The game has a decent difficulty curve all around, too, tasking your squad with taking out scarier forces on larger battlefields as the title progresses. I enjoyed the final few hours more than any in the game, as I was able to use all of my previous knowledge and unlocked skills in battles that really challenged me. I wish this kind of focus could have been present in the early game, but overall I think the curve works well.
Presentation:
Valkyria Chronicles has always been a looker, from its beautiful water-colour aesthetic to its cute anime-styled character designs. It’s just as great here in VC4 but I’m not entirely sure it looks leaps and bounds better than its PS3 counterpart, though I’m not sure where they could improve considering just how eye catching and unique the look is already.
The design of the maps is particularly great though, with nice big battlefields to get lost in. I loved the feeling of multiple skirmishes breaking out across challenging missions due to how many different routes you can often take in to objectives, and this gave the war a sense of scale and made it feel like… well, a war, rather than, say, Fire Emblems very tight group-versus-group combat.
The music is very nice too, with some good voice acting to buoy all the fun characterizations. The amiable dialogue and over-excited bursts from certain members of the crew really helped in selling VC4 as a character-driven story, and I quickly grew attached to a lot of my squad thanks to just how personable the acting was.
Conclusion:
“Valkyria Chronicles 4” is a great return to form for a series that has sometimes struggled in the West. From its strong cast and interesting parallel narrative to its tactical gameplay, I was pretty hooked throughout the entire adventure. Whilst series fans won’t find loads of brand new features or complete overhauls, what’s here is some of the series’ best, with some fun wrinkles that help in giving this entry its own distinctive flavour. Newcomers will be pleasantly surprised as well by how approachable this game is, without requiring to go and play any of the other titles.
All in all, Valkyria Chronicles masterfully balances being a homecoming and a new start, and one I hope to see iterated on before another decade passes.
- 1 2
You must be logged in to post a comment.