Valkyria Chronicles

[Kiarax]

Started playing earlier. 2-3 hours in now and it feels like I've barely even started. There was no difficulty select which I was initially worried about, because the demo was easy as hell, but I managed to Game Over twice on one of the first missions (mostly because I was being stupid). So I'd say it's safe to say some of the later missions are gonna be nice and challenging.

Last mission I just did took a good 30-40 minutes, could probably be alot faster but I was mostly trying to play it safe, so I'm guessing there's going to be plenty of hours to put into this. Missions don't appear to be repeatable but you can do repeatable skirmishes if you want to grind exp/money. Not that levels seem to make much difference so far, they've only added a very small amount of HP and a trait to my snipers (one got an occasional accuracy boost, the other got an accuracy boost when up ladders/roofs).

Also Vyse and Aika are on your squad from the start, fuck yeah.

[Jefe]

Eventually will pick this one up, along w/ R2 ;o

[Xno Kappa]

Been playing the heck out of the demo. Definitely going to pick this one up.

[Kiarax]

Holy shit, just had to do a mission against a tank the size of a house, took an hour and twenty minutes including the cutscenes. That was a fucking awesome mission, got crazy intense at the end when the reinforcements arrived and almost took out half my team, bosses covering your ko'd teammates with interceptions is not cool. 8 hours 30 minutes in now and the story is starting to pick up (don't get me wrong, it's been good so far but they've only just introduced the enemies and stuff). Not looking forward to having to restart any future missions if I fuck up and get killed towards the end with the length. There's a save option during missions, but I've yet to test to see if it saves mid mission or just takes you back out to the chapter select once you load.

[Elcura]

I've been playing for a few hours and I'm in love with this game. I love hitting a target in the head that I can barely see with a Sniper and one-shotting them. How many chapters are there? They all seem pretty short, but I'm only on chapter 5.

[Kiarax]

I just finished 7, you must be going alot faster than me through the missions, lol. Quick glance at a GameFAQs S-rank FAQ and it seems that there's 18 episodes. I think I remember reading somewhere that it totals up to 25 battles or somesuch, but so far it's just been 1 battle per episode so far.

[Jefe]

So can you save your progress mid battle, or does it cut you some slack so you won't have to restart from the beginning of an hour+ long fight?

[Kiarax]

Just tested it and it loads exactly where you left off during the battle. It's not a quick save or anything either, so you can keep loading the same save mid battle if you desire.

Word of advice, there'll be a guy at the Graveyard that will offer to teach you Retreat for 6k~ XP, it's very useful. Uses 1 CP to make any unit retreat, was really helpful on that last mission since I had left Alicia and Rosie off at the top of the map since they were useless against the tank. Enemy reinforcements arrived literally right next to them, so retreat got them out of there without them dying.

[Elcura]

Ahh, that fucking tank (Botomys) is insane! Took me 2 goes to understand what the fuck was going on, and I didn't even see what happens after the second radiator goes down coming. Someone on my team died, I just hope that there's a new game+ and/or a decent ending doesn't require no casualties...

Fucking epic battle though.

[Rokku]

There's going to be DLC for the game too. Japan is getting the first set of it this week, it's an extra chapter, a few extra missions, and a harder difficulty setting.

[Elesirdur]

Tried out the demo over the weekend and I really enjoyed the art style, although the samples of voice acting were very weak in my opinion. The cutscene montage that prefaces the demo was very intriguing; I can see myself getting very interested in the game's back story.

Oh, and am I missing something that would allow you to have the same unit attack more than once in a turn if you spend multiple CP to activate that unit? I know you could use extra CP to have them retreat from enemy fire before their round begins, but I couldn't figure out how (or if) I could get the same unit to attack twice during a full phase.

[arus2001]

Far as I saw, you could attack multiple times if they had the ammo for it. Otherwise, I think they get one shot per turn grace reload if emptied, more if you're by your base.

[Elcura]

For what he's saying, you can't shoot twice in one round (some units have the extra fire ability, but otherwise...)

[Kiarax]

Yeah, you can move the same unit and attack multiple times. Each time you use them on the same turn their AP gauge is a little shorter though, so you can't move them quite as far each turn. They can attack every turn but Lancers, Sniper Rifles, Tank Mortars and Grenades all have limited ammo. You get 1 ammo restocked per turn, full ammo restocked at the start of a turn if you're stood at a base. You can also run into teammates with an Engineer to restock their ammo.

And yeah, after the reinforcements arrived I lost Alicia and Rosie since I had left them at the top of the map. They couldn't quite escape in time, haha. Managed to run my Engineer up there and just manage to call Medic for both of them (luckily the reinforcements attack takes a few seconds to go off, and the medic cutscene cancels that), cancelled her turn quickly and then used retreat on the Engineer. Thought I was gonna have to do the whole battle again from losing them. The cutscene after that fight was awesome too.

Not sure why I'm so anal about keeping everyone alive (well, no way in hell I was letting Rosie or Alicia die since they have the +1 CP bonus (can they even die? I dunno how it works with story characters)) since you have so many replacements available, but I hate permanent deaths, I'm the same way in Fire Emblem.

[Elcura]

Story characters can't die permanently, but the rest can. I lost a Lancer because I underestimated how far she could run and she mowed my Lancer down and I couldn't get anyone else over there without being mauled horribly. Truly a ass rape moment, I tried to do the battle again, but it's irritating because Lancers have shitty accuracy and keep missing the fucking turrets. Funnily enough, the character that died gave me shit so I decided to just skip the battle and move on with the story.

[Kiarax]

What do you mean by gave you shit? As in talked shit or gave you some sort of reward for letting them get killed? :O

[Elcura]

Nah, I was using her in my run to do the mission without anyone dying, and she must have missed the turret like 6 times in a row from really close up, pissed me off.

[Kiarax]

I see. Have you done the trade route side mission? Largo's lines were cracking me up. Also have you managed to get any Elite units yet? Wondering what the bonuses are, I just got Scouts up to Elite and they have Rifle grenades now, was planning on doing Snipers next but if other stuff has awesome bonuses I'll work on them instead.

[Elcura]

Nah, I'm doing Largo's side story now. What level do you get elites at?

[Kiarax]

Got Elite Scouts when they hit level 11, I assume it's the same for all other classes. Largo's side story is the trade route one, fight was pretty fun but easy. I got the fanservice cutscene lastnight but it costs 50k, lol.