Magic: The Gathering, the most successful trading card game ever, and I have an on-again-off-again relationship spanning more than a decade since the time of 4th Edition and Ice Age. Recently, I have been reintroduced to the game in the form of the digital version and spent quite a bit of time and money on it. Magic: Not Even Once.

Magic is an amazing game because the game allows incredibly complex interactions to be created on the foundation of relatively simple rules. One of the fundamental ideas in the game is card abilities can actually alter the rules of play, allowing players to do things that are not normally expected.

On the basic level, cards with bigger numbers that do bigger damage help you to kill your opponents faster. All TCGs get that part of game design. But in Magic, expectations often get flipped upside down in a single move and a single card can alter the entire board. For example, players start with 20 lives and lose when they hit 0 in a regular game, but a card such as Transcendence can drastically change the dynamics when it hits the board unexpectedly.

Magic: The Gathering Online (MTGO) makes Magic so much more addictive than before because it makes it so easy to play games. Being a trading card game, it was often difficult in the past to obtain all the cards you require to build a deck exactly as you require. This involved meeting up with people over the weekends and engaging in time-consuming banter trade. In Magic Online, the economy is much more fluid and the supply of cards in the secondary market is consistent and there are always sellers online ready to fulfil your capricious needs. It’s almost too easy to buy cards and the only barriers are your self control and Wizards of the Coast‘s (the creators of Magic) abysmal interface design.

Deck construction

In Magic Online, you can purchase booster packs from the company directly and “open” them up just like in real-life, but the better option is to simply buy the exact cards you want directly from sellers. Due to the abundance of supply of cards from regular drafting, most common and uncommon cards go for a few cents or less, a much better deal than buying a booster pack of 15 cards for 4 bucks hoping that the rare card is worth more than that (which is usually not the case). With some smart buying, you can build rather competitive decks for cheap. And best of all, you only need 4 copies of any card ever because all your decks share the same virtual card pool and you don’t need multiple 4-copy sets of the same card if you want to reuse it in other decks (which is another reason why the secondary market is so well supplied).

Trading screen

However, the secondary market also plays host to one of the fundamental problems in Magic Online: the trading system is incredibly rudimentary. Wizards of the Coast apparently doesn’t want to lend too much aid to the secondary market, because the game client features no auction system, no direct transaction of currency between users and no autosell function like certain trade stalls in MMORPGs.

The entire economy runs on “event tickets” that cost 1 USD each and are nominally used to pay for entry fees to tournaments and premier events. These serve as the de facto currency used in transactions between players when direct card-for-card trade is not possible. The problem with event ticket is that the minimal denomination is 1 USD, making it incredibly cumbersome as a currency when most cards cost between 1 to 8 cents. All these deficiencies led to the creation of commercial third-party trade bots that automate the trade process using image recognition and keep track of partial credits for individual users.

For example, I buy a card from Sellbot1 for 8 cents and the bot takes 1 ticket from me. The bot will then credit $0.92 to my name, so the next time I try to take cards from Sellbot1, it won’t charge me any tickets and will instead deduct the value from my stored credits. The owner of Sellbot1 may also be running Sellbot2, which sells different kinds of cards, and stored credits will also work on it.

Titan Forge

While it’s remarkable how the community worked around the asinine limitations to develop a thriving economy, you can’t help but wonder how much healthier the MTGO economy would have been if Wizards had implemented proper auction and trading systems found in every major MMO game. The current system, while workable, creates artificial trade barriers by giving incentive to people to consistently trade with the same bots they already have credits on instead of searching for the best price for each individual card. Also, there is no real way to search for card prices across the whole market, so you pretty much have to check all the major bots manually. This non-ideal availability of pricing information again creates artificial inefficiencies in the market that simply shouldn’t exist.

Of course, when it comes to TCGs, the common concern of having to procure over-expensive rare power cards in order to win is also present in Magic. This is partially alleviated by multiple tournament formats, in which the most popular format only uses the most recent core set and two recent expansion blocks, thus ensuring that all cards in the format are in print. Personally, I find that prices in this format are generally acceptable, especially on MTGO where the prices are much lower and more optimized than its hard-copy counterpart.

In Magic, there is a concept known as the “metagame”. Some cards are useful all the time, but some cards are dependent on the state of the metagame. For example, a card that destroys all red creatures is normally of limited use because you don’t know what colour(s) your opponent is playing beforehand and it is only valuable in a metagame where many players run red cards. In real-life, games tend to be played amongst the same group of people week after week, hence winning often entails knowing what kind of decks they play and specifically play cards that may not be generally good but are highly effective against those specific decks. The anticipation of what your opponent will play based on experience and knowledge of the current pool of tournament-legal cards is the so-called metagame — the game outside the game (cue Inception music).

A good thing about MTGO is that you can always find someone to play with and the kind of decks you play against can vary a lot. You get to see very creative builds and combos and the metagame is ever changing due to new combos being discovered and new decks being tested in tournaments. And best of all, you can keep playing for as long as you want any time of the day.

Hero of Bladehold. Awesome card

Of course, it’s not all roses and sunshine. The current iteration of the MTGO client features the worst interface design since the 90s and even then I am pretty sure that Micropose’s Magic: The Gathering computer game from the late 90s featured better design than this. It looks like the client was made with Visual Basics and there are simply so many wtf design choices. Fortunately, a new client featuring modern technology is scheduled to enter beta and be released sometime this year. If it is anything similar to the Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 game recently released for Xbox and PC, it should be good.

If anyone wants to duel me on MTGO, add nadesico. I couldn’t believe that name wasn’t taken considering how many Japanese players are on MTGO.

On another note, there will be a “Digital Face-off” tournament held through Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 pitting employees of eight tech/gaming companies, including Valve, Google and Microsoft, against one another.

Wii U is the sound you make when you try to whistle but you don’t know how. It is also Nintendo’s new console announced today during E3 that finally brings them up to speed with Sony and Microsoft in terms of HD graphics and multi-platform titles.

Personally, I am not feeling it.

Nintendo’s strategy at the start of this console cycle was cheap + mass appeal + photogenic gimmick = money printing. Both the NDS and Wii were technically inferior to their competition but sold like hot cakes. Nintendo won big betting on casual gamers, but the groovy train is coming to an end thanks to the mobile gaming market. Games like Phoenix Wright can easily be played on the iPhone now and dedicated gaming devices have to set their sights higher.

It’s quite clear that the 3DS and the Wii U represent a subtle but significant shift in strategy to bring so-called “hardcore” gamers and 3rd-party developers like Electronic Arts and Ubisoft back into the fold. I use the term “hardcore”, but I really mean 13-year-old kids playing Modern Warfare 2. These core multi-platform games usually feature standard HD graphics and extensive online gameplay, both of which are not Wii’s strong suits. Wii U is trying to play catch-up and the E3 demo is just screaming, “Look how hardcore we are now.” See: blood-soaked Ninja Gaiden footages.

Nintendo is caught between a rock and a hard place. (That’s what she said.) The traditional casual gaming market it once dominated is now a massive free-for-all deathmatch where any indie developer living in his mother’s basement can potentially create the next Angry Birds and sell it on Apple’s App Store. On the other extreme, Nintendo’s years of disengagement from the “hardcore” gaming scene have left the PS3 and 360 comfortably cashing in on generic multi-platform shooter sequels that are too graphics-intensive for the Wii. I am not sure Wii U can modify that balance and still be successful.

To a gamer looking for new experiences, the “innovative” controller this time is far less visceral than the obvious appeal of motion controls. Multi-platform games from 3rd-party companies are not going to use the controller screen for anything more than stats and HUD elements. The controller layout also looks terrible for shooters, or at least even more terrible than what consoles have now.

I really don’t think the new controller will really be a huge advantage now that Wii U has to compete at the same level (and possibly price point) as the PS3 and 360. There’s no price announced yet, but performance costs money and those controllers look pricey. The Wii U is not going to be cheap, even if they try to cut cost with resistive screens.

The Wii U will still sell and make money just because it’s Nintendo, but I am quite certain, judging by the 3DS’ faltering sales, that the set of conditions that made NDS and Wii so massively successful no longer exists today. The casual gaming market has left the building and Wii U is fighting an uphill battle to win back core gamers. If it can compete for multi-platform games in terms of online infrastructure (there’s a PS3 joke in there somewhere) and technical capabilities, then the added Nintendo first-party magic can help the console thrive.

But all that aside, the name is fucking ridiculous. Seriously I am pretty sure Reggie was thinking about how silly he sounded when he stood on the stage at E3 trying to sell the name as something profound and meaningful.

I’ve been spending the past two weeks burning my way through a long list of backlogged games I want to clear before school starts and I lose my NEET badge, including Shadow of the Colossus, Red Dead Redemption, Dragon Age 2, Mass Effect 2 and L.A. Noire.

Valkyria Chronicles 3 is one of them. And this time I am actually reviewing it in an almost timely fashion and nowhere close to the release date of the next game. Go me.

Story

VC3 takes place at the same time as the original VC, during the war between Gallia and the Empire. It’s a side story about a black ops Gallian military unit that was secretly responsible for many of the greatest blows dealt against the Empire that were never made known; this kind of makes you wonder just how much good Welkin and friends really did if so much important shit went on behind the scenes without them knowing. This is the problem with side stories.

Conscripts and cadets, I could understand. But war criminals? Really?

The unit, known as Nameless, is basically a place where the army sends misbehaving soldiers to die in futile suicide missions. But many (i.e. all) of these criminals were actually misunderstood victims of military politics or corruption and all they really needed was the competent leadership of Kurt Irving, the main character, to lead to them to great untold glory. What a heart-warming story.

Silver hair and red eyes…

The squad members consist of the usual assortment of anime stereotypes who definitely do not look like they belong to such a sinister secret military unit of ill repute. Breaking with the franchise’s tradition, there are two heroines this time: Imca, an unfriendly emo Darcsen girl who ends all her sentences in negatives, and Riela, a long-haired red-eyed girl who somehow survived the total annihilation of all the units she had ever been assigned. (Can you guess who is the Valkyria in this game?)

Imca is an adorable tsundere with a giant ahoge

The writing is okay. It’s definitely a huge improvement from VC2, but that’s not saying much. The missions are much more story-driven this time, but overall the epic feeling of the original VC is just not quite there.

Interestingly, the Calamity Ravens, the main antagonists in the game, are a secret Imperial military unit consisting entirely of Darscen soldiers who are fighting for an independent Darscen state. This sounds insane when you consider that the Darscens are supposed to be the Jewish people and the Empire they are working for is based on Nazi Germany.

Calamity Ravens

That is until you realize that this was exactly what the Zionist militant group Lehi tried to do during WW2 when they asked to be included in the Axis team in return for Nazi assistance in expelling Britain from the Palestine Mandate. And of course the real hilarious part is where former Lehi leader Yitzhak Shamir later became the Prime Minister of Israel. Oh nationalists, you so silly. But I digress.

Gameplay

Valkyria Chronicles 2 was quite a huge departure from the original VC; pretty much the entire battle system was revamped in order to accommodate PSP’s technical limitations.

The changes from VC2 to VC3 are however more evolutionary than revolutionary, which is unfortunate in my opinion as I had expected a bigger shift back towards the feel of the original. I suppose it can’t really be helped.

Strategic map showing cutscenes and missions along the way

There is a long list of small changes, but they don’t really add up to much. For example, you can now have 9 units on the map compared to 6 in VC2, but you still can only have a maximum of 5 per area so the tactical considerations aren’t that different. In fact, many of the area designs are copied wholesale from VC2 with some cosmetic changes added to make things look darker and grittier. There are some new area designs that look bigger at first, but are really the same size stretched thinner; imagine if the original areas in VC2 were 4×4 units big and in VC3, you get some that are 2×8 and 1×16. Big whoop.

One of the reused mission areas from VC2

One of the new longer areas

There are some new types of mission objectives but they aren’t that different. Also, all vehicle chassis only consume 1 CP now, so the trade-off between heavy and light tank is now limited to speed. This makes the heavier chassis viable options for those tough missions with tight S-Rank requirements.

Revamped Classes

VC2’s horrible, horrible branching class system that forces you to train four of every class in order to get all the elite class types has been completely abolished and replaced with something that more closely resembles the original VC.

The list of classes in VC3 is: Scout, Shocktrooper, Sniper, Support, Lancer, Machine Gunner, Armour Tech, Fencer.

Imca doesn’t give a shit about using class-appropriate weapon

The veteran and elite statuses unlock access to new equipment like in VC; variants such as grenade-launcher scouts, anti-tank snipers and anti-infantry mortarers are back to being weapon options instead of class options.

There are some minor adjustments done to the retained classes, some good and some horrible.

There are many, many cameos in VC3

Scouts have been nerfed and die a lot faster now so they can’t do point rushes like they used to, at least not until you train them to elites and upgrade their HP enough. This actually makes some of the earlier missions quite difficult if you are used to the weak damage enemies dished out in VC2.

Armour Tech deploying shield

Armour Techs now deploy their shields in front of them at the end of their turn, forming a barrier that other characters can hide behind. This makes them a heck lot more useful than in VC2. Also, their hammer attack is needed to deal insane damages to a new type of mission objective that you have to destroy.

Armour Tech shield protecting my sniper from boss rape

Fencers are no longer bulletproof like they used to be when they were an upgrade from Armour Tech. They basically take damage from bullets like Shocktroopers now. They still move as slowly. I have no idea why they were nerfed so horribly in this way as they were already highly situational in VC2. Now they are utterly useless and you are almost always better off with a Shocktrooper instead.

Battle Potentials

For the perfectionist gamer out there hell-bent on maximizing his characters’ Potentials, VC3 introduces a new system that allows every character to become any class in the game. A new class-specific Potential is unlocked with each level of class progression.

Many cameos…

For example, you can turn your elite Scout into a newbie Lancer and retain the Scout-specific Potentials that it has earned, such as “Power Scout”. This creates many cross-training combos where certain Potentials work best with a class they do not belong to.

The game keeps track of the level attained by every character in each class and it is possible to train a single character to be an elite in every class and gain all the Battle Potentials in the game. (But you can only have four active at a time so that would be a really dumb idea.)

Special Attacks

The three main characters, Kurt, Imca and Riela, also have access to personalized special attacks after certain points in the story are reached. Using special attacks consumes 1 CP and 1 SP (Special Point). Unlike CP, the number of SP is restricted per battle and does not regenerate between turns. You usually get anywhere from 1 to 3 SP per battle.

Direct Command

Kurt’s special attack, called “Direct Command”, allows him to have any two squad members to “group up” with him and assume direct command of them. They will move together with him for that turn and shoot at whatever he shoots at, excluding classes that do not normally perform suppressing fire, such as Lancer and Fencer.

Assuming direct control. o_o

This is a possible way to kill some enemy named elites or to have slow-moving units like Fencers move forward quickly. However, once you unlock Imca’s special attack, Kurt’s becomes just a complete waste of SP.

Also known as the Pew Pew mode

Imca’s special attack is called “Open Fire” and it’s basically like one of those multi-target-missile-lock-on thing that mechas in sci-fi do. You have to get all her targets into one single screen, so the angle and position matters, but if you do it right you can wipe out the whole area in one cluster shot. Tanks hit by her Open Fire attack take damage as if they were attacked from the back.

Everyone of them is dead

I’ll leave it to your imagination what Riela’s special attack entails…

Consuming an SP also causes the character to ignore the diminishing returns of AP and he/she can move for a full AP bar for that turn. This can be used tactically to great effect, especially if the character is a Scout.

Thoughts

The problem with me and Valkyria Chronicles 3 is that I played the first game. On its own, VC3 is an amazing PSP game and a fine improvement over VC2. The in-game art and atmosphere are so much more stylized and detailed compared to VC2. Unfortunately, it does not ever quite manage to recreate the same feeling of epic-ness of the original PS3 classic. It’s just too immersion-breaking when battles are confined to tiny claustrophobic rooms masquerading as villages or valleys.

The difficulty curve and balance in VC3 are also much, much better than facerolling VC2 and many of the fights pose a genuine challenge.

At the end of the day, VC3 is really not that different from VC2. The improvements are mostly cosmetic and the combat and class changes do not alter the basic feel of the gameplay.

I could not remember if this was a VC2 or VC3 screenshot…

So yeah, definitely pick up VC3 if you loved VC2 or if you are just a Valkyria fan boy like me. But if you hated VC2 and hoped for a shift back to the original, you will be sorely disappointed. Even with the tweaks to the class system and a better story, VC3 is ultimately just VC2 in a fresh coat of paint.

More Screencaps

A crap load of extra screencaps because I overdid it as usual.

Character portrait placements during dialogues are more interesting and varied than in VC2

Look away and say no. Classic tsundere

Oh hey another cameo

Of course

Eddy is here too

Wait a minute…

…

Apparently the whole damn cast of VC and VC2 has met Kurt but no one mentioned a thing in the past two games

There are two different romantic endings for VC3

One of the Calamity Raven commanders

Not quite the giant boss fights from VC

All Nameless “uniforms” are customized by one of the girls

On second thought, maybe this whole game was just an excuse to give Selvaria another chance to shine :D

I am really itching for Mass Effect 3 after finishing the second game. Damn it. I just want to see Tali’s face…

So I have been clocking a few hours into Atlus’ horror puzzler Catherine on my PS3 because Rie Tanaka was tweeting about it and I am easily influenced by Twitter. Surprisingly, it is actually not a bad game, but it takes a lot of patience to overcome the rage-inducing learning curve, and ultimately at the end of the day the puzzle stages are not what people play the game for, or maybe that is just me.

The story is about Vincent, an average shmok, “accidentally” cheating on his girlfriend Katherine with a mysterious hot blonde girl named Catherine.

He starts having nightmares of himself “falling” which are depicted through a series of puzzles in which he has to climb to the top of a tower of stone blocks by moving blocks around in a certain way and escape death before the entire wall falls layer by layer into oblivion. This video should explain everything:

Due to the nature of the puzzle mechanics, a wrong move can totally block your progress and force you to restart the whole stage, ala Sokoban. This can be frustrating when it happens a few times right at the end of a super difficult boss fight. Also it’s rather hard to concentrate on the puzzle when some grotesque monstrosity from hell constantly distracts you with its inhuman howls of rage and infinite despair. D:

Sweet dreams are made of these

When Vincent is not busy having nightmares, he spends his time in a bar called the “Stray Sheep” where he talks to friends and strangers about his love troubles and where most story events take place. This is actually my favourite part of the game because it kind of reminds me of Shenmue (in a very distant and vague way). Vincent’s conversation with strangers he meet in the bar are often linked to the events from his nightmares which he has no recollection of while he is awake. The dialogues have a kind of Kafkaesque quality to their writing.

Some of the story is told through anime

But most of it is rendered in cel-shaded 3D

The title girl Catherine has a very sexy character design and is basically in charge of fan service in the game. She is playful, flirtatious and light on commitments while Vincent’s girlfriend Katherine is kind of a drag and constantly goes passive-aggressive on him over his inability to commit.

Y U NO MARRY ME?

Both of them send emails to Vincent’s mobile phone and the player can customize the replies from a few options. Dialogue choices throughout the game affect an unexplained good-evil meter which presumably has some kind of an effect on the final ending. I always pick the cheating-bastard option because I want to see more Catherine fan service. I’m sure this sentence will come back to haunt me someday.

The real 3D version

The attention to details in the story mode is quite cool. The email gimmick and the illusion of freedom in the way you choose to spend your time in the bar make you feel like you are actually living out Vincent’s life and to some extent make you feel like you deserve to be sent to hell in the nightmares for being such a lying cheating bastard (or not). The game in general also has plenty of style and atmosphere.

You can actually tilt the cutscene camera using the right analog stick ala MGS4… It doesn’t help <_<

I especially like that part in-between stages where Vincent is asked by an disembodied voice questions such as, “Do you think that marriage is the beginning or the end of your life?” After you give your answer, the game uploads it to a central server and shows you a pie chart of actual collated responses from other players sorted by gender. It’s an interesting idea that serves no gameplay purpose but seems oddly appropriate for the material.

The what-the-fuck-omg-shit in-game moment

So yeah, it’s a weird game. The puzzles are so hard even on easy mode that the creators rushed out a 1.01 patch that adds a super easy mode and unlimited retries. But it’s pretty fun overall and I can’t really explain why.

Catherine will be released stateside this summer. English trailer is up on YouTube.

So I finished the new Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai game for PSP. Well, I didn’t 100% it but I saw all the “true” endings except for Manami’s and that’s good enough. It’s not a bad game if you are into AVG but its primary purpose is basically fan service.

Story

The game takes place about one year after the start of the anime. I have no idea what is its place in the novel timeline. There are two major changes that I think probably took place in the light novels: Kuroneko is now a highschool freshman in Kyousuke’s school and calls him “senpai” and Ayase is somehow acquainted with Manami and calls her “oneesan”. (She still calls Kyousuke “oniisan”.)

Kyousuke’s kawaii kouhai

The story is divided into two portions. The first part is common to all the characters and is relatively short. It consists of two major events: Kirino and gang taking part in a Siscalypse competition and Kyousuke going on a school trip to Kyoto.

The story branching depends on whom Kyousuke teams up with for the competition (or if he takes part in it at all) and the souvenir he decides to buy in Kyoto (every girl wants a different thing).

Kirino and Saori vs. Kyousuke and Kuroneko

After Kyousuke returns from Kyoto, the story branches into the respective character paths. The main branches are for Kirino, Kuroneko, Saori, Ayase and Manami. Each character has around 3-4 endings, usually with one true ending, one good/normal ending and some bad/weird endings in between.

Paths

Plenty of spoilers. Continue at your own peril or skip to the next header.

Kirino: In a subconscious bid for Kyousuke’s attention, Kirino loses all her otaku-related memories, including those of Saori and Kuroneko. Kyousuke has to convince Kirino, a fashionable girl with good grades and a modelling career, that she is actually an otaku. Hilarity ensues.

True ending involves a semi-kokuhaku from Kirino at Comiket. Bad endings include Kirino forgetting about her true self and her otaku friends forever.

Isn’t this from Tsukuyomi Moon Phase?

Kuroneko: Kuroneko is working on a new doujinshi for the upcoming Comiket. She sees herself as the tragic creator whose source of creativity is her suffering and loneliness. Although she is falling behind the deadline, she refuses to ask for help from the others and actively avoids Kyousuke. It is up to Kyousuke to smack some sense into her if you know what I mean — I don’t.

True ending involves Kyousuke pledging eternal allegiance to the fallen angel.

Saori ＠ω＠

Saori: Saori, who is actually the ojousama of a rich family, is pushed into an arranged marriage with a 40-year-old paedophile princeling of a large conglomerate who wants her to stop her childish hobbies. Not an assertive person and obedient to her parents’ wishes, Saori gives all her precious otaku goods to Kyousuke for safe-keeping and bids everyone farewell. Kyousuke has to convince her that her wishes are just as important and she should stand up for herself.

True ending involves Kyousuke and Saori getting married out of the blue. Seriously.

It’s cuter than a cat in a box

Ayase: She has arguably the most romantic path in the game, though still kind of weak by most AVG standards. She seeks Kyousuke’s help in her attempts to understand Kirino better but ends up falling for Kyousuke. She is afraid of revealing her feelings because she thinks that Kyousuke is only teasing her when he does things like calling her “Lovely My Angel Ayase-tan”. Unlike the other girls, Ayase gets a proper kokuhaku scene.

True ending involves Ayase getting knocked up and living happily ever after with Kyousuke. Bad ending is yandere ending with off-screen stabbing action. There is also a weird ending named the “Forbidden Yuri Ending”… I leave that to your imagination.

Manami: Did not play her path. Meh.

Kanako: There is an ending for her that branches out towards the end of Ayase’s path. It is actually somewhat interesting. Heh.

End of spoilers. Continue from here.

Gameplay

The gameplay is hard work if you don’t use a walkthrough. There are two main mechanics involved.

The first is collecting titbits of information called O.R.E. (I can’t remember what it stands for) and deciding whether to use them when prompted to change the direction of the story. The second is a system called Two Shot where you have a face-to-face conversation with a girl and have to decide whether to tsukkomi her via quick-time event or not at certain points of the conversation.

Example of an O.R.E.

O.R.E.s are high-lighted in yellow

The O.R.E. (silly acronym is silly) system is persistent across replays so you get to use information you obtained in previous playthroughs to change the direction of the story. For example, Ayase’s true ending can only be obtained if you have an O.R.E. obtained from Kirino’s true ending.

Two Shot

Press square to give her a piece of your mind

The Two Shot system is kind of arbitrary. It is more trial and error than anything. Sometimes an obvious tsukkomi produces a negative reaction for no apparent reason and sometimes an apparently hurtful tsukkomi is exactly what the girl wants. I suppose it’s like real-life except that there is a quick load button that lets you jump back to any of the last thirty scene changes or gameplay decisions.

These modern AVGs have it good. Back in our days we had to walk uphill both ways just to find a save button and we were happy with our three measly save slots.

Thoughts

There are some genuinely hilarious moments in the game, particularly if you get the otaku-related allusions and occasional 2ch lingo. The dialogues are witty at times and live up to expectations set by the anime.

The gameplay is somewhat reminiscent of Really? Really! which in turn is a derivative of Ace Attorney, except that it is not as fun. You will fail repeatedly at the Two Shot system until you learn the true meaning of hate and just wiki the solution.

Lovely My Angel Ayase-tan

The endings are kind of lacklustre. As mentioned, I feel that Ayase is the only one who gets the proper heroine treatment. I suppose this is why she calls herself the “hidden heroine” at some point in Kirino’s path. Saori looks really gorgeous without her ＠ω＠ glasses though.

Character ranking:

1. Ayase
2. Kirino
3. Kuroneko
4. Saori
5. Kanako
6. Minami

Ending ranking:

1. Ayase
2. Saori
3. Kanako
4. Kuroneko
5. Kirino

Yeah I really can’t motivate myself to play though Minami’s path.

I like Kuroneko as a character but her path is probably the least interesting one. Kirino’s path is more entertaining and emotional, but the ending is one huuuuuuge cop-out. Not that this is unexpected, but I was hoping for a more…unorthodox resolution.

Spoiler ahead.

I find the final scene in Ayase’s true ending strangely thought-provoking. (Click on the button to see it.)

Ayase married Kyousuke and is pregnant with his daughter. Kirino returns to Japan from her modelling career in Paris to visit them and to witness the birth of her niece.

In a way, Ayase is a proxy for Kirino’s love for Kyousuke. Ayase and Kirino both love Kyousuke and at the same time they also love each other, but only Ayase can cross the last barrier. The last scene feels almost touchingly poignant in a zen-like way, if you can remove your worldly preconceptions and that feeling of creepiness lurking at the back of your mind long enough to ponder over it free from prejudices.

Okay, maybe I am reading too much into this shit as usual.

If only…

When Kyousuke spills the beans about his relationship with Ayase to Kirino in the true ending, Kirino is initially upset and asks him if things would’ve still been the same if they weren’t siblings.

This is probably the most overt acknowledgement of the unspoken nature of their mutual love that can be found in the game, and of course it’s not even in Kirino’s own true ending.

Unrelated but amusing: in Kuroneko’s true ending, where Kuroneko and Kyousuke get together, Kuroneko proclaims herself the older sister of Kirino and teases her about it. Her closing line is, “watashi no imouto ga konna ni kawaii wake ga nai.”

End spoiler.

The game also comes a Breakout-clone mini-game, a short in-character voiced commentary for every single unlocked CG in the album and a full plot diagram to show you the paths/endings you are missing. Not too shabby in terms of extras.

Breakout clone

CG album

Screencaps

I took way too many screencaps so I’m just going to dump everything here. Some of them may be considered spoilerish even without context.

You can…almost…

Kirino’s channelling Konata

The bad bad ending is where you end up with him

A common sight at Comiket

The weird supernatural ending…

Obligatory scene in all AVGs

Come to think of it, there’s a swimsuit CG for every girl

;_;

AVIO

:O

ಠ_ಠ

Ayase emails this to Kyousuke as a “reward”

(*´д`*)ﾊｧﾊｧ

Train ride to Comiket

The only other proper kiss scene in the game

Kirino confronts Ayase and fights over Kyousuke

Sweet scene, still something sinister slumbers silently

Kuroneko places a curse on Kyousuke

Kuroneko speaks fluent geek

Obligatory sukumizu

Kuroneko collapses

Kuroneko R.I.P. 2011

(´・ω・｀)ハァ？

Ruri-ruri

Saori emails this to Kyousuke as a “reward”……

Saori just won the game

uguuu…

You can actually see her eyes if you look hard

Saori removes her limiter and goes over 9000

The glasses were there to protect your sanity

(*´д`*)ﾊｧﾊｧﾊｧﾊｧキターー

pettan pettan tsuru pettan

The only other kiss scene in the game what is this I don’t even

Phew. Most screenshots ever?

Now back to Valkyria Chronicles 3…

Sony just announced PSP2. Dubbed the Next Generation PlayStation Portable (NGP), it looks like a slightly-tweaked version of the original PSP design. The most obvious change is the inclusion of two analogue sticks — actual analogue sticks similar to the DualShock’s and not whatever nub thingy the original PSP had.

Additional specifications include 960×544 5-inch OLED (4 times the resolution of the PSP), 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS, front and rear cameras, front and rear touch pads, and accelerometers and gyroscopic sensors based on the PS3 Move. Games will be sold on flash-based storage cards and UMD is gone forever. RIP.

The rear touch pad is basically a touch screen behind the NGP but without the screen part. I can’t really imagine what that is good for. Maybe I am just not a huge fan of touch-based gaming.

Rear touch pad

The hardware sounds like it is basically capable of all the augmented reality, location-based, motion-controlled, social, networked multiplayer, touchscreen gaming any developer can ever come up with. Sounds quite insane frankly. Detailed specs here.

I wonder if the NGP will be breaking any new grounds for console launch prices…

Also, this crazy fusion of human interface technology will certainly make the NGP an enticing target for hardware hackers and homebrew developers.

According to MGS-creator Kojima, the NGP’s graphics are just as good as the PS3’s. Given that the screen size is smaller, I find this entirely plausible. He showcased MGS4 (which at the time was supposed to be the pinnacle of PS3’s HD graphics) running on the NGP.

Sony also brought in Capcom and Sega to show off NGP running Lost Planet 2 and Yakuza: Of The End that were originally developed for PS3. Joystiq quotes Capcom representation saying that the NGP can handle the “full specification” of the PS3, whatever that really means.

The game showcases demonstrating PS3 ports running on the NGP seem somewhat ambiguous as to whether they are merely demonstrating the fact that the NGP is capable of running PS3 games with minimum tweaking, or whether those ports represent actual commercial NGP releases that are in development.

Kojima sounds like he wants to make games that run exactly the same on the PS3 and NGP and can be played on either, but this does not appear to be the official purpose of the NGP. I suppose more will be revealed in the near future.

The NGP is only coming out at the end of the year, so it’s quite clear that Sony chose to unveil it now to steal some thunder from Nintendo 3DS’ impending release, as it had done in the past against the Dreamcast and the Xbox 360.

Frankly, I’ll buy whatever next/this-gen console that gets Valkyria Chronicles 4. Let’s just hope it’s not the original PSP. Come on Sega WOW!

And oh. Official PlayStation emulation is coming for Android. The PlayStation Suite support many mobile platforms, no doubt with the leaked Xperia Play as the flagship device.

It’s not clear what exactly are the titles supported. PS1 is a given, but apparently there will be PSP titles too. Is PS2 too much to hope for?

With the release date of Valkyria Chronicles 3 for PSP less than two weeks away, I figure this is the perfect time (by my usual standard of procrastination) for me to write up my thoughts on VC2, a game which I had only recently completed.

In my defence, I only got to play the original VC three months ago after finally caving and buying a secondhand PS3. Also, Valkyria Chronicles 2 is the most amazing game ever created for the PSP and everyone with two opposable thumbs should play it.

Gallia’s Lanceal Military Academy

The original Valkyria Chronicles is in my opinion the game that made good my PS3 purchase. This was completely unexpected because I bought the console primarily for FFXIII, which I threw into the rubbish chute after 10 hours, and VC is pretty much obscure and under the radar for most people.

I found the art style absolutely amazing and the combat system pure genius. This makes sense because the game was developed by the part of Sega WOW formerly known as Overworks who were responsible for fan-favourite Sakura Taisen series, so they really know what they are doing. (Incidentally, I learnt how to play Koi Koi not because of Summer Wars but because of the mini-game in Sakura Taisen…)

The first VC stood out in two aspects. The first is a cel-shaded 3D graphics engine that I think outclassed all previous attempts to simulate manga-style art with 3D models. The second is the hybrid combat system evolved from a combination of third-person shooters and classic turn-based tactical RPGs like Front Mission and Sakura Taisen.

Not that the drawn CGs are bad

Unfortunately, only the latter survived the sequel’s transition to the PSP, obviously due to technical limitations. In VC2, character portraits and cut scenes are sadly all standard drawn CGs. The battle system is also tweaked to accommodate smaller and close-quarter level designs involving fewer soldiers, but I won’t say that the game has become worse than the original — merely different.

Gameplay

Pre-mission briefing

The VC series employs a pretty unique combat system. Basically instead of moving units in a grid like in traditional tactical RPGs, you have a limited number of moves every turn with which you can take direct control of individual soldiers in a third-person view. The enemies will lay suppressing fire on your units but are otherwise immobile during your turn. Moving your troops across the battlefield while dodging enemy fire is hence a far more active and engaging process than in traditional turn-based strategy. This works out incredibly well and the gameplay is very addictive.

Battle map

Controlling a scout

Your units can only move a set distance and carry out one action (e.g. attack) each time you select them, so you have to think of how to maximize your limited actions per turn while killing enemies and achieving objectives such as capturing points.

Performing an attack

So for example, you can start your turn with a Scout rush by using its high movement range to storm the enemy’s command point and capture it. Then you spend your next move calling in a Gunner using the captured point to obliterate multiple enemies surrounding you. This is a more efficient use of moves than trying to use the Scout’s feeble peashooter to kill the enemies one by one or taking multiple moves to bring the slow-moving Gunner over to the enemy base.

Crouching behind a sandbag to take cover

Similarly, if there’s a tank in front of a command point, it is usually more efficient to capture the point by running pass the tank with a Scout or Shocktrooper and then calling in a Lancer (anti-tank infantry) to attack the tank’s weak spot from behind, than to slowly chip away its armour from the well-protected front.

Sneaking behind the enemy tank with my Heavy Lancer…

The indicator tells me it takes 2 hits to the weak spot to kill this heavy tank. Would probably take 6-7 hits from the front

There are many ways to reduce the number of moves you need to achieve the same result and pulling off a perfect combo gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling inside. That sense of satisfaction is the essence of this game. The battle system creates natural synergies you can exploit simply by thinking tactically and does not rely on hard combos that have to be memorized. It’s like poetry. You can watch it in action in this VC3 promo video.

Victory

With enough min-maxing, it is sometimes possible to win a mission by capturing all the command points within one turn even though the mission’s limit for S Rank is five turns.

Classes

One huge mechanics change in the shift from VC to VC2 is the class system. VC employs a very bare-bone system with 5 basic classes (Scout, Sniper, Engineer, Shocktrooper, Lancer) and an elite version of each class that slightly modifies the gameplay (e.g. Shocktroopers get flamethrowers).

Class upgrade tree for Engineer/Medic

In VC2, the 5 classes basic classes (Scout, Shocktrooper, Lancer, Engineer, Armour Technician) can each be further upgraded into 2 veteren classes (veteran versions of every class, plus Sniper, Gunner, Mortarer, Musician, Swordsman) which in turn can each be upgraded into 2 elite classes (e.g. Anti-Tank Sniper, Heavy Gunner, Medic, Explosive Swordsman) making a grand total of 20 elite classes to play with.

Of course upgrading involves a hell lot of grinding for a variety of random drops (or “credits” since the game setting is a school) that differ for each class… But it’s actually not that hard to get everyone to elite by the end of the game if you diligently play though every mission. You don’t really have to grind (i.e. replay missions).

Armour Tech, a new class in VC2, is a melee unit with a bulletproof shield that can disarm/plant land mines

According to the saved file, I logged 64 hours into VC2, excluding the few dozen reloads it took to perfect some non-repeatable story missions. In 64 hours, I managed to complete all the missions at S Rank (mostly in one playthrough), excluding character-specific missions belonging to characters I don’t use in my main squad, and upgraded all my squad members to elites (with at least one unit of every elite class).

My squad setup

There is a lot more replayability in VC2 compared to the first game. Some of it is grindy, but generally it is thoroughly enjoyable.

Annoyances

If you play through VC, there’s a part during the tutorial where the game proudly informs you that there is no need to grind levels with individual units because all units of the same class share the same class level. You merely have to collect generic EXP to upgrade entire classes. What a thoughtful system, you think to yourself…

Class levels

In VC2, generic EXP and class levels still exist, but elite status is no longer linked to levels. Instead you have to fulfil specific credit requirements for individual units and manually upgrade them one-by-one to elites. This renders the class-level system completely redundant as anything but a linear stat boost. Sigh…

Credits are granted only to units that perform well in missions and each mission grants a specific category of credits (out of four; e.g. Attack credits, Support credits) and each category contains four different grades (e.g. Attack, Attack II, Attack X, Attack II X).

Credits issued after a mission

These credits are granted somewhat randomly, so you can imagine the frustration when you only need one single Attack II to upgrade your Veteran Scout but the mission keeps giving him Attack II X and wasting Attack II on a Shocktrooper that doesn’t need it.

Objection!

Also, the original VC was fully voiced throughout but VC2 has voice-overs only for select scenes. This is a rather huge annoyance in my opinion because partial voice-over is lame and reminiscence of the Nintendo DS.

And I can’t help but feel sad that the awesome cel-shaded engine Sega made for VC is going to waste now that VC has permanently abandoned the PS3 for the PSP…

Capturing a point with my scout. Her character-specific ability also happens to activate, healing her to full

Gameplay balance is also not that great. It’s not so bad if you play against another human player, but certain strategies such as Scout rush are powerful to the point of being broken against the retarded computer AI.

The mission-ranking system determines rank by the number of turns taken. This mandates an offensive play-style going for fast efficient wins, which is further disincentive against using support classes such as Engineer/Musician and slow-moving classes such as Armour Tech in most situations, making the Scout even more overpowered.

S is Japanese for A

Of course, getting S Rank using other classes is perfectly doable and there are very few cases where a Scout rush is absolutely essential. But it often makes things too easy.

Improvements

The weapon/tank upgrade and research options are a huge step up from the original.

In the original game, the upgrades are largely linear stat boosts that, while helpful for progression, do not alter the style of gameplay with few exceptions. The “elite” gimmicky weapons that named NPCs drop are largely useless compared to your default stat boosters. Your tank stays in the base for most fights because it is costly to move and there are very few cases where it is necessary, or even more convenient, to use it.

Submachinegun upgrade tree

In VC2, your tank can be customized for a large variety of purposes, from heavy-armour tank that costs multiple movement points to use and can deal massive damage to enemy bosses to low-cast light-armour personnel carriers that can rapidly transport your troops right to the enemy command point while building bridges and clearing obstacles. This makes the tank useful in nearly every mission.

Similarly, there are numerous weapon sidegrades and special enemy drops that are actually vastly superior to your default upgrades and it actually makes sense to keep an eye out for them.

Heavy tank with heavy armour-piercing rounds, rear armour and enemy camouflage

Light tank with desert camo and water sprinkler (removes heat ray debuff on desert maps)

VC2 also does a much better job of developing side characters. In the original game, each of your squad members supposedly has a unique personality and back story, but none of it is covered in the game itself. You only get to infer them from the one-line voice-overs and the in-game encyclopaedia.

Story scene for one of the Lancer side characters

Lycoris/Anisette, the younger sister of Edy from the original game

In VC2, there is a series of cut scenes and a character-specific mission for every squad member. Sure, the back stories are all cliché-fests, but it’s still nice to have them at all. That said, some of the original VC supporting characters such as Edy are strangely popular with the fans despite having zero presence in the game’s story…

Guess the cliché

Another side character’s story mission

There’s also a decent multiplayer option now that lets you play ad-hoc wireless co-op and versus games with your friends. It’s hard to describe how co-op works, but it is quite fun. Versus mode can be slightly broken if the two players are at very different tech levels in their respective games, but it’s still possible for the disadvantaged player to win if he plays his classes right.

Overall

I think Sega has found itself an incredible game franchise in Valkyria Chronicles and there’s a lot of innovation going on in the two games published so far. Unfortunately, the games do not seem to be doing very well commercially and the move to the PSP, a dead platform in North America, certainly does not help.

Welkin and Alicia from the original game

VC2 is a very fun game, but it is also flawed. Most of its flaws can be attributed to either the technical limitations of the PSP or the strange Japanese notion that all games made for the PSP must be incredibly “replayable”…or grindy (see: Dissidia, Crisis Core, Monster Hunter). The former is made glaringly obvious by the glorious masterpiece that is the original VC on PS3.

The beautiful enemy commander, voiced by Ayako Kawasumi, issues an order

VC of course has its own share of flaws. The story is much grander and more immersive, but the gameplay is slightly too simplistic. On the other hand, VC2 has a much lighter cookie-cutter story but improves the gameplay mechanics in some aspects. It’s a two-step-forward-one-step-back deal.

Becoming the bad guy alters your sense of fashion

Still, in spite of its flaws and limitations, VC2 is by far the most enjoyable PSP experience I have had. It really is disheartening to see that such a brilliant game is apparently not popular enough to warrant even one proper walkthrough on GameFAQs…

More screenshots because I took too many.

Mission shop

There is always a hard-ass drill sergeant

There is always a mascot animal of unknown species

Mission selection screen

You can tell they are bad by the colours

The tank driver/technician is a hawt oneesan who says, “Don’t break it next time, kay?” everytime you bring your tank in for repairs

Arranging your characters before a battle

Blowing up an enemy supply vehicle

Enemy moving in to capture my point during the opponent’s turn

The academy’s scenery changes with the seasons

A total tsundere in a bromance with the main character

It’s like Pikachu with wings

For Queen and country; That is your Queen (voiced by Mamiko Noto)

I eagerly await the release of Valkyria Chronicles 3 on 27th Jan. ^^

Valkyria Chronicles inspired me to attempt to play through all five Sakura Taisen in order.

It’s a strange crossover, but not the strangest. Certainly makes more sense than Kingdom Hearts. Also, is it just me or is this the first time Ryuuichi/Phoenix and his Not Love Interest appear fully voiced and animated? I’ve played all the games including Gyakuten Kenji, but maybe I’m missing some spin-offs.

The general idea is intriguing enough, but I worry the more serious-looking storytelling and art directions may undermine Gyakuten‘s good old 16-bit charm and quirky humour. I just hope it doesn’t get raped the way Front Mission did. Get off my lawn and all.

So, I caved and bought a second-hand PS3 Slim for S$300 (about 220 USD), partly because the PS3 has finally been successfully modded with a hacked debugging dongle reminiscent of PSP’s Pandora battery. (I am a cheapskate…) The awesome part is that my ancient Dell monitor has secret HDCP-via-DVI support through a HDMI>DVI converter and displays 1080p perfectly, so I don’t have to wander out of my room into the great unknown that is my living room to forage for a Barvia.

I finally get to play that (second-hand) copy of FFXIII I bought in Japan five months ago for cheap. Having skipped right passed all the Final Fantasies released during the PS2 generation (because I am such a cheapskate that I didn’t buy a PS2 until the PS3 was released), FFXIII comes as quite a huge leap forward from my perspective. I’m a FFVIII guy, so all this tech futuristic stuff is just right up my alley. After all, there’s no real difference between magic and sufficiently advanced technology.

Anyway, some first impressions after sitting through the tutorials.

There’s something about Japanese society that keeps producing these utopia-turn-dystopia stories, like how Chinese producers love to talk about the Warring States Period. The former is a rather pessimistic view of how Japan’s material-rich society is but an illusion that will eventually be its own downfall, while the latter is a constant reminder of why mainlanders prefer strong leadership to individualistic ideals of democracy. But I digress.

Story

I just started playing the game, so I’m going to extrapolate what I think is going on based on the first generic corridor Lightning runs through, using my keen plot sense horned by years of studying anime modern Japanese visual culture stereotypes. This is what I have so far:

We have the Cocoon (obvious name is obvious), a floating spherical utopia — that looks suspiciously like a Death Star — in the sky where humans lived in peace for hundreds of years. (I’m guessing this is a metaphor for Japan and the sheltered lives the Japanese live.) Then we have the fal’Cie, some kind of non-human supernatural beings who built Cocoon for humans. (Uncle Sam?) I’m playing the Japanese version and the katakana for fal’Cie is exactly the same as that of Farsi, which is the Persian language they speak in Iran. Interestingly, Iran just started fuelling its first nuclear reactor. This is all linked somehow… I just need my conspiracy tin-foil hat to think.

Cocoon hovers over a planet called Pulse, which in kanji is rendered as 下界 (underworld) but read as Pulse. Apparently all manner of wild magical beasts roam free on Pulse. There are also non-friendly fal’Cie living there who apparently want to invade/destroy Cocoon for unknown reasons (probably because they are bored of frolicking around the grasslands). The government of Cocoon is called 聖府 (holy government), which is a pun of the Japanese world for government 政府 and has a decidedly less punny English name — Sanctum.

I’m going out on a limb here and guess that the fal’Cie from Pulse is trying to destroy Cocoon for humanity’s own good and the Sanctum, though ostensibly trying to protect Cocoon’s citizen, is actually a corrupt evil organization hell-bent on preserving some kind of status quo for its own nefarious purposes.

Sanctum is probably demonizing the underworld to stop people from realizing how awesome it is to go out. It’s basically a conspiracy to turn its citizens into hikkikomori. The moral of the story at the end will be that the great outdoors is an awesome place and we should all go out of our room and roam free in the wild like savages. Well, I’m not falling for it.

But seriously, I’m still running straight paths down endless corridors in the game, so I’m just making shit up based on a few paragraphs of flavour text in the game menu. Don’t bother correcting me either. I possess a 10kΩ resistance against spoilers.

Graphics

Graphics-wise, I feel a bit conflicted. While FFVII and FFVIII offered a substantially differentiated experience for their time, it’s a whole lot harder to be impressed nowadays, particularly since the PS3 and the 360 run on three-year-old technology comparable to today’s budget PC graphics. I’m not holding my breath, but I did like the train sequence at the start of the game. That is to say, the graphics and cinematics do have their moments, and it’s nice to not have that the immersion-breaking back-and-forth between curvy FMV cutscenes and blocky in-game graphics for which I remember the PS1.

Gameplay

So far, there’s really nothing much to speak of in terms of gameplay. I hope it gets more complicated than facerolling on the controller’s O button and running in straight lines.

I kind of get turned off by games that require insane min-maxing to win, so I should be happy. But I’m kind of worried that FFXIII goes too far in the opposite direction. Maybe it’s because I haven’t run through enough straight corridors to get to the good part yet.

Conclusion

…Okay, this is turning out to be one negative-sounding first impression. It’s actually not that bad. The high production value basically guarantees a minimum level of quality enjoyment. And if all else fails, there’s still Lightning’s Japanese voice-over by Maaya Sakamoto. She keeps me hanging on. But if you ask me whether I would still play through FFXIII if the Japanese version didn’t exist, I would be hard-pressed to give you an answer.

Maaya doesn’t just tip the balance, she breaks it.

Plants vs. Zombies is a great game, possibly one of the best works from casual-game maker PopCap Games. You can check out the tons of positive reviews online if you don’t believe me. For those who have played the game, you have to agree with me that the end credits roll (YouTube link) was pretty damn awesome, somewhat reminiscent of GLaDOS’ solo performance from Valve’s Portal.

There’s actually a Japanese version of the song “Zombies On Your Lawn” titled “Uraniwa ni Zombies ga” performed by the same singer Laura Shigihara. (Incidentally, her personal site, which appears to be inaccessible right now, is hosted on berkeley.edu)

Zombie ga yattekita~ You can download both versions of the song from the official PvZ site. They are both great in a weird way, though I have to say the English lyrics are more cleverly written.

I like your tricycle.