LTTP: Valkyria Chronicles 4. Such an amazing game (Full Spoilers)

[Ozzie]

Hello people, despite being a member for a couple of years, this is my very first LTTP thread and I had to make one because of this amazing game: Valkyria Chronicles 4. Apologies on advance for mistakes as this all done on my phone.

I would like to begin how I got this game. The demo came out on the Switch and I tired out. I immediately enjoyed the game and decided to get both VC1 and 4. Although it is not necessary to play both, I heard lots of praise for the first game and yup, I agree. I really loved Squad 7 and the cute romance between Welkin and Alisha and Largo's love for veggies. Gameplay wise, it was fun but can cheesed for the most part. The Switch port was alright/acceptable too.

After 30 hours playing VC1, I decided to finally begin VC4.

Graphics/Art/Switch Port:

Straight away the first thing I noticed was the graphics and the quality of the Switch port. I was immediately impressed. Graphics looked more detailed, the artstyle looks fantastic in addition to being much more colourful compared to VC1. The model characters looked really good. Furthermore, it was native resolution in handheld mode as the game looked really sharp although there are jaggies but it didn't bother me much.

Frame rate is 30fps for Switch and is stable for the most part. However, when things get really hectic, it does drop quite bit but thankfully it didn't ruin the experience for me. Overall, I'm really happy with the Switch port and Sega did a great effort and managed to fit everything in one cartridge.

Story/Characters:

The story of VC4 is honestly great. It does so well in showing how devastating a war can be for everyone. Fighting for freedom, protecting your homeland and creating a peaceful future. It explores those themes quite well. Unfortunately there are some tropey anime scenes such as Claude accidentally looking up Riley's skirt or the hot spring scene and it just feels so forced and unnecessary but thankfully it's kept to a minimal.

However, in my opinion, what made the story shine so brightly are the characters.
I didn't expect myself to get so attached to Squad E. I really enjoyed how Claude grew to be such a dependable leader. I also enjoyed the dilemma Kai/Leena went through in betraying her team or brother. Riley was rude and stubborn but she became better as she learns how to forgive Claude and I enjoy how passionate she is with science.

Raz...oh boy where do I begin lol? First of all, I immediately disliked his sexist attitude and the way he sexual harasses Kai made me eye roll. This was not necessary. It isn't even funny and unfortunately this trope is very common in anime and Jrpgs. However, I will admit, he grew on me. He did make the squad really alive, so when he sacrificed himself, I couldn't believe it and I felt really sad. What is it with Darcsen characters dying lol? And the way Kai broke down after losing Raz and her brother, poor girl...

One character that I honestly disliked was Minerva. Good lord lady, can you just swallow your pride for 5 minutes? It was annoying how she blames everything on Claude and wants to beat him. Although it was a shame what happened to Squad F, please press F to pay respect (I'm sorry).

There were many characters that I enjoyed thanks to Squad Stories such as Azusa breaking her shackles from her clan, Jascha getting rejected by Afoie and the iron helmet girl which we don't get to see her face lol.

Overall, it was a fantastic experience and that final cutscene with Riley and Claude was extremely heart warming.



Gameplay:

As most of us know, VC4 gameplay is almost the same as VC1 but with many great Quality of life improvements as well new gameplay features such as my favorite new class: Grenaider. There were many maps and I was also impressed with the amount of variation in objectives there were. Many were capture the enemy camp but there were other objectives that provided decent challenge such as killing all enemies, reaching a target, locating crates and destroying cannons under strict conditions. It kept the gameplay fresh.

However, the gameplay unfortunately suffers the same flaw as VC1. Majority of the levels if not all including the post game challenges can be cheesed. I abused the hell out of orders which allowed me to scout rush, destroy tanks with such ease and complete the objectives in 1 to 2 turns. On the other hand, I won't deny it, it is actually fun trying to make OP/broken moves and complete the level in 1 turn. Overall, gameplay is solid, love the new additions such as Ship orders and the great amount of content which took me 52 hours to 100% and achieve the true final ending.



Soundtrack/Voice Acting:

Soundtrack is absolutely great. Sets the tone right and offers many hype and intense music. And one specific soundtrack gives me the feels the moment I hear it: Nostalgia. I mostly associate it with Raz confessing to Kai/Leena and the graveyard where his gravestone his. It's such a beautiful track:


The English voice acting is a strong 10/10. Good lord, every character was voiced perfectly including the delivery. The way some of these characters cry in pain or rage in anger for revenge was amazing. I can confidently say that the voice acting is up there with the best English dubs such as Fire Emblem Three Houses, Echoes and Xenoblade Chronicles 1. Shout out the localisation team and Tea Cup productions, you all did a fantastic job.

To summarise, this game took me by surprise. I enjoyed the story, the amazing cinematic cutscenes, lovely characters, became really sad and teared up at the death of Raz which is all enhanced by the amazing soundtrack and voice acting. If they make VC5 one day, I will definitely be there.

 

[TitlePending]

Glad you enjoyed it!

VC 1 will always have top billing among the franchise (and honestly Top 5 of the PS3 generation), but I also enjoyed my time with VC4 as well. I wish the game performed better so Sega would continue the franchise on consoles. =(

 

[Nocturnowl]

I'm happy the game resonated with you, I imagine I would have adored this game had it arrived as the actual Valkyria Chronicles 2 back around 2010/11
It was a bit underwhelming after the long wait for a full console sequel for me, while I've yet to finish it (and often consider going back) I do think its map design/scenarios might be stronger than the original.

I couldn't vibe with the main cast though, I reached the point where they board the ship in the snowy area and the cutscenes upon boarding just reminded me of the problem I have with the game's many back to back scenes, that everyone just seeks to create drama or conflict out of nothing.
I did like how much more effort was put into side characters.

 

[King Dodongo]

Is is really an underrated game, even on Era.
Hopefully the sales were enough for the franchise to stay afloat. I did my part.

 

[Ozzie]

Glad you enjoyed it!

VC 1 will always have top billing among the franchise (and honestly Top 5 of the PS3 generation), but I also enjoyed my time with VC4 as well. I wish the game performed better so Sega would continue the franchise on consoles. =(

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Is is really an underrated game, even on Era.
Hopefully the sales were enough for the franchise to stay afloat. I did my part.

Click to shrink...

All we know is that VC4 sold over a million copies across all platforms. I wish we could have updated numbers. It makes me sad how underrated this series is.

 

[Jawmuncher]

Reminds me I need to go back and beat it. Have it on Xbox and played a decent bit and just kinda stopped despite liking it.

 

[Ozzie]

Reminds me I need to go back and beat it. Have it on Xbox and played a decent bit and just kinda stopped despite liking it.

Click to shrink...

I'll be honest, this happened with me at least 3 to 4 times. I played it, enjoyed it but stopped for some reason. However, after reaching the snowy chapters, I went all out without stopping and it was worth it. The high stakes, the intense moments and great climatic cutscenes were worth it.

 

[Doggg]

I can't say I liked the characters/story at all, but I thoroughly enjoyed the gameplay.

 

[Naha-]

Really good game. Hopefully the sales were enough for another game, I really like it (VC1 still the best one tho)

 

[TC McQueen]

Having worked in a machine shop, I didn't really too much of a problem with Raz. They could've done without the ass grabbing, but he was a real solid representation of a blue-collar guy/soldier.

That said, I didn't find there to be too much variation in objectives, at least for main story missions. It also had the VC1 style sudden spike in difficulty with Crymara's first appearance in a level. I stopped right there and haven't been back since. Sadly, since modding VC4 is way harder than modding VC1 due to them packing all the files into one big archive, we can't get a Gallian Crossfire type rebalance. Also, since the game is literally VC1 + one good new class + minor QOL changes, it feels like the developers haven't heard of the XCOM games and how they raised the bar for turn-based strategy... and honestly, I wouldn't have minded a little dash of Mass Effect 3 multiplayer in there too. (Seriously, it's a TPS when you control your soldiers, it would've been sick to have some ME style active combat abilities.)

I did dig the extra content focused on the minor members of the squad. However, the story had some real contrivances that made me shake my head. First was Claude failing to defend himself when Minerva's flipping out about the loss of her squad. All he had to do was go "We got delayed taking out an Imperial base in our path" and the whole guilt thing wouldn't happen. Second, the "Valkyria = nukes" thing has never worked, and is the dumbest it has ever been, with little girls being used as power sources and literal bombs. This is such a waste of a rare and tactically irreplaceable asset with strategic effects that it is mind-boggling that it ever got greenlit in-universe. Like, the Empire at least understands that they have a precision tactical weapon (Valkyria soldiers) that can be used to maximize their strategic gains, they're just too busy backstabbing themselves and being pointlessly evil to win. Third, the developers really screwed themselves over by not naming this game "Valkyria Chronicles II" and just retconning the PSP only VC2 out of existence, because A) people barely know it, and B) I'm pretty sure the game ends the way it does because they want the events of VC2 to happen, despite them making escalating the stakes to (near) existential levels that lead to blowing up the Imperial capital being the way to go.

 

[Strings]

All we know is that VC4 sold over a million copies across all platforms. I wish we could have updated numbers. It makes me sad how underrated this series is.

Click to shrink...

After extremely heavy discounts very soon after launch ;(

Fab game. My one issue with it is that I think they wimped out by making the nuke stand-in a cute young girl who doesn't participate in combat. It would have been infinitely more interesting to place those circumstances on someone you don't necessarily like, etc.

 

[Plax]

Loved it.

 

[WetWaffle]

Terrible story aside, the gameplay is still the only reason I like vc1 and vc4

 

[RochHoch]

I remember playing it in handheld mode on Switch and getting completely absorbed in the gameplay for a bit. Felt like the outside world just kinda vanished for about an hour.

Fantastic game, I seriously hope it's not the end of the series.

 

[SammyJ9]

I loved it, I found it better than VC1 in pretty much every way, I may be in the minority but I liked even the story and characters more than VC1. The story feels so much grander, and I really liked the feeling of working your way through the snowy north toward your ultimate goal. And how the plot wraps up is very enjoyable. Characters are maybe closer to VC1, but having the Squad Stories to flesh out the secondary characters really pushed them over the edge for me.

RE: Raz: I don't think they were playing his grabbing Kai for laughs, the impression I got was that they were trying to really play up him being kind of a rude, arrogant, brash, jerk in the first half of the game so that they could show him changing and becoming a better person in the second half. Now, I think they could have managed that WITHOUT that scene and it didn't need to be there by any means, but I can see where they were coming from.

Also agree that I liked Minerva the least out of the whole cast. I thought she would mellow out and become a more likeable character as the game went on, but instead... not so much.

 

[BadWolf]

Fave in the series.

Amazing game.

 

[mordecaii83]

I can't say I liked the characters/story at all, but I thoroughly enjoyed the gameplay.

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Basically this, the gameplay was fine but the story was a huge letdown for me after loving VC1.

 

[cubicle47b]

It was the best Fire Emblem game until Three Houses.

 

[Deleted member 34873]

VC4 is amazing and edges out 1 as the better game for me. Still need to get around to playing the VC3 fan translation...

 

[SammyJ9]

Basically this, the gameplay was fine but the story was a huge letdown for me after loving VC1.

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Not trying to argue or anything, but do you mind explaining why? I recently played through VC1 and found the story to be thoroughly underwhelming after really liking 4 (mostly due to how little plot there really was in 1). And I've heard this from several other people before, am I just missing something?

 

[Deleted member 31092]

VC4 is everything VC1 attempted to be, but better. A wonderful experience.

 

[WetWaffle]

Not trying to argue or anything, but do you mind explaining why? I recently played through VC1 and found the story to be thoroughly underwhelming after really liking 4 (mostly due to how little plot there really was in 1). And I've heard this from several other people before, am I just missing something?

Click to shrink...

It has more anime nonsense than VC1.

Spoiler

The girl who committs a war crime and sends thousands to their deaths for her Onii-chan who defected. The mandatory little girl who's apparently a living battery. One of the main charcaters is a sexual harasser who the game wants you to mourn and sympathize with as he goes on a suicide mission etc

 

[mordecaii83]

It has more anime nonsense than VC1.

Spoiler

The girl who committs a war crime and sends thousands to their deaths for her Onii-chan who defected. The mandatory little girl who's apparently a living battery. One of the main charcaters is a sexual harasser who the game wants you to mourn and sympathize with as he goes on a suicide mission etc

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Yeah, all of these plus the story was just less enjoyable overall for me.

 

[Jonathan Lanza]

I think what the game manages to do best is offer a simulation of being a commander/leader. The logistics involved in sending out your named troops onto the battlefield, you grow attached to some based on how well they do or hate them based on how poorly they do, you send some out to die, you bench some, you've got the one's you can always rely on. I think that stuff is done well and is largely because everyone having their dedicated lines and designs, likes and dislikes, they're treated as individuals but not to the extent that they have any obvious hierarchy aside from the one who is definitely Raz's best bro.


The more moment to moment gameplay is kinda unimpressive though. The key lynchpin for the game is movement, it's the most important resource because maps are so huge and sprawling, lots of verticality too sometimes. If you're not moving around during a term then you're often not getting much done. Unfortunately there's only one class that has the movement needed to take full advantage of the game and those are the Scouts. Most situations require them and some situations are only to be done with them, often what will happen is you'll have your scouts and your tank all the way to the front and you wanna get your other soldiers caught up but that will take far too many turns either inching them up there CP by CP or spending a turn sending them back to base and calling for reinforcements. It's a very slow and unengaging process especially since there's a good chance you've wiped out most of the enemies. At that point you might as well just forget about everyone else and focus on your scouts.

There's just not enough situations in the game that require use of your various classes, Engineers are especially notorious for basically being a crutch class that you almost never need to use if you play well enough.

To its credit it does manage to do a lot of unique situations even with scouts only but it still largely feels like a huge chunk of the game is just worthless. The Crymaria Red Snow mission is a good example of a case where you end up using a variety of different soldiers.

 

[SammyJ9]

It has more anime nonsense than VC1.

Spoiler

The girl who committs a war crime and sends thousands to their deaths for her Onii-chan who defected. The mandatory little girl who's apparently a living battery. One of the main charcaters is a sexual harasser who the game wants you to mourn and sympathize with as he goes on a suicide mission etc

Click to shrink...

I mean, if that's what classifies as 'anime nonsense' then I'm here for it. I could have done without the sexual harasser bit, sure, but I found Raz to be pretty likeable by the end, and especially with how everyone felt about him going on the suicide mission (Kai and Claude's reactions there were fantastically well done); I know I felt for him in that moment. The characters' emotions in this game really worked for me, where they mostly didn't in VC1. I like characters that are emotional, and do things as a result, even if said things aren't necessarily logical or well thought-out because emotions are messy, and VC4 delivered that in spades. I also loved the 'living battery twist' and the valkyria stuff, but I'm a huge fan of the more supernatural elements in the games.

VC1 has a fine story, but my issue with it is it's so bare-bones. I'll spoiler it, since this topic is only open spoilers for VC4:

Spoiler: VC1 Spoilers

VC1's story is basically just "Our home town got attacked, so we joined the army to fight back. We had a bunch of battles to defend the country, and discovered that Alicia is a Valkyria. Then we fought off the giant enemy land-ship and saved the capital." And that's kind of... it? There's just not a lot of connective tissue between all the things that happen, a lot of the game just feels like "okay, now we're needed to fight over here! It's another battle!" without much feeling of forward momentun or plot progression.

There's just so much more going on in VC4, it feels bigger and better and more impactful to the war and everything just in general. VC4 felt much more like it was trying to tell an actual story with forward momentum, especially once you get past the early parts of the game and you get into the big plans that happen later in the game. I think it boils down to the characters being much more proactive than in VC1, where I felt like often the militia was just reacting to things that happen.

I could go on, but I guess what I'm saying is I feel like the only thing that VC1 has over 4 is the two main characters' relationship and I GUESS you could say it was a positive that's it's more grounded and realistic, but being grounded and realistic is the last thing I want in this kind of game, honestly.

 

[Hexa]

I loved the 'anime nonsense' in 4 as well. I disagree about much more going on in 4 being a positive though. I think 1 was barebones but what it portrayed it portrayed really well. I feel 4 went in the opposite direction and had way too much going on to do anything as well as was done in 4. Like the Claude/Riley relationship definitely needed more time, though if the scenes that are locked until you finish the game were there as you went through the game I think that definitely would have helped (that whole mechanic overall was pretty stupid as none of the scenes really spoiled future parts of the story). The scientist guy who I don't even remember the name of and his relationship with Riley's father was severely underdeveloped to the point he felt pointless and his two minions did as well. The whole Kai thing was somewhat developed, but I felt she needed to be fleshed out more in regards to her relationship with her brother and with Raz in order for her motivations and actions to be clear. Walz and Crymaria I feel also needed more development as things with them were resolved way too easily at the end, though that at least I'm willing to forgive completely as I like dumb happy endings and what happened with Silveria still stings.

 

[AnimaRize]

i bought this haven't really played it yet i am eventually going to get around to it, i like this series but i have some critiques like the fact we never actually get to play in the valkyria forms (hush i know you can in three but that never was localized) and sometimes there is some really contrived plot points

Spoiler: VC1

that valkyria final flame stuff was bullshit and only served as a way to kill off a character in my opinion didn't need to die, like get she was loyal to that bastard but he really wasn't the only person who cared about you in your life and you just found your surragate sister again, you don't have to through your life away because this bastard who clearly doesn't care about you says to

 

[Mesoian]

The story of VC4 is honestly great. It does so well in showing how devastating a war can be for everyone. Fighting for freedom, protecting your homeland and creating a peaceful future. It explores those themes quite well. Unfortunately there are some tropey anime scenes such as Claude accidentally looking up Riley's skirt or the hot spring scene and it just feels so forced and unnecessary but thankfully it's kept to a minimal.

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STRONG DISAGREE.

From the kiiler lolis, to the sexist muscleheads, to the guy who literally wants to fuck your tank to death...it's easily the worst story out of all 4 games, somehow making 2 seem riviting.

It's filled with so much dumb anime bullshit that it feels like it forgets that it's trying to be a somewhat serious war epic.

i bought this haven't really played it yet i am eventually going to get around to it, i like this series but i have some critiques like the fact we never actually get to play in the valkyria forms (hush i know you can in three but that never was localized) and sometimes there is some really contrived plot points

Spoiler: VC1

that valkyria final flame stuff was bullshit and only served as a way to kill off a character in my opinion didn't need to die, like get she was loyal to that bastard but he really wasn't the only person who cared about you in your life and you just found your surragate sister again, you don't have to through your life away because this bastard who clearly doesn't care about you says to

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Spoiler

Selly killed so many people, there's no way a story of that type was going to let her get off scott free. She has a kill count in the 10's of thousands.[/spoiler[

 

[mordecaii83]

STRONG DISAGREE.

From the kiiler lolis, to the sexist muscleheads, to the guy who literally wants to fuck your tank to death...it's easily the worst story out of all 4 games, somehow making 2 seem riviting.

It's filled with so much dumb anime bullshit that it feels like it forgets that it's trying to be a somewhat serious war epic.

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Yep this definitely matches my impression. I enjoyed the first game being a story focusing on a very small part of a much larger war, made it seem much more personal and I really felt like I knew the characters by the end.

 

[Mesoian]

VC4 is everything VC1 attempted to be, but better. A wonderful experience.

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I mean...gameplay wise, they're basically exactly the same, right down to the methods used to break the combat system (there's a reason why they only give you one scout for the first...what, 8 chapters of the game?).

VC3 is still the best one. All the neat crafting stuff from 2 without having to deal with random drops and farming.

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

Minerva and her dead girlfriend deserve a better game.

The writing in 4 makes me appreciate the first game a lot more. Just look how the main couple is handled in 4 vs 1. Claude and Riley don't even kiss until you unlock the true ending cinematic and even then it's a freeze frame before the lips touch. Whereas in 1, Welkin and Alicia kiss and get engaged before the end of the game. It really speaks to how they tuned the series over the years to cater more to otaku tastes.

That said, I did like core game design enough to 100% it.

 

[aspiegamer]

They just had to give the full anime treatment to the allied female commander rival, which, unfortunately, is one of my lasting memories of this game. A sort of "oh god, I'd love to take you more seriously, but this is -awful-" situation. A "I could totally recommend this game openly to almost anyone were it not for just a few instances of Bullshit Anime Stuff" deal.

Gameplay was a good evolution, even if the mortars were a tad OP. Another game could iron out the balance, and the foundations here are actually excellent in terms of needing more varied strategies than the original game (Scouts 24/7!). Okay sure, still a lot, but you can literally complete the entire original game using just scouts. The mission maps were balanced well, at least.

Wish there was a bad ending option for doing the "thing" with the ship late on. They left the door open for another game with the story, at least, not that I ever expect to see another. Supporting squad members had some interesting options, but I can remember almost every single one of the 30 from the original to this day. They were all awesome!

Minerva and her dead girlfriend deserve a better game.

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Yup. I'm glad others remember her, so that my top complaint makes me feel less stupid. I'd have pressed the button dammit!

 

[WetWaffle]

Still, the story just falls apart with Kai. Did anyone even ask her to justify why

Spoiler

she literally killed thousands of her fellow soldiers because of her actions and aiding the enemy just cause its her brother? I would have had so much more respect for Claude as her commanding officer if he actually turned her in for that.

 

[Mesoian]

Still, the story just falls apart with Kai. Did anyone even ask her to justify why

Spoiler

she literally killed thousands of her fellow soldiers because of her actions and aiding the enemy just cause its her brother? I would have had so much more respect for Clause as her commanding officer if he actually turned her in for that.

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Of course not. That's not how the power of friendship works.

It was the best Fire Emblem game until Three Houses.

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Fuck man, if FE played like VC did, i'd play those games in a heartbeat.

FE: Fayts is only marginally more stupid than VC4's story.

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

Of course not. That's not how the power of friendship works.

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The irony here is how much shit Claude gets for trauma that happened while he was a child. They wanted there to be a reason for Claude to prove himself to his team and chose the worst way to go about it.

 

[cubicle47b]

Fuck man, if FE played like VC did, i'd play those games in a heartbeat.

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I think VC took the FE formula and completely reworked the combat. As a package, I like Three Houses better, but the combat in VC is much better.

 

[Mesoian]

The irony here is how much shit Claude gets for trauma that happened while he was a child. They wanted there to be a reason for Claude to prove himself to his team and chose the worst way to go about it.

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OH MAN, I had actually forgotten about that. Riley literally giving shit to Claude because he refused to her run into a burning building and die in a fire. And then the whole town calls him a coward for it. It's so fucking dumb.

Part of me wants to go something something the power of boners, but Riley's attitude upon realizing who Claude is is laughable and maddening. People talk about how Raz sucks, and he does, but Riley REALLY sucks. She ruined Claude's entire childhood for no reason and then forces him to prove himself in order for to not commit insubordination.

Riley fucking sucks.

 

[Princess Bubblegum]

OH MAN, I had actually forgotten about that. Riley literally giving shit to Claude because he refused to her run into a burning building and die in a fire. And then the whole town calls him a coward for it. It's so fucking dumb.

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VC4 touches on some serious topics like PTSD, sexual harassment/assault, bullying, and grooming but unintentionally and in a horrifying manner. I ain't even going to touch the attempt at social commentary regarding war crimes and weapons of mass destruction.

 

[Mesoian]

VC4 touches on some serious topics like PTSD, sexual harassment/assault, bullying, and grooming but unintentionally and in horrifying manner. I ain't even going to touch the attempt at social commentary regarding war crimes and weapons of mass destruction.

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Seriously. Most of the game seems to imply that toxic masculinity is not only a good thing, but something that everyone must experience and embrace in order to reach adulthood.

 

[EarlGreyHot]

I should really go back and finish this someday. I enjoyed it but the story started to drag somewhere in the middle.

 

[grand]

VC4 is weird because it feels like they front loaded all the bullshit in the first 3rd to attract the otaku before dropping it all in favor of the game everyone actually wanted.

 

[mordecaii83]

The irony here is how much shit Claude gets for trauma that happened while he was a child. They wanted there to be a reason for Claude to prove himself to his team and chose the worst way to go about it.

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Wow I also forgot about this, it's amazing how much of the story I blocked out from memory...

 

[AnimaRize]

Spoiler

Selly killed so many people, there's no way a story of that type was going to let her get off scott free. She has a kill count in the 10's of thousands.[/spoiler[

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Here's my problem with that mindset

Spoiler: VC1

she was an enemy soldier in war with super powers, she wasn't killing those people in cold blooded murder because again she was ordered to do so, and Alicia killed just as many if not more soldiers than her with the same type of powers and she got to live but selly does not why because she was the empires valkyria no other reason

 

[hydrophilic attack]

I liked the game a lot, but I thought it was a bit too long and burned out a bit towards the end. And I got sick of the writing which was way too long-winded. The gameplay was great though. I should go back and do the epilogue which I was too burned out for at the time

 

[TC McQueen]

Oh yeah, I forgot the Scaredy Claude thing. Like, I can understand why Riley herself was hung up on that, but yeah, the town being in on it was weird. I think that's a case of Japanese cultural norms/story tropes not making any sense when seen by non-Japanese people, because that level societal shunning seems really odd and pointless. (That said, people being dicks is a time honored tradition, and lord knows it could've been worse, like that one dude who got hung.)

Also, thinking some more about the Raz ass-grab scene... I wonder if that was supposed to show he was into Lena and didn't know how to show it properly. I kinda get the feeling that there was a lot of character stuff that either got cut, shuffled around, or omitted with the thought that the meaning was clear.

Here's my problem with that mindset

Spoiler: VC1

she was an enemy soldier in war with super powers, she wasn't killing those people in cold blooded murder because again she was ordered to do so, and Alicia killed just as many if not more soldiers than her with the same type of powers and she got to live but selly does not why because she was the empires valkyria no other reason

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The narrative reason for that is to provide a contrast between the protagonists' healthy relationship and the bad guy's unhealthy one.

 

[AnimaRize]

The narrative reason for that is to provide a contrast between the protagonists' healthy relationship and the bad guy's unhealthy one.

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Yes it's a contrast but it didn't have to happen that way, is because you already have the contrast throughout the game, I still believe that if that didn't happen would have been better

Spoiler: VC1

her seeing welkin and Alicia's healthy relationship and deciding that is what she wants and defecting might have been better in my opinion, granted they need some other way to get rid of racist asshole commander but it still in my eyes would have been better. I don't know I guess I just don't like characters dying when there is really no narrative reason form them to do that if the narrative already made it's point

 

[Kuro]

its pretty underrated just like the first game. I really enjoyed it and while it didn't really do much different, some of the map designs and gimmicks were great. A good portion of the soundtrack was surprisingly awful though and there were some frustrating missions because of the grenade launcher enemies. The launchers all around kind of broke game balance in the same way Scouts did in the first.

Story was nothing special though and it definitely had some issues.

 

[Raww Le Klueze]

The gameplay is great but the story is utter nonsense. VC1 is the superior game, VC4 is nice if you want more.

 

[Siggy-P]

Putting story aside for a second and focusing on gameplay, I did not feel that there was any quality of life improvement at all, rather there was a quality of balance improvement. Every class is overall more useful and usable with options to keep all of them relevant.

There are still basic mechanical issues from the first game that I would expect to have been removed by the 4th. Things like getting caught on the environment, missions designed around trial and error, finding a spot with a good shot only for some undescribed angle or invisible wall to render your plan useless.

And I dont feel the cheesing mentioned is an easy tactic but rather a requirement for a lot of the game as it feels like its balanced around it.

 

[TheWildCard]

Reminds me I need to go back and beat it. Have it on Xbox and played a decent bit and just kinda stopped despite liking it.

Click to shrink...

I should really go back and finish this someday. I enjoyed it but the story started to drag somewhere in the middle.

Click to shrink...

Guess I'm not the only one that liked the game but fell off of it at one point. Think it was the story bits getting pretty long. Good game but was a little disappointed it just felt like more VC. Probably would have gone down better if it had came out in 2012 or so. Been debating getting it back out sometime.