Ttw1
Suffering at NNPTC without discord
- Location
- threads/ex-machina-worm-tinker-au.29497/
PerfectionThe way I'd love to see the hypothetical Valkyrie Core tie-in game go:
The first Valkyrie Core game isn't "the game of the Anime" – it's a tie-in prequel gaiden game, released very alongside the early anime, meant to hype up the show and the characters without actually spoiling the anime. Play-style-wise, it's fast-paced armored-core style combat missions, but intercut with building and managing a progressively larger and more complex team of characters you can bring to battle with you (appropriately, one of my inspirations here is Valkyria Chronicles).
There'd be a lengthy campaign... and Anna wouldn't be in it.
It would be a Shuri gaiden.
You start off as babby tween cadet in the Pakistani military, and are initially just responsible for fighting in your own frame, following orders from high command on missions that start as reasonable back-line stuff. And between the first few missions you learn to pick what you practice in your downtime or how to integrate new systems or practice with old ones, and you the player learn to manage your Pilot XP and stats and gear.
And then the Great Battle kicks into gear. Back-line missions get more dangerous. Command starts sending your cadet squadron in on more and more dubious missions above your level. And you (playing Shuri) start picking up team- and infrastructure- management stuff in between the missions – story-wise, because the seniors and instructors who were doing that stuff start dying. As your babby squadron keeps running into missions that are "nastier than HQ expected" and gets progressively more chewed up, the survivors start turning to the girl who's kicking ass for more and more advice. In-story you start becoming a mentor; in gameplay you start getting to manage your party.
In-story, your flight-mate asks you between missions if they'd be better in a different role, and suddenly you can pick flight positions and manage formations. Another asks what skill you think she should practice during her downtime, and now you're managing Pilot XP and stats for your flight. Two of your flight-mates get into a scuffle and you step in, and suddenly you can affect interpersonal synergies and perks that alter how well individual pilots train together or fight together. You start learning how and when to call in support from ground forces or strategic weapons to re-arrange the battlefield. Eventually this translates back into being named a cadet flight leader in-story.
And meanwhile, you're getting put on tougher and tougher missions by command. Back-line missions become reconnaissance and then direct assaults. Some missions go really wrong. A forward deployment unexpectedly introduces your squadron to its first Type Zero, and your strategic objective becomes "Survive." Your standard downtime phase is interrupted when antagonists launch a surprise assault on the Arcology (also, you end up rescuing a certain blonde girl during this). UN forces start pushing forward, and your command takes crazy risks trying to "keep up," and you manage more and more as your squadron's senior members die. You're eventually sent in deliberately against Type Zeros alongside other Pakistani forces.
The game is pretty lethal, particularly since most characters don't have Shuri's protagonist stats. You'll lose teammates despite your best efforts, though as long as Shuri lives you continue; you'll get new recruits merged in from other squadrons and (once you get a year into the timeline) rookies younger than you. And as Shuri wins on battlefield after battlefield, more new teammates and old start look up to the girl dubbed the Golden Ace. Eventually you're managing stats for your entire squadron as you take part in some of the big regional battles of The Great Battle. In her personal storyline, Shuri grows more and more disillusioned with her own commanders and disgusted with the inefficiency with which they spend the lives of her fellow cadets (possibly with some goading from your new blondelove interestfriend). Ultimately, you fight in [some big climactic battle], which is the definitive turning point for this region of the war. Then the Epilogue: The Great Battle is won, but once again at huge cost to your squadron... but Shuri is satisfied to see the UN sweeping in to annex the Pakistani military, and the game ends with her hopeful that the UN forces can keep winning victories without the catastrophic costs that she's seen.
The game doesn't cover Sandra's kidnapping, Battalion 44, and the presumed [spoilers] in that story (though that may be a flashback in Valkyrie Core 2). Shuri's somber about her teammates dying, but not as cynical as she can be in BAAHSCQ present day.
In all, I think Shuri Gaiden would make a pretty sweet game that's a lot more representative of "this is how normal Valkyries work" and "this is how you will be playing when Koujirou's game comes out" than Anna's story would be.
Then Valkyrie Core 2:A New CokeA New Hope comes out once the anime's got several seasons of storyline and characters to play with, alongside a massive hype machine about how this one has All The Characters You Love and is The Epic Campaign Of The Anime and You Can Be TheWaifu MagnetHero.
Of course, we all can see the fatal flaw in this idea: this notional prequel game has a critical lack of Anna.
Or does it?
Because as it happens, campaign mode isn't the only single-player mode in Valkyrie Core.
Like a lot of games, Valkyrie Core has another mode: Infinite Battle Mode. Horde mode, endless fight, whatever you want to call it – you just fight endless enemy waves, forever, and they keep coming tougher and tougher until you lose. It's gameplay for those who just really love the Valkyrie combat without the campaign and team management stuff.
And unlike the campaign, Infinite Battle Mode doesn't even pretend to have a "real storyline", just a transparent excuse plot to justify fighting forever. It doesn't even have a named main character, just a nameless little girl defending her nameless little town as long as she can.
There's no party management or formations or story missions. The only mission types are "defend the town" and "sortie out and kill everything". There's a simplified XP system – you can still raise stats and unlock skills, but there's no classes or trainers or character synergies. You just have one girl, fighting. You start with a borrowed shotgun and a police surplus flak jacket three sizes too large and the whole big empty skill tree in front of you. And you just fight, and level up, and fight again, more and more and waves of harder and harder opponents until you lose.
Maybe every X character levels you unlock a progress checkpoint or something, so after you die – and you will die – you can start nearer to the harder combat stages you've unlocked if you want. But it's a longer, harder set of waves between each checkpoint, so it's still escalating difficulty.
Maybe there's a simplified crafting system where you earn craft points you can spend on fixed defenses. Maybe there are occasional bits of flavor text on crafting options or scanner entries for new enemy types, that might hint at what's happening in town. Maybe some of those hints are cute or heartwarming and some of them are actually pretty dark. But there's no storyline, just an excuse for Valkyrie battles without the full squadron management system. You fight bigger and badder waves until you get overwhelmed, and eventually something will kill you or you'll fail a defense round. You lose, git gud and try to beat more waves next time.
And maybe... if you get far enough in that mode, level up and git gud and learn to play flawlessly to the point where you can eat numbered Types for breakfast, where you're ridiculous enough to solo bosses that your whole squadron couldn't take in campaign mode... you might notice the nameless little girl's gotten bigger. And maybe, though you can't see her face anymore, her frame is starting to look a bit familiar somehow.
And eventually some bright spark on the internet finally puts it together, ideally right around the time the reveal hits in anime: Infinite Battle Girl is just as canon as the rest of the game, and holy shit Bread-chan is Infinite Battle Girl.
(That game mode still does not pull the anime's story punch, though. There really isn't a win condition. Every time you die, the game lingers on your broken frame, and every time you survive but fail a defense round, it lingers on you alone in front of a grave marker. Those are the only endings, and the second one is canon.)
Edited: Really, autocorrect? A flax jacket?
20 pages left.
Oof.
Oof.Et's just say that being a singleplayer eroge, Koikatsu's character generator is very robust when it comes to the female form, and while the clothing presently is somewhat limited i's seen sufficiently determined and creative people pull off all sorts of costumes...
Oof.It depends on your artstyle, and what you're looking for. Honey Select is more on the 3d "live-action" side, while Koikatsu is more on the "cel-shaded 3d anime" side.
no thanksGo in for a medical Checkup. You were asked to do this.
- There is a possibility that you will find things you do not like, but making sure you are in top performance is imperative.
- Ask Sandra and Shuri to accompany you. Sandra because she has shown to be good moral support and Shuri because she is an experienced Valkyrie who has a better idea on what to expect.
- Try to tell them about things that may come up beforehand, such as how much you remember of your 'other self' that is sequestering herself away from the world and that you are using your impeller to replicate many of your normal biological functions for increased efficiency.
- OOC Reasoning: For those of us who want to try and draw Anna into Sandra and Shuri's influence to create our own separate group from Koujirou's, this is a good step. For those of us who just want to help Anna, Sandra continues to be the best person fit to help her and Shuri is the most likely in our flight to understand Anna. Even more importantly is that Sandra and Shuri tend to work well together, so approaching both is likely to increase the synergy. Honorable mention goes to Yukari for being another possible, if less ideal in my mind, candidate.
i'd rather notAsk the instructors if you could try teaching some high ranking Valkyries some of your normal techniques. Higher rank Valkyries seem to be able to better understand you and this may get you some much needed practice teaching while improving the skill of other Valkyries.
- Go over things you may be able to teach with the instructors before actually inviting people. Suggest starting with impeller layering since you know you do that differently than standard UN methods.
- Specifically ask if Shuri and Yukari could be invited.
- Trust the instructors to pick other Valkyries who could learn from you for additional candidates.
- Ask if any of the instructors would wish to learn.
- Ask if any of the instructors would like to help you teach.
- OOC Reasoning: This would boost the way many characters look up to Anna in verse as they start becoming more aware of her skill. It also has a possibility of increasing the survivability of other Valkyries by a lot, and starting a chain effect of at least one of Anna's abilities proliferating across at least Ace level Valkyries, increasing their overall ability. Getting Yukari and Shuri involved also gives us a chance to increase relationship with them and getting other aces involved gives Anna some more contacts that she can follow up and make friends with. All around, both good for Anna and her ability to stand on her own as a main character.
BAD IDEA BAD IDEA BAD IDEA!!! The part I italicised makes it even worse!Practice Valk. vs. Valk combat to acclimate yourself in preparation for the intersquadron tournament. It would probably be best if you participated with your flight.
- Ask to spar with Shuri in preparation for this. Explain that this is specifically so you can get used to Valk vs. Valk combat on an emotional level.
- Ask the instructors to supervise the matches, as you are not sure how you will respond under pressure like this.
- You know this will be an emotionally trying time, so ask Sandra for support. Maybe Yukari too.
- Koujirou and Setsuna are too easily excitable and may gush over you as opposed to providing the needed emotional support. It would be best to not have them there as such. Maybe record the matches and let them watch the recordings?
- OOC Reasoning: This is going to be a major part of the series and we're going to need to participate if we want to stay relevant. If we want Anna to participate in it without becoming a complete wreck that needs constant babying, then we need to diffuse as much of this time bomb early as possible. Sandra is ideal to help us through the emotionally trying times and Shuri is the only one in our flight we can trust to safely spar against, and we should probably keep it to people Anna hangs around with to minimize trauma. Yukari has shown to have enough tact to at least not be detrimental to the process, but Setsuna and Koujirou have shown themselves to be rather blind to Anna's plight until a breakdown is already occurring (and sometimes not even then), so I'd rather keep them away from actually being there as an emotional support. They have a decent chance of saying something insensitive enough to set her off while gushing over how cool her fight with another Valkyrie is in my opinion.
