I feel like the game fell a little short of its potential. Especially after that glorious open field mission in the early quarter. Few of the later missions really lived up to quite that level of scale once more. I also felt like a few too many mechanics were single mission gimmicks
- The sub commander mechanic was super appreciated, especially the ability to appoint Scouts to this role. It offers yet another means, besides the APC, to move foot soldiers long distances in a single turn with minimal CP cost. This was invaluable on multiple occasions to get shorter legged units like Grenadiers and Lancers where they needed to be. Or set set up a couple of freshly rested shocktroopers for an assault.
In fact, my only complaint about the mechanic is that I feel like their should have been one more command token per turn. Especially for larger maps to give players more flexibility. That said, I could see how this might make the game as designed somewhat broken and may well be the reason the mechanic was implemented as is.
- On the down side, Squad Orders still feel like a vestigial feature which goes under utilized. With the exception of first aid, medical evacuation, and rapid deployment, I think the orders went almost totally unused. Likewise with Ship Orders being mostly relegated to vehicle redeployments.
- Story wise . . . It had some ups and downs. Overall I feel like the tone stayed consistent from scene to scene with a few egregious exceptions relating to . . . spoilers. Among them, though far from the most significant, Kai's arc, or rather specific details of how Kai became Kai, were totally unnecessary, they contributed nothing, and just created a sort of added plot holes for no reason.
Incidentally this game has the most intensely anime antagonist in the form of Belgar. Normally I don't have a problem with this type of villain, the crazy immoral mad scientist, even if it is by now an anime cliche. But given that the game's director stated that he wanted a return to a more serious plot after VC 2 and 3 on the handheld systems . . . Belgar kind of spoils that I think.
Like, he's pretty clearly a villain created to drive the plot. He's not actually loyal to the Empire, which frees him to ignore the ceasefire and thus set up the final battles, and in fact really he just wants to light off a nuclear bomb, because science, and his bro crush on his fellow researcher who he murdered for not wanting him to set off a nuclear bomb.
Compare this to Maximilian in the first game who didn't get a lot of screen time yet managed in very few scenes to be a competent antagonist with far more relatable motives. A man cynically serving the Empire to advance his own political career.