Gameplay: VC is what we in the gamer biz call a "Strategy Roleplaying Game" or "Tactical RPG." The term is pretty self explanatory, a game that has both RPG and strategy game elements. This is nothing new to most of us, games like Final Fantasy Tactics, Fire Emblem, and Disgaea have become extremely popular. However, VC's gameplay is so different, I wouldn't even put it together with those games.
"How is it different Austin, oh tell us please!" Well, starting out the gameplay seems pretty familiar. You place your various units, and are greeted with your good ol' pal the overhead map. Units are represented by little cirlces, with different symbols for different unit types. Oh, but wait! There are no squares or hexagons on this map! However will we move? That's right, unit movement is where this game gets unique. When you click on a unit to move, you're taken down to control that individual unit in real time. Meaning you run, crouch behind cover, and crawl through tall grass while the enemies will fire at you as soon as you're in their sights. When you decide to fire, you're taken to a first person view with crosshairs and have to actually aim and fire.
Now I know you're thinking, "this doesn't sound like a strategy game at all Austin! You're stupid and a liar!" but hear me out. Playing it, you'll realize it's definitely still a strategy game. Even though you aim yourself, you're given a radius of where the bullets might hit. The better you're character's accuracy, the smaller your hit radius. You can move a character as many times as you have command points, but their movement range is limited by their action points, which take the form of a bar at the bottom of the screen. Every time you use a character consecutively, they'll have less of their full AP, meaning you can't just charge a heavy trooper across the map in one turn and kill everything. This style of movement definitely helps you get into the game and connect with all your characters more.
Now, while units do level up they don't level up individually. After a mission, you get all of your experience as one big lump to be shared by everyone. You then use this to level up your units by unit type. i.e. you level up your scouts, and all your scouts level up. However, while your unit types might gain a new ability at the same time, they all do gain different abilities. which brings me to....
Potentials. Potentials are the abilities that all your units have. You get them by leveling up, or by developing their backstory. (Just having them with you.) Some main units also require sidestory missions to unlock a potential. The ones you gain from leveling up are the kind of abilities you'd expect, and there are a ton of them. Stat boosts, a chance for a mine to be a dud, resisting crossfire, penetrating defenses. You get the idea. Now, there are also the potentials that come from the characters backstory and personality. These can be both good and bad, and range even farther than the normal abilities. Units might get along better with a certain gender, or hate a certain gender. some units talk to much, some units don't work well in groups or some do poorly alone. some units freak out when charging the enemy head on, or some units are so badass (Vyse) that they get a stat bonus for charging dick-first into enemy fire.
And for those that are curious, in typical SEGA fashion, there are a couple guest stars. Vyse, the main character from Skies of Arcadia is available as a shocktrooper, and his childhood friend Aika is a scout. They both have very good stats, and Vyse is quite possibly the best shocktrooper in the game.
Speaking of troopers and scouts, how many different units are their? there are five basic unit types:
Scout: Probably the most useful unit in the game, if only because of their outrageous movement speed. They are ridiculously mobile, with the highest AP in the game. they're only downfall, is that they don't have as much defense or attack as other units. they can't take many hits, and they don't pack the punch troopers do. They use a rifle, which has five shots and has pretty good accuracy, letting scouts often take other units out with head shots. They also carry grenades and "ragnaid" which is the VC equivalent of a medpack. Once they're upgraded to elite scouts, they get rife-mounted grenade launchers which let them blow crap up from far away. (Actually incredibly useful.)
Shocktroopers: Troopers are basic infantry, and carry fearsome 20-shot machine guns. They can take a lot of hits, and deal out lots of damage. Once upgraded to elites, they get flamethrowers which let them deal damage to multiple targets, and are great for enemies behind cover. Sounds badass right? Unfortunately, troopers have not-so-great range and pitiful movement range. Though they can't move very far, they do move the fastest out of any unit type, making them even more ideal for rushing enemy camps.
Lancer: No, not like a knight. They're your anti-tank guys. They use big lance-shaped rocket launchers to deal anti-armor damage. I suspect the inventor of this particular firearm had some serious compensation issues. Lancers have the highest defense, and have high defense against explosive to help them survive against tanks. Grenades and landmines do nothing to these guys. However, they have poor movement range, are the slowest unit, and have limited ammo with poor accuracy. Still, you're only infantry choice for taking out enemy tanks.
Engineer: Like a scout, but with poorer combat abilities and lots of other useful abilities. They can refill units ammo, disarm mines, repair tanks, and repair barricades. Their movement speed is second only to scouts, and they use the same rifles.
Sniper: Gotta love these guys. You don't get a lot of 'em, cuz you don't need a lot. They start out kinda crappy due to the poor accuracy of starting weapons, but they get amazing as the game goes on. Snipers are pretty self-explanatory. They use a sniper rifle, that shoots one shot with high power and a scope that can zoom in. Great for taking out enemies that aren't behind cover with decisive headshots.
Besides the infantry you also get your tank. Which is a tank. It shoots tanks shells. (Also mortars and anti-infantry machine gun.) this is your main character. If it dies, you lose the game. Eventually, you do get a second smaller tank that can be outfitted with a chain gun and an amazing giant flamethrower.
Story/Characters VC is all about the characters, having about 50 playable ones. None of your own units are anonymous, each with a unique appearance, voice, and backstory. The villains are probably more interesting than any of the good guys. The story is excellent, if filled with lots of familiar cliches. It's a good thing the story is good too, because most of the game is watching movies. The voice acting, even the English dub, is very good in my opinion. There's really only one scene that I dislike in English dub, and it's a song. Anime fans will likely recognize a lot of famous voices.
One of the main strengths of this game, is that it feels like you get to know every character personally. I was surprised at how involved emotionally I got in this game. I think there's nothing better than a story, movie, or game that makes you truly connect with it's characters.
Soundtrack: Amazing. Fits the game very well, and the end credits music almost damn brought me to tears. Use youtube for samples.
Okay, so I've praised it, but what about flaws? I'll get them now.
Questionable Rating System: You're graded on every mission by things you'd expect, turns taken, enemies killed, camps taken. However, the primary factor is just speed. so sometimes, killing every enemy and getting every camp without losing a single soldier will get you a D, when leaving 3 enemy tanks alive, and 5 of your units dead will get you an A just because you took their main camp quickly.
Scouts are too good: Naturally, with speed getting you better rankings you're mostly going to be using your most mobile unit. Which makes most of your other units not see much action, mainly troopers. Sure, troopers are badass but they can't move half as far as scouts. Sometimes it's just not even worth the turns it would take to bring a trooper to the action.
End Credits Montage Leaves Out Minor Characters: Okay, so maybe this is no big deal but the end credits montage that tells the epilogue of all the characters only does so for the main characters. Which just ticked me off. Why couldn't they have just a paragraph for all the members you had in your squad when you beat the game? It's not like they couldn't do it, they have a page of backstory for all the squad members. In fact, some of the characters files were updated when I beat the game and included a short paragraph describing what they did after the end of the game. Why couldn't you put that in slideshow form?
That's about it. While I'd say it's true that this is the best Strategy RPG I've played since tactics, they're so different it's unfair to compare them. Unfortunately for most of you, this game is a PS3 exclusive. If you have a PSP, you can check out the sequel which I'll get to at another time. For those of you that are lucky enough to have a PS3, put this game on your "must-have" list.
Overall, I give it 9.5/10. Because it's not perfect, but 9/10 doesn't give it enough credit.
