Hi everyone! Thank you so much for participating in the parent thread. Here's the spinoff for the first quarter.
We're playing: 
Here's the breakdown:
Looks like the game is around 30 hours long. This whittles us down to 8 episodes per month. Not too bad. Including the prologue, you should stop after Episode 7 by the end of October.
October: Prologue - Episode 7
November: Episode 8a - 13
December: Episode 14 - End
Please refrain from spoilers for any section (or use spoiler tags) until the month containing that section is up. Please feel free to start at any time! Let the discussions begin. 
Note: Here is the 'pick' video in case anyone cares to see. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3hW...
I am in! Let's do this!
Wanted to note - as of right now, this is under $7 on Steam for all who are interested!
I'm in, I already started it a while back so I need to see how far along I am.
Purchased via Steam. Will post impressions later after my first play session.
Dammit. I might have to get in on this. I made it 2/3rds through on ps3 but never finished it. What a neat and fun game.
Dammit. I might have to get in on this. I made it 2/3rds through on ps3 but never finished it. What a neat and fun game.
And one thing I liked about it is that each battle is distinct from the others: Each have its own 'gimmick' (for lack of a better word) that differentiates it.
As I said in the other thread, I played this a year or two ago (over the course of a bit more than a year, I stopped once or twice for a few months) and had a blast. Since it's relatively fresh in my memory, I should be able to participate.
Sweet, I am at Chapter 7... I have to figure out how to successfully complete it. Painful first try as I recall. Enough to cause me to walk away. Grateful for this incentive!
Planning on giving it a go.
I'm out of town for the weekend (trying to get up to the Adirondacks before it gets much colder) but I'm starting a little of this before I leave today. I remember playing the first chapter or two before, and thinking it was really cool. Pretty excited to sink my teeth in!
So we're doing the same spoiler free thing as the monthly game club? Meaning, once October is through, spoilers are okay for the first section of episodes?
Yep! I should probably clarify that. Thanks for the heads up!
Ha, I just finished the Prologue. I love that the feel of this thread is a quarterly book club, further emphasized by the fact that VC plays by pushing you through pages of a book.
The prologue was pretty cool. Still trying to understand why the game mentions that the soldiers won't fire back at you while you're taking actions, yet they still are. Maybe I misunderstood something.
I forgot how much I loved the visuals on this game though. Makes me think of how much I loved those of Eternal Sonata. Some great cel-shading and very tasteful anime-style influence.
I'm pretty excited to keep trucking!
Wow, you guys are tempting me. I got pretty far in this game and then stuff came up, put it down, and never got back into it.
I'm not a JRPG guy but this game is much more like a unique turn-based tactics game except you get tanks and infantry. It really is fantastic. I think it was the grindy nature of it (repeating missions to get resources to upgrade) that might have worn me down.
Love to hear what people think of the game as they progress.
It'll probably be about 40 hours for me. This sounds doable!
I'll be late to the party in getting started, but will do what I can to catch up.
It'll probably be about 40 hours for me. This sounds doable!
I'll be late to the party in getting started, but will do what I can to catch up.
30 hours seems a bit short, I agree. I seem to recall that my final time was around 40 as well. I did take some time to grind (I think it was around chapter 17).
Yup; generally speaking, I tend to stop and smell the roses (i.e. explore and grind) more than average in rpg's of all stripes, so it's usually safe to add 10-25% to the median completion time to figure out how long it will take me.
Liking it so far. Only played the first couple of missions and the jury is still out on the characters, for me. But the gameplay is entertaining.
Coincidentally started playing this a week or so ago before even seeing this thread. I'm up to mission 7 now. My thoughts:
What the heck is up with these key bindings (I'm on PC)? Eventually got used to it.
I like the art style.
I haven't played any JRPG's to speak of and have only watched a few anime series. The overly lighthearted (? Not sure this is what I mean) characters and dialogue are alternately endearing and eye-roll inducing for me. I like the main characters. This reporter though... Groan.
It hasn't happened yet, but I am starting to see possible signs of the grind setting in. Not quite enough experience and cash to upgrade everything fully without replaying the skirmishes a few times. I guess time will tell if I can get by with just picking the most important upgrades for my playstyle. Grinding has the potential to make my experience much more negative.
So far I'm enjoying it though. I wish the sequels were available on PC for the sake of my completionist nature. I'd probably be better off playing X-com 2 with my time though.
I haven't played any JRPG's to speak of and have only watched a few anime series. The overly lighthearted (? Not sure this is what I mean) characters and dialogue are alternately endearing and eye-roll inducing for me. I like the main characters. This reporter though... Groan.
Mild spoilers I guess:
The game has some darker moments, especially after chapter 8.
It hasn't happened yet, but I am starting to see possible signs of the grind setting in. Not quite enough experience and cash to upgrade everything fully without replaying the skirmishes a few times. I guess time will tell if I can get by with just picking the most important upgrades for my playstyle. Grinding has the potential to make my experience much more negative.
I don't think you have to grind, assuming you're reasonably good at strategy games. (I suck at them, usually). There is a point where the enemies get ahead of you in terms of levels, but it's not a huge difference and it stays fairly manageable.
Think I did about 5 chapters of this the week it released on Steam. Had it on my PS3 wishlist forever before that. Need to get back into it.
The prologue was pretty cool. Still trying to understand why the game mentions that the soldiers won't fire back at you while you're taking actions, yet they still are. Maybe I misunderstood something.
What they mean when they say this, is while you are running around they will fire on you, but when you go into your "action" (fire gun, throw grenade, etc) the enemies will finish their current reactive fire and then pause so you can then take your time aiming the shot. This can be useful to take a look around after you've run some distance. Enter fire mode, spin your character around, exit fire mode.
It looks like I was near the end of chapter 6 before I quit last time, put about an hour in, got my butt handed to me, need to remember how to play again!
Remembering why I stopped at 7! Poor PC tank controls. Wasting my turns driving this thing... Welkin drives as if he has had too much beverage.
Spent my son's naptime attempting to complete the Chapter 7 battle. I think it's TIME TO GRIND! Fortunately, skirmishes (at least the early ones) don't seem to take too long. My units are all currently at level 6. Thinking I'll aim to get the units I believe are critical for this battle to level 7
Lancers and Snipers
before attempting this again.
Connecting shots with an enemy, especially those at a distance when you REALLY need them down is a very rewarding feeling.
Those shots missing... pretty awful.
Remembering why I stopped at 7! Poor PC tank controls. Wasting my turns driving this thing... Welkin drives as if he has had too much beverage.
Spent my son's naptime attempting to complete the Chapter 7 battle. I think it's TIME TO GRIND! Fortunately, skirmishes (at least the early ones) don't seem to take too long. My units are all currently at level 6. Thinking I'll aim to get the units I believe are critical for this battle to level 7
Spoiler:Lancers and Snipers
before attempting this again.
Connecting shots with an enemy, especially those at a distance when you REALLY need them down is a very rewarding feeling.
Those shots missing... pretty awful.
Chapter 7 is super frustrating, I had to look up how to do it, and my game also crashed once in it.
You can lose a LOT of soldiers in that battle and it can become very annoying.
Well, after playing Chapter 1, I can start to see why there are some complaints about the game. The part where they introduce the tank isn't very clear in regards to who needs to get to the checkpoint. Apparently you can just walk over to the marker with one character and not all, like I had thought. There was very little cover and I had died once because I thought I had to bring the whole team. I guess part of it is learning, but it wasn't very clear.
Overall though, I'm definitely enjoying my time! I think I really like the way this game is cut up into chapters and it seems to fit this format well. 2 chapters a week is hardly demanding.
A few of us already beat this game or don't own it, so we're doing an alternate pick of Valkyria Chronicles 2 for PSP/Vita. Feel free to play along if you'd like!
Wait, there are now two parties to go to? How can I choose which the cooler party to attend?!
VC2 is totally optional - I know there were folks interested in the portable side of things - seems appropriate for a game which has one console entry and one portable entry. There is a chance that we may have extra time outside of our quarterly picks in which people can run back to VC2 if they don't finish it during this quarter, too.
I'm in, but won't start until the middle of October. Pretty busy until then.
Oh hey, also... any simple gameplay tips that anyone can share to help ease the curve of learning a new jrpg system?
And how much should I be stressed/OCD-ish about getting a perfect grade in each mission? How possible is it to horribly screw myself over by doing things wrong in the game, leaving me badly outclassed by the end?
I love strategy jrpg's, but they also unfortunately target some of my brain's anxiety centers.
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