I want to like this game. I so desperately want to. But I just can't.
Valkyria Chronicles, on paper, has a cool premise for a turn-based strategy game, both in terms of gameplay and style, but crumbles under the weight of its design, its absurd RNG, its brutal punishment for demanding perfection and swiftness with every mission, and a story that begins middling and derails into absurdity by the second act.
Never have I played a game that is so hostile to your first run.
Usually, I am okay with taking forever on the first time through, as you are still grasping with systems and will eventually reach a point of optimization that gives a sense of game understanding. That is not the case for Valkyria. VC1 demands a level of optimization so fast that, if you don’t, you end up really screwing yourself over in the long run that gets you into content you probably don’t want to do: grinding.
See, I like grinds. I’m addicted to the tedium so long as there is a carrot on that stick. In the case of VC1, you are progressing your character’s levels through experience that, yes, does make them stronger, but there is no real payoff. You’re just grinding to overcome the game’s shortcomings and trying to further optimize your runs and the more you aren’t achieving A ranks in main missions, the more you will submit pounds and pounds of flesh to the Skirmish missions.
Skirmishes were fun the first ten times I ran them. They weren’t fun the fortieth time I ran them just so I could level up my scouts and be done with it. Repeatable missions with no variation in objectives and just trying to find the fastest one so you could farm exp over and over again was so incredibly dull. Which, the same objectives were not my problem, but it was how you fought to said objective.
So, let’s talk about the massive elephant on a unicycle in the room.
The scout class is one of the most broken I have ever seen in a game like this. I like feeling powerful, but not a demigod. Traditionally, what should be a glass cannon in most games, ends up becoming the most powerful unit that can easily wipe the floor if you so much as glance in their direction. Made worse by the fact that one of the titular characters, Alicia, has a broken set of passives that makes her able to solo entire missions just by herself.
I’m assuming the game designers halfway through making Alicia probably implemented the constant active enemies so it could have a chance at countering the monster they made.
Initially, I was onboard with the idea of enemies still being “active threats” during movement, but what it turned into was a frustrating sprint to wherever I needed to go with either no cover most of the time or save-scumming just to see how much less damage I could take during runs.
I learned at about Chapter 14, a hilarious issue tied to higher framerates that cause units to take more damage than intended so that was a fun workaround.
What disappoints me most about the gameplay is you are given access to an entire roster of characters to select, but for 90% of the missions you are good with just three characters that so happen to be attached to a system that gives you more actions if you bring them. And since each of them fulfill a specific class, there is no reason to vary yourself in different units outside of extreme conditions. Yes, this is speaking from someone who was trying their best to optimize their runs so they could just be done with it, but the character designs are so good in this game, it is criminal the game isn’t forcing you to use what it’s given you.
Speaking of characters, I really must ask: Why was Welkin Gunther the protagonist?
No, really, why was he? Alicia, Rosie, Isara, hell even Largo, all could have been better protagonists than Welkin. Welkin gets thrusted into a leadership position, and it’s known that his father was a well-known hero during the First Europan War, but its never really explained how Welkin feels about all this. He just sort of brushes along with the plot with no real ground for him to stand on. Alicia ends up taking the spotlight she very much well deserves. It just feels like Welkin isn’t given enough time for any growth, progression, or proper investments in his character because he is a road for Squad 7’s overall growth.
As for the story, it really does have an interesting premise that gets shafted into a tonal shift tunnel of Shonen World War II and I say that nowhere near as a positive.
The most hilarious thing to me about this game’s story also comes from its presentation. The book mode is a bit of a clunky interface mess, but it does have some charm to it. I like the watercolor painting style to make it seem like you are reliving a history book with pictures, but the story mode tab is where all my issues come into a sharp pain.
See, each mission has a thumbnail in them and often, they are very, very spoiler images. The plot is already very basic, and you can probably see most, if not all the major reveals from a mile away, and the game doesn’t even try to hide the fact it is just spoiling scenes outright, especially from Chapters 11 and 13. It’s hilarious how much this game does not care.
See, what frustrates me most about all of this is Valkyria Chronicles could have been a good game. On paper, this feels as if it was tailor-made for my enjoyment, but I walk away with unbridled frustration over this experience of a repetitive grind, frustrating RNG from getting specific items from characters, and a story that is so crushingly meandering.
Valkyria Chronicles, on paper, has a cool premise for a turn-based strategy game, both in terms of gameplay and style, but crumbles under the weight of its design, its absurd RNG, its brutal punishment for demanding perfection and swiftness with every mission, and a story that begins middling and derails into absurdity by the second act.
Never have I played a game that is so hostile to your first run.
Usually, I am okay with taking forever on the first time through, as you are still grasping with systems and will eventually reach a point of optimization that gives a sense of game understanding. That is not the case for Valkyria. VC1 demands a level of optimization so fast that, if you don’t, you end up really screwing yourself over in the long run that gets you into content you probably don’t want to do: grinding.
See, I like grinds. I’m addicted to the tedium so long as there is a carrot on that stick. In the case of VC1, you are progressing your character’s levels through experience that, yes, does make them stronger, but there is no real payoff. You’re just grinding to overcome the game’s shortcomings and trying to further optimize your runs and the more you aren’t achieving A ranks in main missions, the more you will submit pounds and pounds of flesh to the Skirmish missions.
Skirmishes were fun the first ten times I ran them. They weren’t fun the fortieth time I ran them just so I could level up my scouts and be done with it. Repeatable missions with no variation in objectives and just trying to find the fastest one so you could farm exp over and over again was so incredibly dull. Which, the same objectives were not my problem, but it was how you fought to said objective.
So, let’s talk about the massive elephant on a unicycle in the room.
The scout class is one of the most broken I have ever seen in a game like this. I like feeling powerful, but not a demigod. Traditionally, what should be a glass cannon in most games, ends up becoming the most powerful unit that can easily wipe the floor if you so much as glance in their direction. Made worse by the fact that one of the titular characters, Alicia, has a broken set of passives that makes her able to solo entire missions just by herself.
I’m assuming the game designers halfway through making Alicia probably implemented the constant active enemies so it could have a chance at countering the monster they made.
Initially, I was onboard with the idea of enemies still being “active threats” during movement, but what it turned into was a frustrating sprint to wherever I needed to go with either no cover most of the time or save-scumming just to see how much less damage I could take during runs.
I learned at about Chapter 14, a hilarious issue tied to higher framerates that cause units to take more damage than intended so that was a fun workaround.
What disappoints me most about the gameplay is you are given access to an entire roster of characters to select, but for 90% of the missions you are good with just three characters that so happen to be attached to a system that gives you more actions if you bring them. And since each of them fulfill a specific class, there is no reason to vary yourself in different units outside of extreme conditions. Yes, this is speaking from someone who was trying their best to optimize their runs so they could just be done with it, but the character designs are so good in this game, it is criminal the game isn’t forcing you to use what it’s given you.
Speaking of characters, I really must ask: Why was Welkin Gunther the protagonist?
No, really, why was he? Alicia, Rosie, Isara, hell even Largo, all could have been better protagonists than Welkin. Welkin gets thrusted into a leadership position, and it’s known that his father was a well-known hero during the First Europan War, but its never really explained how Welkin feels about all this. He just sort of brushes along with the plot with no real ground for him to stand on. Alicia ends up taking the spotlight she very much well deserves. It just feels like Welkin isn’t given enough time for any growth, progression, or proper investments in his character because he is a road for Squad 7’s overall growth.
As for the story, it really does have an interesting premise that gets shafted into a tonal shift tunnel of Shonen World War II and I say that nowhere near as a positive.
The most hilarious thing to me about this game’s story also comes from its presentation. The book mode is a bit of a clunky interface mess, but it does have some charm to it. I like the watercolor painting style to make it seem like you are reliving a history book with pictures, but the story mode tab is where all my issues come into a sharp pain.
See, each mission has a thumbnail in them and often, they are very, very spoiler images. The plot is already very basic, and you can probably see most, if not all the major reveals from a mile away, and the game doesn’t even try to hide the fact it is just spoiling scenes outright, especially from Chapters 11 and 13. It’s hilarious how much this game does not care.
See, what frustrates me most about all of this is Valkyria Chronicles could have been a good game. On paper, this feels as if it was tailor-made for my enjoyment, but I walk away with unbridled frustration over this experience of a repetitive grind, frustrating RNG from getting specific items from characters, and a story that is so crushingly meandering.