Valkyria Chronicles 4

Valkyria Chronicles 4
Publisher(s)	Sega
Series	Valkyria Chronicles
Engine	Proprietary "CANVAS" engine
Platform(s)	PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC, Stadia
Release date(s)	PS4 JP March 21, 2018 EU September 25, 2018 NA September 25, 2018 Xbox One EU September 25, 2018 NA September 25, 2018 Switch JP September 27, 2018 EU September 25, 2018 NA September 25, 2018 PC INT September 25, 2018 Stadia INT December 08, 2020
Genre(s)	Action strategy role-playing game
Mode(s)	Single-player
Rating(s)	CERO: C ESRB: T

Valkyria Chronicles 4 (戦場のヴァルキュリア4, Battlefield Valkyria 4: Eastern Front^?) is the fourth game in the Valkyria Chronicles series and the 5th installment of the entire Valkyria series. In Japan it was released on March 21, 2018 for PS4 and was released on September 27, 2018 for the Nintendo Switch. The English version was also released on Xbox One PC for Steam, alongside a PS4 and Switch release on September 25, 2018.

Valkyria Chronicles 4 occurs in the same timeframe as Valkyria Chronicles and Valkyria Chronicles 3. Whereas past installments of the series have all taken place in Gallia, this time the stage is set on the Federation's war efforts, centering around members of Squad E.

Story

It is the year 1935 EC.

The continent of Europa is engulfed in the flames of the Second Europan War between the Atlantic Federation and the Autocratic Eastern Imperial Alliance. Although the Federation struggles valiantly against the Empire’s forces, the relentless imperial military machine threatens to consume them. With victory slipping away, the Federation executes Operation Northern Cross: a last-ditch attempt to capture the imperial capital and end the war.

Commander Claude Wallace and his loyal childhood friends in Squad E are sent to fight for the desperate operation’s success, but they will have to endure harsh bone-chilling elements, waves of imperial soldiers, and the terrifying Valkyria… and unravel a grave truth that will shake them to the core.

Gameplay

In Valkyria Chronicles 4 there are 4 basic play modes; Book, Command, Action, and Targeting mode. Book Mode there is where the story is delivered in small chunks that can be easily reviewed section by section. Each has a picture from the scene displayed like a photo album, which can help with remembering and tracking the story.

The other 3 game modes are battle specific; Command and Targeting mode do not have a time pressure element but in Action mode while you are controlling a soldier in your squad, nearby enemy soldiers shoot at you in real-time and you have limited Action Points to move with, so control becomes time sensitive as you try to move efficiently and avoid enemy fire.

Although missions can be failed, you are able to repeat them as often as needed until completed, and once a mission is passed it is graded on a letter scale with rewards given out for performance. Missions can be replayed as often as you like to earn a higher grade and more rewards.

Some missions take place at night or in low contrast environments to simulate limited visibility battlefield conditions (especially in the Chapters that take place in the snow) and while figuring out where enemy soldiers are is part of the challenge of these battles, this may increase existing issues with navigation or distinguishing objects on screen.

Changes from previous versions

The game uses elements from the first Valkyria Chronicles game and some from the second and third while making its own additions

• Story progression and mission selection is done from Book Mode like in VC1. However, the player is no longer prevented from re-fighting previous battles until New Game +, and can instead go back and re-fight storyline battles whenever they feel like doing so.
• The game features greatly relaxed A-rank turn limits compared to VC1's infamously stringent requirements, often allowing 4-6 turns and rarely fewer than 3.
• The ability to save mid-battle has returned, after being absent in 2 and 3.
• Permadeath makes a return. Aside from Leaders, storyline-involved characters such as tank crewmen and DLC soldiers, downed soldiers who are not rescued in time or are "finished off" by enemy soldiers touching them while they are downed (they will still only ever do this accidentally) are removed from the Squad roster.
  • As in VC3, downed units that are rescued can be called back in from a base flag on the player's next turn.
  • Postgame unlocks the Cenotaph where soldiers can be brought back for DCT, including those who died during storyline events. All soldiers who can die have a special quote for being bought back to life.
  • When a soldier dies, a special piece of equipment will be granted to the player specific to that character, The effects, however, are generic: all items of soldiers in a particular class will have the same bonus. This excludes the tank crews and storyline and DLC characters who cannot die.
  • For reasons that should be fairly obvious, units cannot die in any mission involving mock combat with Federation troops.
• Class changes and class trees from 2 & 3 foregone in lieu of 1's static class system.
  • Snipers are once again their own class rather than an offshoot of Scouts
  • Armored Techs removed; Engineers regain their role of disarming mines and repairing sandbags
  • Engineers use Scout rifles rather than having their own class weapon
  • Ragnaid is no longer Engineer-exclusive. All classes can use Ragnaid
    • Engineers get special Revival Ragnaid, which allows them to return a downed soldier to combat instead of summoning the medic to extract them.
  • Specialized classes such as Heavy Gunner or Melodist removed: the only specialist class is the Grenadier, a lightly-armored and slow unit equipped with a mortar.
  • The same applies to vehicles: there are three vehicles of fixed type, two being equivalent to the Edelweiss and Shamrock and the third a fast but fragile APC that can transport troops, with the only customization being Glory's interchangeable turrets and the Upgrade Parts grid, and stickers that can be placed on the Hafen for a small bonus.
• Unlike VC1, members do not join Squad E at random. The order is fixed, as are the squad's starting members. In addition, soldiers will not show they are "friends" with soldiers who have not actually joined the squad yet. When one of these "hidden friends" joins the squad, the message "your soldiers' preferences have changed" will appear.
• Scouts are rebalanced to reduce their status as the VC1 do-everything class: they now have mediocre base accuracy (most Scouts being less accurate than most equal-level Shocktroopers), and Shocktroopers now use a mid-level type of armor that makes them tougher than Scouts. Heavy Interception fire from Fixed Weapons is far more common, too.
• All infantry types other than Scouts have boosts to their Action Points compared to their VC1 counterparts, as do vehicles.
• Lancer Blast Suits now offer next to no protection from antipersonnel Mines, as opposed to VC1 where a Lancer could comfortably clear an entire minefield just by setting them all off. This was a change first made in VC3.
• Antitank mines return to only being set off by tanks.
• The game uses a system similar to the Classmate and Squadmate missions of 2 and 3 called Squad Stories to unlock additional positive potentials or replace negative ones, while also having "Extra Missions" that focus on main squad characters similar to the Reports of VC1. The main difference between Squad Stories and the systems in the previous games is that they involve several characters at the same time.
• Aces now only drop their weapon once. A few weapons are duplicated between two Aces, one in storyline and one in Skirmish, but there is no way to acquire a specific Ace's weapon more than once.
• Vehicles only cost one CP to move like in VC2 & 3. The Hafen and the Glory with its tank turret fitted have limited ammunition for their main gun.
  • Units with limited ammunition will regenerate some of it at the start of each player turn as they did in VC1. Engineers retain their resupply ability, but it is no longer mandatory. Units within the area of effect of an allied camp will regain all of their ammunition.
  • Like in VC2 and VC3, vehicles do not have a separate hit location for their treads. Antitank mines deal huge amounts of body damage instead. Mortars with the "Tank AP 0" effect replace loss of treads.
  • Front/Side and back armor aren't factors anymore though the radiator remains the weakest part of any tank
• Unlike VC2 and 3 the maps aren't split in multiple small maps linked by base camps instead each mission and skirmish happens in 1 single map with a unit cap of 10 instead of 5.
• Vehicles cannot be evacuated/redeployed through a camp like in VC 2 and 3, the only way to redeploy a vehicle is by having it destroyed and redeployed with the Ship Order "Emergency fix"
• Like in VC1 deploying a unit from a base camp means calling it as a reinforcement for the next turn, on top of that you'll have to spend a CP to move the unit after it spawns. Reinforcements can be cancelled if an enemy unit captures the camp which also applies to enemy reinforcement. The only way to immediately spawn a unit on a camp is to use the "Rapid Deployment" Order which costs 2 CP and spawns the unit at the desired camp, after which they can be selected in the usual manner.
• If the APC blows up any units inside are evacuated not killed. 
• Units can now be equipped with accessories which give some bonus stats, they do not appear on the unit in battle.
• Flagpoles in camps are now physical objects which means bullets, grenades and vehicles will be blocked if the flagpole is in their trajectory.
• Unit potentials change after a squad story is completed, while class potentials are unlocked as the class levels up.
• The base class level cap is still 20 but can be increased after the final mission/completing the story mode.
• Using a surprise attack (striking an opponent from behind or from a bush/fog etc.) no longer cancels counterattack but prevents the opponent from dodging the attack.
• Ladders are now deployed by Engineers instead of the tank or APC like in VC 2 and 3.
• There is no morale gauge in this game, instead every unit has a hidden morale gauge that increases after performing an action like killing an enemy, repairing a vehicle etc. After gaining enough morale, the unit's icon will glow white and enter a "high morale" state where potentials trigger a lot easier. However the mode only lasts for 1 action and the morale of the unit is reset after it ends it's action. High morale can also be given to a unit by using the "Inspiration" Order. Unit can also enter "High Morale" after assisting in an attack performed by a nearby ally.
• After a certain story point, units that fall in battle during player phase will have a chance of activating Last Stand mode, giving them a chance to either take one more action with a full AP bar while invulnerable on the player's turn, give the nearest unit a significant stat boost, or counter-attack on the enemy turn.
• Sniper elites can now perform Interception fire.
• Grenadier interception fire can inflict "speed down" to a unit making it move slower and if it's a player unit, the player will hear a loud ringing while moving, the unit will also look like it's moving in slow motion however enemy interception fire won't be slowed down.
• After a certain story point, leaders will be able to use the "Direct Command" ability from the third game.
• AT Cannons now have interception fire.
• Snipers can now participate in Co-Op Attacks, as can Lancers if the firing unit is another Lancer or a tank using its main gun. This does expend their ammunition.
• There are no longer tank upgrades to counter any weather effect.

Characters

Main article: List of Valkyria Chronicles 4 characters.

Atlantic Federation

Main characters (Squad E)

Claude	Riley	Raz	Kai
Minerva	Miles	Dan	Ronald

Supporting characters (Navy personnel)

Roland	Brian	Marie	Louffe
Sergio	André	Angelica

Supporting characters (Army personnel)

Karen

Ragnarok

East Europan Imperial Alliance

Crymaria

Klaus

Forseti

Heinrich

Nikola

Chiara

Reception

Valkyria Chronicles 4 received "generally favorable" reviews on Metacritic getting a metascore of 83/100 on PC, 84/100 on PS4, 81/100 on Xbox One, and 82/100 on Nintendo Switch.

Downloadable content

Main article: Valkyria Chronicles 4 downloadable content

• Free
  • Principality of Gallia Emblem - Pre-registration campaign. Included for free in Version 3 patch, released September 25th 2018.
  • "Edy's Advance Ops" - First-press edition bonus. Console DLC release December 4th, 2018.
  • "A United Front with Squad 7" - Special edition bonus. First-press edition bonus. Console DLC release December 23rd, 2018.
  • The latter two DLCs were released on PC on January 28th 2019. To make up for the delay, they are free to players who preordered or own any other DLC for the game.
• Purchasable
  • "Squad E, to the Beach!" - Released October 9th, 2018.
  • "A Captainless Squad" - Released October 23rd, 2018.
  • "Expert Skirmish" - Released November 6th, 2018.
  • "The Two Valkyria" - Release date November 20th, 2018.

Videos

Valkyria Chronicles 4 - E3 2018 Trailer PS4

Valkyria Chronicles 4 - English E3 Trailer

Valkyria Chronicles 4 - Extended Announcement Trailer

Valkyria Chronicles 4 - Extended Announcement Trailer.

『戦場のヴァルキュリア４』プロモーション映像

Valkyria Chronicles 4 - Extended Trailer with gameplay.

『戦場のヴァルキュリア４』初回特典DLC「先行特別作戦」＆限定版同梱DLC「第７小隊との共同戦線」紹介映像-0

Valkyria Chronicles 4 - Edy and Squad 7 DLC

『戦場のヴァルキュリア４』連邦軍キャラクター紹介映像②

Valkyria Chronicles 4 - Atlantic Federation Characters.

Gallery

Japanese release logo.

English release logo.

Artwork of Claude and Riley.

Squad E.

Gameplay.

Claude Wallace.

Riley Miller.

Raz.

Kai Schulen.

Crymaria Levin.

External Links

• Official Japanese site
• Official English site
• PSN purchase page
• Famitsu announcement