It's a tactics XCOM-esque war game with anime aesthetics that seems to be a reference to WW2. You as the protagonist, along with a few close friends, join the local militia to fight against the invading empire through near impossible odds as the enemy has superior numbers and firepower.
I honestly had a blast playing it aside from the whole anime tropes making up all the characters personalities (in both VC1 and 4); the gameplay is pretty good but the story is a little weird.
The empire itself seems to be an obvious reference to Nazi Germany, but also for whatever reason the USSR? At least the in game map makes it look like the USSR is a part of the Empire. The Empire has wunderwaffe weaponry (except that it actually works) so I'm more inclined to believe they were intending on making the Empire the Nazis. The game even features a whole fictional ethnic group that's discriminated against, and they're REALLY clear about that lol.
Just wondering if anyone else has played and I'm curious to hear your experiences!
I played and generally loved it. The art style, the magitek fantasy WWII vibe, and the Skies of Arcadia characters were all lovely.
What I didn't like was that the missions had messed up scoring priorities: accomplish all goals with barely any health lost but took some time to do it? C or D. Bulldoze your way through? B or A. Then I looked up the tutorials for S Rank and that was behind ridiculous.
Doesn't stop it from having a good spot in my gaming memories.