The Valkyria Chronicles...Chronicle Part 2!

The Valkyria Chronicles...Chronicle Part 2!

Hello again everyone!  In this edition, we go to a party and guess what, THINGS DO GO WRONG!

So we start with Welkin, his boss (Varrot), his old friend who's also in the militia (Faldio) and reporter lady (Ellet?) getting ready to attend a banquet where the princess will be there!  Comrades argue about why Gallia would possibly sign a treaty with the federation after they have always taken a stance of neutrality.  Did it ever occur to them that even with a wonder kid main character powered lieutenant on their side it's still probably a terrible idea to take on a nation ten times bigger then them on their own?

Anyway, Princess has the personality of a sleeping zombie and obvious political shadiness is going on.  Once we exit the party, Welkin and Varrot run into the princess and Welkin speaks ridiculously frankly to his countries royalty.  All seems to end well, but wait.

SHE GETS KIDNAPPED! 10/10! TWIST OF THE YEAR!

Anyway, mission is you need to stop the armored car that has the princess from getting to the bay and going to who the hell knows where.  It's night out and you get a limited amount of squad members to take with you (Rosie, Alicia, Nancy, Dorothy and Karl were the five I choose to take).  You need to shoot out the car's battery in order to stop it and can't use heavy weapons otherwise you'll blow up the entire thing.

I...may have done that on the first go around...kind of felt good though!

Anyway, execution is actually fairly easy.  You block off the route with the tank causing the car to have to take a detour.  On the second go, I already knew where it was going so I was able to have an ambush ready to completely annihilate the car with no issues and earn a B rank in the process.

Afterwards everyone essentially tells the princess to toughen up and she eats cinnamon rolls...so that's good.

Also shiny medals, those are niceeeeeeee.

So yeah, mission complete!  Til next time! Party members and levels will be below the read more.

Next Time: Blowing up a giant train? Blowing up a giant train!

Scouts (GOTTA GO FAST) Level 8 Alicia Ted (Replaces Hermes) Nancy Susie Fresia

Stormtroopers (BAM BAM) Level 9 Rosie Lynn (Replaces Alex) Salinas Dorothy Jane Nina

Lancers (FUCK TANKS) Level 9 Largo Yoko Elysse Nils (Replaces Walter)

Engineers (FIX TANKS) Level 8 Karl Nadine

Snipers (EAGLE EYES) Level 8 Cezary Marina Catherine

Deceased

Wavy (Chapter 8)

So I have one of these now

Let's see how long this lasts : p

Going Digital! Digimon World Dawn Part 2

Hey everyone!  I’m here with part 2 of my impressions and progress on Digimon World Dawn.  Honestly, probably made too much progress before doing this update but whatever.

So, plot!  Our guild leader, Glare (Little Ominous name for the leader of the Light Fang’s but whatever) orders us to go with two veterans to a new location to figure out what’s going on.  The mountain itself wasn’t too challenging but things got a little hasty at the end.  Once again, a laughing demon egg shows up to ruin our day and first throws a Sassaromon at us (who get’s easily dispatched) before attempting to throw something much larger and several Sand Yanamon at us.  Luckily our back up shows up to handle the hoard while we dismiss the big boss.

So that brings us little info other then laughing eggs like being evil.  Next, we are sent out to Loop Swamp, which was the first real typical sharp difficulty curve that Digimon games like to pull so far, both in enemies and stupid terrain.  This was made somewhat easier by the fact that I slowly scouted out the terrain while grinding my team up to make sure they didn’t repeatedly get their asses handed to him.

At the end of the long winding bull shit loop, we encounter my favorite character of this game so far by a large margin, WaruSeadramon.  Basically, his interaction with you boils down to “Hey, got that virus you ordered to destroy the town.  Wait, you aren’t the client? Fuuuuuuuuuu” We then defeat him in a boss fight and he gives us a shiny in exchange for not telling the Union about his actions.  Secret’s safe with me bud!

Unfortunately, the character I’m playing as was not as much of a fan as I was and promptly rats him out.  This leads to speculation that the Dark Crows may be up to something (the rival gang I suppose) since communication is cut off from them.  This means we get sent to Resistor Jungle I believe to meet up with the Dark Crows and see if we can figure out what is going on.

Predictably, this goes worse then imagined as the Dark Crows we encounter were brain washed (WOOOOOOO). After promptly kicking two of the underlings asses, Sayo (the girl we fought at the beginning) shows up to bail one out and claims we are the villains and the Dark Crows fight for justice.  We bat her back with relative ease and Glare calls in to tell us all to get the hell out of there.

So that’s that as far as plot goes so far.  I will say though, there is kind of an interesting dynamic going on between co Light Fang leaders Glare and Ophanimon.  Pretty much every interaction between them has one of them giving an opinion on the situation and the other just spouting elipses.  I feel like one of them is going to be involved with the reveal as to what’s going on here so I’ll be interesting to see if that’s the case or if I’m totally just reading too much into this (probably the case)

As for game mechanics, starting to see where the grindyness comes in to play here.  Not only do you need to level up your digimon (which isn’t THAT hard...yet) you also have to make sure they get experience of the right type to make sure they can keep moving up the evolutionary level.  Luckily, I’ve figured this out relativley early on and have been devoting a fair amount of time to it and I feel like my party is cruising for the moment.  We’ll see if this continues though.

Anyway, enjoying the game so far and looking forward to playing more.  Team below the read more!

Current Party

Raremon: L11 Firamon: L38 Dinohumon: L34 Lopmon: L19 Guardromon: L1 ToyAgumonB: L11

Island Digimon

Reppamon: L37 Kotemon: L21 Dorumon: L21 Impmon: L19 Candlemon: L19 Garudamon: L11 Piximon: L1 Flymon: L36 Grizzmon: L31 Gwappamon: L7

The Valkyria Chronicles...Chronicle!  Part 1

Hey everyone, for now think I'm gonna use this blog to share my experiences playing games and other stuff, because let's face it, it can be fun to read about someone's first experience with something!  So regardless if you have no idea what I'm playing, have mastered it, or are just looking for something entertaining to read, hopefully you can find something to enjoy here.

So yeah, as you may have been able to guess from the title, I am currently playing Valkyria Chronicles for the PS3.  Valkyria Chronicles is a turn based strategy RPG with perma death features similar to Fire Emblem, though it's a little more forgiving on that note.  Your characters die if you can't get another character to them in three rounds or before an enemy unit approaches them. As a note, I will try to keep spoilers to a relative minimum or at least not go into details much, but I can't promise there won't be ANY so...just be aware of that I guess.

I'm already on Chapter 8 of the game so I'm gonna do kind of a quick TLDR for what's happened so far in the game to kind of catch you up or at least give you a bit of a gist as to what's happening.

YOU LIVE IN GALLIA TINY COUNTRY ATTACKED BY BIG COUNTRY WAR TIME, JOIN MILITIA MAGICALLY BECOME LEADER OF YOUR OWN UNIT FIND ENEMY COMMANDER AND BRAWL WITH HIM GET SEPARATED FROM REST OF YOUR SQUAD

And that's the important stuff : p So anyway, the start of Chapter 8 has you as the main two characters (Welkin and Alicia) trying to sneak past enemy grounds at night to get to safety.  The gimmick here, is that Alicia has a bum ankle and the enemy is firing Mortar shots at you every turn while you try to work your way through.  There are also search lights that if you run into will cause a mortar to be targeted toward your current location.

So this level I actually game overed on several times before finally succeeding.  The mission doesn't seem that hard overall and most of the game overs were stupidity on my part (Leaving Alicia in range of the Mortar without even thinking for one) and since you only have two main characters, either of them dying is a game over.  Biggest hurdle was a section with a scout (Speedsters) and a Shocktrooper (Heavy Hitter) and I tried to face them outright instead of dashing right by to the pathway by them (Didn't see it at first).  The first time I did that I completed the level so...failure by making things overly complicated : p

Following that, a couple of cutscenes happen, including Welkin and Alicia backstory, seeing how the rest of the team you are separated from is doing and a encounter with the opposing army.  After all of that, it's time for the second part of the chapter, which you start on the opposite side of the map from your team and have to make your way back to the tank and operate it while the rest of your team defends it until you get there.

So you want to talk stupidity, that was how I lost this mission about 3 different times.  There are a bunch of mines in the path of Welkin and Alicia as they make their way to the rest of the group and I was apparently blind and ran into pretty much every single one.

The mission becomes pretty simply once you get into the tank and can begin to really mount a counter offensive.  That being said, I unfortunately did lose my first party member before that could happen by the name of Wavy.  Put him up at a little outlook thing and I thought he was safe up there.  He was not and got knocked down from there right next to an enemy sniper, who quickly ran over to him and assured my first casualty of the run.

But yeah, tanks.  Bam bam, your dead.  That was pretty much the rest of the mission.

So yeah, this was a fun little first edition of this.  Hope you enjoyed reading this, I will probably keep doing it as long as I find it enjoyable. I'll put the current party and stats under a read more.

NEXT TIME: MEETING THE PRINCESS! I BET THINGS GO WRONG

Current team and levels

Scouts (GOTTA GO FAST) Level 8 Alicia Hermes Nancy Susie Fresia

Shocktroopers (BAM BAM) Level 7 Rosie Alex Salinas Nina Dorothy Jane

Lancers (FUCK TANKS) Level 7 Largo Walter Yoko Elysse

Engineers (FIX TANKS) Level 8 Karl Nadine

Snipers (EAGLE EYES) Level 8 Cezary Marina Catherine

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!?!?!? Gladius Part 3!

Hey everyone, made some more progress here, and some actual plot progress as well!  So let’s get into it!

Okay, so I didn’t realize I needed to beat the ice arena too and thought I only needed to beat Mordare to be done with the Nordagh region.  Luckily this was only a matter of taking longer and not being much harder.  Once that was done, it was back to our home tourney to dominate and become the regional champs.

Afterward, we finally get to see Ursula and Urlan’s father!  And he praises them and everything before asking to speak to Urlan in private.  By private, we mean in the exact same place while Usus and Ursula walk about ten feet to the side so...yeah. King Orin basically say’s he’s disappointed that Ursula has an interest in the games and is worried about the witch’s discovering her.  Ultimately, Urlan convinces him to let her travel away from their region and the witches since they are going to hunt her either way.

Ursula magically hear’s none of this so...whatever. Anyway, we head to our next region, Imperia, which is where our Mentor Usus is from so he can guide us and all of that jazz (note, there is no jazz in this games soundtrack).  6 tournaments in this region to beat so got to get to work! We run into some asshole who thinks we can’t fight because we are savages and all that.  Dunno, savagery has been working pretty well for me with the massive axes, and the bear and the wolf but what do I know?

Anyway, Ursula runs into a downtrodden looking young man who doesn’t reveal his name (but is clearly the other main character, Valens) and the two talk for a bit.  Ursula offers her support and a chance for him to join our school (he declines) and they totally awkwardly flirt for a bit.  He runs off while Usus insists we go to some shoreline arena, which has Ursula excited.

After an initial challenge, we go outside to see two dark magic people demanding Ursula comes with them.  Obviously this isn’t going to happen so a fight breaks out on the street.  Valens comes to our aid and assists in the fight before offering our place to stay at his gladiator school.  Usus is excited to do this when he realizes Valens is the son of his old friend.

Of course this takes a sad turn when it’s revealed that Valen’s father is dead, but it does prove to be a catalyst for him joining our team.  And thus team beast mode has their third human onboard...booooooo.

One of the arena’s is one where the opponents are almost exclusively beasts, which I obviously find very enjoyable and some nice teasers for future party members hopefully. I recruited a Mongrel (Goff) here as well and while I’ve only used him once, I expect him to round out the team nicely.  Also one arena hypes up Channelers as some big bad tough opponent but I’m not seeing it, they’ve fallen pretty easily so far and are really slow and more annoying then anything.  Also ran into an arena where lava can hit you soooo, that’s fun : p

So yeah, gonna leave party member summaries and updates under a read more. Til next time people!

Ursula (Level 7) No big updates here.  Has some new equipment that’s helped her pick up the offense and has a second combo now.  Gotten better at timing her combo as well so that’s made her more effective.

Urlan (Level 7) New weapons, more boom, still goes down easily when ganged up on.

Zod (Level 7) The undeniable badass and leader of this team.  Just shrugs off most hits while countering for about triple the damage they do to him.  I don’t expect him to remain this badass throughout the run but for now he’s the creature I can send into any situation and expect him to come out on top.

Bestia (Level 7) Has a counter attack when she dodges now and has a second combo.  Still more about speed then power but is certainly becoming more reliable as time goes on.

SIm (Level 7) For some reason, the Satyr is easily my quickest member.  Has picked up Jug Bonk, which is for some reason the most satisfying move to pull off.  If you time it correctly, Sim hit’s them over the head with his jug, doing heavy damage and stunning them.  Still very fragile but his offensive capabilities have definitely improved

Valens (Level 7) Pretty much Ursula without the shiny magic and some additional sword skills.  Nothing too special but he can buff himself just like her, making him very capable of bringing the pain.

Goff (Level 7) Our new Mongrel friend.  Still haven’t quite figured out everything there is to no about him, but he seems quick, not the weakest on the offensive end and with some buffing capabilities (can increase his defense) so we’ll have to see how he develops.

Following up on the Purchased Games

Alright, so I've head some time to sample all three of the games I purchased yesterday so figured I'd post my thoughts here as a bit of a follow up.

Dragon Rage: Welp...it doesn't speak well for this game that it game out 8 months after Zone of the Enders and is pretty much inferior to it in every way (Controls, music, graphics, etc).  I think the moment that best defines this game is in the tutorial when the voice tells you what to do but gives you no hints as to what button to press to actually do it.  On the bright side, the dragon handles terribly but at least actually looks like a dragon...and you get to brutally tear sheep to pieces for sustenance soooo, that's something : p

Zone of the Enders: The most impressive one so far.  Very smooth controls and looks great for a game that came out pretty early in the PS2's lifespan.  Plot isn't overly clear yet and I'm seeing some Evangelion similarities (PILOT THE DAMN ROBOT SHINJI/LEO) but it's certainly a lot of fun to play so I'll be keeping at it.

Gladius: Not entirely sure what to make of it yet since I'm still in the tutorial phase of the game.  Playing the Ursula path first (Was going to anyway before I noticed the difficulties marked it as the easier one) and I'll be curious to see how the plot develops.  From the opening cutscene, basically some witches showed up to a barbarian king and were like "You're going to have a daughter and she'll bring about a catastrophe or something" except then a son was born so he through them out.  However, apparently his wife wasn't done giving birth or something and then Ursula was born and the king was like "oh shit" so they went into hiding.  So yeah...that's a thing.

So yeah, there you go everyone.  While Valkyria Chronicles will still be my focus, I'll probably be dabbling in all of these games to some extent so I'll be sure to post updates when I do.  Ta ta for now!