Valkyria Chronicles 4

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Rooks
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Joined: Mon Jul 05, 2010 2:03 am

Valkyria Chronicles 4

Post by Rooks »

So, last week I finally finished up Valkyria Chronicles 4, and I gotta say, some things were awesome, but then there were a few niggling points that really detracted from the game.

Bad news first then: There was one scene where the main character is working under his tank, and the character Riley, female of the same general age, approaches the tank and speaks to him. He then slides out on the Mechanic's Creeper, and as he does, he gets a peek up her skirt. . . Yeah, VC4 has a scene like that. What's even worse is that the game uses this scene as a jumping-off point to develop a burgeoning romance between those two characters. . .

I often feel like people nowadays see this as part-and-parcel for "Anime-Style" games, but, need I remind people that Suikoden, and many other games with similar art styles don't have scenes like this? at least not on this forum I would hope lol.

In any event, as far as other admittedly minor complaints that I have: I don't feel like the classes are particularly well-balanced, at least not when compared to games like XCOM 2. It seems as if there are some battles where the Grenadier Class is obscenely over-powered, yet many others where they are best left unused. Almost as if the game developers tried to create places where they would be useful, rather than allowing the classes and their abilities to grow organically from gameplay. In the end, it seems as if certain scenarios that you find yourself in attempt to shoehorn in the lesser-used demolition classes like Grenadier and Lancer.

But, that all being said. I can strongly recommend Valkyria Chronicles 4. Warts and all. Ignoring the cringeworthy nonsense of the upskirt scene, there is some fantastic gaming to be had here. The levels and environments are large, complex and expansive, just like they were in VC1. Meanwhile, the gameplay is updated to be fresher, but still retains the same feel as VC1. And, to boot, there are far fewer of the confounding battles where the player has to blindly guess what is expected of them, and what the mission entails. While it is easier to rack up A-rank rewards in this game, I feel like each individual missions are slightly more difficult to win as a baseline. So, the difficulty curve is still reasonably balanced here, even though it may not be deeply improved over VC1.

The best addition in my not-so-humble opinion is that of the Armored Personnel Carrier. That thing gives your troops a massive advantage in so many situations. Another great addition is the "Soldier Stories" side-battles that forego the officers and the main plot in order to focus in on some of your lower-ranking troops and their motivations and backstories. It is so nice to see a game take the time to examine the lives of the people caught up in the greater flow of its story line.

All-in-all, Valkyria Chronicles 4 gets a big thumbs up from me, even if there are some scenes that live up to its stereotype in the worst possible manner.
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