I'd say disrespectfully and somewhat clumsily are two vastly different things. Also, if its anti-labor camp, how exactly is the game pro-Nazis now?

Of course you're underwhelmed. It was hyped way too much, just like everything on the internet these days, so it could never live up to those expectations. I remember when I picked up the game several years ago I'd only heard it was okay and I ended up adoring the game. I hate that we live in this kind of atmosphere nowadays.

Besides that, I do agree with your points though. Gameplay is great, the story is nothing to write home about. I was fine with it though. It was perfectly serviceable for me in the end.

@yummylee: The resolution to Selvaria's story would absolutely strengthen your dislike of Selvaria. Although the mission where you capture her is pretty well designed, as is the DLC where you play as her squad of invading soldiers.

I don't think it's fair to single out VC2 or anime games for that kind of ludonarative dissonance when games like Uncharted and GTAIV have the same issue. You're gonna kill hundreds of people because it's a video game and video games simulate combat really well. The characters never address the fact that they just killed hundreds of people because that's not a relateable trait.

I'll put the odds that a game I've played is in your blog between now and then at roughly 40 to 1.

What's wrong with anime characters with no noses being participants in World War II? Makes perfect sense to me.

@mosespippy: Since you specifically said VC 2 and not the first game, I'm going to have to disagree. The writing in any given GTA or Uncharted game usually does a decent job of distracting you from the scale of the murdering you are undertaking, because you accept that Drake isn't opposed to killing someone in self-defense. It's only when you realize how many people Nathan Drake is gunning down that it starts to get weird.

The writing in Valkyria Chroncles II is bad enough that it makes no real serious attempts at reconciling your anime high school students with the part where they are also soldiers in the middle of a war. The difference for me is that half the cast in VC 2 would seem incapable of pulling the trigger in the first place, to not even get into widespread slaughter of the enemy.

When I first played this game, I didn't even know it was supposed to be world war 2.

Y'all are crazy, Valkyria Chronicles is great!

Gameplay has always been why people liked this title, not the story.

@arbitrarywater: You clearly didn't play Golden Abyss. The cave near the end of the game is rigged to blow up. Drake and the female interest (don't remember her name) get to the exit with the detonator they took from one of the main villains who is still inside. Drake refuses to blow up the cave because he can't leave him there to die. By this point in the game you should have killed roughly 800 people! They throw way more enemies at you in each combat scenario than other Uncharteds and that game is hella long, like 35 chapters or something. The female interest then grabs the detonator and blows it up.

Most games get by this problem by not mentioning it and hoping nobody notices. Others, like Tomb Raider, try to explain it. Some even do it well, like the PTSD suffering main character from Spec Ops The Line, or the sociopathic meth head Trevor in GTAV. Uncharted Golden Abyss goes the other way. When they try to pretend that Drake isn't capable of killing a dude they are straight up lying about it.

@mosespippy: You're right, I didn't play Golden Abyss. Your point is valid.

I didn't like the non-removable white smudgy frame around the borders of the screen - someone's idea of "arty hand-drawn style" taken too far...

I didn't like the JRPG tropes.

Worse of all, I didn't like that the game is not fully turn-based and enemies (as well as player charactrers) can fire out of turn. Drink a health potion only to have all the added HP removed by an enemy firing out of turn, despite your character being behind cover. Like many other JRPGs it tries too hard to be clever and ends up being a pain in the butt.
IMO, yet another JRPG overrated because of anime cell-shaded graphics.