Recent reviews by Rhomeo

NEW: And they listened; back to Democracy!

For a real review; game's great, balance is okay to good, devs put in a lot of hard work. If you like co-op shooters, this game is a must buy. If you like co-op but not shooters or vice versa, game is buy on sale.

OLD: Went from not requiring a PSN account to play to now needing one to access the game that was paid for - way to go, Sony.

Really requires a lot of quality of life improvements to be worth it at full-price, but so far the interest seems to be on the cash shop (which released at launch) and not on basic things from past games by the developer. Wait for a big sale or until improvements hit.

Having finished the main story in its entirety and moved onto achievement hunting, optimisation and grinding, I'll be making some edits here. If there are any discrepancies between comments/the dev response from what I've written, that's why.

In a quick outline of the review as a whole, I think this game is great for its pricepoint. Dandylion, from what I can tell, is a very community-centric developer that is intent on doing the best it can by its playerbase. While there are negatives, for the most part, I feel they're outweighed by the company's outstanding efforts.

- The complexity in gameplay is enough to consider buying TROUBLESHOOTER all on its own. There are some Mastery Sets that are definitely better than others, but with the right mixing and matching you can pretty much make anything viable. Want to turn the protag into an actual magic user? That's doable; just focus on boosting his ESP Power, setting him up with the right Sets and building his gear around the power of wind. Want THE GREAT HERO IRENE to solo maps? You can do that! While there are recommendations floating around and certain 'Farming Mastery Boards' available to pull from, you can make anything work if you take the time to experiment a little.

- Having finished the story now, I can say with confidence that it's good. Still not great, but even good is head and shoulders above most games in the current era. With how many different plot points all tie together, how characters are related to one another, the mystery of certain things going on in the background... It's a story that rewards critical thinkers and sets itself up perfectly for future releases. The in-game explanations for why some Masteries exist is interesting, too, like a certain someone that can't die...

- As a bit of an add-on to story is the characterisation; definitely a big plus from me, as someone who enjoys when that blends with the bigger world as a whole. Sometimes the voice lines and whatnot will get annoying hearing them over and over during missions - that's probably something worth looking into for future releases - but the sheer diversity of written text between every story mission that's entirely optional is astounding. There's character depth for days if you bother to look.

- The general design, both in terms of artwork done and enemy designs is pretty astounding. There is a decent amount of copy pasting across certain enemy types, but the bosses all tend to look unique compared to their normal-guy counterparts, so it's not too egregious. Not being too familiar with Korean mythos or culture, I'm not sure if Yasha, Dororis and so-forth are things that they're already familiar with or are 'unique,' but either way, I like the difference from usual Western RPG's. I won't touch on it too long, but the art for this game is stunning; I even convinced myself buying the artbook was worth it, and I haven't regretted it yet.

- Last for the pros, but definitely not least, is the developer. I can only go off of what I've personally experienced and seen, but Dandylion is fantastic. Within the first few days I started playing, there was a massive server error that reverted people's saves. What did they do? Made a massive apology to everyone on the server, and sent all accounts a set of in-game resources based on your max character level and current Act in the story. So many devs would have just said sorry and left it at that; but not Dandylion. As you can see below, too, the fact that I got a dev response on my first run-through of a review goes to show that they care quite a lot more than most.


- Being an RPG'esque title, it's inevitable that grinding is going to be a part of the game. This is a double-edged sword, because whilst there are interesting ways to get certain items or Masteries - abusing a certain character's ability or finishing your research on an enemy to be allowed to craft all their Masteries respectively - it still takes a considerable amount of time and effort. Thankfully you can get through the majority of the story without devoting too much time to side-activities, but it is definitely something to keep in mind if you want to 100% the game.

- While this game has some fairly good music, it's obvious pretty quickly that the diversity of tracks is limited. Being an entirely new franchise in today's market gives it a pass, but no more. I have high hopes that the themes they explored musically in this will carry on into future releases, with a bigger OST that I can feel a bit more happy about spending the money on.

- Map variety is something I tossed up a few times between being so-so and a pro, but I've decided to put it here. While the difference in maps is pretty good for the most part, there are a lot of assets that start to feel a bit 'samey' as you continue through the story. There are a few instances where the same map is used, but never in a way that makes you annoyed, as usually it's a learning experience or for thematic effect. One of the worse parts is how the layouts of certain maps feel unfair, or force you into really unfortunate engagements that smart thinking can't really help you with. Even so, I'd be excited to see a bit more variety in types of maps/locations in future games.

- Both beast taming & machine crafting are introduced a little too late into the game, in my opinion. The sheer depth and usefulness in these systems doesn't quite make this a con, but it's a close call, because you're so used to not utilising these systems by the point they show up that it's a bit of whiplash to suddenly start using it. It doesn't help that, in the late-game, both beasts and machines are really, really strong, which makes them extremely helpful on some of the more challenging side missions.


- As mentioned previously, the voice lines are generally lacking. I can only assume that's because this is kind of a first in a series, and a bit of a flagship, so I hope for any followup games this isn't as much of an issue. It does grate on you after a while, but when you get new characters it helps to break up the flow of hearing the main character say the same lines every time you move him. It gets significantly worse in late-game when you've heard the same things for tens of hours already, so this becomes more and more of a con the longer you play.

- Difficulty spikes. This is more of a personal gripe, and as a whole I think the difficulty curve in this game is good, what I'm more referring to is artificial difficulty spikes. There are certain missions with mechanics that will take you from left field, or introduce something you had no way to know to prepare for. Some general advice is that when you start seeing snipers, always have someone carry smoke. The worst offender for me was a mission where you're rescuing civilians with no enemies on the map, and after a certain number are rescued, the enemies spawn regardless of the turn order and your positioning. Poor positioning on your part and not knowing where they spawn can lead to an essential instant mission over. As there's no real punishment for losing characters, this is fine on the surface, but can be very frustrating if a mission was going well up until an artificial difficulty spike.


There's not much more to add that I haven't already summarised early on. In short? If you enjoy Strategy-RPG's, you'll like this game. If you enjoy Strategy-RPG's and are a fan of anime tropes, you'll love this game. If you just enjoy anime tropes in games, you'll have decent odds of liking this game, but might be frustrated by the depth of the systems available.

Whatever your preferences, the pricepoint of this game makes it more or less a steal. $25 USD for a game that'll probably, at the very least, give you around 50 hours of playtime. That's 50 cents an hour. What more could you want?

Yes.

I've heard a lot of things said about Valkyria Chronicles 4. Good things, bad things, lots of in-between. Some people prefer one part, and others prefer something from the first game in the series. Grenadiers are great, grenadiers are terrible... So on, so forth.

In my personal opinion, in nearly every way, this one is a huge step forward from the first game.

A lot of people that want to damn this game will call the graphics outdated, stating that in the last 10 years nothing has really changed. While it's true that the artstyle hasn't shifted more or less at all, a lot of the animations and finer details have definitely been refined in this game over the first. Just go back and play it yourself to see what I mean. Maybe not 10 years worth, but a definite upgrade.

Something no one can complain about is the changes to combat. 'What changes are you talking about?' Direct Command and Grenadiers add an entirely new layer of strategy from the first game. Grenadiers are invaluable, capable of sitting in totally safe positions without much risk to themselves, and forcing you to pull off from that cheap scout rush when you get intercepting-bombed into oblivion. Then Direct Command gives you whole new options with pulling multiple infantry units around a map. No need for the APC when a Scout Leader can pull two slow units to the front lines, eh?

The next thing people will complain about is the pricing. I'm one of the few that can actually scrunch my nose up at region pricing ($70 USD instead of $60, and I still need to pay more because AUD is worth pittance) but I found the game completely the equal of any AAA title. Just look at all the positive reviews and then look at their hour counts. Now, not all that time would have been enjoyable in the extreme, but I never felt like this game was dragging me along against my will. I came back repeatedly, enjoyed vaguely strategizing over it in my off time away from the game, and otherwise immersed myself into the story.

That leads to the final 'damning nail in the coffin' of why Valkyria Chronicles 4 isn't as good as the first game. The story.

Again, if I'm to be completely honest... This game's story is better than the first by leaps and bounds. The character development for all the characters is better done, some character's never stop hating the main character despite his repeated miracle-strategies. The antagonists are just as, if not more likeable than the protagonists. Sure, there's Valkyria stuff going on in the background and people's motivations are a bit skewed here and there, but when you're living in fantasy Europe, do as the fantasy Europeans.

All in all, a great game that I enjoyed to the fullest and will likely continue to enjoy until I 100% it. If the price bothers you, wait for a flash sale, but I'm telling you even at full price; if you liked the first game, it's worth your money. If you don't know what to think about it, just buy the first game, and if you like that, put this next on your radar.

Disclaimer: I deliberately went out of my way to get the True End before writing this, so keep in mind that some of my thoughts will be exacerbated by the time it took and the general reptition involved with that.

Pros

• On the whole, the gameplay was pretty fun. While the gunplay wasn't anything to get excited over and it sometimes ended up feeling like all that mattered was finding a somewhat better gun, that never rubbed me the wrong way. Skills never really fell to the side, gadgets were a fun addition and I had a few really great moments here and there.
  
• It's a bit weird to see it as a positive, but the translation was generally speaking quite a lot better than the standard that's been set up to this point. I never felt like I was reading something that was translated from a foreign language, and the characters felt real. As an extension of this, I enjoyed the events - which is a good thing, considering I did almost all of Kirito's specific events back-to-back.
  
• You don't play as Kirito for the vast majority of the game. This was something that always annoyed me in the earlier games. I wanted to live and breathe the 'world' of SAO as someone else for a while, and the fact that Fatal Bullet does that alone is a big plus.

Mixed

• The story. I went in with the expectations that the story would be pretty garbage, and it was... Better than I was hoping for, but not by much. There were a couple of vaguely interesting turns, the new characters felt mostly unique and I was invested enough to not get bored with cutscenes. Still, it wasn't anything revolutionary.
  
• Launch issues and bugs are something I got really lucky with personally, but having seen the amount of other complaints people had, I can't just ignore it. Over my 60+ hours, I had one hard crash. Every now and then I had a few strangely long load times and a couple of weird stutters, but that's it. If you're getting this game early, be warned. You might be one of the unlucky people constantly posting on the Forums asking for help that never comes.
  
• I'm a fan of collecting CGs and the like, so this is mostly a personal gripe. The fact that there's still no pillow talk art for Klein or Agil is the worst. Absolute worst. Why even live?
  
• Multiplayer. I'm putting it here because, personally, I haven't even gotten a chance to touch it. There are no rooms for AUS that I've been able to find, and it doesn't want to pair me up with people beyond that spectrum. (Un)Lucky me.

Cons

• The friendly AI is downright atrocious. I can't count the amount of times I died because I got swarmed and all my allies just rolled around dodging fire and getting hit by grazing shots for literal minutes on end. It's somewhat less painful if you're smart about who to bring along, but the majority of the time, the AI is more of a hindrance than a help.
  
• The enemy AI is really awkwardly tuned. Some enemies are pathetic and no threat at all, whilst others are so infuriatingly hard that I'll admit I turned down the difficulty back to Normal on NG+ at one stage. Light Facsimiles are the absolute worst offender. Watch out for them.
  
• Grinding. If you want to go for all the achievements, this game has a lot of it, and while on the one hand that can be pretty good... The gameplay isn't so good that I could put on some good music and have a fun time doing it. At least about 10 hours of my playtime is me watching panel shows on one screen and half-heartedly going through the motions on another.

Verdict
The game's good. Not $50 USD good, but good. If you can get it on sale, I'd definitely recommend it, but outside of that... If you're a big fan of the series, I can see the price tag being fine for you. If you're just a random passerby, though? Don't do it. $30 or less is about where I'd draw the line.

"You need another -1 influence to surpass Songhai as their current ally."

Th-thanks Civ.

After 95 hours to complete every achievement, ending and get a nice setup for my main character...

Eh, it's okay.

Come for the R18+ rating, stay for the puzzle game.

11/10 would roll a 3 after using Accelerator again.