I recently obtained a Sony PlayStation 3 Home Computer Entertainment System, and the first thing I did the morning after I got it was pick up a copy of Valkyria Chronicles, which I mentioned way back around this time last year.
It's really good.
That is to say it's mechanically really good. How it combines turn-based strategy and light third-person action is a triumph, except it comes wrapped in a JRPG presentation that carries the overwrought narrative baggage expected from the genre. Every character suffers from verbal diarrhea, complete with the standard half-hearted diatribes on subjects like human nature and racism mashed with the somewhat inappropriate feeling cutesy humor, the kind which is very often punctuated with a "Tee hee!" by one of the female protagonists. The cut-scenes are entirely skippable, but I suffer from an affliction that requires me to view them, because while it might be virtually impossible, especially at this point, to get me emotionally invested into the storyline, I like to know what's going on and what led up to a particular mission. It does help that the game has a great look to it, if I were so bold I might even say gorgeous, the way everything is presented with a painterly, watercolor look.
The short of it is that I don't really care for the story or characters, but now that we've gotten that out of the way we can talk about what I do like. When you are mercifully allowed to participate in the game proper, it is essentially a gridless turn-based strategy game. At the start of your turn you are presented with a map of the battlefield and a set of Command Points with which to move your units, selecting a unit brings the game into a third-person mode in which you move them about and attack in real-time. While they do less damage than they would during your turn, enemies can still fire upon the units you are moving, so speed and use of cover is still a factor, giving it a more action-y feel. Once your unit is in "aim mode" they have all the time in the world to pick their shot and fire, with headshots obviously doing more damage but being harder to make. Your units can only fire once per use, but can be reused multiple times in a turn, though the distance they can move decreases significantly with each use.
While the most I've ever seen allowed in a mission is 9 units, you assemble a squad of 20 from a large roster of characters in different classes, each with their own special "potentials" which can be good or bad and are only activated under certain conditions (e.g. Works better alone, not as effective in urban environments, etc.) and other characters they prefer fighting with. The experience you earn is spent on leveling up unit types (Snipers, scouts, shocktroopers, etc.) rather than individuals, which is a great relief. The money you earn is spent upgrading and modifying each class type's equipment, and you'll pick up some enemy weapons along the way, further allowing you to customize your squad.
There's a lot to chew on here and I've been taking it pretty slow, but so far it's a game with a surprising amount of depth considering it's coming from Sega. Maybe it would need to have a different context (I keep thinking about shoehorning Team Fortress 2 into this style), but it really feels like the kind of game that would do better on the PC.
-K.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Big Guns and Bigger Eyes
Thursday, October 9, 2008
If I Had a Million 1200 Dollars
So a few weeks ago someone backed into my car while I was asleep and to their credit they were kind enough to leave a note and take responsibility. The damage does not appear significant, to me at least, but since the cost to repair it would include replacing the driver's side door the estimate I got came to the tune of about $1200, which I have opted to take in the form of a check. I've had the car for about 16 months now and it's already got almost 110,000 miles on it so it's not like the resale value is going to be tremendous when I'm done with it. Unlike before I will not be using this money to purchase another pinball machine (Not even a Neo-Geo arcade cabinet), but rather apply the bulk to my credit card, which will already be seeing considerable use this month and the next.
My dismissive attitude towards the PlayStation 3 is not something I have really kept hidden, and most of that is really the fault of the Sony's PR department going out of their way to tell people that, and this may not be verbatim, we don't need games to get you jerks to buy our crap. And they certainly delivered on that statement. Outside of big releases like Metal Gear Solid 4 and the recent LittleBigPlanet (Of which I was also dismissive but word-of-mouth is beginning to spread and I'm slowly starting to take notice), there isn't much the system has to offer that I could not consume elsewhere. So, obviously, it's not a platform that is on my radar. But while I'm pondering how I'm going to divy up this cash, last night a friend of mine tells me about Sega's Valkyria Chronicles, a PS3 exclusive.
From what I've been able to discern from various media which I have spent much of the morning consuming it is a turn-based real-time strategy action RPG, in which you get to control each individual unit's specific movement and attacks in real time. This same friend spent some time in the Land of the Rising Fun and talked about getting his hands on it during his visit, telling me it is exactly the kind of game I'd get really into. From the looks of it, he's right. Goddamn it.
-K.