Valkyria Chronicles 4 announced for every console

[Jedi]

8 hours ago, Glennstavos said:

...

Yakuza. Is. Excellent.

They are not the Shenmue games we deserved, but they are the games we needed. And in fact Yakuza 0 reviewed as good or better than Sonic Mania. And the only two games on your list that get less than an 80 on Metacritic is that Valkyria spinoff and Sonic Forces, so do your homework. 

Sonic Forces was not a good game. But you can get over it. We've all gotten over bad Sonic games. It's part of growing up.

Forces was more painfully average, if you're gonna call it outright bad you haven't actually played Labyrinth, R, Drift, 06 or god help you Secret Rings.

its on the tier of Sonic Heroes, where its mediocre to the end, but had some entertaining moments. It's main issue is it's lack of focus, Sonic Team really needs to learn to focus on one damn gamestyle.

On the actual topic at hand, I've never played a VC game, but I do have the original on steam, so maybe this is the time to boot it up. And I just wanna say Metacritic isn't exactly an accurate source for general game opinions, it's more word of mouth or Steam scores, or else we'd all be blind sheep that think Assassins Creed actually has any merits as a game series.

[Ertrick36]

20 minutes ago, Jedi said:

On the actual topic at hand, I've never played a VC game, but I do have the original on steam, so maybe this is the time to boot it up. And I just wanna say Metacritic isn't exactly an accurate source for general game opinions, it's more word of mouth or Steam scores, or else we'd all be blind sheep that think Assassins Creed actually has any merits as a game series.

Agree on that stuff about opinions.  Though honestly, the best way to get a good read on a game is playing it yourself, and it makes me wish more games came with demos.  But most games I've gotten and enjoyed were either given to me by my sister or were games I heard about from friends.  I constantly baffle people when I say that's how I got into The Last of Us, as if it's unbelievable that some people don't want to just go out and buy every hot new game without being told by close friends that it's a good game.  It annoys me when people treat Metacritic or any reviewer like the word of god and an objective measure of a game's quality.  It does a disservice to them when they'd rather listen to a number than an actual explanation of the pros and cons of the game.

And I'll also say that I did like the first two Assassin Creed games back when I played them five to ten years ago... but after playing the third and seeing what it started becoming in later entries, I just lost interest entirely.

 

Anyway, I do hope you enjoy VC if you wind up actually playing it.  It's one of my favorite games of all time.

[Alexmender]

19 hours ago, Harvey said:

Judging from the trailer which seems to have a complete new cast, I can safely say that you don't need to play them both. 2 takes place after the events of 1 and 3 takes place during the events of 1.

Considering that we haven't seen VC for a long time, 4 will most likely tell a story that doesn't hint the previous games.

 

 

16 hours ago, LucarioGamer812 said:

2, most definitely No.  3 is optional (but it never came to the west, though there is a fan patch for the deluxe edition game) and it does provide some other story during EW1, but it's still mainly Gallia.

I already got the remastered version on ps4, so while it would be cool, I wouldn't get it. Now if they did remaster 2 or 3 (on the ps4 or switch) I would get them (definitely 3).

 

48 minutes ago, Ertrick36 said:

Two may be important, as it's a direct sequel that takes place in Gallia after they warded off the Empire.

Three most likely isn't, as it just follows secret ops that take place during the first game.  It may have some details of interest, but I highly doubt anything there would be necessary for going into VC4.

It's hard to say though, because we don't know much about VC4, obviously.  Not only that, but it doesn't seem to even take place in Gallia anymore, so anything that happened in any of the games before might be almost entirely irrelevant anyway.

Still, I think if you can get them, you should still play them.  VC2 doesn't have the best story and characters in the series (though I do like some of the characters), but it introduces some new gameplay mechanics that are pretty neat.  I haven't played VC3 yet, but I hear it's better than VC2, so there's that.  But as was said before, VC3 is a Japan-only game.  A Japan-only game that does have an English translation patch, but still...

I see, I guess I'll replay 1 to refresh my memory and try to find a way to play 2 (never had a PSP so...) just to be on the safe side. 3 will depend on what happens with 2 but knowing about the secret ops sounds quite intriguing. 

[Harvey]

9 hours ago, Glennstavos said:

...

Yakuza. Is. Excellent.

They are not the Shenmue games we deserved, but they are the games we needed. And in fact Yakuza 0 reviewed as good or better than Sonic Mania. And the only two games on your list that get less than an 80 on Metacritic is that Valkyria spinoff and Sonic Forces, so do your homework. 

Sonic Forces was not a good game. But you can get over it. We've all gotten over bad Sonic games. It's part of growing up.

Which is what I said earlier that two of them are downright just mediocre in the first place didn't I? And no. You shouldn't expect Sonic games to get crappy every single time because Sonic is a gaming icon or atleast is to some extent. Screwing him up and taking his bad games for granted is just making you and everyone else lose faith over him even if his games have the potential to be good. Just imagine if Kirby or Mario were in this scenario for a second....

10 hours ago, Harvey said:

The 4 of them are just ports done right and 2 of them suck or are just meh at best.

And for this year that they released a brand new game, only ONE is good and again, four of them are just ports of games released a long time ago so those don't count interms of this year's quality(Also the fact that it took so long to localize Puyo Puyo Tetris is odd.)

But anyways onto topic. I'm not skeptical because its Valkyria Chronicles infact its about bloody time SEGA brought the IP back and its not about who develops it because game devs can't always be blamed for lack of quality in games either.

The real problem is SEGA themselves. For starters, whom are they going to make use of to make this game happen? Is it internal or external? If its Internal, who are they going to task this game to? Because quite frankly, this is the exact same reason why Sonic Forces ended up being what it is now because SEGA used the wrong team instead of bringing in the right team.

And if its external, who is it? Media.Vision could be a safe bet because they made VC3 happen and that turned out great. But if not them, then who? SEGA could potentially hire a dev that has no experience in developing strategy games for all we know. And while I stated that game devs can't be blamed for this, their experience in making specific games can be taken into account. You can't just hire a game dev who has no experience making a Sonic game before(Sanzaru games for example) and expect them to deliver quality with/without strict deadlines.

And then there's the deadline issue. If the game isn't top quality, can SEGA afford to delay the game to polish it? Because that's exactly what Nintendo did for Breadth of the Wild twice and that game ended up delivering quality despite its slight technical issues.

 

[Zapp Branniglenn]

2 hours ago, Jedi said:

Forces was more painfully average, if you're gonna call it outright bad you haven't actually played Labyrinth, R, Drift, 06 or god help you Secret Rings.

its on the tier of Sonic Heroes, where its mediocre to the end, but had some entertaining moments. It's main issue is it's lack of focus, Sonic Team really needs to learn to focus on one damn gamestyle.

 

What.

I didn't call it bad. I called it not a good game. That is my one direct statement on it and it doesn't go into detail about any particular aspect of the game. It's more colloquial than critique, really. How hard do I have to try to get people off my case when I talk about the latest Sonic for even a single sentence? Those few statements you make about previous games are spot on with my perspective, but no, I already don't want to talk Sonic with you. The "wow, you don't know what Bad even is", was so conceited. So presumptive that my time with 06 and Secret Rings never happened. So elitist that I'm expected to own a Game Gear and Saturn before I dare utter an opinion. Spam like this is why I don't like to talk Sonic around strangers on the internet. It's not just the fans that can't handle a little criticism, it's the fans that police you with standards for criticism.

Edit: Oh, and Metacritic doesn't factor user reviews into its score. That gets sectioned off into a separate "User Score" that you can see if you're curious about any disconnect there. Steam reviews, come on. Metacritic has potential for problems, but do some research before you guess at what they are.

1 hour ago, Harvey said:

And for this year that they released a brand new game, only ONE is good and again, four of them are just ports of games released a long time ago so those don't count interms of this year's quality(Also the fact that it took so long to localize Puyo Puyo Tetris is odd.)

If you don't want to count them, why did you add them to your list? I can't debate an argument that's changing with the tides. 

Anyway, I don't hold Sonic to the same standard as Kirby and Mario because it has been over two decades since Sonic briefly had that consistent level of quality and innovation game to game. Why should I keep setting myself up for disappointment with high expectations? Sonic Forces didn't look good the moment I saw Avatar character's stop and go gameplay. It felt bad the moment I noticed neither Classic nor modern Sonic appropriately carry momentum from the air unless you're still holding forward when you land. If I see a series that doesn't strive to improve and chases trends all day, then I don't feel like caring either. Mania was good. I'm glad we got that game. But its time has passed. We're back to standards of mediocrity, so settle in and don't think too hard about it.

Edited November 21, 2017 by Glennstavos

[Harvey]

19 minutes ago, Glennstavos said:

Mania was good. I'm glad we got that game. But its time has passed. We're back to standards of mediocrity, so settle in and don't think too hard about it.

The problem is that Mania was released three months ago and Forces  got released recently so it hasn't passed that much of time either.

Saying to get used to bad Sonic games is like saying to get used to Microtransactions that EA tends to do for AAA games....just saying.

 

[Zapp Branniglenn]

51 minutes ago, Harvey said:

Saying to get used to bad Sonic games is like saying to get used to Microtransactions that EA tends to do for AAA games....just saying.

I can agree that we have a responsibility to speak up. But if your game's fanbase was the Sonic fanbase, wouldn't you be tuned out after enough years on non-critique and bickering? Because that's what I believe, Sonic Team isn't receptive to criticism. Mania was just the result of them hiring a dude that used to make fan games and unauthorized ports. Which was a good move, by the way. Keep an ear out if he gets hold of another project in the future. 

[blah the Prussian]

Ah man, can't play as a Monarchy anymore. Ah well, should be good and I wonder just how many of my head canons will get contradicted.

[henrymidfields]

I was thinking about getting Valkyria Chronicles on Steam, but I wonder whether there would be a porting of that on the Switch. Either way, there's going to be more backlog on my Switch games.

Edited November 21, 2017 by henrymidfields

[The DanMan]

9 hours ago, Jedi said:

On the actual topic at hand, I've never played a VC game, but I do have the original on steam, so maybe this is the time to boot it up. And I just wanna say Metacritic isn't exactly an accurate source for general game opinions, it's more word of mouth or Steam scores, or else we'd all be blind sheep that think Assassins Creed actually has any merits as a game series.

...Because heaven forbid nobody can actually like Assassin's Creed or Call of Duty, right?

It's possible to call out mainstream reviewers without playing the "it's popular so it sucks" card.
I find it quite ironic that a Warriors fan of all people would do this.

8 hours ago, Alexmender said:

 

 

I see, I guess I'll replay 1 to refresh my memory and try to find a way to play 2 (never had a PSP so...) just to be on the safe side. 3 will depend on what happens with 2 but knowing about the secret ops sounds quite intriguing. 

A forewarning about 3: the fan translation is really... eh. It gets the job done, but a lot of extra stuff and some side missions are left untranslated. And what is translated is really amateurish (plenty of awkward wording, run-ons for days and various other grammatical mistakes, and I kid you not times where words run into each other because somebody hit a key above the spacebar).

[Magical CC]

VC2 is inferior to VC3 by a mile. Better skip 2 and play 3 instead.

[Wist]

I really hope they don't mess it up. I was going to buy Azure Revolution until the demo turned me off from it completely.

On 11/21/2017 at 10:45 PM, Magical CC said:

VC2 is inferior to VC3 by a mile. Better skip 2 and play 3 instead.

I was way more impressed 3 than 2, but it's a slog. So many similar battles on recycled maps. I enjoyed the first 20 hours immensely. But after another 20 hours I gave up on it. Maybe I should have spread out my play time better. But I found it became such a chore to play.

[Magical CC]

13 hours ago, lyscalibur said:

I really hope they don't mess it up. I was going to buy Azure Revolution until the demo turned me off from it completely.

I was way more impressed 3 than 2, but it's a slog. So many similar battles on recycled maps. I enjoyed the first 20 hours immensely. But after another 20 hours I gave up on it. Maybe I should have spread out my play time better. But I found it became such a chore to play.

And you dont find grinding certifies in VC2 a god damn chore? It's random of what you may get, then it's random of whom gonna get, then it's random on the amounts you gonna get. You may influence it a little but in the end of the day, you gonna grind VC2 much much harder than in VC3 unless you buy the dlc map pack where the grinding is easier.

[The DanMan]

21 hours ago, lyscalibur said:

I really hope they don't mess it up. I was going to buy Azure Revolution until the demo turned me off from it completely.

I was way more impressed 3 than 2, but it's a slog. So many similar battles on recycled maps. I enjoyed the first 20 hours immensely. But after another 20 hours I gave up on it. Maybe I should have spread out my play time better. But I found it became such a chore to play.

That's something I can agree with. Really enjoyed the first 20 hours, but had to put it down for a while once I hit 30. It just feels like there's too much; right now I'm 40 hours in at Chapter 13/14 and there's still 7 or so chapters to go. Doesn't help that very little happens in the first half of the game; padding is definitely my biggest complaint with it overall.

[Ertrick36]

21 hours ago, lyscalibur said:

I really hope they don't mess it up. I was going to buy Azure Revolution until the demo turned me off from it completely.

To be fair, that was a spin-off in which they were trying to do something completely different.

Though yeah, I don't really know what they were thinking with that one.  Given that the gameplay for VC4 apparently looks like this:

I think we can assume that this will just be another strategy game instead of... whatever AR was.

For the record, I don't hate AR; I just am not really interested in it by virtue of it being a different type of game.

21 hours ago, lyscalibur said:

I was way more impressed 3 than 2, but it's a slog. So many similar battles on recycled maps. I enjoyed the first 20 hours immensely. But after another 20 hours I gave up on it. Maybe I should have spread out my play time better. But I found it became such a chore to play.

That's one thing I have a problem with 2's gameplay (I haven't actually played 3); recycled maps.

In the original game, every map in the story was a new map.  Or if it wasn't (usually in the case of DLC maps or Hard/Hard EX/DLC Skirmishes), there were either different conditions to fulfill or different deployments.

I do like what 2 was doing with the maps as far as creating special conditions for certain areas.  But I didn't particularly enjoy rehashing the same old maps for character missions, and I didn't like how it handled grinding class promotions so much.

On 11/21/2017 at 1:05 AM, Glennstavos said:

I can agree that we have a responsibility to speak up. But if your game's fanbase was the Sonic fanbase, wouldn't you be tuned out after enough years on non-critique and bickering? Because that's what I believe, Sonic Team isn't receptive to criticism.

Uh...

How does the fanbase having trolls and whiners justify a lack of receptiveness?

It's not like there aren't fans who've actually articulated what they like/don't like about the game before.  If Sonic Team won't listen to those fans, that's all on them.  Hell, even if there aren't any fans who have well articulated opinions, it's still on them.

And you do realize that when you say "Sonic fanbase", you pretty much have to include the likes of people like Jedi as well, right?  You can't just judge a fandom based on all the bad apples.

 

Anyway, this discussion's detracted enough as it is.  This may be a Sega game, but it isn't Sonic, and I highly doubt Sonic Team will be working on VC4.  If we wanna argue about Sonic, we ought to try a different thread.

[Wist]

10 hours ago, Magical CC said:

And you dont find grinding certifies in VC2 a god damn chore? It's random of what you may get, then it's random of whom gonna get, then it's random on the amounts you gonna get. You may influence it a little but in the end of the day, you gonna grind VC2 much much harder than in VC3 unless you buy the dlc map pack where the grinding is easier.

As I said, 3 is a massive improvement on 2. It still became a chore. 2 being worse doesn't negate that.

Edit: I'm not dismissing your recommendation, which seems to be how you read it?

 

Edited November 23, 2017 by lyscalibur

[The DanMan]

Do you enjoy Gunners, Armored Techs, and Fencers?

Too bad!

http://www.siliconera.com/2017/11/24/valkyria-chronicles-4s-development-90-complete-plus-famitsu-info/

Game's 90% complete, and the classes are literally just VC1s + Grenadiers.

[Ertrick36]

22 hours ago, The DanMan said:

Do you enjoy Gunners, Armored Techs, and Fencers?

Too bad!

http://www.siliconera.com/2017/11/24/valkyria-chronicles-4s-development-90-complete-plus-famitsu-info/

Game's 90% complete, and the classes are literally just VC1s + Grenadiers.

Thanks for the link.

To be fair, fencers/armored techs kinda felt like a gimmick (I mean, a cool gimmick, but still one none-the-less), and Gunners were just flamers in ranged-gun form.  Also, when you can only field so many units here or there, having so many classes feels more like a hindrance.  Not saying that it's ideal, but I also don't think it's the worst thing ever.

Though grenadiers now seem like mortarers with longer range.  Maybe with a main character being of such a class, and them having such a long range, I might be inclined to use them.  I hate having to force lancers to use mortars and have them run up to at least scout-interception range just so that they can blast a few dudes.

And now that I think about it...

Spoiler

Screenshot from VC2, looking at a Mortarer...

Famitsu shot; look at the Command Mode pic... specifically just south of the allied tank.

Two scouts, an engie, and what appears to be a grenadier.

Let's compare the symbols.

VC2

VC4

It's literally the same symbol, you guys.

Also, I must say that the battlefield in the VC4 shots looks quite sizable.  I have to wonder if it's a later map, but I'd also be inclined to believe that winter is supposed to be the latter part of this game, and it clearly is not winter in these shots.

Anyway, with the removal of these classes, I hope they'll do more to innovate outside of that.

Also, I scrubbed through the video some more, and came upon several characters beyond the ones that have received much focus so far.  Maybe I'll try to collect some screenshots of all the unique characters and then some.  I'll become a pseudo GameXplain.

[Harvey]

On 25/11/2017 at 4:10 AM, The DanMan said:

Do you enjoy Gunners, Armored Techs, and Fencers?

Too bad!

http://www.siliconera.com/2017/11/24/valkyria-chronicles-4s-development-90-complete-plus-famitsu-info/

Game's 90% complete, and the classes are literally just VC1s + Grenadiers.

That part is now worrying. Why would SEGA ever reveal how much of progress that this game has made if all we have seen is a trailer? It should now be possible to get a gameplay footage of the game by now instead of a mere trailer.

 

[Magical CC]

Well, less class is good anyway. Too many gimmick classes for no reason. I was hoping there would be smoke grenade and signal flare in the next VC game, the grenadier class is perfect for it.

In my vision of a perfect VC game, the cover system should works like those in Mass Effect, Mafia 3 and X-com, as long as there is something you can lean your body on, it can be used as cover and give you increase dodge/defend bonus.

My perfect VC game is where the stealth aspect is more fleshed out. You can stealth attack with dagger or silent pistol. A daring attack will make enemies pour more troops into the era while a sneaky attack will not alert enemy and let you move around easier. You can use smoke grenade to lower enemy accuracy so your unit can make a dash for it. Signal flare can be used to reveal an area for some turns.

The rivers should be swimmable. Some characters should have the "swimmer" ability which mean they can swim pass a river, open more options for the game. They take extra damage while swimming to stop people from abusing them. Some will have "climber" which allows them to climb pass rough terrain.

The medic class can equip "flag of red cross". They will lose their offensive ability but in turn, they wont be shot at by enemies. If they get to close to enemies, they will still be shot. Enemies secret troops (like the Darscen army in VC3) will still shoot at them normally because they dont follow war laws.

The Valkyrie.....please let her has short hair and a reasonable boobs.

Edited November 26, 2017 by Magical CC

[The DanMan]

7 hours ago, Harvey said:

That part is now worrying. Why would SEGA ever reveal how much of progress that this game has made if all we have seen is a trailer? It should now be possible to get a gameplay footage of the game by now instead of a mere trailer.

 

...Because it's out in 3 months in Japan? It's pretty common for Japanese devs to talk about how complete the game is (for example, Code Vein was announced earlier this year and Namco said it was "30%" complete).

You're just looking for things to point a finger at and be all doom and gloom about it. That's literally all you've done in this thread.

[Harvey]

13 minutes ago, The DanMan said:

...Because it's out in 3 months in Japan? It's pretty common for Japanese devs to talk about how complete the game is (for example, Code Vein was announced earlier this year and Namco said it was "30%" complete).

You're just looking for things to point a finger at and be all doom and gloom about it. That's literally all you've done in this thread.

I didn't say doom and gloom. All I said was my points of being rather skeptical. If the game is really done, we should be seeing atleast a 2 minute gameplay footage by now. But no, instead we see a trailer for that.

Its kinda like Super Mario Odyssey being revealed as a trailer and saying that its 90% completed without showing any gameplay footage whatsoever which didn't happen as it was revealed very early and was released last month and there was a lot of footage shown at that point. What about here? We should by now be seeing gameplay footage of the game instead of a mere trailer.

 

 

[Wist]

I'm not convinced it's fair to compare the media release schedule for this game to a flagship Mario title. Half of what characterises VC are its aesthetic and character centric drama. And the trailer shows those off pretty well. Actually, from a marketing perspective, I think they achieved a lot. The first half of the announcement video is dedicated to building rapport by assuring fans they're going back to roots and taking development seriously. They could have released only that and I think fans would have been clamouring for more.

I (personally) agree with @Ertrick36 and @Magical CC on fewer classes being better. A variety of classes can be fun. But I think reduced options better encouraging strategic creativity if the maps are diverse.

I also really like the swimming idea in particular.

[Harvey]

On to topic. I want them to remove that idea that certain characters need to die in vc1 to get new ones and whilr its only few...its still annoying nometheless.

Also have an actual rpg levelling up instead of the bar level up that the first one got stuck with. It helps make the game more lively.

Also..I would like highlights to be added to go to a certain destination  easily to avoid losing unneccarily AP.

[Ertrick36]

I was gonna reply to some other posts, but I'm about to unload a bunch of pictures with commentary, and I don't want this post to be long and rambling, so... yeah.

So I've been working to get still shots of some of the unique (and some generic) characters that appear in the trailer for only a brief time (in other words, all the characters aside from the main four platoon [I refuse to call them a "squad"] members and the Valkyrur), just because I find such things interesting in pre-release.  Maybe get discussions going about some of them as well.  If nothing else, we can talk designs.

Shots in the spoiler below:

Spoiler

So first I have a few from the scene of the platoon running through a patch of flowers.

So in these shots of Kai running, there's four other soldiers:

• A red-headed lady with glasses who seems to be wielding a scout rifle
• Bandanna-wearing, tan-skinned guy who also has a standard scout rifle, but has a pack on his chest, unlike the others
• A lady who somewhat reminds me of Homer Peron with that hair; it's hard for me to tell what weapon she's carrying, but she seems to be wearing the same uniform as the red-head
• A generic-looking soldier who looks like he's wielding an SMG and has "Ez" or "E2" emblazoned on his helmet (probably just referencing that it's "Squad E" and they're of the 32nd Armored Battalion; E makes a backwards 3, and the number 2 looks like a "Z")

I have to assume that some or all of these characters are close to Kai or each other.  As fans of the games know, characters have predefined relationships with each other, and sometimes they even have potentials (positive or negative) that relate to such characters.  One example is how Edy Nelson "likes" Salinas Milton, Dallas Wyatt, and Ramona Linton, and thus receives a damage boost when providing supporting fire, but she has a potential called "Rosie Hater" that causes her to gain stat debuffs whenever she's near Rosie.

Besides Kai, whose class was already revealed to us, you can't immediately tell what classes the characters are.  If I had to wager some guesses, the red-head is a scout (lightly armed and armored), the bandanna guy is an engineer (mostly because of that pack, though I could be wrong), and gender-bent Homer is either a shocktrooper or scout depending on what that weapon is.

The scouts and engineers could also be reversed.  I'm unsure.  The easy answer is to just assume that they're all scouts, and it's probably a safe assumption.

Only one character aside from Raz, and it looks like another Darcsen shocktrooper (I saw the symbol on the back, so I know for sure).

Sort of reminds me of Alex Raymond from VC1 or Rene Randall from VC2 with that short hair.  Also has the same pissy face as Raz.  They definitely know one another.  Probably also have the "Darcsen Bond" potential, so they'd be super OP just like if you were to pair up Lynn with the Shamrock.

Spoiler

Seriously, you can wipe the floor with Maximilian if you just smoke grenade abuse and have those two in particular with maybe one other shocktrooper sit next to him, with Lynn leading the headshot firing squad.

So here's the shot of all the platoon members charging at whoever is in that peaceful-looking town while being mortared.

There's sixteen people here, including Claude in the tank.  Up close, we've seen eight, including the main characters, and Riley may or may not be there.  One of the soldiers we saw was a generic, and I know this because we see more like him, so some of these troops might also be generics.

But I have to wonder which of the non-main characters who are unique are playable or if they have some other role in the story/platoon.  Maybe they're just part of the initial team?  I know that VC at least has you controlling generic troops in the beginning, in the form of the Town Watchmen assisting Welkin and Alicia, and that you control generic Imperials in Selvaria's DLC mission.  Maybe the beginning of this game will be similar, but we also get some unique minor characters.

It may also be that they're temporary playable units, but plot prevents them from being playable later on.  It'd be like if Isara was made playable in the Prologue and Chapter 1 of VC1; she obviously could fight, and we know that she has to pilot the Edelweiss, which is why she wouldn't be playable later on.

 

Next are a few pics of some generic soldiers with tanks.

Just a bunch of Federation shocktroopers accompanied by tanks.

The tanks look somewhat similar to the Hafen - Claude's tank.  Given the next screenshot, I can only assume they're light or medium tanks.  In any case, our tank will likely outpace these suckers in performance, since that pretty much always happens in these games.

Notice that the Feds don't have the either the armor (the shoulder pads and waist guard) that our troops did nor the "Ez" emblazoned on their helmets.  Perhaps other battalions receive different types of equipment; either that, or our platoon has elites/is prepped for specific conditions.

The Imp shocktroopers in the same scene.

Their SMGs looks a little different, and they have slightly different garments, but aside from that, they're the same Imperial troops you all know and love (or hate).

They're accompanied by light tanks; I know this because medium tanks have two extra weapons towards the front, whereas light tanks only have headlights.  They look no different than usual.  Though I've always found it strange that they use these in the opening scenes of these games when it's clearly stated in their description that they're meant only for combat against infantry in small locations like towns or villages.  That's why the only light tanks you see in VC1 are either in a tank yard, or are in places that aren't expecting enemy tanks.  They're not meant for full-scale battles like this.

Anyway, aside from the slightly revamped design of the shocktroopers and the lack of thought behind the presence of light tanks, there's nothing much to note here.

So yet another light tank to the left accompanied by a lancer and sniper who have about the same amount of design changes as the shocktroopers...

but then this guy with a totally tricked out tank shows up.

And this is a closer look at that guy, in a scene where he's chasing Claude.

His design and tank sort of remind me of a mix between Largo (facial hair) and Radi Jaeger.  I mean, he's still unique-looking, but something about that hair and tank...

Obviously is a villain.  And he seems to have a vendetta against Claude.  I think he's gonna be a recurring rival.

Given his mannerisms, I think he's gonna be a bit more of a wild card than... well, any of the villains in the series, really.  I mean, you never saw Gregor or Maximilian riding on top of a tank at full speed while screaming "I'm gonna getcha!", did you?  I thought not...

Given his extravagant uniform, he's probably of a fairly high class.  He could also be in a similar situation that Jaeger was in where he's working to regain sovereignty for his nation which was taken over by the Empire... except instead of being an understandable, calm man, he's this psycho in a hot rod we see here.

 

So once again, there's some characters accompanied by Kai (there seems to be maybe one or two more shots of her with a bunch of soldiers than of the other two non-protagonist main characters).

I'll talk about the two on the left later, because they both show up in a later scene; the person behind the lady in the suit is just a generic.  There is also an engineer-looking guy hidden behind Kai, but he also shows up in a later scene.

For now, I'll mention the lady on the right.  Obviously an engineer (that symbol on her headpiece), though I figure she might actually be the team's medic; just a gut feeling, though that headpiece seems to indicate as much, as it looks like something someone practiced in medicine would wear (plus, the VC1 medic also bears an engineer symbol).  Colors are a little difficult to discern in this scene, but given the hair colors of the other characters, I think I can safely assume that's red hair.

She seems... familiar for some reason.  I don't know why.  Maybe she's a cameo character that I can't quite place, or maybe I'm experiencing the Mandela Effect.  Or maybe she just looks similar to some other character I've seen somewhere before.

I have to figure that because of the presence of the folks in suits, this scene is of a more general event that just so happens to affect Kai strongly, as opposed to a story scene that's exclusive to Kai and her friends.  Maybe like a town being invaded/destroyed as opposed to... I don't know, Kai's family being gunned down or whatever.

 

Some relatively small figured gals on the Imperial side (they have the insignia that indicates as much).

They look more like straight up soldiers than the other unique villains (like tank guy or the Valkyrur).  Not only that, but they have similar uniforms.  I have to figure they're a pair not unlike Eine and Kleine (or Reese and Clarisse).

What I think is that they're more akin to higher-ranking lackeys.  They are probably formidable foes, but aren't of nobility like a lot of other Imperial officers are.  I somehow get a "orphans raised to kill" vibe from them, but maybe it's just because I kind of want them to go that angle.  We don't get enough unique lackey Imperials in VC.

Either that, or they're our soldiers in disguise, but I highly doubt that.  I didn't listen to the audio, so I wouldn't know what the lady on the left is saying or even if you can hear what she's saying.

And then there's this glaring menace.

Can't see insignia anywhere, but given that color scheme on his collar and that somehow villainous look, I think it's obvious that he's an Imperial as well.

Looks more refined than the other guy, though it may be going a bit far to say this could be one of the Empire's princes or some other relative of the Emperor.  Still, though, he looks to be of nobility at least.  There aren't any other scenes of him, so I can't nab any hints as to what kind of man he is.

Either seems to be a Maximilian 2.0 or he just broods a lot.  Or he just hates everything.  Who knows?

 

Here's a shot that seems to be excluded from the rest.  As in, it seems to be a relatively non-militaristic and stress-free scene.

First of all, you can see the dog from the "Squad E" shot at the beginning of the trailer.  I wonder if the dog will be more of a recurring character than Hans?  I'd at least like to be able to feed it and pet it.  Possibly even pick it up like you can in Zelda: Twilight Princess.  Obviously the best feature of that game.

And then there's this little girl doing laundry on what looks to be a dock or some kind of naval carrier (I have to assume that it's a certain vehicle that shows up later in the trailer)?  I don't know if she'll be a major character or one of those token children that show up just to invoke more emotion.  For all I know, this could be the daughter of Claude and Riley (come on, you know they'll get together), and this is an ending scene.  Though how would blonde hair + purplish hair = strawberry hair?

 

So here's a shot of some other non-unit looking characters, including a few familiar faces.

• Engineer-looking guy from the scene with Kai; he reminds me of this character a streamer - who I watch - made called "Bulk Bogan" for some reason
• Darcsen lady from the scene with Kai
• An old man in a chair with a different uniform from the rest; probably a higher-ranking official
• A dude with anime delinquent hair
• Purple-haired woman who somehow looks more normal than the others; mayhapst she be the mother or aunt of strawberry-haired laundry girl?
• A guy with a mustache and face that remind me of Waluigi who showed up in the scene with Kai; guaranteed pro tennis player

I think it's pretty obvious that these are all folks from the Federation.  I assume that these are all higher ranking officers than Claude or Riley.  Either that, or the standing people in suits are lieutenants, and the old man is the Captain that commands them all.  I could take all sorts of guesses as to what their ranks would be.  For all I know, the old man is a straight up Admiral.

Whatever the case may be, their designs seem to be very much inspired by the Navy.  Maybe it's the naval army of the Atlantic Federation's military, or maybe this is what all Federation officers look like.  But why do I get a feeling that there will be more marine missions than usual?

As for the engineer guy...  He might be an engineer assigned to our HQ.  Or maybe he's our tank driver.  There's another engineer wearing the same uniform who we see in one of the pages of the Famitsu article, though we can't see their face.

And I'd like to also mention the Darcsen officer...  It seems that the Federation is very progressive.  We hardly saw Darcsens reach a very high level of command in Gallia; the only exception is... a certain character in the first game.  What I find strange about this is that the Federation ambassador from the first game - Ambassador Townshend - actively supported the GRA in VC2.  For those who don't know, the GRA is a rebel army in Gallia that's basically a bunch of racists who seek to slaughter the Darcsens of Gallia after a certain event in the first game.  So I have to wonder why it is that a faction that had officials that supported racist rebellions would also give Darcsens positions of authority.  Maybe the Federation is very divisive.  Maybe Townshend is just an exception - a racist who slipped through the cracks.

Spoiler

Maybe Townshend just wanted to get revenge against Cordelia after she slipped from his grasp.

In any event, it's interesting that we see a Darcsen in uniform like this.  The Federation is proving to be more and more an interesting faction, and not just another "superpower" faction.

Also, the fact that three of these people (engineer guy, darcsen girl, and Waluigi) show up in a scene with Kai is interesting.  I wonder what their relationship to the platoon is?

 

No characters (aside from these Imperial soldiers running away), but I wanted to show this off.

First of all, I don't think we've ever seen Imperial tanks that look like the one on the right.  I mean, it could be a medium tank, but the barrel is quite a bit longer than that of a medium tank.  It could possibly be a revamped design, since the medium tanks look awfully similar to light tanks (as in, they're just light tanks with some more turrets).  Or it could be a new class of tank.

Moving onto the elephant in the room, it looks like the Federation has their own land-ships.  How can I tell it's of the Federation?  Because of the color scheme of it.  Those are certainly not Imperial colors, and as ruthless as the Empire can be, I don't think they'd run over their own troops.

This thing is all sort of interesting to me.

Here's another shot of it.

It actually looks like it has some tanks riding on it.  Maybe it's a sort of land-carrier?  Though these cannons almost seem to be a part of the tanks themselves.  Not sure what's going on there, but regardless, this is one interesting vehicle.

Though that humongous radiator might be a problem.  If the Imps could get a tank capable of shooting that thing, this land-carrier could easily be reduced to rubble.  Not that it wouldn't go down without a fight; look at these cannons, and just the sheer size of it.  Clearly it's a formidable target for the Empire.

Those who played through VC1 all the way (or at least to chapter 16) probably immediately thought of a certain land-ship that the Empire deploys in that game.  Given the naval themes (and also the timeline of this game), I think we have to actually assume that it's the Feds who first invented these land-ships, and not Maximilian's lacking self-esteem.

 

And lastly, a shot of our dear Riley with her fellow grenadiers, just to show off generic grenadiers and their weapons.

Though I'll also say that Riley seems to actually have some authority.  In VC1, Welkin's second-in-command, Alicia, didn't really seem to have all that much command.  Probably because she wasn't an officer, but a sergeant.  Riley, as we know from her official description, is actually a second lieutenant, which is literally just below the level of authority that Claude wields as a first lieutenant.  So she's an actual officer.

And that brings me to a point I want to bring up.  We know that officers get to issue orders.  So... does Riley get to issue orders?  Are there specific orders that only she can use (so if she's ever absent, Claude can't use them)?  And are there orders that Claude can use that she can't (in the event that we somehow get a mission where Claude is absent, as unlikely as that may be)?  And what about the other two, who are also listed as "officers" (specifically division officers)?  Or is her being an officer just for show, and there's no gameplay elements that would reflect this?

Anyway, moving on to the actual grenadiers.  They obviously use mortar-like weaponry.  From the Famitsu article, it would seem like these are actually longer range than the mortars we've typically seen throughout the series.  I assume they're possibly even longer than snipers, and that you can attack enemies you don't even see.  Such a factor makes them very different from just lancers with mortar weapons or a tank with mortars.  They have a unique utility that actually can be useful.  And since they can also damage tanks, they can be good for taking out tank squadrons/assisting lancers.

All around, I think I have a good first impression for this new class.  We'll probably see soon enough if they can actually be utilized well, or if the devs didn't really think out their inclusion very well.  I hope they did, because unlike some of the other classes that have been present in the series, I think the grenadier class actually has the potential to be a great mainstay that's both realistic and practical.