Friday’s Play – Valkyria Chronicles

I continued with yesterday’s mission, replaying for an A rank.  Previous SPOILER warnings are still relevant, of course.  Read on for details.

Valkyria Chronicles

This was difficult to fit into my set 425x90 dimensions as there's quite a height difference between the three characters. The difference in height is practically a representation of the difference in ages: From 16 (Isara, left) to 27 (Rosie, right) to 36 (Largo, centre).

Back to Bruhl, then.  I began my A rank attempt  by reloading one of my saves, which was right at the end of turn one.  Everybody was in good positions, but as that gave me just one turn to push forward and claim victory it was possible that it simply wouldn’t be enough to win.

Thursday’s Play – Valkyria Chronicles

I went back to Valkyria Chronicles today, earning an A rank on one mission and attempting the next.  Read on for details, but bear in mind that SPOILERS are going to be present, and they’re some fairly major ones.

Valkyria Chronicles

I continued on from last time (just after having taken the first camp).  I deployed fresh units from the camp (which uses less command points than making them all move up from the starting position), using a couple of shocktroopers and scouts to advance towards the next camp, while the Edelweiss and Largo took up position in the centre and dealt with the tricky areas: the first tank and two gatling bunkers.  With the second camp taken I requested another lancer (Jann), who was able to destroy the next tank from behind.

Tuesday’s Play – Valkyria Chronicles

I played a little more Valkyria Chronicles today, just completing a little skirmish.  Read on for details.

Valkyria Chronicles

It turns out that units upgrade to elite status once you get them to level 11, and as all mine were at level 10 I decided to go back and play a skirmish level to get some more EXP and level them up.  All skirmishes have the new tank added to them now, even those from before it was unlocked, and as it’s another leader unit that essentially means an extra command point (able to move one more unit per turn), which is nice.

Monday’s Play – Still Valkyria Chronicles

More Valkyria Chronicles today.  Despite essentially taking twice as long to do each mission because of my quest for A ranks – I’m both playing levels for the first time to learn how to do them and then replaying them for rank, which pretty much means I’m doing my first and second playthroughs simultaneously – I think I’m proceeding at a good pace now.

NOTE: I seem to be reaching a point where big events are beginning to happen, so SPOILERS will likely follow.

Valkyria Chronicles

My first attempt today was a complete retry from the start, using what I learned from the poor attempt yesterday to do better this time.  Initially it went well, smoothly taking the first enemy camp and completing the the first objective (destruction of a bridge used for reinforcements), taking it in two turns and being ready to move towards the second objective.

Sunday’s Play – Yet More Valkyria Chronicles

I played some more Valkyria Chronicles today, completing another two missions and witnessing some more World War 2 parallels.  Read on for details.

Valkyria Chronicles

With the princess rescued, Squad 7 are honoured and Welkin is given a medal by the princess.  Borg handles the ceremony, and in close up looks even more evil, with a long pointy beard and long, thin eyebrows.  Short of dressing him in black with some kind of skull motif there isn’t much more they could have done to make him radiate EVIL.  The princess reveals that Squad 7′s questions have had an effect on her, which can’t be good news for Borg.

Friday’s Play: Valkyria Chronicles Again

I continued with Valkyria Chronicles today, completing another mission, albeit not as you’re supposed to.  Read on for details.

Valkyria Chronicles

The cutscene to end the chapter has Welkin and Alicia reunited with Squad 7, with everybody saying how relieved they are that they’re all okay.  Alicia tells Welkin that she liked what he said before about Squad 7 being family, and then the view shifts to Largo, Rosie and Isara together, with Largo playfully ruffling Isara’s hair.  It’s a nice visual reinforcement of the family idea.

Today’s Play – Valkyria Chronicles

I went back to Valkyria Chronicles today and completed two missions.  It’s taken me almost a month (and eight play sessions) to get back to the point I was at before after just eleven days and three play sessions, which isn’t exactly speedy and suggests I might be playing the game for quite a while yet.  It’s fun though, so that’s fine.

I don’t know exactly why I’m not putting much time into it, but I don’t think it’s a case of GADD. It probably just has more to do with having the 360 under my desk and the PS3 & Wii set up at the TV.  Being somebody who feels compelled to keep up to date with various websites I’ll casually look over at my PC while playing a 360 game, whereas if I’m on the PS3 or Wii I’m away from the computer, which ends up interrupting my play more when I get up to check in with the web.  Having a young family member obsessed with LittleBigPlanet also plays a part because I’ll play on the 360 when he’s on the PS3, which is often.  Anyway, gaming:

Valkyria Chronicles

Having defeated the giant tank in the desert, I’m now up to chapter 07, which is the first chapter so far to include two battles (every chapter so far has only had just one mission, apart from two optional Report chapters that have had none, being just a series of cutscenes).  The first mission of this chapter has the distinction of being the last mission I played before I stopped playing the game for months.

Today’s Play: Noby Chronicles 2

Today’s game sessions were essentially identical to yesterday’s, with a combo of Noby Noby Boy and Valkyria Chronicles.  The demo for inFamous appeared on the EU PlayStation Store today so I’m downloading that at the moment, and should be playing it tomorrow.  Read on for more details on today’s play sessions.

Noby Noby Boy

Played this for a short while again today.  I think that with its lack of proper objectives and the fun mostly stemming from what you make yourself, it’s a game well suited to short sessions of play.  It also helps having a young relative to play with who finds the game much more amusing.  Had I been playing on my own I likely would have stopped playing a while ago.

Today’s Play: Noby Chronicles

I’m going to start chronicling my gaming habits from day to day, seeing as this is a blog and all.  For the first entry, I’ve been playing Noby Noby Boy (PS3, download) and Valkyria Chronicles (PS3, retail).  Read on for more details:

Noby Noby Boy

I’ve pretty much got everything out of the game that I intend to (including all trophies), at least until (if?) Mars unlocks.  My nephew really enjoys it though and plays it for a short while each day, and recently the game has started multiplying your score by increasingly larger amounts.  On Saturday it was just doubling the score, but today it was multiplying it by 57, so we’ve been playing together on his save and increasing his contribution.