That is insane. Who in their right mind would pay $120 for a new video game?
Promising new recruit:
Her first mission, we are in a desperate losing battle, trying to hold three camps for five turns while our soldiers evacuate. Vancey suffers a PTSD flashback on the way to camp, lowering her defense, then upon reaching the camp, unlocked the superpower “Hammered” which immediately ends her turn because she’s too drunk to do anything else.
Boss tank then drives up and around her, Vancey completely blissfully oblivious the entire time:
Vancey absolutely sucks ass as a shocktrooper and I’m always going to put her on the front line because that’s what VC is all about.
I love this game.
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the demo gave me the impression that this was going to be VC1 with less charm, but maybe it’s there after all
Yeah, I thought I was at the mid-game (chapter 6), but looking online, I’m at the 1/3 mark. The game is definitely picking up. The last four missions have been great - actually taking place in a large-scale war, where it feels like you’re one small part of a much larger battlefield.
Also heartened by the people who steadily join the team. The starting lineup was okay, but some of the best characters have popped up as later adds.
Shaping up to look a lot better than I initially thought. Story is still really rote, but the locations, characters, and missions have gone from middling to good.
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At the mid-point. Story is dragging bit, with a lot of “we’re stuck here, have to escape” or “we have to survive this weather” segments.
Missions have been enjoyably challenging. Still bugs me how bad the AI is in this game, since they’re constantly run in front of tanks until dead. Makes it so all you need to do is park your tank in the right spot and wipe out half their force as it tries to approach.
Anyways, I’m very impressed by the soundtrack. Hitoshi Sakimoto did it for VC4 as well as VC1 (and Vagrant Story, FF12, FF Tactics), and it really is above and beyond the call of duty for a title like this:
Can definitely hear the FF Tactics in this one:
They DO play a few tracks way, way too often, which annoying. Whenever your turn is over and the enemy turn begins, it starts the same song again, so, you get sick of that fast. Same with the “things are dismal and depressing” song, which I’m getting over and over at this point in the game.
Several classes get a new weapon when they reach level 11. Snipers get to do interception fire. Assult get flamethrowers. Scout get RPGs and lancers get mortar lances.
Woof. I don’t know about this mid-to-late game, folks.
Once your base starts getting stuck in the ice, the plot of this game gets bogged down with some truly uninteresting garbador.
Missions themselves are pretty interesting, though. I don’t love the bosses, but the actual maps and objectives are fun.
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its worth noting that honestly this game treats a character like rosetta way better than i thought it would initially
the mission pn the big battlefield is like telling me i’m playing the gsme wrong but after running through the map 8 times i still have no idea how
Is that the big open one where you use all your tanks, and I think first go up against the anti-tank guns?
Use your artillery! And don’t be shy about driving your tank aaaaaaaaaaall the fucking way up and blowing up another tank or whatever with it.
i have a steady and growing list of favorite characters but tbh i’m surprised about this thread being negative about the core cast
i feel in parts they have a much better dynamic than alicia and welkin did in vc1 even though they were good, and the story has kinda kept up with side characters
As far as the core cast goes, I like Minerva and Riley a lot. Claude is solid. Kai is okay. I like that Raz is a darcsen, but he can get pretty one-note. I don’t remember anything about that tank kid or the other tank guy.
Secondary characters have some real shining moments. I’m glad they put the focus on developing those out in side stories, because that can be a lot of fun. Obviously Vancy the lush and Ferrier the helmeted bastress are my favs.
Don’t forget to use orders.
Also the APC is totally broken.
finally cleared out Point of No Return last night with a C rank, man what a tiugh mission that probably overwhelms you when the enemy captain has orders specifically made for ruining you
Oh, THAT one. Yeah, that took me four tries. Only reason I passed was because I Mega Man-style memorized every threat and positioned a counter to it.
im enjoying the story so far but man did i run into some alt righters saying that the game is like finally some positive depiction of nazi germany in fiction and like whoahhh motherfucker.
because of course these dumbasses think that russia were the only ones to use scorched earth tactics in wwii when the story up to this point is about the western countries pushing germany out of norway jesus i hate nerds
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Okay I’m in the final few missions. I’ll say that the mid-game drags in a way I don’t love. I also have not enjoyed fighting most of the “boss” characters in this game.
That said, I still adore this cast of characters. It constantly reminds me why I like this series, and fairly often the actual missions will validate my love for this series by letting me create three or so teams of two and execute multiple objectives at once. Can’t get enough of these characters working together to accomplish objectives on the battlefield. The way the characters color the gameplay parts is wonderful, and I only wish there was more interweaving/boosting/co-operative powers available.
Anyways, IMPORTANT NOTE ON VANCEY THE DRUNK: Turns out the only way to get her Squad Story is to first unlock “Gertrude”, a hidden hoity-toity nobility character that will only join once you have 1,000,000 gp in the bank. So yeah, you have to fucking grind skirmish missions or whatever till you get her, which blows. I ended up just repeating the final skirmish 5 times, since that one can be won in a single turn.
Once you get Gertrude, the Squad Story with her, Vancey, and that random darcsen kid who idolizes Raz is unlocked, and you finally get to change Vancey’s turn-ending “Hammered” trigger into a “Former Elite”, which buffs fucking everything and turns her into the battlefield goddess she deserves to be.
I also love Gertrude, so, I’m ready to complete the final mission now.
Spoiler for the endgame, so I’m going to collapse out this whole part:
Endgame spoilers and thoughts - Part 1
There is an absolutely wild story element they introduce where your secret superweapon boat actual contains a ragnite atomic bomb, called the A2 bomb, which you’re determined to detonate in the Imperial capital, killing “millions.” This is framed as this wholly just act that is the “only way,” which is mind-blowing to see in a Japanese game about anime WW2.
Endgame spoilers and thoughts - Part 3
Almost positive they’re not actually going to detonate it, because it’s also revealed that the A2 bomb is an Akira-like little girl, but like, just the entire idea seems buck wild.
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Just finished the story and it got kind of silly, yes. [spoiler]At first the main character is crying about his love interest talking him out of detonating a little girl and kill them all including an entire city full of people. Then he gets really mad when the mad scientist wants to explode the girl screaming that they’ll protect her no matter what.
I hated that main character from the first time I saw him, and was really excited when it seemed he’d die on a sinking ship at the end, because of his inability to leave behind his tank. But then some kind of metal broke off the ship and allowed him to drive the tank onto the pier right next to it and I inhaled air sharply. Then they stand around and give a salute to the sinking ship like it’s a real person dying. I haven’t seen them give a single salute to the dozens of people they killed during their invasion. They did crack a lot of jokes in after-battle cutscenes though.
Anyway, this was still a lot more interesting than the first games’ simple bad guys good guys story.[/spoiler]
Also what the hell why is tactical corgi just an NPC?
Also how the fuck do spoiler tags work.