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
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