Seeing that the chat was starting to get noisy, she quickly changed the subject: "We'll see what the game's like once we play it, right?"
The game wasn't big, so after buying it, it was quickly downloaded and installed.
With some curiosity and excitement, Luke adjusted her stream settings and started the game.
Seeing the Nebula Games logo at the beginning, Luke was full of curiosity.
This was a small 2D indie game that didn't look very large—so how was it going to show the horrors of war and deliver an anti-war message?
But because of past great indie games like Undertale and To the Moon, she had some faith in Nebula Games.
"This background music sounds so good! So the main character is a soldier with a search and rescue dog?"
With a mix of sad strings and piano playing in the background, the game's UI appeared.
An old soldier in uniform was holding a leash attached to a black search dog, standing among broken ruins.
After staying on the screen for a few seconds and listening to the music, Luke clicked to start the game as instructed.
After confirming, the screen went black for a moment, and then a map of Europe appeared, showing the borders and flags of different countries.
[August 1st, 1914 — After the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary, the German Empire declared war on the Russian Empire.]
[Because of their alliance, France also began to prepare for war.]
[A few hours after the general mobilization began, Germans living in France were told to leave.]
[Karl was one of them.]
A series of comic-style cutscenes followed, giving a simple overview of the time period.
He wasn't very familiar with World War I, but it wasn't completely new to her either.
What caught his attention was the game's way of presenting the story.
So far, the intro felt a bit like Undertale, with the story told in comic form.
As Luke was thinking about this, the screen switched to a farm, and a time and place appeared in the top right corner—August 1st, 1914, Saint-Mihiel, France.
A young blond man was using a pitchfork to move hay, while his wife sat on a hay cart behind him, holding their baby.
The sky was blue, the sun was shining—it all looked peaceful and perfect.
But suddenly, two soldiers on bicycles showed up at the farm and grabbed Karl by the arm.
Right away, the sad background music started playing, and the bright sunny sky turned dark and gloomy.
As the sad music played, a woman's heart-wrenching voice rang out.
Karl's wife, holding their baby, reached out her right hand, trying to keep him from being taken away.
But in the end, Karl was still taken by the soldiers and led out of France.
Behind him, Karl's father-in-law and wife slowly lowered their heads as they watched him leave, and tears fell from his wife's eyes.
There were no spoken lines, but with the sound effects, the colors, and the music, Luke could feel the heavy, sorrowful mood.
The screen briefly went black, and a line of white text appeared in the center—A few days later.
A few days after Karl's departure, the quiet farm was disturbed by the arrival of a letter.
At the top of the letter it read: Armée de terre et armée de mer (Army and Navy).
It was a draft letter from the French government.
The sad background music now mixed with the sounds of battle and soldiers shouting, adding weight to the game's atmosphere.
[A few days after Karl left, the war got worse, and even Emile was taken away.]
[Summoned to fight, Emile left the farm with a heavy heart and went to Saint-Mihiel. Like many others, he had no idea what was waiting for him.]
When Emile arrived in Saint-Mihiel, he joined the new soldier training camp.
In gameplay terms, this was just the basic tutorial.
The game used a 2D side-scrolling style, and the controls were simple—move left and right, attack, and throw.
That was pretty much it.
Following the instructions, Luke picked up a grenade from a nearby box and threw it at the straw dummy target ahead.
She threw a few in a row. After the first grenade destroyed the dummy, the instructor led Emile forward. While following the game's instructions and chatting with her viewers, Luke didn't pay attention to one of the grenades she had thrown earlier, which was still flashing red on the ground.
A loud boom pulled her attention back to the game.
The game screen went dark, then returned to the previous training level.
"Did I just blow myself up? Did I really die during military training? Sorry, I've truly embarrassed France!"
Thinking about what had just happened, Luke was left speechless.
Meanwhile, the livestream chat was flooded with messages.
I'm dying of laughter! That grenade throw from Luke was godlike!'
'I killed myself!'
'So this is what a French soldier is like?'
'Here we go again! The France memes are starting up again!'
Looking at the nonstop comments, Luke could only smile helplessly. This really wasn't something she did for laughs—it happened because she was reading the chat while playing and wasn't focused. But seeing the comments, she still decided to explain.
"Ahem... Let's not go too far, guys. World War I France and World War II France are totally different. This game is set in WWI, and back then, French soldiers were beyond brave—they were basically the backbone of the Allies. As for WWII... yeah, let's not go there."
After finishing the training tutorial, Emil raised the army flag as the flag bearer while the La Marseillaise played in the background.
The whole moment had a strangely humorous vibe.
Next, Emil had to go to the train station to find his unit. He had now officially left home behind.
[Paris Station – Emile is at Platform 21, looking for the unit he belongs to. He's about to meet the comrade who will fight alongside him for the rest of his life.]
At the platform, a group of French soldiers surrounded and picked on a Black soldier.
Emile's job here was to help the man out.
This part was still part of the tutorial, mainly teaching players how the game's puzzle-solving worked.
"Hey, this is kinda interesting. Undertale was all about bullet-dodging, To the Moon was just story-based. This game, Valiant Hearts, seems to be packed with puzzle mechanics in the later levels."
First, use the lever on the right to smoke out the soldier standing there.
Then, after talking to the officer, you learn he doesn't want red wine. Find a bottle of beer to bribe him, use the band to draw away the soldiers guarding the train, and finally pull the left lever to smoke out the soldier on the left, successfully helping the Black soldier get out of trouble.
This section wasn't hard. The hints were obvious, but the design still felt detailed and polished to Luke.
It was clear that Valiant Hearts: The Great War was also a story-driven game.
Last year's To the Moon was fantastic, but in terms of gameplay, there really wasn't much to it. The puzzle segments felt like an afterthought.
But now, with Valiant Hearts combining puzzle mechanics, combat skills like throwing from the training, and directional movement in the train station scene…
Even though the game is a 2D sidescroller, Luke was already looking forward to what came next.
In terms of gameplay variety, this one clearly had a lot more to offer.
(Just casually begging—please let this poor, clueless author see what recommendation votes and monthly votes actually look like! By the way, this is my first time playing, and I didn't even die from enemy shells—I blew myself up during training…)
(End of Chapter)
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