Valkyria Chronices 2: Demo Review

Yesterday I spent a bit of time playing through the recently released demo of Valkyria Chronicles 2.  It beings with a few scenes from the most recent TGS trailers: tanks blasting through innocent walls, lockers filled with munitions, normal school stuff.  The player can then experiment with the training mode as well as an actual mission.

In terms of controls the demo feels like a pretty decent translation of the system from the first game.  It didn’t take long for my fingers to remember which buttons did what.  The analog stick makes aiming difficult and I usually had to rely on the d-pad to get my cross-hairs where I wanted them.  When moving units on the map however, the analog stick seems to make things easier than the d-pad.  Despite having to switch between the two, the controls never really felt awkward.

I am not sure if this is exclusive to the demo or the sequel as a whole, but the accuracy of units seems to have been markedly improved.  I had two characters get blown away by a lancer in a sniper’s perch in the first mission.  The shots this unit made would never have even come close in the first game.  Also, my units seemed much better at getting head-shots off than I am used to.  If this is a reflection of the final product, I think the game may be more challenging than the first title.

In terms of new features, sadly the defender was not playable, only the standard infantry units from the first title: sniper, lancer, scout, medic/engineer.  The game’s heroine Cosette is a medic, but I was disappointed to see that her AP was just godawful.  Engineers used to have AP comparable to a scout, but now their AP is more like that of a Sniper.  I fear that this will slow down movement across the field for players relying on medics.  I think I may just leave my medics in bases and bring wounded units to them.  Perhaps I am getting ahead of myself…

Graphically the game is obviously not as impressive as the first game.  How could it be?  But I wouldn’t say the graphics disappointed me, the overall feeling is there, just no real advances to mention.  I noticed that from a distance enemy units look a little boxy, but this is the demo so it may not be what we can expect from the final product.  I still have my complaints when it comes to the anime style which permeates the game, but if you have come to my site before, I don’t think I need to go into that again.

All in all the demo was enjoyable and I found myself wanting to play more when I was done.  I think this may be the first handheld title in a while to really maintain my interest which says a lot.

Related Entries:
Valkyria Chronicles 2: Japanese Demo Available

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