What are you playing?

[Great Rumbler]

People like Mirror's Edge because it's an awesome game. Straight up.

[Beezy]

People like Mirror's Edge because it's an awesome game. Straight up.

This, but I do love it's style though. I didn't even know about DICE until I bought ME so get outta here with that nerd cred foolishness.

[Bebpo]

Played some Crysis late last night, hot diggety damn. It rocks. I suppose it's basically just Far Cry so far apart from the suit abilities, but they really add a lot to it. Getting around 50fps on average with everything on high at 1080p too

Crysis is Far Cry without the stupid*


*bad level design, shitty monsters, terrible last 1/3rd

[Raban]

I just never liked Mirror's Edge entire gimmick. Platforming + first person = no. Plus, the visual style is fine but it hurts my eyes to look at for too long because of how fucking bright and contrast-y it is. It's a goddamn beautiful game, but the dialog/story is so shit it actually made the game worse for me (which never happens because I normally don't care about video game stories), the fact that you have to die five times just to trial-and-error your way through an area is kind of bullshit, on top of the imprecise hint system. It also doesn't help that the game appears to be open-ended and allows you to take many different routes to achieve a goal, but in the end there's only one because the rest are either flukes and you broke the game or you die miserably.

And I could give a fuck about DICE, real talk.

[cool breeze]

Super sad to hear more crap about The Saboteur. I'm such a fan of open world games that I was ready to throw down in Nazi-occupied France for days on end. Then I heard about the black-and-white/color mechanic, which has interested me for years, and I was hovering over play-asia's "PLACE ORDER" button, only to be plagued by doubts. PANDEMIC. C'mon, Mercenaries 2 was the buggiest piece of crap I've played in a long time. Hearing more bad stuff about it supports my decision to not buy, but still makes me blue.

It's probably better than Mercenaries, but it's also probably more frustrating. Sneaking around is fun but once you're detected it's like the worst game ever.

Rrrrr. Man, so sad. Wanted open world nazi hunting. :-(

To be fair it is an ok game, but pilonv is spot on about how aggravating the alert phase is and about how it takes ideas from other games and makes them worse.  The game is enjoyable enough in some of the linear missions; the open world stuff is when the game becomes a mess.  Because it takes ideas from different games, it's hard to really describe what type of open world game it is.  It's not the GTA/Saints Row style or the Mercenaries/Just Cause style, but the game still tries to have missions from both styles and the mechanics can't keep up. 

Just another example of how it takes what GTA does and makes it worse:  In GTA4 there were toll bridges, or really a single toll bridge, and you knew that it was coming up because it was only on a bridge.  In the Saboteur, it feels like every few streets there is a nazi gate up blocking your path.  You could stop and show a fake passport to the officer to open the gate, but often it would glitch out and only the first gate would open, forcing you to ram the second gate anyway.  For some reason there are two gates that need to open  anyway, if you run through a gate, you get into the terrible alert phase.  The game doesn't have any fast travel either, so if you have to drive a distance of half the map, which they make you do, you're expected to go through this gate nonsense several times.

I mean, if you're going to copy something, at least try and learn from their mistakes.  It's a big reason why the Saints Row series is so great.

[Beezy]

I don't see how a different perspective = gimmick.

[Akala]

I really wanted to bring up the DICE argument in the GAF thread, but probably would have been banned. 

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Rallisport 2

[close]

[Bebpo]

I've come to my own personal conclusion that Valkyria Chronicles is an overrated terribly broken and unfun strategy rpg filled with slow moeblob cutscenes.

The gameplay is fundementally flawed because of the objective for each map to "secure the enemy flag guarded by like 2 guys at the end of a field of dozens" because it becomes about stacking orders on a scout, having them run past everyone and skip the entire battle and then take out the two guys and win the map.  This basically skips the actually combat and strategy and makes the maps boring.  But the game ENCOURAGES THIS which is what ultimately turns a broken gameplay mechanic into a broken game mechanic.  Because you get jack shit for xp/money from actually fighting and 90% of your xp/money is earned solely on how fast you can finish a map, if you want to get good xp/money each map you basically need to abuse the scout and avoid the entire map every time.  This sucks.  It's not fun, it's boring, it's a decent amount of trial & error attempts since the enemy layout/map layout isn't fully understood until you're in the field running through it and the loading is absolutely terrible for mid-battle saves making trial & error even worse.  But if you skip all that and just say "hey I want to have fun and shoot all the enemies with my party and advance" then you're gonna be screwed by getting low ranks and bad xp/money payout.  So basically while the core gameplay is good, the flag = win map objectives & turn-based xp/money payout is really bad and makes it a bad strategy game imo that's not particularly fun. 

Then when you're not in battle, you're sitting through 20 mins of talking heads that are pretty dull.  The real cutscenes are nice and that's what should have been entirely all the story parts. 

The art is great and the music is real good sakimoto, but I don't think the game underneath is particularly good.  I need to read up on the sequel and see if it's just as broken, and if it is I think I'll probably skip it.

[MCD]

Bebpo is now my favorite poster.

[Beezy]

So Demon's Souls is the only PS3 exclusive rpg worth playing?

[Bebpo]

I dunno...probably.
It's got the budget rpg stuff going on with Ar Tonelico, Atelier, N1 too. 

And hey, new Tales coming!

[iconoclast]

How far in are you Bebpo? IIRC (I haven't played the game in like a year and a half), a lot of the earlier mission are basic 'get to the other end of the map and capture the base' missions, but they get more complex and varied the more you progress. And still, you're basically skipping the entire game if you're just rushing to the end of the map to win. You might  be getting an A rank by clearing it quickly, but you will still have plenty more turns available to you. The fun of the game is getting an A rank while killing all the leaders/captains/generals/tanks/whatever and dominating the stage. Plus doing that will give you the highest score possible, so you're still losing out on experience.

The scouts are definitely overpowered though, no question about that. But it's still the best RPG this gen not named Demon's Souls.

[ferrarimanf355]

Just playing some Hydro Thunder Hurricane.

The demo sucked.

What, you're going to bring up the IGN review to defend your lame-ass viewpoint?

The game is good, the demo only scratches the surface.

[Bebpo]

I'm on mission 13 of 19.  About to do the big shown with the empire in the plains.  So far 80% of the mission objectives have been "capture the flag".

And I don't think it really does give you leeway to run around taking out the leaders if you want the best rankings.  Like I just finished the "take back Bruhl" mission in 2 turns with a scout run and I only got an A rank (playing the JP version, so S rank is the highest) which means to get S rank you would have had to run across the entire map, take out an enemy machine gunner & an enemy gun turret and capture the flag in 1 turn.  Yeah, that's gonna use your entire 12 starting CP.  There's no way you have leeway to do anything else in the map.

The objectives should have been "kill all the enemy leaders" or "kill all the enemies period" instead of "capture some flag guarded by 2 guys".  It's bad design when coupled with the way xp is rewarded.

Also totally annoying that you only get 1 chance to get an order and then it moves to the next one next chapter.  I didn't know that for the first few chapters so I permanently missed the first couple like "evacuate injured unit".  Which has just increased the trial & error bits in the game since if anyone gets unexpectedly downed it's an instant reload and sit through 1 min+ of loading.


I don't think it's a good srpg.  Hell I found the first 10 hours of Operation Darkness to be a less broken, better srpg (though the camera is ultra shitty) until my Xbox erased my save game.  And traditional grid-based SRPGs like FFT, Tactics Ogre destroy Valkyria Chronicles if you try to compare them.

[Beezy]

And hey, new Tales coming!

I can't read japanese.

[Raban]

I don't see how a different perspective = gimmick.

I wasn't using that as an insult, it's just, it's the primary aspect of the game. It's platforming in the first person.

Also, playing Starcraft 2 is probably one of the most draining things I've ever done. After one mission I'm completely spent. This game is whooping my ass.

[archie4208]

League of Legends:  I know Heroes of Newerth is a better game, but LoL has been more captivating recently.  (Probably because it is an easier game )
Alpha Protocol:  An underrated gem.  If this game were published by Bioware and had a large advertising campaign, it would have been better received by the gaming public.

[Bebpo]

Finished SRW K.  Worst SRW I've played, but still a fun game with some nice bits.  Kotetsushin Jeeg was awesome and needs to be in a console SRW.  Gun x Sword was pretty rad too.  Godanner was fun.  Fafner was so so terrible.  lol

[pilonv1]

Alpha Protocol:  An underrated gem.  If this game were published by Bioware and had a large advertising campaign, it would have been better received by the gaming public.

It gets more shit than it deserves, it's very enjoyable.

[magus]

as far as super robot taisen go i played Super Robot Taisen A (which has a script translation),Super Robot Taisen Alpha Gaiden (which has a complete patch translation) and Super Robot Taisen R (which has a patch that translate the menu) and i really want to like these games but i always get bored halfway trough... it just seems to have the same problem i have with every other SRPG,there are longass battles where you spend your first half getting your guy near the enemy troops and the other completly obliterating every mook unit (unless you are playing fire emblem in which case one of the mook score a critical on one of your unit and *bam* reset!) and it feels like playing a normal rpg where you are permanently stuck in a normal battle because the developers didn't want to bother with all the other stuff that makes a rpg cool

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Back to playing FFXIII again, so I'm at the Chapter 9 end boss.

For whatever reason, I just cannot get into Vesperia at all.  It has everything I want in a JRPG but it does it at such an annoyingly slow pace that it ruins most of it.  Maybe I'm used to the quick speed of FFXIII.

[archie4208]

Alpha Protocol:  An underrated gem.  If this game were published by Bioware and had a large advertising campaign, it would have been better received by the gaming public.

It gets more shit than it deserves, it's very enjoyable.

I can see where the ire comes from.  The gunplay is very janky (I miss shooting a person even though I'm right in his face?  lol) but it is no worse than VTM: Bloodlines imo.

[Great Rumbler]

Alpha Protocol:  An underrated gem.  If this game were published by Bioware and had a large advertising campaign, it would have been better received by the gaming public.

It gets more shit than it deserves, it's very enjoyable.

I can see where the ire comes from.  The gunplay is very janky (I miss shooting a person even though I'm right in his face?  lol) but it is no worse than VTM: Bloodlines imo.

Bloodlines is easily as janky, if not moreso. And probably even more incomplete. But Bloodlines has arguably better writing, better quests, better world, and better characters.

[demi]

Alpha Protocol:  An underrated gem.  If this game were published by Bioware and had a large advertising campaign, it would have been better received by the gaming public.

It gets more shit than it deserves, it's very enjoyable.

I can see where the ire comes from.  The gunplay is very janky (I miss shooting a person even though I'm right in his face?  lol) but it is no worse than VTM: Bloodlines imo.

? That game is shit too. What kind of comparison is this?

[archie4208]

Alpha Protocol:  An underrated gem.  If this game were published by Bioware and had a large advertising campaign, it would have been better received by the gaming public.

It gets more shit than it deserves, it's very enjoyable.

I can see where the ire comes from.  The gunplay is very janky (I miss shooting a person even though I'm right in his face?  lol) but it is no worse than VTM: Bloodlines imo.

Bloodlines is easily as janky, if not moreso. And probably even more incomplete. But Bloodlines has arguably better writing, better quests, better world, and better characters.

I agree that Bloodlines has a better story and characterization, but AP is still fairly solid.  Also the timed response system is a masterstroke and I'm glad that future RPGs (Witcher 2 and DA2 in particular) are using it in some capacity.

? That game is shit too. What kind of comparison is this?

Yeah, but it has Bender and an awesome song playing at the bar.

[youtube=560,345]v-PEoU0FjzE[/youtube]

[Cindi Mayweather]

I bought Super Mario Galaxy 2 and REmake for wii yesterday. Getting RDR next week.

Will play RDR or SMG2 after DQ9 but for now I'm tag teaming RE4 with DQ9 because RE4 rox.

[Cindi Mayweather]

So Demon's Souls is the only PS3 exclusive rpg worth playing?

Valkyria.

Alpha Protocol:  An underrated gem.  If this game were published by Bioware and had a large advertising campaign, it would have been better received by the gaming public.

It gets more shit than it deserves, it's very enjoyable.

I can see where the ire comes from.  The gunplay is very janky (I miss shooting a person even though I'm right in his face?  lol) but it is no worse than VTM: Bloodlines imo.

Bloodlines is easily as janky, if not moreso. And probably even more incomplete. But Bloodlines has arguably better writing, better quests, better world, and better characters.

bloodlines is overrated.

Alpha Protocol:  An underrated gem.  If this game were published by Bioware and had a large advertising campaign, it would have been better received by the gaming public.

It gets more shit than it deserves, it's very enjoyable.

I can see where the ire comes from.  The gunplay is very janky (I miss shooting a person even though I'm right in his face?  lol) but it is no worse than VTM: Bloodlines imo.

? That game is shit too. What kind of comparison is this?

wrpg standards An incomplete, half-assed is lauded as "one of the best rpgs of the decade" simply because of its writing.

[Cindi Mayweather]

I've come to my own personal conclusion that Valkyria Chronicles is an overrated terribly broken and unfun strategy rpg filled with slow moeblob cutscenes.

The gameplay is fundementally flawed because of the objective for each map to "secure the enemy flag guarded by like 2 guys at the end of a field of dozens" because it becomes about stacking orders on a scout, having them run past everyone and skip the entire battle and then take out the two guys and win the map.  This basically skips the actually combat and strategy and makes the maps boring.  But the game ENCOURAGES THIS which is what ultimately turns a broken gameplay mechanic into a broken game mechanic.  Because you get jack shit for xp/money from actually fighting and 90% of your xp/money is earned solely on how fast you can finish a map, if you want to get good xp/money each map you basically need to abuse the scout and avoid the entire map every time.  This sucks.  It's not fun, it's boring, it's a decent amount of trial & error attempts since the enemy layout/map layout isn't fully understood until you're in the field running through it and the loading is absolutely terrible for mid-battle saves making trial & error even worse.  But if you skip all that and just say "hey I want to have fun and shoot all the enemies with my party and advance" then you're gonna be screwed by getting low ranks and bad xp/money payout.  So basically while the core gameplay is good, the flag = win map objectives & turn-based xp/money payout is really bad and makes it a bad strategy game imo that's not particularly fun. 

Then when you're not in battle, you're sitting through 20 mins of talking heads that are pretty dull.  The real cutscenes are nice and that's what should have been entirely all the story parts. 

The art is great and the music is real good sakimoto, but I don't think the game underneath is particularly good.  I need to read up on the sequel and see if it's just as broken, and if it is I think I'll probably skip it.

LOL

[demi]

If you guys wanted good storytelling theres tons of books out there. If you want actual gameplay on your gaming machine, um, yeah

[Cindi Mayweather]

like everyone else, I totally forgot I was halfway through FF13.

I forgot I've played FF13 and I've beaten it. The only time I remember is when someone mentions it by name.

[Cindi Mayweather]

If you guys wanted good storytelling theres tons of books out there. If you want actual gameplay on your gaming machine, um, yeah

[youtube=560,345]8l5zUztMyvo[/youtube]

[demi]

I'm just saying. Grandia 3 at least has a great battle system to cover up the horrible story. What does Alpha Protocol have? It is 2 for 2 on the shit scale.

[Beezy]

So Demon's Souls is the only PS3 exclusive rpg worth playing?

Valkyria.

I was responding to Bebpo's post complaining about Valkyria.

[Great Rumbler]

wrpg standards An incomplete, half-assed is lauded as "one of the best rpgs of the decade" simply because of its writing.

Writing, characters, world, quests, and choices. You can also get a completely different gaming experience by playing as a Nosferatu.

It's a flawed gem, and there aren't many who'll skip the "flawed" part.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'd still take it any day over all the JRPGs I've played the past decade.

[close]

[tiesto]

There are plenty of games that offer all of the above but aren't a broken buggy mess. I've never played Bloodlines but that janky video and reports on how the game is a buggy, unfinished mess, turn me off. I expect at least a slight amount of polish in the games I play (I'm also a "gameplay over all" person).

[Positive Touch]

Back to playing FFXIII again, so I'm at the Chapter 9 end boss.

hey i'm working my way through that level now!  god i hate when jrpgs blare a repetitive siren in the background for the WHOLE LEVEL


confession: the more i play this game, the more i start to feel my inner weeaboo.  i'm usually disgusted by awful animu cliches but for whatever reason (prolly nostalgia) final fantasy always makes me geek out.  the terrible dialog, the embarrassing displays of heroism, the goofy-looking costumes and monsters omg it all makes me feel like my little nerd teen self again

[Great Rumbler]

There are plenty of games that offer all of the above but aren't a broken buggy mess. I've never played Bloodlines but that janky video and reports on how the game is a buggy, unfinished mess, turn me off. I expect at least a slight amount of polish in the games I play (I'm also a "gameplay over all" person).

Not many games do those things as well as Bloodlines.

And Bloodlines has good gameplay, it just has really janky "combat". It's really not so much a problem early in the game, but towards the end [where every aspect of the game falls off], the problems with the combat become overly apparent. Nevertheless, it's a unique experience and the first half to two-thirds of the game is really, really great.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[youtube=560,345]gzYdO6HiKVQ[/youtube]

[close]

[Bebpo]

as far as super robot taisen go i played Super Robot Taisen A (which has a script translation),Super Robot Taisen Alpha Gaiden (which has a complete patch translation) and Super Robot Taisen R (which has a patch that translate the menu) and i really want to like these games but i always get bored halfway trough... it just seems to have the same problem i have with every other SRPG,there are longass battles where you spend your first half getting your guy near the enemy troops and the other completly obliterating every mook unit (unless you are playing fire emblem in which case one of the mook score a critical on one of your unit and *bam* reset!) and it feels like playing a normal rpg where you are permanently stuck in a normal battle because the developers didn't want to bother with all the other stuff that makes a rpg cool

You're playing the old ones before the series actually became fun to play.

Fun srw games:
Alpha 3
W, K
OGs
OG Gaiden
Z
Lord of Elemental DS

W/K are jokingly easy though.  MX/Alpha 2 are passable as well.

LOL

Great rebuttable there   Everyone I talk to about Valkyria basically goes "yeah, the game design is broken for about 60-70% of the missions, scouts are broken, orders are broken, but the game is just so innovative and so cool that who cares how broken it is, game rox!"  I hear they fixed a lot of this for Valkyria 2, so it's probably the better game. 

[Stoney Mason]

Playing the orange box on the 360. Specifically Half Life 2. Had it since it came out but only played Portal and the shitty version of TF2. Back when Half Life 2 orginally came out I didn't have a PC capable of playing it and when I eventually got one, I wasn't interested in playing it at that point. But I'm bored this weekend.

Entertaining and atmospheric although the gun play and the physics and the general movement don't hold up quite as well as I would have hoped. 

[magus]

i tried the OG games but it was even worse,it still had the same problems but now it lacked all the cool super robot,instead they were replaced with generic robotic unit with really boring music

not to mention that all those skill points which are gained all by finishing the map quickly are all incredibly annoying,especialy if the objective is to kill reinforcement which appear on the other side of the map!

i mean if the game has to be boring at least i want to take kickass boring
[youtube=560,345][/youtube]

i could watch this over and over

[Bebpo]

then play Z!

[youtube=560,345][/youtube]

[magus]

that video has a clear lack of getter
other acceptable answer
[youtube=560,345][/youtube]

[Bebpo]

[youtube=560,345][/youtube]

[youtube=560,345][/youtube]

[cool breeze]

The wrpg talk is from the last page but I just want to say that most wrpg have lame stories.  The ending to these games always feel like the writer was caught with their pants down and quickly made some unsatisfying conclusion.  Usually it is the character interactions and smaller quests that take place in the middle of the game that are interesting.  The other problem is that all paths usually lead to one conclusion.  It almost devalues everything you've done to get to that point because if you were a saint or cock, you'll still end up in the same place.  Then there is a choice at the end, which again makes everything you've done until that point seem unimportant, and you're forced to fight an enemy that requires certain skills that you didn't invest in because the rest of the game was about playing how you wanted to.

also, I like Vampire Bloodlines but the shooting is maybe the worst in a wprg.  Luckily you can stick to using melee for most of the game, until the endgame where it is a total disaster.

also also, Grandia series I don't even remember the main character's name in Grandia 2 but it is one of my favorite jrpg. 

[pilonv1]

I've come to my own personal conclusion that Valkyria Chronicles is an overrated terribly broken and unfun strategy rpg filled with slow moeblob cutscenes.

The gameplay is fundementally flawed because of the objective for each map to "secure the enemy flag guarded by like 2 guys at the end of a field of dozens" because it becomes about stacking orders on a scout, having them run past everyone and skip the entire battle and then take out the two guys and win the map.  This basically skips the actually combat and strategy and makes the maps boring.  But the game ENCOURAGES THIS which is what ultimately turns a broken gameplay mechanic into a broken game mechanic.  Because you get jack shit for xp/money from actually fighting and 90% of your xp/money is earned solely on how fast you can finish a map, if you want to get good xp/money each map you basically need to abuse the scout and avoid the entire map every time.  This sucks.  It's not fun, it's boring, it's a decent amount of trial & error attempts since the enemy layout/map layout isn't fully understood until you're in the field running through it and the loading is absolutely terrible for mid-battle saves making trial & error even worse.  But if you skip all that and just say "hey I want to have fun and shoot all the enemies with my party and advance" then you're gonna be screwed by getting low ranks and bad xp/money payout.  So basically while the core gameplay is good, the flag = win map objectives & turn-based xp/money payout is really bad and makes it a bad strategy game imo that's not particularly fun. 

Then when you're not in battle, you're sitting through 20 mins of talking heads that are pretty dull.  The real cutscenes are nice and that's what should have been entirely all the story parts. 

The art is great and the music is real good sakimoto, but I don't think the game underneath is particularly good.  I need to read up on the sequel and see if it's just as broken, and if it is I think I'll probably skip it.

BEBPO

The amount of cutscenes turned me off completely. I didn't feel there was much strategy to it either as you said for an SRPG. If it wasn't for the pretty graphics and exclusivity it's really not that different from Operation Darkness, which at least had an interesting premise.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Back to playing FFXIII again, so I'm at the Chapter 9 end boss.

hey i'm working my way through that level now!  god i hate when jrpgs blare a repetitive siren in the background for the WHOLE LEVEL


confession: the more i play this game, the more i start to feel my inner weeaboo.  i'm usually disgusted by awful animu cliches but for whatever reason (prolly nostalgia) final fantasy always makes me geek out.  the terrible dialog, the embarrassing displays of heroism, the goofy-looking costumes and monsters omg it all makes me feel like my little nerd teen self again

I have the sound off and generally skip the cutscenes.

I admit that I like the game.  The first part irritated me but the game seems to be getting progressively better with more interesting environments.  I also like how the battles zip along and while it isn't the most in depth, I find managing the paradigms to keep it interesting at least.  Most JRPGs feature repetitive battles and this isn't much different but the paradigm varieties you can set up keep it from being sleep inducing.

I can understand why some people may not like it though but I enjoy it!

[Cindi Mayweather]

I've come to my own personal conclusion that Valkyria Chronicles is an overrated terribly broken and unfun strategy rpg filled with slow moeblob cutscenes.

The gameplay is fundementally flawed because of the objective for each map to "secure the enemy flag guarded by like 2 guys at the end of a field of dozens" because it becomes about stacking orders on a scout, having them run past everyone and skip the entire battle and then take out the two guys and win the map.  This basically skips the actually combat and strategy and makes the maps boring.  But the game ENCOURAGES THIS which is what ultimately turns a broken gameplay mechanic into a broken game mechanic.  Because you get jack shit for xp/money from actually fighting and 90% of your xp/money is earned solely on how fast you can finish a map, if you want to get good xp/money each map you basically need to abuse the scout and avoid the entire map every time.  This sucks.  It's not fun, it's boring, it's a decent amount of trial & error attempts since the enemy layout/map layout isn't fully understood until you're in the field running through it and the loading is absolutely terrible for mid-battle saves making trial & error even worse.  But if you skip all that and just say "hey I want to have fun and shoot all the enemies with my party and advance" then you're gonna be screwed by getting low ranks and bad xp/money payout.  So basically while the core gameplay is good, the flag = win map objectives & turn-based xp/money payout is really bad and makes it a bad strategy game imo that's not particularly fun. 

Then when you're not in battle, you're sitting through 20 mins of talking heads that are pretty dull.  The real cutscenes are nice and that's what should have been entirely all the story parts. 

The art is great and the music is real good sakimoto, but I don't think the game underneath is particularly good.  I need to read up on the sequel and see if it's just as broken, and if it is I think I'll probably skip it.

BEBPO

The amount of cutscenes turned me off completely. I didn't feel there was much strategy to it either as you said for an SRPG. If it wasn't for the pretty graphics and exclusivity it's really not that different from Operation Darkness, which at least had an interesting premise.

Valkyria's not perfect but it DOESN'T have an interesting premise?

[Cindi Mayweather]

I admit that I like the game.  The first part irritated me but the game seems to be getting progressively better with more interesting environments.  I also like how the battles zip along and while it isn't the most in depth, I find managing the paradigms to keep it interesting at least.  Most JRPGs feature repetitive battles and this isn't much different but the paradigm varieties you can set up keep it from being sleep inducing.

I just use rav/rav/com 75% of the game.

[iconoclast]

I'm not sure how someone can claim Valkyria doesn't have much strategy unless you have completed all of the missions with an A (or S) rank while killing every leader unit. It's like playing Ninja Gaiden 2 on Master Ninja, running past 80% of the enemies in the game and then claiming it's not hard.

[pilonv1]

Valkyria's not perfect but it DOESN'T have an interesting premise?

It's not as interesting as Nazi werewolves.

I'm not sure how someone can claim Valkyria doesn't have much strategy unless you have completed all of the missions with an A (or S) rank while killing every leader unit.

Probably poor wording on my part, it's not fun strategy.

[Bebpo]

I'm not sure how someone can claim Valkyria doesn't have much strategy unless you have completed all of the missions with an A (or S) rank while killing every leader unit. It's like playing Ninja Gaiden 2 on Master Ninja, running past 80% of the enemies in the game and then claiming it's not hard.

If you could get through a Master Ninja NG2 run by avoiding 80% of the enemies, then yes, that would be a problem with the game.  Especially if NG2 based it's leaderboard scores entirely around shortest time to clear and thus actively encouraged players to do so.

Valkyria strikes me as very similar to what I played of Sakura Taisen.  To me, ST is a very average strategy game with some creative concepts and not a whole lot of tight gameplay mechanics, covered in a polished layer of anime girls who give a ridiculous amount of dialogue between combats portions.

And also like Pilonv1, I'm not denying that there is strategy in Valkyria Chronicles and that it is a strategic game.  But rather it's just not fun.  Especially compared to all the great strategy games or srpgs out there that are full of strategy and full of fun.

[iconoclast]

You can run past a ton of enemies (literally; you can avoid 3000+ enemies), and since there is a speed run leaderboard they do kinda encourage it.

Not liking the game is fine, but it does require some good strategy to kill everyone while getting an A rank. I'm not saying the game is perfect, but the way I played it was a lot of fun. I killed all the enemies I could on each map and then finished the main objective. I didn't get an A rank on every mission the first time I played it (far from it), but it's not like you screw yourself or anything by getting B's.

And speaking of SRPGs that are not perfect, I started Spectral Force 3. Not liking it very much from the couple hours I played.

[Bebpo]

I'm probably being harsher on Valkyria than it deserves.  Have a lot going on irl right now, and when I have time to game I want something that is quick and fun and you hit some buttons and sparks fly.  Valkyria is really not my cup 'o tea at the moment.  I don't think it's a bad game, but I'm not feeling the love everyone praises on it.

Will go back to it and try to clear ch.13-19 in a slower more methodical way of taking out most of the enemies next week when I have that kind of time.

[Cindi Mayweather]

Valkyria's not perfect but it DOESN'T have an interesting premise?

It's not as interesting as Nazi werewolves.

When you put it that way...is ANYTHING? 

[Bebpo]

Operation Darkness had Tanks vs. Dragons. 

It's basically the greatest game concept ever, but the camera is very bad suck.

[pilonv1]

Operation Darkness had Tanks vs. Dragons. 

If Kings Bounty had Tanks it would be great. It has zombies and bears and dragons though.

[demi]

But is it set in World War 2?

[pilonv1]

No, it's fantasy

It's still fantastic.

[tiesto]

2/3 of the way through Treasure of the Rudras at the moment... game hasn't picked up in quality, but hasn't gone down in quality either... so it's still a solid "B" game from SNES era Squaresoft.

[OptimoPeach]

Been meaning to try that ever since I found out there is a translation. Maybe after I finish Vesperia. Did you post some impressions earlier in the thread?