Thibaut said:
Yahtzee, you are brilliant. As much as I love the game you pointed out every single thing that WAS wrong with the game. Good job man. Keep going.
As well as some things that weren't.
- upgrading guns is all the same and should be automatic
x except you have limited funds, and have to decide which things you want to upgrade (rifles? SMGs? your tank? Unlock missions/cutscenes from Ellet? Train your troops? Purchase CO orders?)
x after the first 5 levels or so (admittedly, that's quite a few) gun upgrades offer 2 or 3 branches of upgrade paths
- androgynous teenagers
x Final Fantasy Tactics had androgynous teenagers, how were the VC characters androgynous? Most of the girls had big boobs, and half of the guys were buff or had beer bellies
x I didn't find the rest particularly androgynous; this was no Final Fantasy by any stretch (apart from a couple lesbians *CoughRamseyCough*)
Some other complaints, it just seems like he went overboard for:
- cutscenes had an Are you sure? syndrome
x true. however, the default was "yes" (just double tap) and it's untrue that it brought you back after every cutscene; when they were labeled 2a, 2b, 2c, they would generally play all of the non-optional "2" cutscenes without returning you to the book menu; also, there were a lot of cutscenes...would you prefer the MGS4 style 30 minute cutscene phase with no break?
- combining TBS with RT elements doesn't mix
x that's opinion, of course, but I thought it fit together well. It's obviously "unrealistic" but if you are OK with traditional turn-based, where the enemy just sits there and does absolutely nothing while you move, I'm not sure why you'd have a problem with the enemy arbitrarily shooting at only the piece you are moving. Neither is realistic.
x that said, VC's system offers good balance, allowing you to position AND FACE your units strategically at the end of their turns so that they can continue to provide defensive cover during their off-turn periods; the enemy has the same capability
Complaints that Yahtzee totally missed:
- the AI is pretty stupid, i'm often a sitting duck and the AI will not take advantage of that; even on the hardest skill setting, enemies will not re-use their pieces to finish off my weak units (or my tank, which is their victory condition), they never focus fire
- many guys in the back just run back and forth during their turns, making the enemy movement phase take long and not enhancing the challenge
- the game would be an absolute cakewalk if some of the enemies weren't so hard to kill due to ridiculous rules about how you need to take them down (e.g. blow up this turret, then that turret, then dodge this indestructible character while killing it the rest of the way)
- some really cheesy dialog at times (consistently good voice acting, but the script was hit or miss)
- special CO orders were interesting, but since you had to use movement points to use them, I generally was unwilling to sacrifice troop movements and actions in order to use them
- Same with my tanks; I could move my tank twice, MAYBE kill two guys...or move ground units 4 times, and take out at least 2 or 3 guys.
Yahtzee was unequivocally spot-on about the use of cover in the game. Sandbags the only cover? wtf?
I thought the game was fantastic! That said...I found the anime story to be great. In fact, it was in many ways one of my favorite anime experiences. There were no giant robots, no huge blobby/gelatinous masses, and no girls with cat ears. That already sets it apart from 90% of all anime out there. Add to that some respectably NON-androgynous characters, the majority of whom were realistically aged for a WW2 setting, and good voice acting throughout.
Yahtzee's reviews are great, and he definitely pointed out some funny things about VC, but if you don't hate japanese-ness as much as he does, I'd disregard most of his complaints. Try to find people who bought VC and hated it. You won't find many.