Valkyria Chronicles 4 is a Tactical RPGs released in 2018 for PS4, XBONE, Switch, and PC. It was both developed and published by SEGA, and it is the fourth main game in the series.
In 6 years ago, I already covered my review of the first original game for PS3 which I described it as one of the best and also most surprising Tactical RPG games for PS3 libraries, while PC and PS4 remastered releases are also welcoming addition that is definite must play for the fans of the genres.
I was hoping to look forward with the games like Valkyria Chronicles 2 which is a PSP game that I also had it on my PS Vita as digital copy (via PS Store), but sadly I never had a chance to finished it for unknown reason but don't get me wrong the game is still decent which is quite shame that it never got made for the home console platform, as opposed to first installiment of the series, resulting a poor sales units which is why the third installiment such as Valkyria Chronicles 3 for PSP was never got released outside of the japan which leaves the fanbases from the western territory feel disappointed that never had a chance to see the next installiment in light of day.
SEGA had fully regretted for not delivering the previous two titles for the home console platform like the first game had rather than the handheld releases that no one had asked for, so they took their lesson with the forth installiment such as this game are finally getting a proper home console release since the previous two installiment being on handheld platform which led a better overall sales sold over a million copies and building up more audience for the main series that the team had delivered a promise to their worldwide fanbase finally had a chance to play it on their home console platform.
As I enjoyed the first game for the PS3 in 6 years ago, I had another go with the Valkyria Chronicles 4 for the PS4 which is likely a follow-up title I am looking forward with the new set of stories and characters as well as the whole single-player campaign to see how the game does holds up well as the first original title has to offer.
The answer is I did manage to enjoy this game quite much as I loved the first ones which I am going further into details on this review such as strategy battle system, art-style presentation, storylines and characters perspective, and the whole campaign mission.
So without go further do, let's start the review.
Presentation
The game takes place in same timeline as the VC1 and VC3, and sets in Europa, which is fictional region based on Europe during the early World War 2.
The story focuses on Claude Wallace and his friends join the Atlantic Federation Army as the members of Squad E in order to fight the Empire in the Second Europan War as they swore to protect their home country of Gallia and taking revenge on Imperial army are responsible for invading the hometown of Hafen.
You have main protagonist named Claude Wallace is a commander and tanker of Squad E becoming a first lieutenant who being passionate and caring commander officer has a strong determination to accomplish his objective. He's kinda okay but not quite the best in my opinion because I don't think he had a same experience as the others from the first original game, so he's likely to improve himself in the later chapter which is fine.
Then he has a friends to join forces as Squad E members such as Raz who is immortal and aggressive soldier loves getting into fights, has clumsy sense of humour, and talks with a rough tone, but he is extremely caring of his friends is what I liked about him because it's one of the strongest role in entire game, so you can't go wrong with the cool guys like him.
Riley Miller is one of Claude's childhood friend acts as a second lieutenant as Squad E grenadier who is prideful and has great confidence in herself that she pushes forward without fear of failure, so that is good to have someone like her who seeks for the success which is great to hear all her motivation, but I might want to go for Kai Leena Schulen acts as Sniper and Sergeant Major of Squad E who is usually quiet and blunt, but acts very mature and kind to her friends which I kinda much preferred her mostly over the Riley in my opinion because I find Leena's backstory delivers her interesting backgrounds which makes the character's development quite amazing.
There are some decent numbers of supportive characters such as red-haired lady named Minerva Victor who is wise commanding officer and has taken very seriously in the battle, Miles Arbeck works as tank operator in Squad E, Karen Stuart is a skilled medic that provide the treatment of soldiers, and that mysterious little girl named Angie who had suffered with amnesia, but as cute and cheerful who is purposes to help by taking care of meals, laundry, cleaning, and so on.
Then lastly there are villains in the game such as Heinrich Belgar acts as a main antagonist who is a chief scientist and executive of imperial alliance which I described him as a sick-minded warlords who are attempting to conquer the federation's home country.
Then you have two bratty sisters-like such as Nikola Graf and Chiara Rocino works as an imperial army's special operations are both sadistically insane, and the insane asshole like Forseti works as an imperial's special agent had a twisted sense of justice makes him a deadly foe.
Lastly with other twos like Klaus Walz who is a imperial's tank commander which I don't describe him as a bad person thanks to his bold and charming personality, and I also like the way his haircut and long sideburns looks in the game, and I gotta admit the winter witch like Crymaria Levin is kinda hot with her purple outfit, long black coat, black papakha hat, and long purple-hair which I find her overall design quite appealing.
The story in the game is genuinely solid overall which explains the fallout between good federation forces and evil imperial empires are fighting their lives, defending their land, and protecting their people begging for help that causes the war conflict in the Second Europan War is pretty much how similar to the real-life events of WW2 had started the invasion back in late 30s are pretty accurate to the game's settings shows the tragic events of ongoing horrific war had impacted the world. It does have moments throughout the game such as the friendship between the characters talks about their old times at military school, there are some of funny parts in some chapters that makes you laugh, and there are a tearjerker sequences that makes you want to grab a tissue is somewhat makes the game quite special.
It also had a sub-storyline chapters called squad story that had nothing to do with the main story, but adds the interesting backstory about a specific group of closely-related soldiers which is nice to know who these guys are.
I got to say I still really liked the overall presentation combining with fantasy elements of anime cel-shaded animation and fictional WW2 influence thrown together works really perfectly on several aspects such as cinematic design, sceneries, character's animation, and atmospherics are just as good as you've seen from the first original game has to offer.
I also liked the settings of the locations starting from calm spring fields with dry looking weather to blizzardy ice cold mountains piled up with bunch of snows is very well done that really adds to game's appeal.
Overall, it has decent cast of characters, excellent storylines, and superb presentation design.
Gameplay
You will have the list of story missions, skirmish, and squad story to select any of mission you want to begin, and you will have the mission objectives on the briefing menu which has a list of goals to beat a level and what to prevent from failing missions, so your each mission is depending on which ones has different goals system such as capturing the bases, defeat all enemy units, and defend your bases till the turns runs out, so be sure to have all your units deployed before beginning the next mission.
It played on the third-person perspective with tactical RPG elements which uses the turn-based battle system, so you will have a overhead map view in command mode where you can select any of the units with limited command points shown on the top of the screen indicating gold badges. Once you've selected one of the unit this will take you straight to action mode where your character has limited action point which has gauge bar on bottom of the screen that tells your character's movement that can only move around the field till it ran out the gauge bar meaning your character won't able to move around during the in-game. You can also take cover on the objects such as grass are used for stealth combat which prevents enemies from detecting you and hiding behind the objects are also useful to protect yourself from enemy's hit projectiles.
Once you've entered the targeting mode that allow you to aim freely, so you will have a top-screen indicating the damage hits and firing shots which tells you how many it takes to kill your enemy units.
The team has 7 class units such as the scout class unit has simple balanced rifle used for mild-range shot, the stocktroopers has machine guns deals with heavy rapid-fire damage, the lancers and tank commander are acts as an anti-tank weapon, the engineer uses the tool kit which allowing to recover your tank's health and giving the ammunition to different class units, the sniper uses the long-distance range shot, and it also introduced the new units called grenadier which launch bombs in high arc allowing to bypass most walls or terrain obstacles.
The A.I units on each team will react if someone are get too close to them which leads into counterattack, so try to be careful not to be reckless otherwise you could get slaughtered so quickly.
After one of your team unit is been shot down, you can able to save them by running into fallen unit which allow medic team to take them safely back to base, but if you don't save them in time then they likely to die after 2 turns.
In order to stay alive during the battle is not just hiding under the grass or behind the object as a cover, but you can also use the health item called reignite which replenishes your health points comes in useful whenever you need to use it.
The game does have two different bases in the whole battleground where you can capture these such as sub-bases which are mainly used for adding more reinforcements to join your forces during the battle. For example: if you capture one of these sub-bases which leads into cancellation of opponent's reinforcements so that you can able to add more of your units, and you will also have main bases where you need to protect and defend from the enemy's attempts to capture it, so for those who capture the main bases declares the winner.
After beating the mission will award you with several of EXP points and currencies which you can use these to improve your skill levels and upgrading the unit's and tank's equipment.
In training field option, you have the selection of 6 of these class units that you wanted to maximise, so having all the level skilled up which awards you with the new weapon, tools, orders, and battle potential that makes your class unit feel stronger and good enough to fight against highly skilled enemy's units.
In R&D facility option, you have the options to spend the currencies for upgrading your units and tanks equipment such as having better weapon accuracy, more ammunition, adding resistance, reducing hit damage, and etc.
What I liked about the game is that you can also give orders to your forces during the battle such as raise all allies evasion and attack power, make all of one ally's attack do critical damage, prevent one ally's attacks from being countered, fully restore one allied HP, restock all allies ammunition, and strengthen one allied tank's armor.
It also introduces an ship orders which allow the player to call for support from the cruiser such as radar that detects the enemy's whereabouts in long-distance, bombardment fires a volley of shots from the amp cannons, rescue squad will immediately save all units in critical condition, and emergency fix will immediately re-deploy any player-controlled tanks that have been forced to retreat.
So far, the battle system plays fantastic which is heavily focused on strategies where you need to make a perfect tactics in order to defeat your opponent, so having to take cover, pin-down enemy in right spot, knowing what are the enemy's weak patterns, give orders to your team squad, and being able to push forward without relying too much on retreat is what made me play further till I reached the victory goal, so this is what makes the game so strategic and fun to play.
I enjoyed every bit of missions that delivers many great segments such as completing mock battle, getting all refugees evacuated as possible, running into warehouse without getting caught, reaching to the goal while avoiding hazardous blizzard objects, walking into the fog as a cover that reduces the enemy's visibility while attempting to take down imperial's heavy cannons, and the showdown with winter witch.
While I've enjoyed these story missions, I also wanted to give credit to them for providing an extra mission including squad stories and skirmish modes which also benefit your player's skills and earning more currencies are very useful in single-player campaign because the more I play these the better my overall experience become that keeps me busy to play more.
In my regards of positive parts in the game, I also wanted to point out some negative things that I dislike is the two of the tank bosses which I consider it as the weakest part in the game because I never liked how Walz's tank are designed which covered up a tank generator on the front ones which was originally meant to be back of the tank, but instead it's on the front which takes forever to defeat the damn thing, and lastly I find the final boss Belgar's submarine tank are just as bad because you can't take down four of these generators in one go instead wait for the turns till the enemy had finished their phase will make the generators appear again, uhhh damn those stupid tanks.
Lastly I never liked the parachute segment where you had to take down all the parachutes filled with the bombs from the above, so when you're reached on top of the hill it's really difficult to aim things because everything on above is either too dark to see or you're standing on the wrong spot is the reason why you won't able to see what's above you gets really annoying sometimes.
After all, it's still a great single-player experience with no doubt whatsoever, so you may not feel disappointed with any missions and those skirmishes to keep you busy with the story sequences and battles throughout the game.
Overall, it has fantastic battle system, numerous of missions and skirmishes to play, and great segments.
Graphics
The graphics is looking spectacular just like you see from the previous titles. I loved the art direction of the anime-styled environments with colourful details and bold textures surfaces around it, and I also liked the use of the special effects in each locations starting from quiet-looking town areas to more foggy-looking cold mountains to piled up broken buildings really fits the mood of the fictional WW2 settings.
The character's design is looking amazing on both story cutscenes and in-game battle, as you see their facial animation and body language is totally spot on with perfect lip-syncing during the dialogue and how they express themselves to show their emotions is what really makes it feel like a real people.
Overall, it has colourful details and bold textures surfaces, use of the special effects, and amazing character's design.
Music and Sounds
The original soundtrack in the game is still sounds just outstanding as the first original game, so it was done by the composer Hitoshi Sakimoto was best known for scoring his work on Final Fantasy XII, Ogre Battle, Radiant Slivergun, and Devilish provides dynamic instruments and atmospheric quality music that ranges more heroic sounds fits the game's personality.
They did a great job on sound design with impressive background sounds and staying intact with the environmental noises, and the voice actors on their role did a just as good as you've expected sounds really decently with both English and Japanese audio.
Overall, it has outstanding music, great sound design, and decent voice role.
Special Features
It has squad stories, skirmish battles, and of course it has some unlockables stuff like music, glossary, character's biography, and weaponry.
There are a DLCs which includes expert level skirmishes, new bonus missions, new playable characters, and added costumes which is cool, but sadly the DLCs is too overpriced which is not worth £20, so it's better off wait for sale price goes down.
Overall, overpriced as f**k, but a very good content features.
Advantages
Superb presentation design
Excellent story
Fantastic battle system
Numerous of missions and skirmishes
Spectacular art direction
Outstanding soundtrack
Disadvantages
Two tank bosses
Parachute segment
Overpriced DLCs
Final Verdict
Presentation 9/10 - decent cast of characters, excellent storylines, and superb presentation design.
Gameplay 8.5/10 - fantastic battle system, numerous of missions and skirmishes to play, and great segments.
Graphics 9/10 - colourful details and bold textures surfaces, use of the special effects, and amazing character's design.
Music and Sounds 9/10 - outstanding music, great sound design, and decent voice role.
Special Features 8/10 - squad stories, skirmish battles, and of course it has some unlockables stuff like music, glossary, character's biography, and weaponry.
Overall 8.5/10 - This is a great follow-up title that I'm been waiting for years since I've played and completed the first original game on my PS3.
Valkyria Chronicles 4 offered a really great things that keeps the fan of the series happy to see a return of the franchise has finally going back to the home console platform since the previous two being on the portable system.
The storyline and dialogue is well-written, the number of characters are quite decent, the art direction is beautifully appealing, and the single-player campaign is genuinely had a fun factor, but I find the first original game which are more groundbreaking and memorable in my opinion, but don't get me wrong I still love this game too which I am happy to see the team behind the game does a fabulous job on their work as they finally delivering their promise by giving the fans what they wanted.
The game cost around between £15 to £20 physically, where as the digital platform cost about £25 for standard edition or £40 for complete edition (with all bonus DLCs included).
So for those of you are interested to play strategy RPGs games like this, then this is definitely for you to try it out.
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