I suppose it is accurate to say that I had high hopes for Valkyria Revolution (VR), since I am a fan of the original Valkyria Chronicles (VC) on the PS3 and I've also played Valkyria Chronicles III on the PSP.
But as you can tell from the title, I'm not too impressed with what the new installment has to offer. Here are three things that I feel are not going well for the game:
1) Battle System
Before I got the game, I read that the battle system in Valkyria Revolution was changed to something that was more fast-paced. I received this news with some apprehension since it was the tactical battle system that really won me over in Valkyria Chronicles.
The battle system went through a massive overhaul. It is a little more fast-paced than the original, but the trade offs are not worth it because it has become more of a button-mashing exercise.
In VC, the characters and how they were deployed were important decisions to make for each mission - if there's an enemy tank but your lancer is deployed too far out, and you may just lose or take that much longer to complete the mission.
In VR, there are some character roles that can be played around with, but since the other team members are being controlled by AI while you're maneuvering your character, there's no real room to think about how each character contributes to success. Most times, I find myself running around, swinging an oversized weapon without much thought.
2) Poor Storytelling
The cut scenes in VR tend to be long and plodding, particularly at the start of the game. At some point, it felt like I was watching a (bad) movie, and not playing a game at all. Some scenes were necessary to set context to the world and the overall story, but they were often bogged down by unnecessary dialogue.
There was potential in having a story built around intrigue, betrayal and revenge. However, for me, that all went to naught because I didn't quite buy the motivation that the Five Traitors had.
3) Bad Character Design
As with all the games in this series, there are quite a few characters that you are introduced to. However, in VR, all of them don't seem to be particularly interesting, playing off typical anime character tropes.
Characters also feature badly designed outfits with unnecessary frills. The animation is also poor, certainly not something I'd expect of a game being launched in 2017.
I'll be heading back to Hyrule, in Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Comments