Valkyria Chronicles 4 (PS4/XB1/NSW) - 2018

[Krazy]

My lancer has been on point so far. Dropped two tanks in a mission early on no problem. Don't remember her name, the black chick.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[Kirin]

Don't know how far people are, but im wagering im pretty slow here so I won't bother spoiling much.

Up to Chapter 7. There are some things better than VC1 honestly, and some that are the same.

The mystique of the original title is gone, for better or worse. I can A rank most maps without a guide just through understanding of what the game is throwing at you and knowing each classes strengths. Sadly a lot of it can still be cheesed with super scout, but there are a few missions that challenge your thinking and approach a lot.

I love the Squad Story missions, especially ones like "All the single ladies" that give you some unusual setups (lancer, engineer, scout) and toss you in the middle of a map with turrets and tanks that requires smart turn order and cover application.

Also, the story missions like Chapter 6 that change victory and mastery conditions midway but without punishing you for solving the first half of the map incorrectly. In fact, as I progress through the story there seems to be more and more potential solutions that I wish the unit placement screen would hint at.

For example in Ch. 6:

Spoiler: show

Your previous encounter with the Vulcan tank in Ch.4 had you using Riley and mortars to deal damage to the tank. But in Ch. 6 when it returns mid battle for another fight, there is a chance you had Riley guarding the middle camp and the Cactus was behind flames in the far north of the map to transport people through flames. Because mortar support is used to target your held camps, you have a tough time being able to afford the CP to send the Cactus back to pick up Riley and transport her to the north camp because of reinforcements taking any held camp being an auto-loss.

If you had the Hafen up there, the fight then becomes a brute force match between tanks. If not, you can just as easily call for a lancer + engineer up north to deal with the tank.

Where as VC1 generally had one solution for big boss fights like this that were strict on CP use or who you had deployed - i.e. Largo HAD to reach a certain point moving perfectly in 2 CP turns to have a shot at a target or you were always going to be 1 turn short of an A clear, this gives you a little CP leeway without giving you a too easy or too difficult turn limit. You're still punished for your mistakes, but the game allows you to correct them without resetting the save.

On top of that, while the gameplay is what you would expect I am getting a big 08th MS Team vibe from the soldiers this time and love it. The Squad Stories add a big personal touch more than the individual missions of VC1, and allow you to see a little bit more believable level of soldier interaction during wartime.

My complaints thus far are a missing Ace kill list and the addition of the Grenadier. Don't misunderstand, I love the addition of the Grenadier class itself. It was much needed. But it takes so much away from the Lancer's promotion and the three branches of Grenadier weapons are a little confusing. They could have done better to make Grenadier into a layer of mines or something instead of their anti armor vs anti personnel options.

Overall, VC4 keeps what it needed to from VC1 - even if it is a little repetitive - and made unit interaction much more enjoyable while mixing up some strategy options just enough to want to play through missions a few different times. I really hope we see a 5 before too long because this series is on the cusp of becoming a AAA franchise.

[Tyrath]

I haven't been giving this game the love it deserves because of DQ11. I need to put more time into it soon >_<

[Krazy]

I'm on chapter 15 with a very annoying fight to do, so I took a break.

[Tyrath]

Can spoiler the answer if need be. One of my favorite fights in VC1 was the map with the giant tank. Do I have anything of that scale to look forward to in this game?

[Krazy]

Can spoiler the answer if need be. One of my favorite fights in VC1 was the map with the giant tank. Do I have anything of that scale to look forward to in this game?

Spoiler: show

Not that I've seen yet. I guess there's only 18 chapters though, so if it's gonna happen it'll have to be soon for me.

[AoE]

Can spoiler the answer if need be. One of my favorite fights in VC1 was the map with the giant tank. Do I have anything of that scale to look forward to in this game?

Without spoiling anything, I'll answer yes but it won't be what you're probably expecting.

[Kirin]

Haha, has anyone caught other game/anime references in the dialogue?

I've caught "I took an arrow to the knee" over the com lines mid battle, and now Raz saying "believe in me that believes in you" during a mess hall dialogue.

[Kirin]

Finished the main game, and going through the hard mode skirmish fights.

Pretty much an improvement over VC1 in every way when its all said and done. The A ranks could be made a little more difficult, as they were pretty lax overall. I royally messed up almost 2 whole turns including a hurried correct in Chapter 16 and 17 fights but still A ranked.

The "Renown" system is similar to Tales of grade in that you can purchase boosts for endgame content. I also liked the addition of a certain feature that allows you to revisit mistakes.

A VC5 should update the game engine wholesale though. The ragdoll physics can be greatly improved for modern gen and some of the mechanics can be more finely honed between classes - like there being no real reason to use mortar lances on Lancers because of Grenadiers, and I think tank use needs to go back up to 2 CP because some maps are just made beyond easy with tank spam. Or at least introduce more fights where your commander is without their tank.

As for an eventual VC5 story:

Spoiler: show

I would really like to see a covert ops mission from the United States of Vinland hunting around Federation or Empire territory during the war. It being a focus of Kai/Forseti's storyline turn here, as well as Riley's involvement in finishing the nuke work her father started opened up a lot of story potential there with Valkyria hunts and all 3 factions going after them for different reasons.

[Ayn]

So the verdict on this is a buy, then?

What have people been playing on ? Switch or PS4?

[AoE]

I got it on PS4. I enjoyed the hell out of the game. There's too many cutscenes imo though.

[Kirin]

If you liked 1, VC4 is a buy imho.

As to the cutscenes like AoE mentioned, it does feel like there is a lot but I think that has some to do with each one being separate. If they strung 2 or 3 together more often it wouldn't feel as bad.

[Ayn]

Well, I survived Valkyria: Azure Revolution so the cutscenes won't be that bad for me. Thanks for the heads up.

[Anoat]

During the pandemic and work from home times of 2020 I picked up the VC1 Remastered/VC4 bundle and played VC1 up to like chapter 15 and then quit for some reason. Well in the last week I decided to go back and finished off VC1 and started VC4. I am early, but maaaaaaan VC4 seems to be an improvement in almost every way, though I do have a couple negatives to point out.

Cutscenes. Holy fuck are there a lot of cutscenes compared to VC1. The first interlude/flashback chapter had me rolling my eyes and saying COME THE FUCK ON DUDE with every click. Just let me get to the fight already!

They’ve really amped up the “anime” style compared to VC1 for better or worse. I mean I think I was only in chapter 2 before we got the “n-n-no don’t look up my skirt uwu” shit. That might be your jam but I’m like bruh. Come on.

Coming fresh off the endgame of VC1 into the intro missions of VC4 has pretty much eliminated any sense of challenge since my brain is still in full on master strategist mode. And tanks only using 1 turn now instead of 2? I’ve gotten A rank on every fight so far without really trying that much. But again I’m only in chapter 4 now so I’m sure that will change soon.

The tutorials. Hoo boy feels like there is a new tutorial popping up every turn or action. Again, if I was a totally new player this would help a lot but coming fresh off VC1 it felt like overkill. I got a big laugh when I actually got a tutorial entry on tutorials. It pops up like “Tutorial: Tutorials”, insert Xzhibit meme here.

Anyways I do like it for the most part though, just a little annoying in some places.

[Ayn]

Ha ha, I hear you.

It's been a while since I played VC1, but I was approaching VC4 like I was playing that.

I mean I don't know if I was master strategist so much in that game as I was "Oh, I can abuse scouts", but I think there was maybe one Mission in VC4 I failed? And that might've been a side mission.

Fun game though, which reminds me that I need to wrap it up.

[Petitssk]

Oh, VC4 has been sitting in my library for ages. Got both 1 and 4 around the same time last year, having only played 1 more than ten years ago. Difficulty in 1 was fine, so I'd like to see how 4 is, but how are the ranks calculated in that game? The system in 1 was complete bogus from what I recall since the only thing that mattered was how many turns it took you to finish the mission.