Like and Subscribe! Become a Member: tinyurl.com/y6srbdgj Donate: twitch.streamlabs.com/Omegaev... Live Stream: / omegaevolution Twitter: / omegaevolution
Man, when I heard the main VC theme swell, I was like "This is gonna be awesome!" Then, the chapter happened. That's not cool yo, making us lose not just one, but TWO characters? The VAs did such a good job of selling the scene. Claude breaking up when he was telling Raz to go on the mission was heavy.
This. This is it. This is where the game turned from a good strategy game from a series I respected...to something truly special. I never, in all the years I 've known about Valkyria Chronicles, would've expected a chapter like this. I was like "Oh, Raz'll give Claude a little pep talk, we'll have a huge-ass battle and get some safe in time for lunch." Then Claude said it was a suicide mission. My heart SANK the second I heard that, because that's not something I expected from VC; I've always taken it as anime wartime drama with good guys and bad guys, and while this game still is that, it doesn't pull punches in moments like these. The game even warns you that whoever's on the strike team is gone, and really, they're gone, see ya, goodbye. Personally I picked Zaiga for this mission; he may be an obvious choice, but I feel like he's a good fit for this, plus as much as I don't want to shut him down like this, he was one of my least used squadmates (you can thank Vancey, Ferrier, Lily and Raz for that). Though at the same time, I had just come off the heels of his and Vancey's squad mission, so even though his life would unfortunately be cut short, I felt it was a sensible thing for him to do; he grew up enough to sacrifice himself, even if he still appreciates his bro. I even made sure to deploy Vancey and Gertrude on this mission because of that (granted that was easy because Vancey's my custom leader unit too but still), and Gertrude even shrekt that tank near the end, kind of as a way to help her new friend. Though Odin also worked; from a bit of a bum to a true war hero, a true god of the battlefield. Gotta wonder how his parents would react to the news that their son died in the line of duty, because iirc standard procedure is to send an officer to the family's known residence to break the news, and...even if Odin wasn't the most sterling son, that'd be tough on them, seeing a man show up to their door saying that their son died in the line of duty. One last thing though; that scene where they talk to Raz on the radio one final time...that broke my heart. Everything, from Kai shoving Marie aside to break radio silence, regulations be damned, to her tearing up as the realization that it's too late for Raz sinks in, to her wailing Raz's name in the room as everyone else cries, and Brian, Louffe and Marie just have to close their eyes and look away because they know how painful this entire thing is, how painful it is for childhood friends to lose each other. Hell, even Forseti was listening and didn't do anything except slowly put down the walkie-talkie, thoughts swirling in his head. All of that hit like a bus, to the point that it's the first time in...probably years that I've cried thanks to a videogame. This shit was powerful. P.S., I feel this is the way forcing you to sacrifice units in a strategy game should go, 'cause I'm reminded of how Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon did it. As a refresher/crash course, in that game you had to send away someone in the prologue to let Marth escape safely, as well as lose one more unit in the prologue to get a special archer, and finally, have no more than 15 units at all times to get every unlockable side chapter, sans the last one where you just had to kill Tiki and not have the Falchion in your inventory in one of the last chapters of the game. You also only had one use of a staff to bring someone back, period, and if you didn't want to lose Marth's GOOD Falchion, you'd give it to Tiki and kill her in said chapter (game checks your current inventory for the Falchion before it gives you anything that dead units were carrying) and either way, your one revive is kind of weighted towards the unit that you just lost. And for that you get some middling to good units for your trouble, one per chapter for a total of about 5 I believe. The issue other than the excessive amount of waste is that all of the chapters play out like regular FE side chapters, there's nothing really special to them like acknowledging that Marth's struggling to keep an army together (again, except for the last one since the idea is to give you a replacement for losing the two things you almost need to kill the final boss). Shadow Dragon has many issues but that is one I will agree is a really poor idea, especially given the fact that they made a feature TO GIVE YOU GENERIC REPLACEMENTS FOR YOUR ARMY ANYWAY IF YOU GET TOO LOW; it's like, why lock side chapters behind sucking at keeping a big army when they already have that covered and don't even acknowledge how much trouble Marth's having? Compare it to this where you only lose 2 units, have a VERY strong story reason for doing so, it's at the end of the game and not across the entire game, and the game acknowledges how hard a choice it is. Long paragraph but god, if you kill off the player's characters in a strategy game forcibly, do it like this and not like Shadow Dragon (and I LIKE BOTH OF THEM).
For the Shadow Dragon section, in it's defense I'll say a couple of things. The Gaiden chapters are just meant to be exp farms and replacement units for people who are struggling. They weren't in the original game, and there's hardly any reason to purposely sacrifice your units just to unlock them. If you're playing the game without knowledge of the Gaidens existence, the only forced death is the sacrifice at the beginning of the game, which only happens on normal mode anyway.
Oh man... seeing Raz's ultimate potential activate twice made it sadder. Poor dude. Rip. :-:7 Also I liked how they gave some extra lines to whoever is with Raz. Odin finally became a true hero.
Nope. They are all soldiers. And given that they have specific dialog here when they are deployed and at the end scene, they all knew full well their fate if chosen.
To be honest, I was hoping you'd send Godwin with Raz, no one would miss that blechbomb. But this is hardly the time to get into that sort of thing... god, the acting is immaculate in this, holy crap. Poor Claude's breakdown in front of Raz, the fact that the soldier you sacrifice has a fully voiced line before their final moments, both to Raz and to themselves. They really understood the weight of everything. What kills me about it is Leena though, so now she has to kill off her brother and she doesn't even have a lover to return to, what's the poor girl have left?
I would think Godwin would have more the tragic final moments. I can imagine after the imperial troops go after Raz, he lies down in the snow and he briefly gets up and sits next to the wall and says his final words to the sky if the player completed his squad story with Nico and Rosetta it would be something like this: "Sorry kid... maybe you'll help me be... an appraiser... another time..."
I honestly screwed myself over when I depended on Raz a lot in the run; did not expect to lose him at all. My Shocktroopers weren't all that impressive and I actually sent Zaiga with him to die.
Damn...I cried like a baby. When Claude and Raz were having that one on one outside the ship I cried out "I'm not sending my best friend out to die!" The feels were too much. RIP Raz ;~;7
I admit that I didn't like Raz at first. He was vulgar, reckless, and dumb. But as I kept playing I saw just how cool of a guy he was. Loyal, friendly, and knows how to cheer up a person. This... broke me. I regret taking so long to realize how cool he was. Damn it... rest in peace, Raz the invincible.
That's why I always make sure to have 'Holding Out For a Hero' playing in the background when playing this mission, gotta send him off right. Also, I just noticed that he dies after losing his "Invincible" potential.
