Episode 448: Valkyria Chronicles 4

[Rob Zacny]

Three Moves Ahead 448:

Valkyria Chronicles 4
Sega's not-really-World-War-II set in kinda-Europe returns in Valkyria Chronicles 4. Valkyria Chronicles marries tactical military gameplay with anime style and story. This extra long episode of 3MA, which features Rob, Heather Alexandra, and Austin Walker, covers a wide range of topics: Austin's definitive thesis on anime, Rob's complex feelings about Cowboy Bebop, problematic butt pats, the first episode of The Shield, and occasionally Valkyria Chronicles 4.

Valkyria Chronicles 4

 

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[Khan Khomrad]

After 448 Three Moves Ahead episodes I can safely say that, to me, this was the one who strayed away the most from the topic at hand and video games in general. That said, it made me thing about the different storytelling and cultural elements that we take for granted in our media in general and what changes, if any, the localizers (I think this is the term for Video game translators in english, but I could b wrong :P) made when translating the game from Japanese to English.

 

Listening to this episode made me even more interested in giving this series a chance. I find the combat system and the narrative very different from the other tactics game that we see nowadays. Still hoping that some day the panel will be able to talk about Mordheim and how they took some aspects of VC.

[Kroem]

Yea the wheels do come off of this episode about an hour in, but the good thing about a pre-recorded podcast is that you can skip ahead!

 

This is one of those games I'd always dismissed because I thought it was only on Playstation, I'm much more likely to give it a look now!

I thought the discussion about the 'negative potentials' and how they directly tie the character's story into the way they perform on the board was especially interesting, I wish more games would do something like that as it is frustrating when characters have so much personality in cut scenes that never comes across in the battles.

 

The friendship thing soulds a bit something I really enjoyed in Dynasty Tactics 2, where you had to learn all the friendship circles to get the bonuses in battles and ensure you could recruit all the generals. It's a good little hook to reward people caring about the story rather than just the mechanics.

[ilitarist]

Never thought Rob would be so intolerant to tankophiles.

 

Anyway I am too irritated by the ranking system of the game. It's mitigated by the fact that rank... doesn't mean much. You get less XP and money but does it really affect anything? You'll probably have to play one quick skirmish to compensate for several missions not getting an A and you still might want to do some of those to test your soldiers. Still it's a strange choice, especially if they do it for the 4th game in the series.

[caellan]

vc4 does give you some fairly powerful gear if yo do alot of a ranks though usually around 2 to 3 tiers higher than the current chapter i think 1 also did that but you had to get to chapter 9 to unlock the royal palace before then theres almost no kill incentive aces are the only thing you want to look out for if you want to add more to your roster of tank parts and guns

[SamS]

What chess videos does Austin watch?

[jennegatron]

  On 10/10/2018 at 10:47 PM, LongtimeListener said:

As my avatar name implies, I'm a long-time listener, but first time poster. I listened to the podcast back when it was called Flash of Steel. Great podcast, but like all things sometimes it strays from the point.

 

If you came to this episode to listen to Social Justice Warrior discussion and how SJW pertains to video games, you're in the right place. If, like me, you listen to Three Moves Ahead for discussion about strategy games and wargames, skip this episode. While not a total waste of time, there wasn't enough discussion about strategy/tactics and the game itself between all the SJW nonsense.

 

i am very into the all caps Social Justice Warrior proper noun capitalization here. Clearly someone who is not familiar with the forums if our SJW agenda is of great concern.

[Reyturner]

[Perky_Goth]

I wouldn't expect a discussion on the tonal dissonance of a minor side-story about sexually harassing a fellow soldier who you need to trust with your life to be a controversial SJW topic, but here we are.

[SamS]

  On 10/10/2018 at 10:47 PM, LongtimeListener said:

As my avatar name implies, I'm a long-time listener, but first time poster. I listened to the podcast back when it was called Flash of Steel. Great podcast, but like all things sometimes it strays from the point.

 

If you came to this episode to listen to Social Justice Warrior discussion and how SJW pertains to video games, you're in the right place. If, like me, you listen to Three Moves Ahead for discussion about strategy games and wargames, skip this episode. While not a total waste of time, there wasn't enough discussion about strategy/tactics and the game itself between all the SJW nonsense.

Wrong! The podcast was always called Three Moves Ahead. It was hosted on Troy's blog called Flash of Steel.

[BillTheCat]

  On 10/10/2018 at 9:46 AM, SamS said:

What chess videos does Austin watch?

The channel that was going around a couple of weeks ago was https://www.youtube.com/user/AGADMATOR

 

[Michael]

  On 10/11/2018 at 3:27 PM, BillTheCat said:

The channel that was going around a couple of weeks ago was https://www.youtube.com/user/AGADMATOR

 

 

Also, I'll re-plug John Bartholomew's chess channel, he was a great guest on the show. Also: Mato Jelic and Simon Williams. All great and informative chess channels.