Valkyria Chronicles Ending Discussion ***SPOILERS***

[Zagrash]

And now I wait for everyone else to finish this excellent game, so that we can talk about how excellent everything about it is. I'll keep this post light, since I'm not sure anybody else is done with the game yet.

[Orca]

So...you had nothing to say about it really? You put SPOILERS in the title, talk about it if you want. Anyone stupid enough to click on it after reading the title deserves to have it spoiled lol

[Zagrash]

So...you had nothing to say about it really? You put SPOILERS in the title, talk about it if you want. Anyone stupid enough to click on it after reading the title deserves to have it spoiled lol

I mostly just didn't want to be sitting here talking to myself...heh...I'll get more chatty soon I'm sure

[Zagrash]

I guess I don't care quite so much about staying here talking to myself, a few impressions from the end of the game:

At the beginning of the credits, you get a brief run down of the main squad members' lives after the war (minus Welkin & Alicia, that comes along later). I wouldn't say there were any huge surprises based on the character development you get through the story - Largo and Varrot get married and live on a farm, Rosie becomes a singer, Zaka starts a toy company for war orphans.

Almost more satisfying - just before the credits actually roll, they show a picture of Squad 7, and roll a list of all squad members, and whether or not survived through the final battle. I was very proud throughout the game that I did not lose a single squad member (I did once on mission 7, but I lost that try anyway and had to restart the mission). It was really cool seeing the list of the entire squad with "living" next to their name.

Then after the credits, the obligatory cut scene of Welkin walking through Bruhl, stopping at Alicia's bakery truck. They stop and talk for awhile until Welkin asks how Isara is doing - out comes their small daughter, obviously named after his sister.

New Game + opens up the rest of the personnel pages for the members of your squad that were on your final roster. Some of them are definitely pretty humorous (Hannes particularly made me laugh).

I'm finding that the requirements for getting "A" rank in new game plus really want you to just run through without killing all of the enemies. I don't necessarily like doing that, but I'll probably make an exception for this game. The statistics tab isn't anything super-fancy, but it's nice seeing how you've done on the missions. I will have to start going through the skirmishes on easy and hard now, all I have records for is normal.

Otherwise, now I just wait for everybody else to finish up the game so we can "discuss" it...with spoilers...

[Gorvi]

Just beat it, but I'm tired so I'll be brief. The ending was a bit on the sappy side, but damn it, that's what I wanted for these characters. One thing that did bug me was Faldio just doing himself in to take out Max when it really wasn't necessary, but that seems to be part of the whole Japanese thing with an honorable death.

I doubt I'll touch the New Game+ for a bit, but I will probably in a month or two. Now to just wait on the DLC that's supposed to be coming soon. :)

[Zagrash]

It was maybe a little sappy, but I'm not sure I expected anything else. And yeah, Faldio offing himself was probably unnecessary, but there is a huge sense of honor, and that sort of thing, which I'm sure is why it happened.

You should definitely do one thing in New Game Plus before shelving this for a little while...try the first bruhl skirmish on hard. That is freaking ridiculous. I figured it would just be harder, or have a few more enemies, but it's absolutely nuts. Give it a shot =)

[Gorvi]

You mean the one that was in the demo? How does that work, anyway? Can I just play all the missions and skirmishes over again or do you start over and have to work your way through the game again?

[Zagrash]

The skirmishes are all open in new game +, and hard mode becomes available. If you play through the campaign in new game + you need to clear each mission, but the skirmishes are all open.

I've only tried the first bruhl skirmish on hard, and its pretty nuts. Definitely worth checking out

[Gorvi]

I should do that. I'm definitely going through VC withdrawals, I want more of the game. I may play through some of the New Game+ stuff just to get a fix. :p

Seriously, this is the first game in a long time that I seriously miss after I'm done with it. I need that soundtrack fast. :)

[Zagrash]

I hear you! like I said in the other thread, I've had a great time in Florida (at the airport now, my stupid flight is delayed) but I've definitely missed that silly game. What did your final squad look like anyway? I'm just wondering who have some of the better final character bios.

[danhoo]

Finally finished this, after a brief hiatus. Overall, an excellent game that manages to be both unique and fun (far too many games for me these days are one or the other).

Random thoughts follow. Spoilers, of course.

The battles reminded me of the Ace Combat series. Wait, hear me out. What I mean by this is that while I expected the battles to be mostly the same, given the war going on, I was surprised at the amount of variety in some of the battles. You can go from trying to stop kidnappers, to running from a giant “land battleship”, to a battle of attrition on city streets, and anything in-between.

The story gets a bit sappy, but I enjoyed it. Maybe a better way to say it is that it gets “overly dramatic”. Faldio's actions at the end seemed, well, slightly unnecessary. Still, it felt suitable epic, and was better than many stories I've played in games from the last couple years.

The battle that gave me the most trouble was 18-A (the second to last battle), believe it or not. It's strange: 7 took me two tries, and I was able to both 16 and 17 in one try (admittedly getting C's), but 18-A took me 5 attempts. It was a combination of bad luck (enemy reinforcements got lucky and wiped out my base crew twice, and one-shotted my tank once) and complete confusion on where I was supposed to put the tank to shoot the lance. I read something about putting it on an “incline”, and assumed that I was supposed to put the tank on the little ramp leading up to the Marmota (which is completely wrong). In my final attempt I made it just under the wire – my tank was in the ditch, the lance had a small chunk of health left, and I had two CPs, and not enough movement points to move my tank to safety. If I had missed or not done enough damage, it would've been on to try number 6.

Final stats: Every class leveled up to 16 (yes, even engineers) except scouts, at 17. I probably didn't need to level up the engineers so much. Favorite non-regular squad members: Vyse and Aika, Ted (I laughed every time he shot someone while screaming “Hi, I'm Ted!”), Marina (awesome and deadly), Hannes (don't mess with Hannes), and Nadine (she has a funny run-cycle animation and occasionally says “I'll bring up the rear”, chuckle).

[Xydarc]

OH MY GOD.

A JRPG with a clear, understandable, and happy ending. Screw sappy, that is exactly the ending I was hoping for. It was great to see the entire Squad 7 crew with "living" next to their names.

I figured we'd get an incomprehensible (I'm looking at you FF7) ending or worse, an ending in which Welkin and Alicia weren't together yet. Being a huge anime fan, Faldio's sacrifice came as no surprise as I've seen this sort of thing before.

Man, what a satisfying ending. I'm still basking in the afterglow. However, there is a small itch at the back of me brain, asking to be scratched by some Valkyria Chronicles DLC.:D

[danhoo]

New Game+ Xydarc! You get to steamroll over the enemy with your leveled-up troops. Also, the Hard skirmishes are insane.

I too look forward to the DLC. Sega, don't let me down! Also, hurry up with those Yakuza games while you're at it!

[Xydarc]

New Game+ Xydarc! You get to steamroll over the enemy with your leveled-up troops. Also, the Hard skirmishes are insane.

I too look forward to the DLC. Sega, don't let me down! Also, hurry up with those Yakuza games while you're at it!
Oh I'll be hitting New Game + like a junkie that just found a new vein.:D

[Zagrash]

Make sure to try the Hard mode on skirmishes...I thought I was pretty good at this game until the first time I tried the Bruhl skirmish on Hard. Once I figured out how to not get annihilated immediately, I felt a lot better about things, but it was definitely a challenge the first time though.

Also, what was your ending team like? I'm curious to see the type of personalities that everybody had on their final team. And what was your favorite character ending? Not the movies of the main characters, but the personnel pages for the final members of your team.

[Xydarc]

Make sure to try the Hard mode on skirmishes...I thought I was pretty good at this game until the first time I tried the Bruhl skirmish on Hard. Once I figured out how to not get annihilated immediately, I felt a lot better about things, but it was definitely a challenge the first time though.
The sniper/scout rush isn't viable?

[Zagrash]

The sniper/scout rush isn't viable?

not so much, just try it and you'll see, it's pretty rough. I've tried a few of the other skirmishes on hard, and they weren't quite as evil, but they definitely ramp up the difficulty.