"Racist" might be the wrong word, or at least rather misleading. I'd say it's close to prejudice against a specific ethnic group, which is rather different.
(I should also note that there are a few squadmates that you can recruit who appear to have noticeably darker skin, so there's that.)
I'd also argue that having to deal with unforeseen challenges isn't counter to the strategy game premise at all. After all, surely there have been circumstances where military leaders have had to think quickly under pressure.
Oh God! Natural light!
Yes military leaders have to think quickly under pressure, but the game doesn\'t always fairly create those situations where thinking fast and smart will let you adapt in time. The second boss in my example will mop the floor with half your army before you can even move, and there isn\'t a smart way to deal with her except hide as far away as possible, abandoning half your men to die and most likely losing the mission as a consequence. The only way to not be caught out by her is via either a complete fluke, or by already knowing she is about to appear. Neither are particularly impressive strategies.
Book me today! I also review weddings, funerals and bar mitzvahs.
Just because people have the same skin color doesn\'t mean they can\'t be prejudiced against them. See historical examples: Japan to Korea, England to Ireland, Nazi Germany to Poland and Russia, the Hutu to the Tutsi, et cetera.
The Darcsens\' hair isn\'t black. It\'s blue, which is significant given that the game uses mostly realistic hair colors.
Nach jeder Ebbe kommt die Flut.
For what it\'s worth, I dropped the second game over the introduction of a cheap boss character who could shrug off multiple head shots from rocket launchers, run across an entire map in one turn after buffing his entire army into the stratosphere, and then one-shot any squad member he pleased.
In general, I dislike the way the scoring, which affects progression, which affects how easy or hard future levels are, is based entirely on how fast you complete the mission. It heavily disincentivizes actually using the Orders system, since they cost combat actions and speed is now fucking everything.
There\'re a lot of garbage design decisions in that game, and by all accounts it ironed out some of the more bone-headed ones in this game. It\'s made trying to pick it up a struggle now that I\'ve actually got a computer powerful enough to.
Should let my past self know, it\'s amazing how much more tolerable the whole game becomes when you use Cheat Engine to artificially set the Turn Count to 1 right before winning each mission and thus bypass the frustrations of the awful grading system completely.
I didn\'t find the tank boss fight that rough, at least, not after using a tank mortar to kill all the reinforcements that weren\'t invincible anyway, but I\'m currently dealing with a second difficult spike when it comes to battling some sort of armored train with industrial lifts that are very poorly explained.
VC isn't really that hard. Aside from the occasional curveball (i.e. mid-battle secondary objective), I didn't have much trouble with it. You just have to learn which units to use for each mission and how to plan 1 or 2 steps ahead at the end of each turn.
Even the dreaded tank battle against the Bartomys becomes a cinch, once you learn to plan properly. Hint: make sure your units are either safely behind cover, or positioned in Sylveria's blindspot and they'll be fine. She'll ignore any allies she can't see and remain glued to Maximillion's side.
I wouldn't mind failure so much, if I didn't fail so much.Leave a Comment:
Where The Cast of Axis Powers Hetalia Actually Kill Each Other
Valkyria Chronicles is a turn based strategy game set in a fantasy World War 2. If you’ve ever seen Axis Powers Hetalia it feels a bit like that; obsessed with pretty people in immaculate military uniforms, whilst making a peculiarly soft presentation of one of history`s most brutal periods. I haven`t finished the game yet, I`m taking a break after being ass fucked by one of the game’s ludicrous difficulty spikes. Whilst I recover from that I have decided to put my thoughts together.
In game, you take control of a squad of specialists to complete specific missions. You also have a tank, which specialises in getting snagged on bits of scenery. I actually enjoy the gameplay a lot. It is simple yet varied enough to allow some imagination, which you'll need to deal with a variety of challenges. The turn based design means the game moves at a slow pace, but it always feels frantic as the firefights play out in real time.
The game does have the difficulty spikes however. I`m stuck fighting a ginormous enemy tank. It has taken one failed playthrough to learn the proper way to kill it. It has taken a second, longer failed playthrough to discover that whatever your plan was to deal with the tank, it`ll get shredded when a second boss character appears out of nowhere and kills half your squad before you`re permitted to respond. I`m hoping the game won`t keep pulling these dick moves in later levels, because it`s frustrating and at odds with the strategy premise.
One thing this game does really well is humanise the squad. Normally strategy games put you in the role of a ruthless leader, feeding faceless soldiers into a meat grinder. In Valkyria, every single soldier you recruit has a unique face, personality and background. They also permanently die, so you actually try not to get them killed.
The story is a very typically anime sort of thing, full of arm waving, gasping, navel gazing, and pedestrian sociology. I don`t mind it, except for this one rather odd subplot involving one of the squaddies, whom everyone keeps being racist to. I’m sure they`ll eventually put aside their differences through teamwork, but what makes it weird (weirder than suddenly finding your squad is full of racists), is how race is depicted; everyone is generic anime white, including the girl getting bullied. They only know she is different because of her black hair. I know there is a lot more to race than skin colour, but it is tonally odd to make an issue of racism with this setting whilst depicting everyone as the exact same race. I would say it`s a consequence of Japan’s mono-cultural perspective, but then again Poland fell into the exact same trap with The Witcher III. It`s not a deal breaker but it is uncanny to be affronted with that lack of self-awareness on the part of the game designers.
For what it’s worth I am dying to get back into the game and kill that tank. Give it a try and I imagine you’ll be doing the same.