Phoenix Wright Dual Destinies: Finished, including the DLC. The game is Phoenix Wright, you know what to expect, and it's a good one at that! Compared to the rest of the series, don't really have any complaints for this game that weren't in the others. Good things though? Streamlined investigations, removing Penalty system for things like Psychelocks just saves time, "Notes" system in case you get lost, the multiple PC angle, Mayor Tenma, last two cases showing how you handle an over-arching plot thread in the series without being too convoluted, and Simon Blackquill is certainly worthy of being a Phoenix Wright antagonistic Prosecutor, being unique and amusing.
I guess one thing I was disappointed about was the DLC case having Simon though. Make no mistake; I like him and he's a good character, but being a DLC case, I felt it was a missed opportunity to use someone else as the opponent, as you paid money for it, they should have rewarded those who bought it with a guest star by someone like Fran. Again, I like Simon Blackquill, and he this case was certainly good usage of him, just felt like a missed opportunity.
Valkyria Chronicles: So...in December, I bought a PS3 because there was a stupid good sale on old used PS3s that with coupons, I could knock the price to below 3 digits. Given this is one of the few exclusives I wanted for the PS3, it made sense to go for this game first. Completed and game didn't really disappoint. It's not perfect, but it certainly is a good game through and through. Combat is different, writing is good, plot is pretty basic but in a way that keeps the game from overstepping it's boundaries, so yeah.
I won't go TOO into depth because I don't want to devolve into unintelligible garbage but might as well say thoughts on individual things:
-Welkin worked for a "nerdy protagonist" type. He was a brainy person, but he wasn't a loser about it, which is something I notice happens a lot. It was more "has a weird passion for nature that his squad thought was weird", though because he found unique means of making use of it, the team rarely mocks him. Also, despite a large number of females in the main cast, the game deserves props for NOT turning into some harem experience, as really only one female develops feelings for him in this way...
-Alicia. A character who well illustrates a bunch of positive female qualities that aren't geared around "pretty face for men to fap over." She's a kind, motherly figure who is capable of standing on her own two feet. Her relationship with Welkin felt legitimate, and game deserves points for actually making it go somewhere and not leaving it in the "Yes, they hook up after game!" ambiguity thing. Also, being a Sergeant, and the second in command of Squad 7, helped keep her seem relevant.
-Isara managed to sidestep the "weak female childhood friend/sibling" archtype as well, illustrated early on when she is forced to kill a soldier to save someone else. Yes, she hesitated, but she still had enough resolve to pull the trigger. It's enough of an establishing scene to show "She's capable for war, though probably not best for wielding a gun", so the Engineer who DRIVES THE TANK was certainly a good way to keep her useful. The interaction with Rosie early on was kind of annoying, though at least it served a purpose other than "Darcsen's are hated, Isara feels bad for being hated, don't hate!" And Her Death was probably one of the better handled murder scenes in the genre. It accomplished what I feel Aerith's scene failed to do. First off, it didn't rely on overly dramatic music for force out an emotion, just a simple vocal that was actually tied in with the plot. Next off, it happened at a very shocking moment; nice feel good moment completely turned upside down. It just felt handled very well, and didn't try to force the emotions out, thus more natural...also montage flashback during the funeral does get me at times. YES I NEARLY CRIED AT THE BYE BYE BUTTERFREE MOMENT IN POKEMON ANIME, DEAL WITH IT!
-I'll just be brief with Rosie, Largo, Zaka and Varrot and say they all handled their roles pretty adequately with decent enough personalities. I guess I might as well note that Rosie is one of the better "Racist who slowly realizes how dumb that viewpoint is" characters out there (an archetype that is usually boring and silly pulled off; Wakka's the only one to mind who made it work otherwise.)
-I was not a fan of the Valkyrur aspect of the game. It felt kind of shoe-horned in to make the setting more interesting other than just a simple fictional version of WW2. It felt out of place and "Hey look at our super powered females, cool, right!?" Sorry, but the moments I found myself not enjoying the game as much was anytime they'd go into the Valkyrur stuff, and it never was actually fully meaningful either. The Marmota, for example, could have been handled through, say, some special weapon developed by Isara's dad that was kept under-wraps for years and decided to use it NOW because all other options were exhausted. The Final boss? Just some science-y explanation of "He's drawing power like a Lightning Rod into himself from the ship." It felt like the writers had this idea they were fond of and felt they had to put it in somewhere and forced it. Would have preferred the Valkyrur just being invaders from centuries ago, rather than mysterious people from north with something resembling super powers.
-Speaking of which, while I feel the Heroes were all good, and the females do a good job at bucking negative female stereotypes, sans princess Cordelia who I don't feel like covering because lazy, the villains left something to be desired. Not enough screen time outside of Maximillian and Selvaria, and those two are summed up as "Megalomaniac driven mad because he lost what he feels is his birthright" and "Super Powered Female who is completely subservient to her master, no questions asked." Selvaria especially rubbed me the wrong way, because while the females were all pretty good at bucking trends on the good guys side, Selvaria was a straight up female stereotype henchman villain. "I'll do anything for him because blind loyalty!" But it's cool, because they gave her super powers and made her a general right? No, not really; that's just adding more TO the stereotype, as it's saying "despite her super powers, she's still Maximillian's complete and total bitch." You could argue she's Alicia's foil, hence the contrast I guess, in that Alicia talked to Welkin as an equal (Welkin outranked her, but that rarely came out as meaningful other than "Welkin attends War Meetings"), and was not defined by such things. Sorry, but just not feeling her; feels like they just wanted to make a badass female soldier with her, and fell into all the traps. Again, it's ashame as VC was doing so good at making competent females.
-If you're wondering, I never lost a character permanently; I did get a lot of wounded characters, but no one perma-died. I also played every skirmish available once, on Normal Mode, and got every chapter I could unlock via Ellet done as well.
So yeah good game, sounds like VC2 does compromise a fair amount of what I liked from VC1 in terms of writing, which is ashame. Dunno if I'll try it or not, but regardless, good game. Thinking 8/10 offhand?
