Valkyria Chronicles General

I believe it's made clearer later on, but Selvaria makes mention of the hellish conditions she endured in the Valkyria research labs, which it's implied is to draw out latent/minimal Valkyria powers and strengthen them. (This is confirmed in 4, if not before.)

Sure, but that doesn't necessarily mean she's not a real one. It's plausible that Selvaria is a real one, but the researchers themselves don't know how to actually trigger the Valkyria state and thus the hellish conditions were due to researcher ignorance rather her being manufactured. Did 1 give us anything explicit on this?

I do find it amusing how now that I think about it, being a Valkyria is kind of like a hybrid between being the Avatar from Avatar the Last Airbender and being an Immortal from Highlander.

Also found it interesting that one of Ellet's news reports imply that there were already Valkyria projects going on in EWI, one of which happened in the Empire which resulted in a Final Flame going off.

I mean, she IS a Valkyria descendant. It's just that she's 2% and Belgar tortured her to be able to work like a full-fledged Valkyria, while Alicia is 5% and had to take a gut shot for it.

Or at least, that's what's implied. Selvaria is loyal to Maximilian because he rescued her from the labs (...that he sponsored and funded), and refers to it as torture (which is reinforced in 4).

Didn't Selvaria also need to injure herself to activate her Valkyria powers? I seem to recall her stabbing herself.

Doesn't every Valkyria need to experience mortal injury to awaken their powers, though? They're kind of like Highlander immortals in that way.

We blew up Jaeger's tank. Are there any good ways to take out the Lupus Regnum's armor? Neither Penetrate nor Attack Weak Spot nor Damage/Demolition Boost seemed to justify the CP.

Not particularly in the first playthrough. In a New Game Plus, those orders and the Theimer M30R (which you simply can't have by then on the first time through) on Elysse, Audrey, or Jann can theoretically take down the Lupus Regnum from the front on the first turn.

edited 17th Apr '18 10:24:56 AM by Balmung

So does Jann get Ultimate Vs Armour?

I ask, because he gets Max Vs Armour in VC 2, and that's a surprisingly potent potential, since it always kicks in. Noel is my favourite lancer from that game simply because she's the only canon class member to learn it (that isn't Jugin, who's post-game only)

Jann, Elysse, and Audrey all get Ultimate Anti-Armor.

And speaking of "Ultimate X" skills, I think Marina is at least somewhat overrated. By the time you can get Ultimate Accuracy, you'll have the GSR-20R or GSR-30R, which are so accurate that any sniper can score headshots with 100% reliability.

Fair, but she should be able to use less accurate rifles with perfect accuracy anyway.

And that actually makes a difference when you've got weather that actively wrecks your accuracy, like sandstorm or fog.

I don't think fog is a condition in VC 1 and sandstorm is more problematic for cutting view range than anything.

Also, there's not really much reason to use less accurate rifles. The GSR-30R hits harder than the Brondel M20 and the Brondel M120X is less powerful and doesn't have a terribly useful effect. Captured rifles have more punch, but they pay with range, which takes away their utility on the maps where they'd be most useful. So that only really leaves the anti-tank rifles if you use those.

Well, VC 2 is the one I've sunk more time into. So stuff like fog and sandstorm actually do happen, and it's really painful to see those accuracy drops. Even with Max Accuracy, it's not a guaranteed hit, but at least it's in the general vicinity.

Cleared the game over the weekend.

Waifu maintains that Faldio is the hero Gallia deserves.

I think the fact that one of the best ways of killing Max/Selvaria is circling three of your dudes behind him and having them do the team firing thing probably supports the whole "muh teamwork" thing much better than Welkin's whole "we'll win without using Alicia's Valkyria powers" schtick.

Doesn't seem like there was anything in VC 1 at least indicating that the Valkyria lab was Max's funding/idea. There was a news article pointing out that back in EWI there was some Final-Flame-esque event inside Empire territory, so either they were doing experiments already or it was the Federation sending their own version of one (do the Feds have one anyway?)

Also, just wondering: despite being named "The Federation" as opposed to "The Empire", are the Feds actually shown to be better than the Imps in any way? Because VC 1 at least leaves me with a far more favorable impression of the latter, being that my only experience with the Feds is their attempted kidnapping of Cordelia, while the Imperial character at least mostly have some degree of battlefield honor.

The Federation is generally treated as pretty underhanded by both VC 1 and VC 2 (in 2, they provide covert, and later overt, aid to the Klan Rebels). In both cases, the Federation actor is Ambassador Townshend, so Townshend might just be a colossal asshole, though.

Literally the one thing we can say positive about the Federation in comparison to the Empire (at least pre-VC 4) is that at least they aren't racist (or at least they aren't genocidal about it) - As the Rebels' sugar daddy, Townshend requests that they stop the Darcsen purges because they're unpopular in the Federation.

edited 23rd Apr '18 3:26:27 PM by Balmung

Exactly. It honestly baffled me to here that the next VC game is going to be from Federation soldier's Po V.

Then again, it looks like the main characters are all Gallians, so maybe that's going to be why it's OK?

What, VC 4? Yeah, they're from the Edinburgh Army, which appears to be Federation, but the core story characters are all from the same village in Gallia and most of the side recruits are too.

That said, the idea that the Federation is better than the Empire is... Kind of zigzagged, honestly. The Federation has Valkyria tech too, and plans to use it to nuke the Imperial capital; at the same time, the character who is responsible for the Valkyria tech atrocities and the lab that Selvaria and Climaria suffered in is Imperial. Though there are still some Karma Houdinis.

edited 24th Apr '18 6:32:41 AM by RedSavant

Don't we have a trope for that? Eagle Squadron, or somesuch.

I'm a bit disappointed we probably won't have a crazy Scottish Armor Tech to turn into a Fencer. Or even just an engineer, either as a character who takes care of the ship or just in the VC class.

I've seen side story lists implying that you can get some of the ship mechanics as foot soldiers, but I'm not sure how, and my PS4 is currently on loan.

Got the game on PS 4 through the humble bundle despite owning it on PC because it's charity, why not? I figure the controls will be nicer anyway.

I never actually managed to beat it and never looked for any of the hidden weapons and researched any of the other goodies. I barely got through the game so I figure a fresh start will do me good anyway.

Anything I should look for/research first or what have you?

Research and captured weapons are pretty strictly tied to story progress. The tech tree only lets you progress a step or two each chapter, and it won't even be one step for every weapon type. So lances or sniper rifles might go a couple missions between upgrades or something like that. Each mission has one or two aces with specific drops, and most of the early drops aren't very useful.

For the early game to midgame, I'd say that focusing on getting all classes to level 11 and the elite upgrade is probably more helpful than driving up the tech tree. Extra AP, generally improved stats, and extra weapon options are more useful than incrementally improved guns. Running skirmishes can also help unlock squadmates' personal potentials, some of which are quite useful (and one or three are horrible, but you need them all to get one achievement),

Are personal potentials got in a special way or is it with XP like the rest of the class ranks?

Characters have two types of potentials: Personal potentials, which are set per character and generally based on personality, relationships, and so on; and Battle potentials, which are sorta determined by class. Battle potentials are acquired by leveling classes and they all have positive effects like doing extra damage or a chance to recover HP after taking an action. Only a few potentials are guaranteed to activate without using an Order.

Personal potentials are a mixed bag: extra accuracy while close to comrades, lowered defense on specific terrain, even outright refusing to act when selected. Every squad member starts with a hidden personal potential that's unlocked by using them in battle. They get hidden points for deploying, killing enemies, rescuing allies, capturing bases, etc. Once you have enough points, a mini-event happens in town, their profile updates with more information, and the potential appears on their stat page.

Important characters get their personal potentials through story events, so some of them won't be acquired until pretty late through your first run.

Is there any way to check or should I just keep bringing them until stuff happens?

Any specific characters with really good potentials?

The only way to check is to meet your contact in town and she'll say that she's learned something interesting about a "rising star" in your squad. Then the encyclopedia entry update shows who it is (or you can scroll through the roster). It's not too many points; a couple kills and a flag capture are usually enough.

As for characters, well, my favourite is Jane, the mad florist Shocktrooper who eventually carries a flamethrower on her quest for revenge. It's a big squad/platoon and everyone plays and reacts to characters differently, so it's best to find your own favourites.

Is that something I'll need to do often per character? Do they have a number of hidden potentials?

Jane is such a great character, both skillwise and personality-wise. I'm not sure if she's the "best" Shocktrooper, but damn is she up there.