I finished Valkyria Chronicles 4 last week and decided to quickly write down some of my thoughts on the game in a hope to start a general discussion about what everyone’s opinions are now that they’ve completed it.

Throughout this year I've played a bit of each mainline entry in the Valkyria Chronicles series, finishing Valkyria Chronicles 3 in the beginning of the year, replaying two thirds of the first game and about 10 hours of Valkyria Chronicles 2. So, with the whole series fresh in my mind I think I can safely say that Valkyria Chronicles 4 is one of the strongest entries in the franchise. I don't know exactly where I would rank it yet, still have to let it sit with me, but it is pretty much everything I've wanted in a Valkyria sequel since finishing the first game several years ago.

The Gameplay

While some people may say the game is very similar to the first Valkyria Chronicles, I feel that the small changes 4 brings to the series drastically changed how I played the game. The Grenadier may be the only new class, but its presence made it much harder to just bum-rush the enemy's base camp like in past titles since Scouts could now be easily taken out by the Grenadiers. New anti-tank gun placements, and the fact that Grenadiers could knock out your tank's treads, also made it a lot harder for me to just muscle my tank through maps. Unit transportation is also a lot more important since the maps are so much larger than past games and there are a lot of interesting options to get large numbers of troops across the battlefield, such as using the APC or Command skills. Valkyria Chronicles 4 also returns to the mission structure of the first game where ever mission has a unique story-based objective instead of the dozens of generic missions seen in the PSP games. Sometimes missions could feel a little too much like a puzzle, where the only way to advance is to figure out exactly what order the designer wanted you to do everything in, but for the most part I really liked this return to a traditional mission structure. VC4 even managed to surprise me with some of its mission stipulations such as when you try to use your medic in Chapter 13 only to see her get snipped down, leading to you having to take out the sniper before you can use your medic again. Thoughtful stuff like that and the small additions to Valkyria’s gameplay formula made VC4 one of my favorite entries in the series in terms of pure gameplay.

The Journey

Story wise, one of biggest things I liked about the narrative is how it was structured. Past games were far more episodic, especially the PSP titles, with each chapter setting up a new conflict that is resolved by the end of it and the protagonist’s overall goal often being kind of vague like "end the war" or "prove my innocence". Valkyria Chronicles 4 is specific. The characters are trying to get to the Imperial Capital and every chapter shows a progression towards that goal. While there are still tangents in the story, the characters always feel like they are laser focused on that one goal of getting to the capital and it is always exciting to see what new obstacle the team needs to overcome on their journey to their objective.

I also like how Claude's relationship with his childhood friends is complicated. Raz is more of a childhood bully than an old friend and Riley initially hates Claude for being a coward in the past. It is also interesting that Claude is not like Welkin in the first game where being brave and kind just comes naturally to him. He has to work hard to overcome his past cowardice, he has to work to gain people's trust, and he is always struggling with making the right choice. Even when it looks like he is making a great decision the story will almost always punish him for being so sure of himself, such as when he delays meeting up with Squad F to attack an enemy supply line which directly leads to Squad F being annihilated. Even during the game's ending, when he hears the broadcast for the cease fire right before detonating the bomb in the capital, he doesn't breathe a sign of relief like maybe Welkin would but initially gets angry, questions what all of his friends’ sacrifices were for and almost detonates the bomb anyway. Having a lead that has high-minded ideals but is constantly struggling and having to make compromising decisions made the story that much more intense and even relatable.

The addition of Squad Stories is also very welcome. The PSP titles had similar features where if you used a unit often enough in battle it would unlock a side mission that focused on them. However instead of focusing on one character, Valkyria Chronicles 4's Squad Stories focus on a group of three squad members. I liked this since it shows the camaraderie between your soldiers better and gives further insight into why certain units are friends with each other. The Squad Stories also make the suicide mission near the end of the game, where you pick one other unit to go with Raz, that much more tragic. I picked Aulard Abington to go with Raz since I thought I had already seen his side-story and I never used him much anyway but my heart was still broken when I watched him bravely sacrifice himself.

The Bad

Not everything about Valkyria Chronicle 4's story is perfect. My biggest problem is that I felt that some characters’ development happens a little too quickly, like how Riley gets over her pyrophobia and hatred towards Claude very quickly, and certain characters like Angelica just don't get enough screen time considering how important they are to the narrative. Scenes like when Forseti revealed why he betrayed the Federation are also kind of offhandedly explained when it felt like you could have had a whole chapter about that event. Unlike some games where the story drags in the middle it almost feels like Valkyria Chronicles 4 moves too quickly through its story during the middle chapters but, overall, I think the narrative is very strong.

Valkyria Chronicles 4's presentation is also kind of weak. The game still has that cool watercolor style like the first game did, which still holds up nicely even 10 years later, but reuses a lot of assets from the first game as well. I wouldn't be surprised if Valkyria Chronicles 4 was simply running on a modified version of the engine created for the PS4 remaster since so much of the game feels exactly like the first title. While there are plenty of new graphical effects and assets not present in the first game, and maps are much larger among other things, almost all of the generic animations that play during story sequences and many battle animations are all directly reused from VC1. Most of the soundtrack is comprised of reused tracks from VC1 as well and while the main characters' models all look good many of the side characters are pretty rough looking. There are also far less fully animated story sequences than the first game with a majority of the 4th game being presented through simple scenes consisting of text boxes and the character's animated heads. The game tries to make up for this by having a few diorama style images to emphasize certain scenes, but it is evident that Valkyria Chronicles 4 didn't have the same amount of budget and/or time put into it that the first game did. However, Valkyria Chronicles 3 was a great entry in the series and it is mostly entirely made up of reused maps and assets from Valkyria Chronicles 2. And just like 3, I think Valkyria Chronicles 4 uses its limited resources wisely and has a presentation that is still strong enough to properly convey the story it is trying to tell.

Conclusion

Anyway, there are plenty of other points I'd like to make about Valkyria Chronicles 4 such as how the story portrays that both sides mistreat the Valkyria, how much I liked Klaus or how much I like the game's Giant Robo style ending but I will stop here. What did you guys think of Valkyria Chronicles 4? I think in terms of gameplay it is even better than the first game but I'm still not sure where to rank it in the overall series, even after writing all this.

Still chugging my way through this game, and I'm enjoying it a lot. It feels like a pretty incremental improvement from VC 1, but it's been a literal decade since that game and I'm just really glad this series didn't die with Valkyria Revolution. I miss some of the crazy extra classes from 2 (and I assume 3, but I've never played VC 3 for obvious reasons) like fencers and AT Snipers, but I'll take a back-to-basics approach over the PSP titles' grinding any day.

I'm not going to bother making any hot takes on the story until I'm done (nor do I really play these games for their sterling narratives,) but at least Claude and his band of anime dinguses are more likeable than the intolerably bland Welkin and Alicia, or... really anyone from 2. It's dumb and trope-y at times, but it at least manages a more consistent tone than some of the ridiculous whiplash I remember from VC 1.

@arbitrarywater: Yeah, I really appreciated VC4's back to basics approach after the series went off in such a different direction in terms of structure with 2 and genre with Revolution (which I have not played myself). I kind of feel like the franchise got back on track in terms of tone with VC3 (which I played using the incomplete fan translation patch that is out there) but 4 really feels like the first honest to God sequel the series has ever had. Also when I went back and replayed some of VC1 this year the tonal whiplash was nowhere near as bad as I remembered it and I still liked a lot of the characters. I even like Welkin but it is true that he is a by-the-numbers do-gooder character that doesn't really make mistakes, Claude is a lot more interesting in that respect even though he is still a do-gooder as well.

I just beat it last week and I agree with a lot of what you said. Nice write up. Oh man, when the medic got sniped, that was fucking amazing. Honestly, one of the highlights of the game. An amazing surprise.

I love the Command move but I also felt like it really undercut the APC, which is pretty interesting but more of a hassle comparatively. I used the shit out of Command but I really wished you could tell your teammates to take cover. Right now, the only thing you can do is move around by a cover in a way that makes them touch it, which makes them take cover.

While I think the grenadier is a great addition, I miss the different subclasses from VC2. It felt more fleshed out and stripping it down and adding one new class I'm not sure makes up for it.

The thing I disagree with you on is Claude. The game tells you his a coward and wants you to believe his a flawed character but does a poor job of convincing you. Everything comes to him super easy. His top of the class and leads a top secret mission without even trying. The whole "Squad F and everyone die because of you" moment was so hard to swallow. In that scenario, I just didn't understand how one squad could've made a difference other than the fact that Squad E is somehow special and Claude is apparently a superhero. It just felt like something they ginned up to try to create drama. After that happened, you take care of the tank squad by yourself except the story doesn't let you. Idk, it didn't make much sense to me and felt real sloppy.

The thing that really rubbed me the wrong way was Kai/Lenna. They want her to double as a guy but refused to cover up her ass. Even when everyone got winter gear, they made up some bullshit to make sure we could check out her ass. They butchered this spy angle. None of it worked because they developed so little of Forseti yet they want you to sympathize with him at the end with the reveal. Ah, fuck off.

I think what worked story wise was the atom bomb angle. They did a good job of not making either side look good or better. It's a pretty Japanese story, questioning the use of it. Definitely not original but they pulled it off.

Anyway, the game is still a ton of fun and I could not stop playing it.

@liquiddragon: I think a lot of your criticisms are valid and as I've let the game sit with me since posting this blog I think the story is far from prefect. However I still think the story gets it right where it counts. When the story builds up to big dramatic moments, especially near the end when Raz dies and Claude is right about to detonate the bomb, they work really well in my opinion.

But yeah Claude isn't exactly super deep or anything but I wouldn't say everything was handed to him on a silver platter either. He is already top of his class at the beginning of the game but he doesn't lead the secret mission until almost the end of the game when he has proven to be a capable commander and only after Captain Morgen is injured (very similar to Star Blazers if you've ever watched that anime). And his team is only able to be part of the secret mission in the first place because Claude and his team worked hard to get into the Ranger Corp in the flashback missions. Also I think Squad F being destroyed was dramatic and I don't think the game was trying to say that Claude could have saved everyone if he had been there. I think the point was that maybe if Claude had been there like he was suppose to, both squads could have lasted a little longer till they were rescued by the Centurion (like they had already done previously when fighting Klaus).

I don't actually miss the new classes/subclasses from VC2 or VC3. In VC2 I felt the subclasses were mainly there to add meaning to all the extra grinding you do in the handheld games while the new classes, like the Fencer, were mostly designed for close quarters combat on smaller maps. Since VC4 has a more streamlined progression like VC1 and much larger maps, I think keeping it simple was a better idea.

Also I think the whole Kai pretending to be a guy thing was pretty dumb (and the game even plays it up as a joke most of the time) but it was only really part of the story when they were trying to get into the Ranger Corp and when they were with the main military. Once they were on their own and later on the Centurion it was not a thing anymore in the story because no one cared at that point. I thought the spy angle was fine but yeah, Forseti needed some more development. I kind of wish they had had a flashback mission were you play as Forseti when he went on that secret mission so that part of the story could have been fleshed out more. And I'm not quite sure if you were suppose to sympathize with Forseti or just feel sad about the whole situation in a general sense.

Anyway, glad you liked my write up and the game. Really feel like most people just passed this game by since it came out around the same time as Spider-Man but it was honestly my favorite game I played this year.

I just beat it a few days ago and didn't want to dive deep into this post until I had done so.

Overall I had a great time with this game, and found it one of the my most enjoyable gaming experience in recent memory. Playing it is challenging and rewarding and there is honestly few games out there like it, other than the other entries in the series.

-Pros

Command mode I felt was great as there were maps where you needed to use it to get around some points of the maps. Despite really liking the APC, I feel like command mode allowed for a more infantry focused strategy, or at least allowing for me doing a 2 front assault while making good pace.

I do like how in chapter 16 they make you have to Sacrifice a squad mate with Raz. Not only was it unexpected (as the cut scene from earlier from the intro has you believe all the MCs survive) but also the squad mate has a lot of unique interactions.

-Cons

I do agree that presentation needed a bit of work as a lot of assets felt like they were reused, or at least could have been improved for today's standards. As someone who likes listening to the game's soundtrack, I noticed how many tracks were reused from the first game. I would like to see unique animations per character, but I guess the team had a limited budget.

Another thing I really wished for was that they could fix up the AI so that they could stop running into my troops blindly. The first time I encounter Nikola, and Chiara, one of them literally died from running into the Hafen!

Great post, looking forward to playing all the dlc now.

@pewpewphil: Thank you, I'm glad you liked my post. I've been thinking about purchasing some of the DLC as well. I was kind of excited about the DLC mission where where Squad E teams up with Squad 7 from VC1 but I was pretty bummed to hear that everyone besides Alicia was recasted with a different English actor/actress. Welkin just doesn't feel like Welkin if he isn't voiced by Dave Wittenberg.

@lentfilms:

Huh that is disappointing, though whats more disappointing is the fact PC users (such as myself) cannot purchase that DLC yet. Dunno why Steam has been slacking but I'll have to wait till they release it.

DLC wise I have Captianless squad and just got the two Valkyria. Now I just need to wait for the squad 7 dlc ( and maybe Eddy's DLC). I feel like I can skip on the other 2 since I still have to beat the hard skirmishes.