Valkyria Chronicles- Finished. Max fails, Faldio fucking fails. Wow. The whole ending was laughable and had me banging my head against the wall. Fucking Japanese storytelling. It lacks so much common sense it's pathetic. Even when they're relying on classic situations and tropes, they can't put them together in any coherant or sensible way. The characters are fun enough, but the dialogue, story and villains just keep things from clicking altogether. It's actually not that bad until after you meet Cordelia, but for unrelated reasons it just completely unravels after that.
It's an impressive game otherwise, which is really sad. The visual aesthetic is amazing and they do a good job of making your generics not so generic, though it leaves you wanting more out of them. The gameplay is amazingly fun. I didn't mind that the game values achieving your objective quickly over fighting defensively, but it could have used some more varied objectives.
Class balance is nice, though like others have said, doesn't quite work in practice. Still, Lancers, Engineers and Snipers have their niches, which they perform with stellar results. Honestly though, I don't really think any of those are meant for general use, so the practical balance is questionable anyway. They're irreplaceable in some situations. I know some people just forgo Lancers at the end in favor of Orders, but I dunno. Never seemed worth it to me when you can use those moves for other things. Plus those times you NEED that order to destroy a tank are more infrequent than actually needing Lancers.
I'll probably replay the game if it ever gets trophy support for it's medals. It's definately worth it, but with so much on my plate it isn't without the extra incentive.
Scouts- Alicia, Freesia and Aika. Had Cherry and Juno, but they were largely unused.
Shocktroopers- Rosie, Alex, Vyse. Wendy, Nina and Jane sat on the sidelines.
Lancers- Largo, Elysse. Hector and Yoko occasionally came out. Rosina did nothing.
Engineers- Claudia and Dallas handled everything.
Snipers- Catherine. Marina mostly sat out.
Mana Khemia next!
