Valkyria Chronicles

[Fuddle]

i've been playing it a few days now too, and i have to say i dont think its particularly easy at all. i've just done chapter 5, the foresty one. and had to do it 3 times just to pass (using my last go on the very last turn to capture the base!) admittedly i wasted quite a few goes trying to get the tank to go places its not allowed, but its quite tricky making sure you dont let characters get caught by multiple enemies.

even after failing a mission though, it just makes me want to get back and try again, so its doing something right.

[doodledude]

I'm loving this game, great mixture of fire emblem and advance wars, but with a beautiful art style and presentation.
It is pretty tough though, the best ranking I've managed so far is B and that was the easy prologue level, I've no idea how to get A's and S's as I didn't think I'd done much if anything wrong with my tactics. Still brill though!

[SuperBeatBoy]

I played through the first couple of chapters. The only problem i have with it is the chapter melarky. It kind of breaks the flow of the cutscenes.

[Largo]

How fuddle describes it is perfect, even after failing a mission and i take a breather or perhaps a huff break i always get drawn back in thinking about new tactics and approaches, oh and just wait after forest mission there are some that are farking hard heh.
Theres also S-rank (which i think can only be got on hard difficulty) and that requires completing the missions in 2-3 turns or something insane, but thats good, i like games with massive scope range for improvement and skill, like MGS

[saturn-gamer]

I played through the first couple of chapters. The only problem i have with it is the chapter melarky. It kind of breaks the flow of the cutscenes.

Same here, but it seems I'm getting used to it. On the upside, you can check older cutscenes this way, which is something MGS4 is severely lacking for instance.

Really great game, but might not really fill the RPG void. It feels alot like console RTS, or a TPS with a tactical edge. I think I would like a new FFT or Shining Force with this engine.

[Eight Rooks]

I'm loving this game, great mixture of fire emblem and advance wars, but with a beautiful art style and presentation.
It is pretty tough though, the best ranking I've managed so far is B and that was the easy prologue level, I've no idea how to get A's and S's as I didn't think I'd done much if anything wrong with my tactics. Still brill though!

Why does the ranking have anything to do with how hard the game is? The objective is to pass the stage, not to pick up an S-grade. I've only done the first four stages (other things taking up my time) but I haven't found it that challenging yet. The AI seems well on course to be as erratic as Eurogamer described and snipers are almost ridiculously over-powered. You expect headshots to hit home, I guess, but still...

Enjoying it greatly, though. It's fairly Sega, it's a lot of fun to play regardless of any faults and the Canvas engine is gorgeous. Happy to have paid full price so far.

[Largo]

Cleared it now and on new game+, the story was fantastic, my squad is max level 20(elite) and with full weapon upgrades, the sniper is pretty powerful as you say, but they cant really move much with their low action bar, i generally use scouts for most things.
The A and S ranks come 100% from the time it takes you to do each battle, completing hard scenarios in 2-3 turns for example, however i've never been awarded an S rank yet

[Johnny]

Are there multiple difficulty settings on this? Have wanted to get into a good SRPG for ages, but am always overwhelmed by the difficulty level. Loved the demo of this and would love to pick it up, but not if I'm only going to play a couple of hours of it!

[saturn-gamer]

I find the rating system to be broken, amount of turns have to do with luck more than with skill. You can miss from point blank range after all, messing up your strategy.

I'm now past the sneaking mission and found it to be pretty good, but it seems you have to be lame to beat the Shocktrooper by saving up CP and shoot him from far distance. Is there a way to get by him unnoticed?

I was also warned for Chapter 7, but ironically that was among the easiest mission I played so far (way, way easier than 5 imo!) since I won it on my first try and kept everyone alive too. Didn't overlevel either, Level 5/6 ish. I took slightly too many turns because I was clueless on the radiators at first.

By the way, a good way to farm Exp and money is Skirmish 2 with Rosie alone on the left flank. If you Rambo past the scouts into the flag, you'll make it within 2 minutes and an A rank.

[hush]

i have this sitting on my pile of to play games and it is still in the wrapping

[briareos_kerensky]

I took slightly too many turns because I was clueless on the radiators at first.

What really kills you (quite literally) in that mission is

->Open Spoiler<-

Silveria coming down and annihilating all your Lancers and leaving you with just the Edelweiss to finish up that huge monstrosity, maybe calling a couple of Lancers from the last camp but it all depend of her position.

So far my biggest concerns are:
* not enough information in the briefing. A small description of what forces I can encounter and more information on the map's various heights would be much better, sometimes you start in a position you could have never imaged and some parts of the map are off-limits until you stumble on them with your tanks or units. With stating positions and units so important in the very first turns, some missions can turn into a mess just because you misplaced a single unit.
* story: just too much anime crap. I'm an avid anime/manga fan, but VC just brings too many clich?s and stereotypes to the table, both in storytelling and character description. Why could they just keep this as a matter of country vs country rather than putting everything else?
* cannot replay all campaign missions just for fun. Once one operation is done, is done forever. Even if you don't gain experience or money, playing all missions as quick missions (with standardized levels and weapons) would have been a welcomed addition.

[Largo]

On 2nd play thro newgame+ you can replay campaign missions which is nice

On that mission park your tank between her view and your units, her attacks cant dmg your tank and she will needlessly shoot at it since she cant see your lancers
That mission took me ages, one of the hardest imo

[briareos_kerensky]

On 2nd play thro newgame+ you can replay campaign missions which is nice

On that mission park your tank between her view and your units, her attacks cant dmg your tank and she will needlessly shoot at it since she cant see your lancers
That mission took me ages, one of the hardest imo

That's what I did, however the Empire had so many CPs and just her and the tnak to move around that there were enough to kill everything (except the Edelweiss) and then some. Luckily enough medevac-ed units can be re-issued at the base camp.

[Eight Rooks]

Uh, Jesus, I wasn't expecting a difficulty spike quite that harsh. Five missions of la-la-la, me-and-my-little-tank and then bang. Suddenly the enemy begins to double-move, meaning they can kill any unit they want and suffer no penalty for doing so - seeing as they have limitless reserves, they don't have to worry about sacrificing anything of theirs, and given you're on a time limit and they're not, all they have to do is slow you down anyway. Sigh. I was really hoping this wasn't going to be all about the grind - I'm assuming that's what it is, since my snipers have suddenly become useless at long to extreme range, none of my troops are able to kill anything with opportunity fire and everyone dies in one SMG volley at point-blank. Also, Sega, if two units are both staring each other in the face in the same frigging trench, shouldn't the cover bonus be instantly negated? Christ almighty, this is... disappointing me severely, to say the least. I'm already playing FFTA2, I was hoping this was going to be a different sort of game. Oh, well.

[saturn-gamer]

What really kills you (quite literally) in that mission is

->Open Spoiler<-

Silveria coming down and annihilating all your Lancers and leaving you with just the Edelweiss to finish up that huge monstrosity, maybe calling a couple of Lancers from the last camp but it all depend of her position.

Nah, if you are placed on the southern trenches you won't be annihilated since the squad comes from the north. I did this on instinct, because the place to protect and the enemy's goal was also there. The remaining enemy was a sole tank, so I also switched to an army of Lancers after the ground enemies (who basically commit suicide by an all out attack order) were killed. Besides, I had full CP when the last Radiator was being destroyed since you can save up lots and lots waiting for a radiator to be exposed. I used almost all of it to finish the mission. In other words, the reinforcements didn't get their turn. I did make some mess ups earlier on though, like bringing a sniper first and skipping the first opportunity to beat a Radiator. I think I could do this mission in sub 10 turns otherwise. Really, I had MUCH more problems with Mission 5.

So far my biggest concerns are:
* not enough information in the briefing. A small description of what forces I can encounter and more information on the map's various heights would be much better, sometimes you start in a position you could have never imaged and some parts of the map are off-limits until you stumble on them with your tanks or units. With stating positions and units so important in the very first turns, some missions can turn into a mess just because you misplaced a single unit.
* story: just too much anime crap. I'm an avid anime/manga fan, but VC just brings too many clich&#232;s and stereotypes to the table, both in storytelling and character description. Why could they just keep this as a matter of country vs country rather than putting everything else?
* cannot replay all campaign missions just for fun. Once one operation is done, is done forever. Even if you don't gain experience or money, playing all missions as quick missions (with standardized levels and weapons) would have been a welcomed addition.

Its true, this game is about trial and error. But doesn't this make the game more challenging? If you know what to expect on forehand, it will probably be easy setting up your squad and seal the deal in first try. The story, i find it to be decent. This IS a Japanime game after all. Its like Eternal Sonata, Vesperia, Lost Odyssey and you name it. Replaying campaign missions, I believe this is also impossible in Front Mission, FFT, Jeanne d'arc... It would be cool, but Skirmish is there for a reason to be.