties be damned).

However, the art diretion is amazing, it is so much more than a photoshop watercolour filter. Udon put out a 350 page book, with tonnes of images and comments from the art team, and even posters and box art from the various regions...so worth the $25 I paid, probably my favourite videogame art book ever.

And the gameplay is really unique for a big budget console game this generation, and we arent likely to see its type again because it did not sell very well: turn based rpg combat.

It is really satisfying to finally beat a level, just don't get obsessed with getting A scores because that will ruin it. And only use a guide if you are about to rage quit, it is so much better to discover things for yourself.

 

[BoogityBoogityMan]

With both Valk games, I have one complaint. It seems like when ever I grind to try and get an edge, everything just scales up. I don't like that. If I want to grind a bit I want an advantage damn it!

Going to play Valk 2 on my psp today because of this thread.

that is definitely not true with VC on PS3. If a player is having trouble, and they need to grind, all they need to do is beat one of the practise map unlocks a few times. There is no scaling.

 

[Littaly]

I do love Valkyria Chronicles. It's crazy how intense that game is despite being turned based. The over-the-shoulder view combined with the fact that all your soldiers have a name and face, and can die permanently, make you so goddamn invested in it.

And the story has that thing going for it that I find appealing about a lot of Final Fantasy games. Sure, it's far from perfect, it's a little (sometimes a lot) too sappy, some character decisions don't make sense and so forth. But it's so sincere and so unafraid to put some heart into it's story and characters that you can't help but getting wrapped up in it.

 

[Raven_Operative]

The story has some pretty cringe inducing elements, and the biggest problem with the gameplay is that they grade you based only on how many turns it takes you to complete the mission (causalities be damned).

THAT pissed me off abit, especially since sometimes the only way to get an A is to cheese the mission by oh... I don't know... sneaking a scout through the enemy lines, and capturing the base on turn 1 without killing anything.

Putting aside that and the occasionally corny dialogue, the game really clicked with me. (not exactly sure why...) It is still possibly my favorite PS3 game ever. Too bad the sequels weren't developed for the PS3.

...I WANT MORE, DAMN IT!

 

[alphamalet]

I quit right around when Hans the pig was introduced and I just thought "urgh, just why?" The story before that was quite decent, I just saw no reason to introduce something silly like that.

To be fair, I felt exactly the same way when they introduced Hans the pig but I played on and found that Hans really didn't play that big a part of the story.

As for the game itself, its possibly one of my favourite games of all time, sure it has a few flaws, but it looks lovely and is the only game that at a certain point still makes me cry.

Hans was introduced into the game to convey a sense that no just humans suffer in the selfish act of war. Innocent animals and wildlife inevitable end up getting caught in the crossfire as well. Of course, the take on all of this is really light-hearted (an approach a lot of people won't appreciate), but Hans is there to get at a really dark concept.

 

[Grampy_bone]

My problem with Valkyria Chronicles is that XP and money are based entirely around how quickly you finish missions, compared to other strategy RPG-type games where XP is based on kills. The reward for A-Ranking a mission is triple the regular bonus, but you have to play in a suicidal fashion to get it, and it's heavily based on luck. I wished I could play the missions more deliberately without missing out on so much XP and then having to grind forever.

 

[Reyold]

Nice to see other people love this game too. Art direction, gameplay... I love it all.

The sequel is one the main reasons I'm getting a Vita.

 

[scorptatious]

Agreed, Valkyria Chronicles is a very beautiful looking game. But I feel it's real strengths lie in it's gameplay. The way it's sort of a third person shooter mixed with a turn based strategy game. It just feels so seamless to me.

The story is also really nice too. Especially at one particular scene in chapter 11.

YOU KNOW WHICH SCENE I'M TALKING ABOUT.

 

[dimensional]

Love Valkyria Chronicles I bought it real cheap on a whim and it completely blew me away I really enjoyed the characters, story and gameplay even if bits were a bit cheesy I thought it was extremely well done and brought up some serious themes very well and didnt ram them down your throat it just left you to draw youre own conclusions.

I played the hell out of this game unlocking every in game achievement and maxing my rank for every possible map and it was great fun doing it. I never got the sequels though mainly because I dont like playing on handhelds unless I am away for long periods in which case I am more likely to play games that require a bit less mental effort as I use them to unwind usually so the less mental strain the better.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

I liked this game, though I couldn't get into the story... I think I called it quits by chapter 15 or so, as I wasn't invested enough to care.

The gameplay was very fun though, a nice streamlined turn based strategy game... not too taxing but rewarding all the same. I could never get into the Disagea series and found this to be a good alternative.

That said, I don't think I'll ever play a VC game again, since they abandoned its home platform for the sequels. Just don't think I'll ever go handheld, at least not for Sony.

 

[BlindTom]

If it gets the kids playing X-Com and Silent Storm (which it really should) then I'm all for it. Shame about all the clunky nonsense that seemed to go into the design just "cos Japan" though.

The story was... A ludicrous anime thing but it's actually really easy to joke about with friends. I enjoyed it at points because it was terrible, at times because it was passable but mostly because it was so strange.

Why did they make half of those decisions? What the fuck is going on in this anime with pseudo x-com levels crowbarred between episodes??

 

[King of Asgaard]

In terms of its gameplay and aesthetic, VC is goddamn fantastic, finding that sweet spot where tactics and challenge are balanced to the point where you look forward to the next mission just to see the next challenge.
In terms of its story however....
The first half or so is pretty good, because it keeps a certain level of realism.
Then they introduce the Valkyria, and all their mystical powers (none of which are ever explained) and the story is poorer for it. It then culminates in a generic save the [insert region here] story with predictable outcomes and clichés.
So, it disappoints in the story department, which is a shame when many reviews touted the story as amazing, yet it falls into the same routine a lot of mediocre anime falls into.

 

[80Maxwell08]

Well I guess I'll answer your question. Because they decided to start putting them on the PSP because it's higher popularity in Japan. Unfortunately the rest of the world didn't care too much for it so it didn't sell that well at all outside of Japan. Personally I'm waiting for it to show up on the Vita's store for PSP games since my PSP broke a while ago.