While I am waiting for my drive to arrive, I picked up an interesting game in the meantime: Operation Darkness. It's a WW2 tactical strategy/rpg thing exclusive to the Xbox 360 and features supernatural elements and anime. I'm surprised something like this ended up on the Xbox and not PS3, honestly. Despite being a 7th gen game, it does feel more like a 6th gen game spiritually(and graphically), so if you liked PS2 era tactics titles, it's kind of like that.
So, I got this game around when it launched, in 2009, and I got filtered around mission 7. Turns out this is one of those games that will absolutely fuck you over if you aren't playing it like you're supposed to, but I will get to that later. Anyways, I went back to it a few years later, around 2011 or so, and I got a bit further than that, but not much before I stopped playing again. My most recent playthru happened around a decade ago, in 2017, and I finally figured out how to get gud. This time, I made it around halfway thru the game, 17 hours in, before I gave up due to a very specific reason. Now, I am finally vowing to finish this game once and for all because if I won't do so now, I doubt I will get around to doing so again, or my Xbox will just straight up die and I won't be able to.
Now, the game is set up like a very standard WW2 tactics fare: you got your infantrymen, your heavy gunners, your snipers, anti-tank units ect. and you would think that the game wants you to make the most balanced squad possible for every situation. WRONG, this game wants you to metagame the hell out of it from the very first level and if you play the game like this, you will get fucked fairly quickly, this is what led to me putting the game down in the past. Simply put, the most important stat in the game is speed, and the less equipment you have the higher it is. You might ask how going into the battlefield with barely anything but your knife and a pistol is going to help, especially since almost every missions has armored vehicles/a boss(usually a combination of both). The answer is simple: since this is a paranormal setting many characters get magic spells and abilities, this game is meant to be played like a more typical tactics rpg and the WW2 paintjob is just for show. The reason I stopped playing last time around, a decade ago, was because I got to a certain mission which was timed, and the enemies had such high sequence that even with my relatively lightly equipped squad the enemies went 2-3 turns before each one my men had, easily(if not more) and the mission was borderline impossible. That is when I realized just how optimized I had to be to stand a chance and decided I would just play the game over properly this time around, that time is now.
From my limited playtime recently, I found that running around with a knife/pistol is indeed the meta, even in the early missions with no magic, and if you need heavy firepower, machine guns and anti-tank weapons are all you need. Shotguns, SMGs, carabines and even sniper rifles are fucking useless and should be avoided at all costs, every pound of weight counts and you either want your units running circles around the enemy or at the very least make their turns count. Pistols, knives and grenades are so light that their weight is negligent, anything more like a sabre/sword or even a sawed off shotgun weights too much and you have to fully commit to that build, not to mention equipping any sort of long arm or heavy weapon. Most characters get special abilities and magic which they will use as much as possible(and refill their mana with items if needed), meaning that weapons just get in the way of that, meanwhile machine guns are good for suppressing infantry and pack almost as much range as sniper rifles, making that entire class redundant for just a little bit more weight while also making every single SMG/STG absolutely fucking useless. Lastly, there is always some armored unit or boss type encounter, so if you will want to weight down your characters with something, that would be anti-armor weapons like rocket launchers as they will never be a waste to bring along. Even generic side missions not relevant to the story usually have at least one vehicle ambush within them at some point, so having as much as half your squad being just bazooka carriers is not just metagaming, it is straight up recommended. Knives, pistols and grenades have barely any weight and are always recommended on any unit, however machinegunners make the former two redundant and might want to shave off even that little bit of weight, if possible. Your lightweight guys will already be moving 2-3 times before you do, this is a difference between adding an extra turn on top of that.
So, now that I got that out of the way, I do actually recommend the game. I am only around the 9th main mission in(out of 36 or so) and I am liking what I am seeing so far, I guess judging by my last savefile, the game is around 40 hours or so long. I do have a few gripes, firstly this is a fatlus game with very amateurish localization, get ready for some poor German and French accents and Americans pretending to be British(maybe Japanese dub is better?). Next, the game has some rather pathetic censorship, there is zero swastikas and various other symbols like Waffen SS totenkompf are nowhere to be seen. They even removed the medic's red cross on his armband because the devs got scared out of using it(lol), I haven't gotten to that part in the game yet but I know there is a holohoax shilling scene as well and I do remember an interview specifically stating that the devs put that in because the localizers cried that it should. Very weak-willed japs made this game and it shows, but if you're willing to get past that it does play around with some cool alt-history plot elements, albeit with a story and dialogue that feels straight out of an anime and less out of some WW2 nerd's fantasy. Oh, and the game's hints are straight up fucking useless, for example the first mission tells you that hiding behind rocks and trees is supposed to give you cover but nothing short of hiding behind walls or within sandbag nests will do diddle squat, you are just asking yourself to be shot by ending your turn standing behind a rock. Likewise, the game tells you to waste your grenades by throwing them on enemy tanks' sides, DO NOT EVER DO THAT and save those for infantry instead(bunched together, naturally, as throwing nades at just one target is a waste). Only rockets and spells do any sort of damage to enemy tanks and everything else is a waste of time, I am guessing the devs either never play tested some elements or something changed thru out development.
So, in total, this is a very niche game, and for a good reason. The only way to play it today is by finding a copy for the 360 or a rom for Xenia, neither of which is very optimal, and like I said, unless you're a veteran in this genre you will likely get washed out before you even get started. This is why I am sharing my build so far to get anons started if they don't want to overthink how they play the game, it is working out well for me so far but no promises it will hold that way. I remember the game gets brutally difficult the more you get into it, forcing you to further optimize your squad or even change how it works entirely depending on your playstyle. Mission 7, the mission that originally filtered me out, is when shit gets real, if you can get past that one then you should be good to go(at least for a little while), consider that your first real exam.
My current squad:
Main character-rusher, equip with gun/knife/grenades and force him into the frontline. Gets good spell to keep him on offensive. If you need a heavier weapon, pick one up during battle, don't bother actually equipping him with one at the start of the mission, this goes for any other lightweight units. This unit cannot die, so keep that mind and always have him supported by other rushers
Jude-Absolutely useless, only moves 2-3 times per battle max and gets no special abilities. I gave him a heavy machinegun(Bren or MG34/42), but you can experiment with him and it won't make much of a difference. If, for whatever reason, you want to make an infantry unit with weapons like an SMG/Rifles/Shotguns, give them to him and see if they are in any way viable, probably not. Cannot die, which makes him even more useless
Cordelia-same loadout as your MC, except that she is a heavy duty long range spellcaster with weak physical attributes. Typical mage, her attacks double as anti-tank rockets. Cannot die, make sure she always gets support
Gallant-Anti tank unit(Bazookas/Panzerfaust), make sure to give him launchers and rockets alongside knife/pistol/grenades. He has a transformation ability, use that when in a pinch, when you need him to move fast(as all AT and MG units will move slow as hell) or when you run out of rockets as his ability does as much damage to tanks as rockets do. Cannot die, but unlike the former three, he can actually handle himself, especially in his transformed state
Keith-Heavy gunner with a similar transformation ability as Gallant, but not as powerful. Don't bother giving him a knife or a pistol, double down on grenades and make the MG his main weapon, transform if you need an extra anti-tank unit on the field
Frank-Fastest unit I currently have, make him as light as possible and he can rush over to an enemy and grenade them along with your MC before the enemy usually even has time to move and spread out. Alternatively, you can use him as a support unit and have him stay with the other units at the start to buff them, either way he's a great frontliner and support unit all the same. Not sure why the game makes him out to be some sort of heavy gunner, weighting him down is a massive waste of potential
Cynthia-Supposed sniper, but I already said how useless I think they are. Give her a machine gun, if for whatever reason you want to run a marksman, let her keep her rifle since she has a special ability she can use with it
Herbert-Team medic, give him an MG and have him stay behind enemy lines. He is the only one who can revive allies, but nobody can revive him, that's why you should usually keep all expandable units doing the dangerous tasks while your MC and other characters that cannot die, alongside this guy, should be kept under heavier supervision. A bit on the frailer side, like Cordelia, but if he stays in the back and uses the MG, it shouldn't matter as he will be packing a punch from a distance anyways
Jack-Anti tank, he likes knives so make sure he always has one but don't give him a pistol since his special ability gives him access to powerful ranged attacks(leaps) with his blades
Three expandable generic soldiers-All loaded with as much rockets and grenades as possible, with the token knife and pistol for backup as well. None of them get special abilities or spells and they are fairly weak, but that doesn't matter when all they use are explosives and you would be surprised how much three of them can rape even the toughest boss/armored unit if all three focus their bazookas on a single target. Can always recruit more, so if anyone has to die, make sure it's them, of course that should never be the case since you have Herbert around to revive them
Skills don't matter, choose what you want, altho be advised that you cannot get critical hits unless you specifically choose the skill that lets you do so. Every unit should have auto-restoration no matter who they are, I have no clue why this isn't just a base game feature. Keep in mind that new recruits who join you during missions do NOT have this skill set, so even if they have a medkit they won't auto-restore if their health goes down to zero and will need to revived by Herbert
Oddball game, but I am getting back into it, hopefully I can finish it for good this time. Shame it never got off the ground, the devs wanted to do a Cold War and War on Terror(modern warfare) games in this setting and it would have been interesting. I think the choice to make it an Xbox exclusive doomed it, people were simply too interested in their Halo and Gears of war to give it a try, and nobody in Japan owned one of those things so it largely went unnoticed there as well. Still, I say it is an overlooked gem if anyone here is interested in this sort of thing.