Frontlog 001: "The Body Changer"

Needs a better title card.

Dear Internet,

                Well, this is an unusual type of post, is it not?  I will admit that it is not the usual header that I have for this little experiment of a website.  So far, I have only written with two types of letters, not considering the ones titled "Announcement."  Either I am writing about one of the hundreds of entries that I have accumulated or I am writing about visual novels in general in an attempt to collect my thoughts about how I am approaching my own work.  So, to try and take one of those entries and bring it all the way to the front of the line without even having added it to the pile seems unusual in the very least.  Nay, it is downright rule-breaking if you think about it.  What can I do then, Internet?  There is only one thing I can do, Internet.  I have to make a new category of posts.  The Frontlog will be for games that are removed from the Backlog at an exceptional pace for one reason or another.  The reason that "The Body Changer" is getting the first of these types of posts is due to what I assume is a mass-email.

                About three or four days ago, I got a message from one of the developers of the game, asking for my impressions and what I thought of the game.  I am not sure how the developer knew I even had this game, but I suspect it had something to do with the fact that I got it from the "Be Mine 11" bundle from Groupees.  Maybe Groupees gave the developer contacts for all the purchasers of the bundle so that they could get feedback.  Maybe the only way at the time to get "The Body Changer" was from Desura via the Groupees bundle and by activating the code I was, by default, showing where I got it.  Or maybe mrKaizen of TheShortAndTheTall figured out that I write reviews too much and wanted my opinion.  How in the world that he would know this, I am not sure, especially considering that the email was through a Desura account that was not even remotely associated with this blog.  Chances are that it was just an en mass email, and now mrKaizen stumbled upon asking someone with a little too much time to review a game that is still in its alpha stage.  But, hey, no one else asked me to review their game or some other game either through personal message or by bulk mail.  So, let me get to it.

                "The Body Changer" is a third person shooter that is heavy on puzzle aspects.  It gets pretty down the half way point between the two genres, which is refreshing considering that I am like a knife at a gun fight when it comes to shooters.  The player controls a set of humanoid robots, the "SynB"s, that have to fix a broken facility, specifically reactivate a series of purifiers for the water pumps.  Doing so will allow the facility to be operational again.  Beyond that, the story does not matter much.  The specifics are so scant that it is almost forgettable.  What matters is the gameplay.

 

                The player begins by controlling only one android at first, figuring out how to move properly and aim with the camera.  Eventually the player gains the use of a second android and more after that.  Each of the various androids has specific abilities that allow it to specialize in a certain task. So far, there are three primary types of androids.  There is the combat unit, which can use a selection of lethal weapons.  There is the non-combat colored type that is more used for the game's various puzzles.  And there is the primary one that the player starts off with, which is somewhere in-between the other two.  Once the player has activated another android, they can switch between the two bots seamlessly to be able to tackle the game's puzzles.  

                As, I said before, "The Body Changer" is also a shooter game.  Whenever the player has to control the combat android, there is most likely going to be something that is due for its daily regimen of vitamin lead.  Some of the androids in the facility have gone haywire and begun to roam about, wildly attacking anything they come across, mainly the player.  They are rather simply identified as zombies in the game, something that gives the player a hint as to where to aim with the guns.  In the game's two levels, there are about three types of these malfunctioning robots, maybe four if the lizard men are mechanical.  Some stumble, some run, and some lunge.  No matter what, they need to be killed to advance forward.

Proof that successful enemy naming can give clues to strategy.

                "The Body Changer" has got a few things going for itself despite being only in early alpha.  The puzzles are interesting to say the least.  They were at least able to make me forget the obvious.  A good puzzle game can make the player forget about an earlier rule or solution.  If the game ignores the solution to a previous puzzle for a period of time, the player can end up completely forgetting about that certain situation.  In turn, when the solution repeats itself, the player needs to remember all that he has learned to continue onward.  The game's puzzles are not all just static, allowing an unlimited amount of time to find the solution.  Some of them must be solved while under a time limit or while being attacked by the previously mentioned malfunctioning robots.  The player even has to bounce between two androids during such scenes.

                One thing that I found really intuitive was the control method for crouching.  Most games have one dedicated crouch button that is usually mounted to either the "C" or "Ctrl" key for example.  Games that are made well will allow the player to choose which key they want to crouch.  "The Body Changer" goes one step better.  To crouch, the player can press the "Z," "X," or the "C" key.  Any one of the three buttons can be used.  This means that the player can use any one of his three fingers that are reserved for movement to crouch while still being able to move.  Since crouching is not used long enough to warrant a toggle switch, this is one of the best solutions that I have seen.  Maybe it is not as revolutionary as I want to think, but it makes easy movement while crouching a possibility without having to lose a finger over it.

                Another thing that the game does well is difficulty.  You have the usual bullet sponging from enemies and tighter restrictions on ammo, but changing the difficulty up higher goes one step further.  The waves of enemies that bombard the player change to fit the difficulty.  Instead of facing a lone heavy type of enemy, now you have to dodge his attacks while trying not to dodge into the arms of a zombie.  This simple change means that you have to change your strategies when increasing the difficulty rather than just refining the old ones.

                On the other hand, there are a number of things that "The Body Changer" does that seems like a shot in the foot.  Predominantly is the slow movement of the androids.  While it can be argued that the slow movement is a mechanic to force the player to think out their actions when in combat, it becomes frustrating when just trying to make the android search around for clues to the puzzle.  One or two times, I found myself stuck on a puzzle.  So, I decided to backtrack a little in hopes of a clue.  It was then that I realized how slow the robots moved.  It was just plain frustrating.  The robots can only run forward or in a forward diagonal direction.  That leaves five other of the eight directs to be an abysmally slow walking pace.  Not even the side to side directions get decent movement speeds.  This leads to a limited amount of movement abilities that can be used when fighting enemies.  Forget about trying to run circles around your enemies or even just moving side to side.  Most of the time, you are going to be standing very still and lining up headshots, which would not be so bad if it was not for the barrel roll dodge.

                The game places heavy emphasis on a side roll that allows the player to quickly dodge enemy attacks.  Basically, the player has to crouch and move the mouse in the direction that they want to roll.  While I find it en interesting mechanic, the problem is that once the roll is finished, the player is right back to the frustratingly slow pace that prevents more complicated movements that can take advantage of the space that the player has made away from hostiles.  The roll is mostly used against the lizard men enemies who rush the player.  The player is supposed to roll out of the way and shoot them in a specific way.  This would not be so bad if it were not for the fact that the game gave no hints as to how to fight them other than to tell you how to roll.  The first lizard man is supposed to be shot in the back, but I could not get around him.  Eventually, I think the AI lagged and started to walk away from me.  It was then that I shot him.  The second lizard man is supposed to be fought in a similar manner.  Roll out of the way and shoot him in the face.  The problem here is that doing so for the first five or so times does not indicate that you are doing it correctly.  He does not flinch at your shots.  He does not have any sort of indication that you are doing it correctly.  The only indication that the attack is working is that his health bar makes a minute decrease.  It is so negligible that the first two successful attacks make it seem like you are not doing anything at all.  When this lack of response to the player's actions occurs, the player is likely to attempt another strategy after another, never realizing that what they were doing at first was actually the right way.  Eventually, the lizard man does flinch and even stall, allowing a melee attack to knock him down, but the only way do so is to attempt a strategy over and over, hoping that it will eventually work.

So satisfying.

                There is also the quick turnaround move that is done by double tapping the "S" key.  It is a bit annoying since using the mouse to spin the camera around feels much more natural.  

                On the technical side, the game still has a number of flaws that I hope will be cleared up in the months ahead.  Whenever I took a screenshot, a window would appear that would tell me where the image was saved.  It would make a ticking sound effect when the text was appearing, and then keep making the sound well after the text finished appearing.  As of now, there are no manual save slots, which means that you either play from all over from the beginning or you carry off near where you left off.  A means of manual saving would be nice since both checkpoints and automatic save points feel a bit sporadic in their placing.  Also, if you launch the game under a different difficulty and then load the save file, you will be playing under the new difficulty rather than the previous difficulty.  The melee attack looks really stiffly animated, especially in the joints.  

                Overall, "The Body Changer" is an interesting game that still has got a way to go.  Some things work while others feel plenty clunky.  With only two levels in the alpha build, it is hard to even judge such a game.  I suspect that it will have another eight levels in the end to round it up to ten.  Usually with my reviews, I try and hide a star rating in the bottom with the tags, but I cannot do that this time.  How can I rate a game that is not even done?  All I can do is hope that the words I have here mean something when being read.  Sure, I look forward to playing this game again when it gets a full release, and I may even come back to it for a full review.  Until then, I withhold a final judgement.

Yours in digital,

BeepBoop

Entry 121: "Valkyria Chronicles" Pt. 8 End

Dear Internet

                I finally finished "Valkyria Chronicles" today.  Just an hour ago by the time I type this sentence.  I am sure you can guess my impression of the game having read the previous entries.  Then again, you may just be impatient and have already scrolled to the end to see my general score instead of reading the review first.  I cannot stop you, but I am still going to write the review.

                "Valkyria Chronicles" is a rare gem among games.  It has everything going for it.  It has a pleasing art style, a simple yet complex battle system, a fantastic musical backing, and a moving story.  The most important aspect would be the gameplay.  I say this because the game does not hold the player's hand nor push them off a cliff.  I lost a lot in this game.  I cannot even remember how many times that I had to restart a battle because I failed or realized I was heading into a dead end.  Every time that I restarted, I never once felt like the game was acting unfairly or in a way against the rules of engagement.  I never felt cheated because the game decided to change the rules mid-battle without fair reason.  I failed because I acted foolishly, forgot the game's rules, or attempted a risk with only a low chance of success.  The game is one where the player actually has to get better at the gameplay instead of just grinding away, hoping to win by brute force.  Tactics are required to advance properly.  And sometimes those tactics is how to properly use brute force.

                "Valkyria Chronicles" might have problems with its story, but that only stems from the slightly awkward English voice acting.  Often I found the speech sound bits being stretched out.  This might have been a technical solution where they stretch the sound clips out to fit the amount of time that the original lip movement was done for the Japanese audio.  The result either way is less than pristine line delivery from most of the cast.  While the acting never got horrible enough to make me want to rip my ears off, the occasional bad line made me at least want to clean out my ears lest some earwax was preventing the emotion from the line being stopped.  Sadly, my ears were clean and the emotion was never there.  It is not something that I want to strike against the game considering that words themselves usually convey enough of the character's thoughts and intentions.  Take for example Maximilian's repeated use of the royal plural pronoun usage when referring to himself.  It conveys his arrogance and royal up-brining much better than the actor's ability to portray the character.  While the character is supposed to be aloof and have a stonewall personality, when it comes to his presence in the story, Maximilian's actions and manner of speaking does a better job of conveying the character.  Most of the characters are like this, and the game places the importance on those aspects rather than the voice acting, which is a good thing.

                The story overall does its job well.  The WWII/fantasy aesthetics do a good job of creating a unique setting.  Instead of trying to focus on the entirety of the EWII, the game smartly focuses on a single squad with only half a dozen characters being showcased.  The love story between Welkin and Alicia was handled with a maturity that I do not see often in other games.  Instead of ending on a cliffhanger as to whether or not the two get together, there is a very real ending to their relationship, and there is even a climactic event that defines their relationship.  The various other spotlight characters from Squad 7 are well enough developed to make them less like cardboard soldiers and more fleshed out characters.  Even the antagonists have some depth to them instead of becoming Saturday morning cartoon villains.  The story got me to empathize with them.  At the same time, it remembered not to overshadow the reasons that the heroes were fighting for by stressing the antagonist's reasons too much.  The story was never about EWII.  It was only a backdrop to the tiny narrative the game gives.  The game was not shy from this fact and had stated this much within the opening segments, so it should not have been a surprise.

                I should mention the music for a bit.  The game makes full use of an orchestrated soundtrack.  The opening sequence that plays before the title screen appears has a beautifully arranged song.  What struck me about that sequence is that it plays independently of the visual hodgepodge that is stitched together.  Most opening sequences would play some sort of music that is synchronized with the events being displayed.  Instead, the game plays a soft melody while past paced action occurs.  The effect highlights the music even more because of the juxtaposition.  Elsewhere in the game, the music is much more in context, playing melodies that align with the scene's or event's theme.

                Overall, I enjoyed the game immensely.  "Valkyria Chronicles" will be a highlight of my collection that I would recommend to others.  I will have to try and watch the animated adaptation that was created or read the comic that stemmed from it.  I wish I could have played the game outside of the Backlog and have devoted more time to it, but I am ready to go onto the next card.  

Yours in digital,

BeepBoop

P.S Next is the film "The Monster X Strikes Back/Attack the G8 Summit".

Entry 120: "Valkyria Chronicles" Pt. 7

Dear Internet,

                Well, I did not finish "Valkyria Chronicles" today.  And I will tell you why.  Paritally because I am trying to weasel out of having not done what I said I was going to do, but also because it leads into something that I should touch upon concerning the game.  That reason is side-quests. 

                While I knew that I was only three or so chapters away from finishing, which means fighting about five battles, I did not know how many side-quests there were available.  Before I knew it, I had an extra three side missions that were available.  Side-mission examines a specific character and elaborates upon their growth within the greater narrative.  They are completely optional and have no large weight to the main story.   However, the game uses these side-missions in a way that add a greater depth to each character that it centers on.  But I am getting ahead of myself.  I should mention how the game separates the side-missions from the main storyline.

                Instead of making the side-missions available as the story progresses, they have to be bought from the news reporter Irene Ellet.  This works within the context of how the game is told.  Considering that the game is told through the use of a book, having the side-quests as purchasable and insert-able "reports" makes sense.  The player can choose to purchase the reports if they want to play them.  This can cut into the funds for a better upgrade early in the game.  The player always has the opportunity to do skirmish battles for extra money to buy the reports, so the decision is not an either/or situation.  The player does not have to choose if character exposition or battle benefits are more vital.  Later on in the game, the amount of money that missions hand out well exceeds any early financial problems.  So, it really is a moot point later on.  In fact, I have more money than I know what to do with.  After purchasing, the side-missions handle like main plot missions.  The can only be played once and non-essential team-members can die permanently.

                From a story-telling standing, the reports are a nice add-on.  They act as both sidestepping narratives and as adding information to more minor elements of the main story.  Take for example the Cpt. Varrot report.  It tells more about Varrot's past and why she had stayed on with the military after the first Europa War.  The game gives a hint to this in another side-story where Largo mentions the name Frederic.  Varrot requests that Largo refrain from mentioning that name.  The player can reason that Frederic was somebody close to the two of them that most likely died in EWI.  The player can take this as it is and be content with an ambiguous character since there is enough information to be able to draw enough of a conclusion to read between the lines.  The Varrot side-mission elaborates upon Frederic's death by telling how he died and relating it to the current situation.

                Or you could take the Signs of Awakening report.  It is not in any way essential to the main storyline, but it does give big hints as to one climatic plot reveal.  I did not get the chance to play it until after the big reveal, so I was not spoiled too much concerning that event.  I am not sure exactly when the report was available for purchase.  This could mean that it was only available to buy after the big event occurs.  The report occurs much earlier, so when I played it, I was going back in time to witness events that had already occurred.  This non-linear storytelling works well here.  Since each mission chapter and side-mission is a self contained event, they are already broken up for the player.  Inserting a side-mission between the main missions can be done since there is already an implied amount of time between chapters.  Side missions can fill in those gaps.

                Then there is the obvious numerical advantage of these side-missions.  They make more money than what the player puts into them provided that the player does well.  The side-missions deal out extra EXP and cash in the same way that other missions do.  I already covered mission grading yesterday, so I will try to be brief.  The more missions that the player has access to, the more they will have to gain EXP and money.  Some of the missions can be relatively easy for getting an A rank, and the rewards can become disproportional to the difficulty of the mission.  I think of the Hostage Rescue Operation, or the Varrot report, when I say this.  The mission brief tells you to sneak as close as you can to a building without being detected.  If the turn ends and any of your soldiers can be seen, the mission is a failure.  With this in mind, I merely followed instructions and only moved while hiding in tall grass.  After letting the enemy do a patrol and allowing them to expose themselves, I went on the attack.  I wiped them out and got an easy A for the mission.  Afterwards I got more EXP and money than I think was proportional to the mission.  It was less than what I would get for an A rank main mission, but I will take the easy road if possible.  The EXP at least helped me upgrade my troops a few levels.

Easy-peasy.

                Side-quests are a great way to add depth to a game's narrative and give extra content that would detract from the main story if it was shoehorned into making the player go through it as necessary content.  "Valkyria Chronicles" makes sure that the side-missions do to detract but add content by remembering that they are non-essential.  Unlike games that wish to showcase the side content by forcing the player to sample each one before continuing the game, "Valkyria Chronicles" remembers to make side-missions add to the game rather than be a distraction or an alternative to the core gameplay.  What is the point of playing a game's side-quests if it is radically different than the core gameplay?  One should just go play a different game at that point.

                Hopefully, I only have got one more day for "Valkyria Chronicles."  I do not have anything against the game nor am finding it to be boring at this point.  I say this because just when you think that the game is going to be over, more content starts to pour out.

Yours in digital

BeepBoop

Entry 119: "Valkyria Chronicles" Pt. 6

Dear Internet,

                Have I run out of things to talk about concerning "Valkyria Chronicles"?  It sure feels that way.  Should I just end my reviews in this format and go back to daily talks about how I liked the day's playtime?  I would rather not, considering that by doing this game's review in a slightly different way I have been able to examine specific aspects of the game much better than how I normally can.  I am almost done with the game and I suspect that I will be able to finish it off by tomorrow if I am lucky.  With that being said, I should talk about the one thing that I cannot speak on because of a lack of authority.  That thing is the game's replayability.  I cannot really talk about how well the game plays a second time since I have not finished the first go.  To add to that, I probably will not play this game again anytime soon.  This has less to do with the game itself and more to do with the fact that I have too much in the Backlog to return to anything a second time without an outside prompt.

                "Valkyria Chronicles" does at least one thing in particular to add incentive to multiple play- throughs.  I do not mean the game's "New Game +" feature.  I am not even sure what gets carried over since all I know about it is that it exists.  What makes the game replayable is the mission grade.  The game assigns a mission grade going from A to D depending on only one circumstance.  The number of turns that the player took to finish the mission is all that determines the grade.  The game also deals out extra EXP and cash depending on that score to give some incentive to playing the first time.  The amount of turns that the game allows for an A ranked mission often requires a different plan than the safe and cautious playstyle that the game pushes.  It requires the player to push the soldiers to head straight into danger instead of waiting behind sandbags for backup.  Take the first and second repeatable skirmish of the game for examples.  Both skirmishes can be completed in a single turn to ear the A rank.  The first one can be done with only using a sniper and a single scout twice.  The third skirmish can be done in two turns if you push scouts deep into enemy territory.  However, the main story missions cannot be done over and over.  The player can go through them, learn all the secrets, and then start over to try and get the A rank, or he can try and get through the mission as best as he can the first time around.

                The information that the player accumulates by playing the game is something that adds to a second play-through.  The techniques and strategies are something immaterial that the player can call upon again in a second play-through to attempt to get the best outcomes.  There are even events that occur in the mission that can be capitalized only by knowing what is going to happen.  This can best be illustrated in the second Naggiar battle.  Mid-way in the battle, the player is ambushed by two heavy tanks that appear at the outer edges of the map when a certain event occurs.  This event only happens with a prompt by the player.  With prior knowledge of the ambush, the player can position troops behind where the tanks appear or at least close enough to expose their weak spot.  Only by knowing this and placing troops accordingly can the player gain an A rank for that mission.  Otherwise, the player will have to face the onslaught as best as they can.

                This leads into one thing that I wish the game had done.  Prior to deployment, the player is shown a general map as to the battle ahead.  The map shows where the player can deploy troops and where the enemy is gathered.  Beyond that, not much as to the nature of the battlefield is given beyond the brief descriptions that are gathered by what the cast discusses.  This might seem like a sufficient amount of information to begin the battle, but I found that this was often not enough.  I look at the first Naggiar battle specifically when I say this.  After deciding where I wanted all my troops to begin the battle and starting the battle, I was surprised to see a sniper's tower placed right next to one of the starting positions.  I had decided to make use of a sniper for that battle, but I had placed him on the other side of the map.  There was no way that I could have known a sniper's nest was available so close.  After realizing that I was practically being given a free head start, I loaded up my save, and restarted the battle with the sniper placed correctly.  The result was much better and the battle went much smoother with just a single change.

                It is not as if the game decides to throw curve balls constantly in an effort to plague the player with restarts.  Even when it decides to switch things up it gives the player ample ability to overcome the obstacle.  The mission rankings are not what determines if the player has succeeded.  That is what the mission objectives are for.  The rankings are there to spur on the player by granting proportional rewards to do better.  This adds replayability that is determined by the player's desire to repeat the game rather than the game's problems causing everything to be played twice due to last minute twists.

Yours in digital,

BeepBoop