gaming Elena And Her Joystick : Depth Of Field

[Elena Ichinomiya]

Elena And Her Joystick : Depth Of Field is a post about my opinion why some game fail/work at specific value other than its gameplay, and consider if it should be improved to make it work, or just let it be since its move the story onward as its canon. It doesn't have any gameplay review experience like from the original Elena And Her Joystick (such as how the control feels like, UI design, and graphic detail). This post are more toward other value such as story and the character include the world the game set on and tell you my thought why it fail/work to impress us. Keep in mind that this is a personal take/opinion, not every gamer as a whole.

And with that, i hope you enjoy...

  Quote

"If the gameplay fails, character and story would be the game savior. Remember a game called To The Moon? It has basic gameplay everyone could imitate and forget. But the flow of story and character improvisation, are not. And that's what make people remember them as good game - along with excellent soundtrack"

-Elena in "Elena And Her Joystick"

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[Elena Ichinomiya]

HOW A PLANKBOARD KILL A THOUSAND POTENTIAL SUCCESS

Summary
Bladestorm Nightmare set in the medieval era of thousands war where England and French going at each other throne for a succession. You, a silent protagonist in this story, would play as the Mercenaries who work for both side as long as the payment is good. Your HQ are inside a tavern where mercenaries gathering from various origin. One job lead to another, you would meet with another historical figure from Prince Edward of England to Joan of Arc from France. As tension rise, you would have to pick side as each kingdom are no longer compensate for any mercenary who clearly work for opposing force. Depends on which side you take on, you can either see the Prince Edward into Succession or liberate France from England invasion...

Story View
Historical value aside, Bladestorm doesn't seems to know where to put your character in for starter as you would begin with your own army. While it can be easily toss aside, it didn't shows much past of your character about where and why they even have a mercenaries in the first place, other than you claim that you gonna be best mercenaries than anyone. The motivation in itself is enough to give us clue how lackluster the story driven us. And keep in mind that being silent protagonist, the conversation hold no weight whatsoever as you don't have some sort of spoke person to speak up for you. Because this is one of the factor the game would fail on your right from the start.

As i mentioned on the original Elena And Her Joystick, each character doesn't make much impact on storyline other than just there to be pretty. This is what make the universe feel hollow and make each NPC addition are nothing more than filler as none of them are only make a hush-hush gossip rather than giving us meaningful story to follow their character improvisation. It also not helping that each character story are rather forced down player throat as they either abrupt or suddenly pop out of nowhere, especially when there's character with a bow who just there trying to impress Prince Edward. Some would assume a fictional love interest but after the archer got the Prince attention, the game seems to forgot their existence, again, making it as another useless filler and with offense of cliffhanger.

Most of the story rave on about you and the conversation you held most of the time are your character and the barkeep. This is clear issues that shows the game itself wasn't ready to ship more stories as the conversation between mercenaries is almost goes for less than minutes before it shift back to barkeep again, making you wonder who are you to him which sorry to say, its question that won't be answered at all. Some important character did make their appearance but unfortunately they didn't come as addition of value as they would just come and say what they want, and nothing else. Though not every scene such as when one France lady fencer seek help after the mistake she made which is one good aspect to move the story onward. The rest of the scene just move on to show how good looking your character are.

While the story doesn't always revolve around you as it would include other NPC on focus, this doesn't work well as the fact that the VA doesn't seems to like their role or worst offense is, they try to imitate the accent when they clearly not a native. Sadly, this getting even more worse as one of the France NPC keep whining about his inability to rule, but get wise out of blue without clear context. This is another glaring issues that the dev just cut the losses in exchange for quick action right away which unfortunately not the case for this kind of game. Personal conflict of a character is what make their presence shine as we see them struggle and improve from time to time. But the game seems to dump the idea as it is.

It get worse as some character has less spotlight when they have vital role in the game. Similar to the archer i mention before, but the most offender is how the game lacking screen time for each King, the very person who start this very conflict. It is fair to have more spotlight on us most of the time but when the story had to move on toward other character beside us, they should do what need to be done to make us know there's other character than us and told us that "this man is bad news" kind of impression. But the game didn't want to got that way and i'm not surprised if you forgot who is who thanks to this lackluster transition. And it get even more bad as you probably don't give a single seconds to remember your fellow mercenaries as they mostly act like unnamed NPC you find on the open world game thanks to this issues.

  Quote

"Why i join the England? So i can obtain Excalibur for new game+ of course. Sounds motivating right? Oh who am i kidding, what's the story again? Oh yeah, me at war. Who am i side on? Under King of who again? And the prince? Hold on, should i side with France since they're the oppressed? Why do i have to?"

- Me at the ending of the game

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Character
Its sad to say that the developer didn't manage to get the character right for this installment. Some character are saying little to nothing at all, some talk too much when their bio said they're quiet persona, some are just there to say what's on their mind, some just speak out of blue. Its find for NPC to do such thing, but unfortunately, NONE of them speak right to you. Most conversation they held are either to other NPC or thinking out loud. Most, not all, but its clear that they just there to make the tavern crowded without any other purpose which make them easily forgotten.

The barkeep himself, while he's an alright character, most of the time he run his mouth to give motivational speech rather than showing how he act so we can get impression out of him. There's this duo mercenary boys who might exist as sun and moon comedic trope but it fail at face value as the other guy is simply rash but easily lead on while the other one is calm and pacifist which is ridiculous since he told his partner that he just killed more soldier than him. There's also duo mercenary ladies but they just there to goad how they eager to fight for money or simply love a fight, making them as another plankboard NPC you would find in any open world game.

The French NPC, the governor and his bodyguard, seems interesting to follow but the constant whine from the guy and the odd-acting of his lady bodyguard, i can't say if this is the character i should cheer on or laugh at. At least they have more story in them though executed poorly since i remember them up until today...

The England NPC however, is a poor attempt at Arthas story from Warcraft in my opinion. A typical run-of-the-mill knight in shining armor that shows with bravery, you can get things done. What make it ridiculous however is how he and the archer become unnecessary love interest because clearly, this isn't filler we need when they clearly don't show much chemistry at any angle other than to drag the story just for the hell of it. The jokes are, their relationship didn't get any spotlight as it just end just like that.

King of England and French are...nonexistence. They just there at some scene, then left forgotten. I'll be honest, i forgot about French King completely until the ending. This is all thanks to the lack of screen time, we don't know how they run their country. At least we might expect some light and dark in each of them so we have clear reason to pick side at the mid-game. But because of this glaring issues, you might don't feel any weight choosing side at all because you don't know which one is good and which one is bad.

Now for your own silent character, the lack of spokesperson in the game that carry the story sloppily doesn't help you at all to tell what are your character thinking. At least in most game with silent protagonist, should there be no spokesperson character, it was backed up with monologue. But this game don't have that at all. The only way to figure it out is how you pick your dialogue but that doesn't help because the story are linear, making the decision pointless addition. I can't say if its developer intention but your character never show any expression at all as most of the scene, my character keep her default face i give her. Most obvious example? When they drink from glass, their mouth didn't open when other NPC has proper drinking animation. At this point, this game clearly don't have any value to salvage. If you want to know if its really that bad, check out the gameplay detail on original post at Elena And Her Joystick thread.

The World
Its common to find less interactivity on the game that focus on the fight most of the time. But as far as i can tell, the world is rather barren even when you invade them, you don't feel like storming a castle at all. There's even time that you would find yourself wandering around for minutes because the vast world that mostly consist of abandoned village or ruined fort etc. There's no clear indication that you are on battlefield. Normally at such game with war setup, you would find either ruin or numerous dead soldier, burned village or another siege attack on castle. The game failed on its ambient. 

And don't get me started but tavern is the most offender in this category. If a small world building of a tavern fail us to make us feel immersed in the atmosphere, we shouldn't expect much from the wider angle!

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Something Need To Be Done
Now we're at the main point, here's my break to make the game at least a bit more bearable on the story side...

Story View : If a cutscene don't make the full cut, its better to let the rest of the conversation on the basic tongue and cheek thumbnail-dialogue-box stuff to carry on the story. I'm aware that filling every scene with voice can be taxing and might cause unnecessary delay, but its better to tell the whole story in some way that seems less immersive than nothing at all. Keep in mind that thanks to this issue, we forgot certain character presence up until ending unless they were mentioned or bump in the battlefield. While the rest of the detail are lies on the log at the tavern, its best to show the vital point to the scene while the log should function for small detail that doesn't impact player judgement of their character post-cutscenes. 

If its time to show a conflict, the game should know better than just give a motivational speech but instead, they should show us cutscenes that there's fight going on before we jump into the fight. That way, we can feel the rush of the fight and eager to join the rumble instead of basic spawning on the castle which felt like we got left behind. 

For Protagonist, its fine if they have to be on side line but when our OC are away from sight, its better that the scene give us reason why those people are on our screen. They either make a plot behind our back, staging another fight for personal reason and mention your name, strategizing plan and more. Because i don't find it delightful that i was cast aside just to see someone kissing other hand for a cutscene...not at all.

Give the people with vital role more screen time! This is what i truly stressed out because the lack of focus would throw you off at any moment why you even there, or why that character doing that. Everything just happen right before you and nothing else after that which is why i stress the characterization because if there's no value in them, who are we supposed to cheer on?

Character : i can't say i hate everyone here, but i wouldn't recommend them to anyone to take inspiration from for their OC creation. Let me break it one by one...

• Barkeep is a retiring mercenary and decide to leave those life behind him. If i were the dev, i make sure the guy didn't show it right off the bat so there's some element of surprise (or at least trying to) when it was revealed that he used to be on your shoes back then.
• The two mercenary boys, should be there for comical value because their presence to lighten the mood are shown, just badly executed. The two mercenary ladies should be more involved than just being NPC sit on the corner because they have complete personality to boot. In fact, if i were the dev, i make these two "faction" butting each other every time mission ends so we can get to know them better than just hearing them hushing behind our ears.
• The King of each faction should be the reason why we have to side with them with their own upbringing. Are they a cruel King or wise King? Its a gamble sure, as we have to pick who's the bad guys. But having that reason alone is what drive player to feel immersed about why they join the England/French side.
• Spokesperson character are badly needed for the protagonist to tell us what's on their mind so we can tell if the decision we take would impact their character improvisation. Though the gameplay doesn't offer that kind of option in the first place as the game is pretty much linear, at least its nice to know what struggle they had that we can feel attached to.
• There should be more screen time where our character spend time with other mercenaries every time we finish the job so we can get to know each character more than just as NPC around corner

  Quote

"By all mean, its easy to dump everyone include your own character and forget their existence had it not for the poor screen time"

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The World : I can't really say if the battle is exactly the same as the history book said. But surely a few addition of ambient would do them good. If we walk around seeing the debris of catapult, numerous dead body and other broken war machine, it can give impression how intense the fight actually is before we're stepping into the fight. There's also issue where the fight mostly happen at one spot, leaving big chunk of space full of nothing but dirt. 

As for the tavern, i might being petty here but if its small world anyway, why don't let us roam freely? 

In The End...
This game story seems to be a jumbled mess but that's because the lack of exposition and instead everything was thrown to the log book at the tavern which obviously no one would bother to check it out. The game did deliver its promise to fight in large number but the excitement that don't hold other weight value would certainly leave the game to eat the dust once finished. This might not be the case if they try to make the game has more story value despite the game flaw. But they choose not to, leaving the game to little to no memorable moment for us to remember. Its a shame really. While the game end up with lack of gameplay, at least i can pat the developer on the back for delivering the game that doesn't need day one patch. But that's topic for my other thread.

And with that, the the story come to a close...

[Elena Ichinomiya]

HOW OVERSIMPLIFY IDEA CAN BE HARMFUL

Summary
Valkyria Chronicle 2 set in the spoof of WW2 in which our protagonist seeking the truth about his missing brother by joining the military academy where his brother take part of. As he took part on numerous battle as well as academy life, his squad of misfit found many lies and corruption within the academy wall, leading into one fight to another before another true face of evil show itself right in front of them in the shape of rebellion. As battle rage on, the truth our protagonist seek turn out are far more closer than he thought it would be.

Story View
While its common for any game to use WW2 settings especially war, Valkyria Chronicle choose to take just the setup without taking historical setting into account as the story element involve a hint of fantasy at some point. Unlike VC1 where the squad jump into the fight to liberate their homeland, VC2 is far more docile in term of warfare setup as they stick to counter-terrorism rather than full scale war which the previous installment just done. While its interesting setup as well as versatility for the story telling, VC2 had its own hiccup to tell the story albeit its filled with various character that fill each other.

A glaring issue would be the villain which is rather anti climatic on the get go compared to previous one. In VC1, various enemy are laid upon just to give you a picture how large the obstacle right in front of you, giving you a thought that every fight would be hard and tedious one to complete. Unfortunately VC2 doesn't offer that much of faces that you can take note off and not to mention that every single time you encounter them, they would fight with similar fashion which give you an impression, before it turn into mundane adoration.

It is also a big issue when the game seems to tone down its shock value of war compared to VC1 as they follow more of casual teen-drama rating than gritty reality of warfare where everyone can die at moment notice. It might be alright if the tone is reduced when there's no actual fight going on like when they're on campus. But the game carry that tone to the battlefield which is not only it kill the vibe horror of war, its also ridiculous to boot.

  Quote

"I remember there's this scene where the dude shot himself so his friend can cast aside their fear of blood. You guess it, it work when it shouldn't, and it won't give impact for audience. Fear of blood is good setback for any war game. But to cast it aside right off the bat without much character improvisation going, there's no point to support that character because they already get over it"

-Elena

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In the later chapter, the story goes into critical point where the villain foundation start to crumble. However since the story lack a spotlight toward the villain, their backstab toward their leader doesn't give us much idea and more toward confusion. Why that son kill his father? What's his motive? What does the father do to piss off his own son? What he plan to do once he get the throne for himself? There's much question going on. Added the fact that his sister is so passive doesn't add much conflict on enemy side even though its clear that she could go against his brother will.

It is later revealed that the protagonist brother was on the enemy side all along but doesn't come there willingly as he's part of iron soldier experiment, leading to his demise by his own brother hand. To some, this might be sad moment. But judged from how the story were executed, this is clearly a lackluster effort for ending one person life in video game. Not to mention this kind of trope is way too easy to forget. To add more insult, you can't sympathize much about him either because most of the time, that iron man mostly silent and no one say anything much about him. Is he good person deep down or not? Why it join the villain? What's his personal motive? The game didn't say much as the man just blow himself up once defeated before the story goes to final boss fight.

Side-Story View
VC2 give us chance to get to know our squad better include their background. While most would involve fight at the end, the message and impression they gave us is clear that they come to academy for their own reason rather than for military sake. As i mention before, this squad is bunch of misfit, but i think i forgot to mention that this squad doesn't have any will to join military at the end of the day. Clearly, this side mission would tell you that they just want to earn the diploma and move on with their life as the ending suggested. There's no one who would take an arm at the end of the day so...why they join the military academy when they don't even want to become one, or worst, hate war in the first place? Keep in mind that this is military academy where they can join at their own will or not. Unlike VC1 where everyone with various background was drafted due to crisis.

But that aside, most side story were told in good narrative which manage to told us how and what they feel about the war as a whole include their vision when the battle end. This also come with certain character progress that change the character attitude toward protagonist depend on how close their relationship are so that's a plus from me.

  Quote

"I'm okay with character with various background outside the boundary of the gritty theme. But what i'm not okay with is their upbringing which can still top VC4 performance. Its like playing dating-sim with SMG and Handgun for wedding bouquet"

-Elena

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Character
Fortunately, while VC2 fail in the theme execution and story progression, the character are all well-balanced without weighing one another that make them can be easily disposed or deemed annoying and unnecessary addition on the screen. We can start off with the protagonist which is a hot blooded young man who seek his missing brother. While his hectic attitude tend to get everybody nerve and love to jump first think later, he know when things get serious. However since he act as the story clown, it must be weigh down with the opposite force or else the story would feel like a drag. Luckily, the game give him one as there's other fellow squad who live in discrimination of whole nation and always pry the bad side of everything. This is the interesting mix and always tend to work (50-50 at least most of the time) as the two force keep asserting their dominance when situation calls it. There's time for getting all positive but there would be time when they had to stop and mourn which is where these two character purpose of existence; to tell audience that there's nothing fun about war and killing people even if they're you're enemy, while on the side it remind us just because there's war going on, doesn't mean you can toss your humanity and be your happy self.

The supporting character might not mean much unless you touch their side story. Some are serious, some are ridiculous, some are a bit weird, and some of it reward you with new squad member who realize they did thing the wrong way and want to fix their mistake. As i mention before, the story were narrated nicely so none of them are feel forced or cringe (though their VA might beg to differ. I play the JP dub btw). As you might expect, some of cheerful character hide the most dark story than everyone while the serious one has anxiety issue, the rest? They just there for comical reason which might be nice change of pace if the war theme drag on too much.

Moving on to villain, unfortunately i can't say much due to the lack of spotlight. But the reason of their rebellion alone is already give me a long, depressed sigh as it doesn't feel so powerful compared to its predecessor. All of this war happen because they simply can't and don't want to be ruled by certain race on the nation. Yes, this very villain just plain racist and nothing else. Its not like the ruler itself were corrupt, they just don't like their ruler...hair i guess? The Darcsen might have their bane for the mass destruction they did in the past but i don't think the thousand years bane should be give a damn about when they already chill for, you know, THOUSAND YEARS! Anyway, its so simplified, you might forgot their motive just by spin on your chair.

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Something Need To Be Done
Here we are on the main function of this thread. VC2 are decent by any standard with easy to absorb storyline. Unfortunately when they think teen-rating would require teen-drama stuff, going for WW2 setup is not the way to do it. Maybe if its slice of life game, it might work.

Story View
Military academy are not impossible setup to be made into game. However what this game story lack is the enforcement of the theme. Its warfare so you might expect some unsettling news amidst the sunset at the academy. But the game didn't show it and only did when the battle start. The tension also diminished quickly whenever the story is going at the academy where it turn quickly into basic teen-flick shows. Sure its fine to tone down the seriousness after the war, but the thing is, they didn't add the squad reaction toward previous battle. As if the fight you had before is just a dream to them. This might need a little tweak by adding a small dialogue between the squad about the previous fight which give us impression how those war affect them. And might as well affect their character progression as they see the actual flames of war right on the face. And if need be, give the player a false-positive dialogue that make them think there's gonna be betrayal going on amidst the squad. Its cliché sure, but effective most of the time when you try to add some plot-twist. Betrayal amidst war are rampant after all, might as well abuse that point.

On the villain side, this is the most offender of all thing in this game. Having distaste over one person is fine, but that shouldn't be the sole motive to drive the villain reason to destroy the world as it make them as equal as low-tier enemy you fight as first boss who simply want you to die, because you have to. There's so much potential how the story going to be had it been tended with full attention. Let's say the villain is not racist, but they wage war regardless because there's the bad apple within the walls and it happen to be Darcsen too, just like the ruler, which lead into misunderstanding that the villain is aiming toward the Gallian Ruler instead the actual bad apple, leading our protagonist to go head to head with them until it is revealed later what they actually aiming at (either after they got defeated or about to die is fine by me). Or just use the typical war invasion archetype who led the group of people who lost their homeland because of Gallia expansion...though i don't think that would work since Gallia itself never invade any country in the story lore. By all mean, those villain has cape to wear as anti-hero, but also has good reason why they become one instead of being simply a racist groupie. Again, i'm aware how predictable it is. But at least a little complication are better than linear motive it used.

  Quote

"I become villain because i hate you. I don't know man, i just hate you. That's it. Now you die by my hand...see how empty it is to become villain without context? That sounds like what prankster would like to say before they shot their airsoft gun"

-Elena

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On the side story, i would say everything work as intended and treated fairly as everyone got fair share of story to tell. And like i said before, some are dark, some are sunshine and rainbow just for a change of pace which is welcome addition. Had their story are focused too much at one angle, they're pretty much disposable and boring.

Character
I must say there's no need to tweak much about this aspect. Ironically, VC2 manage to bring character close to believable and relate to even though i keep saying they're so out of place in their playing field. As i mention, the character were balanced well with other character presence or conflict as the story progress. The fact that we can get to know our squad and how they live their life in the battlefield as well as their homeland, its a nice touch as they're not there just to be pretty.

In The End
VC2 has good set of character but lack of world building that surround them. Most of the time, they goof off once the battle end. Added the fact that they really don't care much or react to previous fight before the event of School Festival is clear kick on the shin that the story was trying too hard to focus on academy life while ignoring the war factor that is the core of this game story had. The tone also reduced from its gritty and shock value (though not much compared to VC1 unless we talk about VC3), but i think they do that since this game are aimed toward teen audience in the least. But the thing is, even the teen back in the day hate teen-flick trope. Not to mention it was setup at the settings that doesn't fit the bill of "High School Drama" stuff. Its WW2 here, i think everyone want to be sailor than loverboy even for a spoof.

Maybe they should make this into dating sim for a spin off? Fans and Sega need to have serious talk for that.

And with that, another story come to a close...