#zeri's parents: our son is a total fruitcake lets send him to the military then he will become a real man

[someoneintheshadow456]

VC2 you clever bastard... you made levelling up and promotion CHARACTER wise and not class wise like the first game. This means I can’t just drag my 10 favourite guys into battle and leave everyone else on the bench. I actually have to... *gasp* CHANGE MY ROSTER PERIODICALLY TO HAVE A BALANCED SQUAD! Oh the humanity!

Also there is WAY too much branching now. Snipers have become an offshoot of Scouts, they split Shocktroopers and Engineers for no apparent reason, they made Mortarers a separate class and I have absolutely no clue what Armour Techs do and at this point I’m too afraid to ask. But they DID buff Lancers and Engineers so they’re no longer one-trick ponies, so there’s that. 

You apparently have to also actually USE the characters to get their story events. Wow they REALLY want you to use every character and are pulling out all the stops to make you do so. 

Asshole Federation Ambassador from VC1 is back, and this time he’s pally-pally with the revolutionaries. And the revolutionary leaders - who are all father, son, and daughter, have varying opinions on how to deal with him. They all agree he’s a POS but can’t decide whether to out-gambit him or just shoot him. But wait... where’s their mother? Maybe the leader’s wife was killed by a Darcsen... and THAT’S why he made Fantasy Nazis? It’s a piss-poor excuse but it would still explain some things. AND it looks like Maxie’s Cheap Imitation Valkyria Tech has gone out to the public, because the revolutionaries are using that as their weapon of choice. 

And OF COURSE, the resident Mean Girl Julianna is racist. Zeri is such a major tsundere that he even tried to make standing up for Avan against this prejudiced bitch look like an insult. She’s not even the good kind of hatable that you feel motivated to win and wipe the smirk off her face. She’s just... uncomfortable to watch because no mean girls act THIS bad in real life.  She’s more like a Disney Channel bully than a realistic one. Which means she’s going to turn good eventually. 

Speaking of Zeri I developed a HC for him. It’s such a relief that there’s no love triangle in this game, but I can’t help but wonder about Zeri sometimes. I know this game was made in 2011, and there’s no way this would be the case. But I have a very strong suspicion that Zeri is gay. His whole deal with Avan seems to give off a VERY telling amount of rainbow flags. 

Him being too loud during a test is a really flimsy reason to continuously be antagonistic to him. And his insults are oddly defensive and forced, almost like he’s TRYING to hate him. 

In the same scene he accidentally let slip he has a choking kink (his comment about “asphyxiation sounding somewhat appealing” in context to Cosette holding her breath. IS2G I did a double take when I heard it). 

He CLAIMS to hate Avan and see him as a joke but still hangs around him. He constantly insults everything he does, but in the end still believes in him. Even the way he insults Avan seems to be to motivate him rather than in actual malice. AND, to top it off, he doesn’t act this way with ANYONE ELSE. He seems to treat everyone else, especially girls, like they don’t exist but constantly bites back at Avan. 

When Avan asks his motives, he says “it’s none of your business”, but there’s a subtext of “I want you to break my shell so I will tell you” and it’s evident from his again, defensiveness and tone. 

He’s very possessive of him. When Avan gets friendly with girls, Zeri doesn’t so much as bat an eye. But when Avan talks to other boys... his behaviour can only be described as that of the dog in the manger. 

What if Darcsen culture is violently homophobic, as opposed to slightly more accepting Gallian culture? This would give the Darcsens some depth, as real-life cultures are never perfect, all of them have some toxic elements. And in real life, some cultures are more tolerant of LGBT than others. Zeri is also 17, the age when most young people begin questioning their sexual orientation.

Perhaps... even though he came on recommendation... he wasn’t at Lanseal by choice. Maybe his parents forced him to go to there to “make him a real man.” Or worse... he DID choose to go to Lanseal because the alternative was conversion therapy. Or perhaps his parents didn’t figure out he was gay yet, but he did, and thought himself that military training would turn him straight. 

This would make his situation worse. Gallians hate him for being a Darcsen, and Darcsens hate him for being gay. The only people who accepted him are Avan and Cosette. But in Zeri’s mind, if Avan ever found out about such “inappropriate feelings”... he would surely abandon him too. So Avan could never know... and the only way he could never know... was if Zeri pretended to hate him. 

AGAIN, the game would never do this. But I will die on this hill as it shakes things up and gives Zeri and the Darcsens some nuance. Knowing the game however, they will pair up Zeri with some random girl he has no chemistry with. Or perhaps not pair him at all. Who knows. 

VC 2 Log 1:

VC1 was such an emotional journey for me to play that I just had to play VC2 and make a log for it like I did with VC1.

I got PPSPP to work on my computer and now VC2 is ready to go and...

It’s a MASSIVE downgrade compared to VC1. I mean in technical terms I expected that. I mean what is the capacity of the PSP compared to the capacity of the Switch/PS4/PC? Not much. It’s not the graphics and specs that are the issue.

It’s the story and difficulty. I mean, remember how relieved I was that VC1’s protagonists, save Isara were in their 20s and 30s instead of dumbass teenagers? Which meant I could relate to them a lot more and they (mostly) didn’t behave like a bunch of idiots? And if they DID act like idiots they got over it pretty quickly?

Well now, VC2’s protagonists ARE dumbass teenagers, specifically dumbass high schoolers. So now we have ALL the high school cliches. The determined hero guy, the cute girl best friend, the cold and cocky male friend who has a love triangle with the hero and the cute girl, the mean girl who thinks she’s better than everyone, the school newspaper hound, the quiet book smart girl, the jock, etc, etc. I noticed one of the characters was Edy’s sister, but other than that my squad is nothing special. We even had Avan pull the “oh no I’m late for school!” Cliche that should have died in the 2000s but this game was made in 2011!!

We basically went from Fantasy WW2, to bootleg Fire Emblem Three Houses pre-Timeskip. Except without ANY of the uniqueness that FE3H had.

And also they changed things up in gameplay? They made it so only engineers can use Ragnaid and that only Scouts can use grenades? And they removed Snipers and replaced them with Armour Tech? Like why? What was wrong with Snipers? And why nerf engineers while simultaneously buffing them? Engineers were already kind of sucky in VC1. And they made it so once a soldier goes down they’re down for THREE missions?! Not just the next turn?! Seriously?! Also apparently you’re allowed to change your Squad’s classes just like FE3H?! I have a very strong suspicion FE3H copied this game at this point...

The only good thing about this so far is the tutorials are MUCH more dumbed down and simplified compared to VC1... which would have been useful in VC1 when I was a total newbie running through Mill Plaza screaming as I tried to avoid getting mowed down by tanks. Now however they’re just a nuisance.

I really hope things pick up with the story and we get out of Kawaii Animu Saved by the Bell to the REAL war. Like there’s a whole mystery about how Avan’s brother died and the school won’t tell him and Fantasy Nazis are now coming to wreak havoc because Cordelia confessed to her lineage. Like that’s all cool stuff and I wished we focused on THAT. I don’t give a shit about Avan and his friends getting bullied by the mean girls and pissing off his teachers.

As for characters I like? These are all kids... so it’s hard to get that invested in them. Zari (I think that’s his name but I just call him glasses boy) I like the most and I probably would have crushed on him when I was in high school. And I do like the teacher character, he’s kind of handsome and even calls the kids slackers to their face(?!), but... that’s it really. Also the teacher was a sniper in EW2?! Bitch where?? He wasn’t in my- maybe he was in Faldio’s division, which is why I never saw him... And the drill instructor is back but he’s nicer?

I even saw Welkin and Alicia in the opening, maybe they’ll come back for a bonus mission to show these kids what’s up. Hopefully they do...