Front Mission Evolved:
This game exceeded my negative expectations, meaning that it was worse than I was predicting. Who is this game for? It fails from a fan service standpoint. It fails from a shooter standpoint. It fails from a customization standpoint. The game does nothing for either shooter fans or RPG fans. The story is terrible, the gameplay is terrible. With Final Fantasy XIII, Heavy Rain, and Front Mission Evolved, 2010 has to be my worst year as a gamer.
I threw my money at this game with the hopes that Square Enix would do something with the franchise. At the very least, I'm hoping they bring Border Madness for the DS to North America (very misplaced hopes). But if Evolved is the crap Squeenix plans on continuing Front Mission with, then I hope this game sold bad enough for them to kill the franchise.
Valkyria Chronicles 2:
As bummed as I was for this game, I played the hell out of Valkyria Chronicles 2. Not counting Infinite Space, I spent more time with VC2 than any other game released in 2010.
The game met my expectations. The generic characters that populated VC2 are the very reason I stopped watching anime and the smaller battlefields with the portal bases weren't as satisfying as the first game's battles. Not only that, there's only 6 or so maps in the game and you just play different parts of those maps, which became very noticeable and quite annoying as the hours went on.The game was par for the course of what I was expecting, but something really annoying came out of left field: the Tech class. I loved the balance of the classes in the first game and VC2 messes that up for me. They removed some of the Engineers functionality, making the class practically useless, and gave it to the new class, the Armored Tech. Techs, when they become Fencer and it's upgraded classes, are also broken with their high attack and defense. Their low AP is completely negated with the game's addition of Armored Personel Carriers.
How mediocre the story and characters were didn't matter much because the gameplay kept sucking me in, even with the annoying changes. I am now hotly anticipating Valkyria Chronicles 3 with Sega's promise of making it feel more like the first game. My excitement for VC3 is follwing the opposite arc that I had with VC2. When VC2 was first announced I was excited, but that excitement dwindled as details about it came out. For VC3, I was ambivalent when it was first announced by my excitement increased as details came out.
Okamiden:I've come close to replaying Okami this winter, but I reminded my self that Okamiden would give me my Amaterasu fix in a couple months. Since it seems that the North American release of Okamiden isn't going to have the balls-out Special Edition Japan got, it seems that I will be pirating the hell out of it with the flash card my buddy got me for Christmas. My feelings about Okamiden haven't changed in the months since I drafted my Bitch List, but the lack of a sweet Special Edition and a free flash card have made my wallet happy and I am waiting for March. Until then, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 should satiate my Amaterasu fix.
