I started playing the Valkyria Chronicles remaster for the PS4 recently, and have been enjoying it a lot. It feels like a WW2 Fire Emblem, with some 3rd person shooter elements mixed in, and I like the emphasis on tactics and balancing out the team for each mission. I'd say it's a downright great game!
...in a gameplay sense.
What feels weird to me is that I hardly watch anime, and I can count the amount of JRPGs I've actually played with almost one hand alone, so I shouldn't be so inundated with this. But Valkyria Chronicles still feels like wading through the absolute worst mush of JRPG and anime tropes imaginable. I feel like I'm barely getting started (like seriously, I only just played the mission where Welkin and Alicia rejoin their squad after separation), yet there's already been at least 5 occasions that have made me groan aloud at what I guess could be called anime nonsense. I have a hard time tolerating it as is (most often I've come across it in a fantasy or sci-fi setting), but when it's juxtaposed against a backdrop of essentially WW2 with all the accompanying concepts, it becomes borderline unbearable.
Valkyria Chronicles is by no means the only game that's gotten my teeth grinding over stuff like this. Hell, Final Fantasy X is possibly even worse, and it's still a great game which I love playing. Outside of games another example is Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood, a great series which I'll heartily recommend, yet it's still plagued by the same issues: nonsensical, tonally inconsistent chibi humor, overemotional drama, lack of subtlety in the storytelling (at times, since Brotherhood is actually more subtle in its storytelling than what I'm getting at). Even Ni No Kuni, which was praised for its story and mostly managed to stay away from this kind of thing, had me on occasion rolling my eyes at the animu nonsense.
TL;DR: Valkyria Chronicles is another example of an otherwise great product where its storytelling and characters actively hamper my enjoyment of it. I enjoy the core gameplay greatly, but if I have to stick my fingers into my ears every time someone is talking, the game just ain't working all properly for me. What are your examples of this?
As a final sendoff, the episode structure in the game is just retarded. Why do I essentially have to press the play button after about every 20 seconds in a cutscene. Why are they split into multiple scenes? Just let me watch the whole thing in one go, dammit!
...in a gameplay sense.
What feels weird to me is that I hardly watch anime, and I can count the amount of JRPGs I've actually played with almost one hand alone, so I shouldn't be so inundated with this. But Valkyria Chronicles still feels like wading through the absolute worst mush of JRPG and anime tropes imaginable. I feel like I'm barely getting started (like seriously, I only just played the mission where Welkin and Alicia rejoin their squad after separation), yet there's already been at least 5 occasions that have made me groan aloud at what I guess could be called anime nonsense. I have a hard time tolerating it as is (most often I've come across it in a fantasy or sci-fi setting), but when it's juxtaposed against a backdrop of essentially WW2 with all the accompanying concepts, it becomes borderline unbearable.
- Before the mission with the giant tank and Selvaria, the heroes suddenly just randomly bump into essentially Hitler. And they recognize him, realize that this is their opportunity to take him out, and what do they do? Only one proceeds to even point a gun at him, while the other two just stand there, not even trying to cut off his passage or anything. And instead of riddling him with bullets and jumping on the corpse until it turns into mashed potatoes they just let him walk away! Cut to the start of the next mission and boom! Suddenly he's in a gigantic battle tank! What the fuck are you guys doing? You're supposed to be trained fucking professionals!
- This is just a nitpick, but it bugs the shit out of me when at the start of each mission Welkin essentially gives the go via radio, and yet he's talking like he's addressing an entire company of soldiers in medieval times. They can hear you dude! You don't need to raise your voice. Just enunciate properly and they'll get it.
- Please tell me that Alicia is going to evolve from the nightmare of anime girl cliches she's been so far. It'd be fine were it not for the fact that her rank is actually sergeant. Granted, during war time times are drastically different, but I'd imagine this squeamish, emotional tsundere nightmare reaching lance-corporal at best. The narrative dissonance is perhaps more pronounced in her character more than anyone, since she's perfectly fine with shooting people in the head at point blank range, but touching animal droppings, eeeewwwww!
- The worst was the cutscene after the mission where Welkin and Alicia have to sneak through the night by themselves. They hole up at a cabin for the night (of course not having one of them stand guard, set up a barricade, block the windows or even sleep out of sight, fucking ANYTHING), and tend to an enemy soldier's wounds who comes across them. The soldier dies, and they bury him outside. In the morning enemy troops discover them, and see the grave they gave to the soldier. The way the scene played out almost made me pull my hair out. It had all the storytelling subtlety of a sledgehammer to the fucking nuts. Of course they couldn't let it be just one soldier. Of course the superiors had to show up. And of course you had to spell out multiple fucking times that they dug a grave to one of their enemies despite this scene having been much more effective without dialogue, and about one fifth the length. But then you had to have Alicia go on a whole tirade about humanity, friendship and how we're all still the same and yadda yadda. This was where the setting really really worked against the scene: in a fantasy setting it wouldn't be so out of place, since high flying concepts like honour, chivalry, heroism and such are expected in that kind of context. But in WW2 it's just unbearably cheesy.
- This is just a nitpick, but it bugs the shit out of me when at the start of each mission Welkin essentially gives the go via radio, and yet he's talking like he's addressing an entire company of soldiers in medieval times. They can hear you dude! You don't need to raise your voice. Just enunciate properly and they'll get it.
- Please tell me that Alicia is going to evolve from the nightmare of anime girl cliches she's been so far. It'd be fine were it not for the fact that her rank is actually sergeant. Granted, during war time times are drastically different, but I'd imagine this squeamish, emotional tsundere nightmare reaching lance-corporal at best. The narrative dissonance is perhaps more pronounced in her character more than anyone, since she's perfectly fine with shooting people in the head at point blank range, but touching animal droppings, eeeewwwww!
- The worst was the cutscene after the mission where Welkin and Alicia have to sneak through the night by themselves. They hole up at a cabin for the night (of course not having one of them stand guard, set up a barricade, block the windows or even sleep out of sight, fucking ANYTHING), and tend to an enemy soldier's wounds who comes across them. The soldier dies, and they bury him outside. In the morning enemy troops discover them, and see the grave they gave to the soldier. The way the scene played out almost made me pull my hair out. It had all the storytelling subtlety of a sledgehammer to the fucking nuts. Of course they couldn't let it be just one soldier. Of course the superiors had to show up. And of course you had to spell out multiple fucking times that they dug a grave to one of their enemies despite this scene having been much more effective without dialogue, and about one fifth the length. But then you had to have Alicia go on a whole tirade about humanity, friendship and how we're all still the same and yadda yadda. This was where the setting really really worked against the scene: in a fantasy setting it wouldn't be so out of place, since high flying concepts like honour, chivalry, heroism and such are expected in that kind of context. But in WW2 it's just unbearably cheesy.
TL;DR: Valkyria Chronicles is another example of an otherwise great product where its storytelling and characters actively hamper my enjoyment of it. I enjoy the core gameplay greatly, but if I have to stick my fingers into my ears every time someone is talking, the game just ain't working all properly for me. What are your examples of this?
As a final sendoff, the episode structure in the game is just retarded. Why do I essentially have to press the play button after about every 20 seconds in a cutscene. Why are they split into multiple scenes? Just let me watch the whole thing in one go, dammit!
