999 is a shitty example against me, because yes I would argue to hell and back 999 isn't that good of a game, or effective as a game. The actual playing it part is the worst part of the experience sans a plot twist. Ditto for anything Telltale has done. Journey was a better argument in that context.
And yes we can continue to disagree especially on the "gameplay>all else", but if you suck at the interactive parts, you suck as a game to me. You suck at the thing that defines this medium. To me it's no different than Deadly Premonition, which has an awesome plot and characters, but the playing it part? sucks. It's a bad video game. Because I don't look at "you can have bad runs, and bad endings" as a positive. That's not much of a punishment, that's legit throwing bad writing at me, before I've suffered enough of your gameplay to get the ending worth my time. If I want a story, I can get better from a medium better suited to tell a story organically. Video games have been running on same lame defense of "it has so much potential". So did Ryan Leaf, he sucked.
The "I like it because story reason x, y, and z" wouldn't invalidate it's glaring short comings in its own medium, as in the type of things it should and better be good at.
The character thing is lazy, because we can both go down that path
-Chrome, Lucina, Robin= fucking bricks
-Frederick= typical loyal guardian of royal heir crap, who can't die because he's in cutscenes
-Lissa= dumb ass younger sibling, who can't die because she's in cutscenes
-Chrom's sister=a plot point
After that FE characters are characterized via some optional conversations, meanwhile Squad 7 main cast carry the plot, and everyone has just enough to be entertaining on the battlefield. Which I'm cooler with.
-The main bad dude=so aggressively there to be the main bad dude.
So yeah, I'm not exactly in the camp of acting like the Fire Emblem cast was good enough to be members of the Centurians, much less be a driving force. Valkyria's short comings are pacing and presentation related at best, with the worst being something gameplay related (some of the cheaper segments). But it's plot is no less effective, if anything I will definitely say I enjoyed it way the **** more, characters to boot. And the gameplay it's not even close. Neither of them have the argument of being particularly deep (it's rock, paper, scissors, let's not get carried away), but only one of them is actually unique and has a variety of different gameplay segments to show off. So yeah as a game, an experience, I would take the great strategy rpg (Valkyria Chronicles) over the good one (Fire Emblem Awakening).
Log in to comment