VC: So Maximilian was all "My country's penis is bigger than your country's penis," and we were like "no wai." We had to lay the smack down on that motherfucker, yo.
Yeah, game finished. End time was ~44 hours, levels were 16 for Scouts and Shocktroopers, 15 for Lancers/Engineers/Snipers. Beat it without any fatalities! ...Though there were a few PCs I never got, I can tell that much even without a FAQ. Every PC has a set number of other PCs that they like, and I saw a few names listed in this field that never joined my army. I'm pretty sure recruitment is based at least in part on how much you use the people who apparently like your possible future recruits. So I tried focusing on that latter group near the end of the game, but the last three bastards never showed up. Unpatriotic swine!
Anywho, final party was: Welkin/Zaka/Alicia/Rosie/Vyse/Jane/Largo/Theold/Karl/Cezary (though Cezary got fragged and replaced by Marina after the first turn). Welkin/Zaka are forced, Rosie/Alicia/Largo are no-brainers because they're immune to permadeath and also give you extra actions per turn, Vyse/Jane because they're awesome and high level troopers are damn near unkillable, Theold was only around because he was still missing one of his personal potentials and including people in plot battles seems to be the best way to unlock those, sorta the same for Karl since he was linked to one of the mooks I hadn't recruited yet (and hey, someone has to be there to fix the tanks--though I'd rather it be Herbert, since the lazy bastard amuses me), Cezary was there because I decided to throw a sniper in on a whim (in some battles, they're useless, in others, godly. They turned out to have a OHKO on an annoying obstacle on the other side of the field in the last battle. Nice) and he's got the snarkiest attitude of the lot.
The tanks were actually pretty useless in the final battle. You have to target a variety of spindly objects off in the distance, and the tanks' aim is dreadful even when they're accurised for that stat. You don't snipe with a cannon. I used them as barricades to protect the sniper and the engineer from interception fire. Lancers shut down the towers close to the base, but I couldn't rely on 'em for much else. Rosie/Jane/Vyse were the kill squad here, took out the boss in one turn once he was actually vulnerable (well, okay, two turns--the bastard teleported away and regened everything once he hit half HP, but my second attempt at cornering him took him down from full).
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So, final verdict on the game? Pretty damn good. It's not perfect, but it does enough things very well for me to ignore the various WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot details. The Pros:
-Combat. Is a tad simplistic, but fun and made greatly immersive by the following points.
-Setting/flavor. You are Lichtenstein versus the world. Actually, maybe Israel's more apt given Gallia's universal conscription and singularly hazardous location. But yeah, basically 1930's Europe, visuals ape this evocatively (EDIT: rereading this, I wonder what I was thinking. The visuals clearly pull from the WWI-era. Which is still cool, of course!), supernatural Valkyrur stuff is there in the background but not getting in the way for most of the game. Add in that it always feels like you're working as part of a whole rather than The Brave Young Hero Saving the World (I.E., Lichtenstein). I mean, sure, you're responsible for turning the tide at a lot of crucial moments, but the newspaper articles frequently mention other units and operations. It's like, whoa, an RPG where the hero isn't the only one trying to Do the Right Thing (he just happens to be the best at it).
-VA. Not so much in regard to the main characters (not that they're bad or anything) but more because it does a lot to make the dozens of mooks you can recruit endearing. The bulk of 'em leave more of an impression than your usual batch of suikoscrubs, I feel confident saying that much. Vyse's machinegun laugh is perfect, Catherine's accent is sexy, etcetera. This is pretty cool considering the fact that all of these goons can be permakilled.
The Cons?
-Male and female leads are fairly bland. The supporting cast is pretty cool, though. VEDGE-TA-BULLS.
-Sceneskip. Why is it only available for the FMV sequences and not the text ones? Definite oversight on Sega's part.
-Anything else I might note here is pretty small-scale. Enemies sneaking in hits before you can press the fire button is annoying sometimes, but I know I was glad whenever my soldiers did it, so yeah. Would be hypocritical of me to bitch about it. It's only really irritating when said enemy has an Attack Down weapon, because all status hitrates are 100% and this means that you're going to be dealing one damage per shot. Fortunately, that only shows up in a couple maps. Otherwise...well, you being able to access headquarters when it should be inaccessible for plot reasons was a little silly, but it beats the hell out of locking out crucial gameplay features at an inopportune time.
8-9/10 overall? Enjoyed it a lot, may thrash a new game+ some day. More people need to play it, but more people would need PS3s and that alone is not an innately good thing.
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Also, random moment I wanted to preserve which didn't fit anywhere else in the post: Jaeger shouting "This fight's just getting started!" when you blow the armor off his tank. Immediately thereafter, Largo ran behind him and two-shotted it. Bwahaha.
EDIT: Uh. I think Pyro wanted me to stat-topic this thing. It's...theoretically possible, for all that I'd have to massacre my own soldiers to be sure how defense works (there's no way to view enemy stats).
