LogFAQs > #950580533

#20 - Ever17 -the out of infinity- (PC, 2005)

Ever17 is a very odd title - it was released before visual novels had even made a presence in North America (and the ones that did back then were mostly just porn games). However, Ever17 is easily one of the best of its genre and still stands up well fifteen years after its initial release. This game is still the best game by director Takumi Nakazawa (who directed Root Double back at #44) and writer Kotaro Uchikoshi, who I've already raved about many times throughout my list.

The game begins when a major accident happens at the underwater theme park LeMU, trapping a number of people inside. Due to the floods happening in certain areas of the park, they cannot contact the surface or escape, and the park is set to explode after a week due to the high water pressure. There are two protagonists to follow; Takeshi Kuranari and another boy known only as "The Kid" who has amnesia. Different routes are available depending on the character chosen, and all of the previous routes need to be completed to proceed onto the final one. The final route in this game is absolutely one of the most engaging visual novel routes I've ever played through (in more ways than one) and contains plot twist after plot twist all the way through and actually wraps up the story very well in the end. If you've played the Zero Escape series, you can see that Uchikoshi took a few twists from here and brought them in to that series as well.

There are only two flaws with this game, and they are the only reason it isn't as high as the other visual novels on my list. The first is the absolute garbage localization job, like the screenshot below:


There's frequent translation errors all over the script, and apparently the Kid was called the Youth early in the localization, but they changed it up and someone had the brilliant idea to do a find / replace with every instance. So "You there" became "Kidere" and caused all sorts of script errors. The other I mentioned back in #44's writeup but the pacing for this game is absolutely terrible, which seems to be a trademark of Nakazawa's work, unfortunately. While the final route is mindblowing, getting there is the difficult part and I dropped the game entirely at one point because of how bad some of the routes are (especially one of them, and if you've played it you know which one). There's a fan translation patch that fixes the errors to the script at least, and it's probably the best way to play this game now. Despite the issues it's still my 5th favorite visual novel of all time, and it definitely deserves every bit of that praise.

Soundtrack link:
Karma
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bygc1i5ayno

#19 - Valkyria Chronicles (PS3, 2008)

Back when I bought a PS3, trophies were already in full swing, but I had heard many good things about Valkyria Chronicles, especially after it won its round one match in the Game of the Decade contest over Disgaea. You'll be seeing Disgaea on this list later on, so it beating a game I already really liked gave me a reason to check it out, though I didn't have a PS3 at the time. Naturally when I did get a PS3, I remembered to purchase this game along with Atelier Rorona as well.

Valkyria Chronicles is a strategy RPG where you control a number of foot soldiers and a tank through various different battlefields. It's a slight mix between a turn-based and real-time strategy game, as soldiers on the opposite side can shoot enemies that come close (which applies to both your troops and enemy troops) while these same soldiers will pause when you go into a firing stance. It's a very unconventional way of fighting, but works well and becomes a very challenging game as a result. The game take place in the small nation of Gallia, a neutral area in between the Atlantic Federation and the Imperial Alliance. Due to tGallia's high amount of ore resources in its borders, the Imperial Alliance decides to invade and claim the ore for itself to aid in its war versus the Atlantic Federation. Your characters are all part of the Gallian militia trying to repel the invasion.

The characters are broken up into five different kinds of units: scouts, who excel at moving long distances; shocktroopers, who carry machine guns that are devastating to other infantry; lancers, who use special anti-tank weapons to destroy any armored foes; engineers, who can disarm enemy traps, refill ammo, and build up sandbag walls; and snipers, who can pick off enemy infantry from long distances. You also have multiple tanks at your disposal for other uses. In this game the scouts tend to be overpowered, as the ranking system depends on you clearing the mission as fast as possible, and stacking defensive orders on a scout and running them to an enemy base usually is the best solution to that. Regardless of this, the ever-changing battlefields and challenging missions were always a treat to find out how to approach the next mission coming up. With no trophies there was also no pressure in rushing to get a platinum trophy either. The game unfolds with a bit of fantasy by the end of it, but the story is solid despite the fact that there's an actual war going on and people are obviously dying throughout the nation, though this is glossed over mostly with the characters being followed.

I tried playing Valkyria Chronicles 4 on the PS4 years later but I haven't managed to make much of a dent into it, so it's possible that this is simply another series where only the first one I played will be the one I enjoy. However, it's on many more systems than just the PS3 now and is a must-play if you like strategy games at all. Definitely pick it up if you can.

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azuarc may not know the strength of songs in VGMC, but he conquered the guru in Game of the Decade 2! Congrats!