Got this yesterday, photos of the LE will come soon.
For those not knowing, Girls und Panzer is an animated TV series (and manga) about an all-girls high school club fighting against other all-girls high schools in WWII-era tanks. The series was fun, light hearted, had a good level of realism in depicting the various tanks, though you could expect the usual reality bending in favour of action and laughs.
The game retreads the events of the TV series, starting from the opening theme and by dividing each battle in the series (that could span multiple episodes) as a single in-game chapter. Each chapter begins and ends with a recap taken from the TV series, sometimes animated and sometimes with still, with battles themselves arranged in multiple missions: rather than having a full tank battle from start to finish, the game tasks you with objectives that will recreate what was shown in the TV series, so that BandaiNamco could recycle as much material as possible and call it a day.
As story mode is a retelling of the anime, the only school you can play as is Oorai (at least, from what I've seen in 1-2 hours), though all featured battles can be fought with different tanks. This doesn't mean that you can switch between tanks during missions, it means that each tank has its own missions, sometimes with different objectives, and teamwork (something that the anime series showcased) is limited to a temporary switch to a tank of your choice when a gauge is full. When acting as an other tank, said tank gains increased firepower, when the gauge is depleted, you're back to your standard tank.
If you hoped for a mimimum of strategy and coordination between teams, or simply trying to solve a mission with your own tactics, you'll be sorely disappointed. Results between missions are not carried over, you'll start each mission in the condition the story wants. Missions' saving grace is that the story itself had some original and interesting ideas, so there's some variety involved, but having to play a multi-mission battle five times (Oorai high school has five tanks) can be quite boring. Luckily, progression is just based on the Anglerfish team, and you can skip all other teams if you are not interested.
When it comes to control the tank in battle, the game crumbles faster than a Sherman against a Tiger.
What would be the best way to control a tank with any dual analog setup? Left stick moves the tank, right stick the turret, both independent from each other, you would say. Developers though: left stick tank (turret remains stationary), right stick turrent AND tank. And controls change based on where the camera points...I think.
Moving a tank is something that has to be tried to fully understand how bad it is. Real tanks can turn on the spot, something that could have been done by having the left stick to the left or right, only that here you can't, tanks always make a rather large turn, making tuning in tight spaces a nightmare. You could do some reverse, but controls are overly sensitive (it doesn't feel to pilot a tank) and the camera has the bad habit of shifting perspective during the maneuver, changing where directions point. This is one of these game where it would have been beneficial having absolute controls (up on the stick always forward, no matter the camera angle), or at least having the possibility to choose, instead players are struck with horrible controls.
There are differencies on how tanks control, but the biggest is a tank's maximum speed, with turning radius almost the same for each vehicle, and good luck lining up a shot with a turretless tank. Or simply moving forward with the turret outside the tank's front arc. Controls include two buttons to glance at the tank's left and right sides, but not the rear or the front: these buttons would have allowed to simulate a crew, but here this is completely overlooked: you want to look somewhere? Rotate the turret. Rotate the tank to the direction the turret is pointing at? Good luck, better have a lot of space and a lot of patience.
On the weapons side, developers have implemented a gun's maximum range, and each gun has a different firepower, further modifed by a tank's overall protection and the side you've hit. It is possible to hit a tank on its rear armour only to see no damage done, but don't expect to rely on maneuverability to exploit weak spots. One reason are the controls, the other reason is because the AI uses just one tactic: they will charge at you firing. Probably because the AI has been given the same controls and it's not able to turn the tank accordingly. Enemies pursue you only when spotted, and you can fire at a tank, only to see the nearby allies ignoring you.
So battles are like a tug of war: they charge at you firing, you fire, start to move back to avoid return fire, fire, repeat until the enemy is destroyed. Try to change this "tactic" and you'll have to deal with the controls. There's no component damage, so it's useless trying to destroy a tank's tread, hoping for a turret lock, or a engine hit if targeting the rear. Combat is extremely basic and completely separated from what the series has shown, but apparently BandaiNamco are more interested in milking the cow as hard as they can, or probably are actively trying to produce the worst games possible based on popular franchises.
I mean, you have a game based on a series with a lot of attention on ank warfare, that helped to promote World of Tanks in Japan, that is aimed at military/tank fans, and you create something that rivals Combat on the Atari 2600 in complexity and controls worse? Way to go Bandai.
There's a second game mode, battle royale, were you pick your and your opponent's team and duke it out to destroy the lead tank or in a deathmatch. The only difference between story mode and battle royale is that in battle royale ALL enemy tanks will charge right at you and start hammering your tank. If you have a wall behind you (like, you know, the spot where you start the mission) and are boxed in by enemies you can try to force your way through them, only to have controls work against you and see the same thing repeat until you turn off the game.
You know, fun.
I hope this game gets mauled by the Japanese players exactly like Gundam Missing Link was, maybe BandaiNamco will think twice about ruining something else.
For those not knowing, Girls und Panzer is an animated TV series (and manga) about an all-girls high school club fighting against other all-girls high schools in WWII-era tanks. The series was fun, light hearted, had a good level of realism in depicting the various tanks, though you could expect the usual reality bending in favour of action and laughs.
The game retreads the events of the TV series, starting from the opening theme and by dividing each battle in the series (that could span multiple episodes) as a single in-game chapter. Each chapter begins and ends with a recap taken from the TV series, sometimes animated and sometimes with still, with battles themselves arranged in multiple missions: rather than having a full tank battle from start to finish, the game tasks you with objectives that will recreate what was shown in the TV series, so that BandaiNamco could recycle as much material as possible and call it a day.
As story mode is a retelling of the anime, the only school you can play as is Oorai (at least, from what I've seen in 1-2 hours), though all featured battles can be fought with different tanks. This doesn't mean that you can switch between tanks during missions, it means that each tank has its own missions, sometimes with different objectives, and teamwork (something that the anime series showcased) is limited to a temporary switch to a tank of your choice when a gauge is full. When acting as an other tank, said tank gains increased firepower, when the gauge is depleted, you're back to your standard tank.
If you hoped for a mimimum of strategy and coordination between teams, or simply trying to solve a mission with your own tactics, you'll be sorely disappointed. Results between missions are not carried over, you'll start each mission in the condition the story wants. Missions' saving grace is that the story itself had some original and interesting ideas, so there's some variety involved, but having to play a multi-mission battle five times (Oorai high school has five tanks) can be quite boring. Luckily, progression is just based on the Anglerfish team, and you can skip all other teams if you are not interested.
When it comes to control the tank in battle, the game crumbles faster than a Sherman against a Tiger.
What would be the best way to control a tank with any dual analog setup? Left stick moves the tank, right stick the turret, both independent from each other, you would say. Developers though: left stick tank (turret remains stationary), right stick turrent AND tank. And controls change based on where the camera points...I think.
Moving a tank is something that has to be tried to fully understand how bad it is. Real tanks can turn on the spot, something that could have been done by having the left stick to the left or right, only that here you can't, tanks always make a rather large turn, making tuning in tight spaces a nightmare. You could do some reverse, but controls are overly sensitive (it doesn't feel to pilot a tank) and the camera has the bad habit of shifting perspective during the maneuver, changing where directions point. This is one of these game where it would have been beneficial having absolute controls (up on the stick always forward, no matter the camera angle), or at least having the possibility to choose, instead players are struck with horrible controls.
There are differencies on how tanks control, but the biggest is a tank's maximum speed, with turning radius almost the same for each vehicle, and good luck lining up a shot with a turretless tank. Or simply moving forward with the turret outside the tank's front arc. Controls include two buttons to glance at the tank's left and right sides, but not the rear or the front: these buttons would have allowed to simulate a crew, but here this is completely overlooked: you want to look somewhere? Rotate the turret. Rotate the tank to the direction the turret is pointing at? Good luck, better have a lot of space and a lot of patience.
On the weapons side, developers have implemented a gun's maximum range, and each gun has a different firepower, further modifed by a tank's overall protection and the side you've hit. It is possible to hit a tank on its rear armour only to see no damage done, but don't expect to rely on maneuverability to exploit weak spots. One reason are the controls, the other reason is because the AI uses just one tactic: they will charge at you firing. Probably because the AI has been given the same controls and it's not able to turn the tank accordingly. Enemies pursue you only when spotted, and you can fire at a tank, only to see the nearby allies ignoring you.
So battles are like a tug of war: they charge at you firing, you fire, start to move back to avoid return fire, fire, repeat until the enemy is destroyed. Try to change this "tactic" and you'll have to deal with the controls. There's no component damage, so it's useless trying to destroy a tank's tread, hoping for a turret lock, or a engine hit if targeting the rear. Combat is extremely basic and completely separated from what the series has shown, but apparently BandaiNamco are more interested in milking the cow as hard as they can, or probably are actively trying to produce the worst games possible based on popular franchises.
I mean, you have a game based on a series with a lot of attention on ank warfare, that helped to promote World of Tanks in Japan, that is aimed at military/tank fans, and you create something that rivals Combat on the Atari 2600 in complexity and controls worse? Way to go Bandai.
There's a second game mode, battle royale, were you pick your and your opponent's team and duke it out to destroy the lead tank or in a deathmatch. The only difference between story mode and battle royale is that in battle royale ALL enemy tanks will charge right at you and start hammering your tank. If you have a wall behind you (like, you know, the spot where you start the mission) and are boxed in by enemies you can try to force your way through them, only to have controls work against you and see the same thing repeat until you turn off the game.
You know, fun.
I hope this game gets mauled by the Japanese players exactly like Gundam Missing Link was, maybe BandaiNamco will think twice about ruining something else.
Comment