Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

[PS4] Valkyria Azure Revolution Demo

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    [PS4] Valkyria Azure Revolution Demo

    Oh boy. I knew this game would let me down since I saw the first trailer but I decided to skip any video about the game until I could play it for myself, and the first occasion is the demo available now. But wait, it's not freely available to everyone, you need to buy Valkyria Chronicles Remaster and redeem the code therein to download this 30-or-so minutes long demo, featuring two missions and a very brief introduction to the story. A second demo will be available later this year, hopefully to everyone.

    You have three characters in the demo, all of them with a standard issue rifle, some character-specific consumable items, and a close-range weapon. The guy comes with frag grenades and a sword out of God Eater; the gothloli has smoke grenades and a katan; the bespectabled girl a sniper rifle (of course) and twin daggers. The two missions in the demo task the party to defeat enemy forces from the Russian Empire.
    No, really, Russian Empire. Your characters are from Jutland.
    I don't know if Valkyria Azure Revolution takes place in the same universe as the other Valkyria Chronicles, but sure that schythe-weildig girl looks like Selveria in the trailer...
    Allow me to digress: I come to VAR with some preconception because it bears the name of Valkyria Chronicles; all of the three Valkyria Chronicles had their share of not-so-realistic things, but at least they didn't had characters charging at giant robot spider with swords. But I guess that doesn't really matter, because those robot spiders never use their guns, something that will help to keep pesky infantry away from their glowing bright blue weakspot on their belly.

    But let's try to forget that VAR belongs to the Valkyria Chronicles universe and see what the demo got.
    You control one character at once, the other two follow you and attack when you do; even during firefights, they will only attack after you do: sit still and they will too. Rifles and grenades are there to weaken enemies and not much more, even the most basic enemy is a bullet sponge that can only be quickly killed with a sniper bullet or in close-range combat. Characters automatically switch to close-range weapons when an enemy squad is close enough, and all enemies within a certain range will join the fray; one thing I can give the game credit for is that enemies with rifles will attack with those while others aggro your characters in close quarters. Everyone outside the close-range arena will stop firing though, making head-down charges a viable solution.
    Once in close combat you have two standard and special attacks. Oh yes, special attacks: the guy has fire powers, the gothloli ice and wind, the sniper girl electricity. VAR went the DragonBall Z way and gave everyone superpower, this making them no longer super. While in battle all characters have a pretty powerful recover spell that essentially makes healing items superflous; downed character can be resurrected at half their life within 60 seconds.
    Var doesn't know if it wants to be a button masher or a technical game: combos are limited, but combat rhythm is relatively slow, that should give some depth to it, especially when against shield-bearers; unfortunately once those are the last enemies, the party gangs up on them making shields useless.
    The closing enemy of the demo is one of those giant robot spiders: its attacks are jumping around, pounds with its legs or charges; the two/three incredibly large guns are never used. You attack one of its legs, it topples for a few seconds in which you can attack its unarmoured weak spot, then repeat until it's dead...and it takes way too much time to kill.

    The game runs smooth enough, though the rendering technique doesn't quite reach the first VC in visuals. Some of filters are just overlays on the whole screen, and colours are much more saturated than before, completely losing the original watercolour effect.
    The biggest letdown is the music, which uses rather subdued tracks compare to the excellent sountrack of the original game.

    I was honestly bored by the Valkyria Azure Revolution demo, but then again it's just two mission with only three characters; maybe the full game will offer better variety in everything.
    Last edited by briareos_kerensky; 14-02-2016, 14:37.

    #2
    You going to make a video for the demo?
    BTW your youtube videos are really fun to watch, keep it up!

    Comment


      #3
      Up now!

      Last edited by briareos_kerensky; 16-02-2016, 16:15.

      Comment

      Working...
      X