Valkyria Chronicles 4 is out now
This means war, again
A ragtag group of animes, their doctor dog, and their pet tank are out to save semi-magical notEurope from the notNazis during notWW2 through the powers of friendship and turn-based tactical squad combat in Valkyria Chronicles 4, released today. While the first game in Sega's series took six years to come from consoles to PC, this one is nicely launching on the same day for us all, so huzzah. And it's pretty deece, Steven T Wright said in our Valkyria Chronicles 4 review, albeit with a flaws unfortunately familiar from earlier in the series. But did I mention your doctor dog - your dogtor? Your animes have a dogtor. Meet him in the launch trailer below.
Your dogtor's name is Ragnarok.
The Valkyria Chronicles games are set against basically a friendlier version of World War 2 in Europe, where the sides are a bit different and the geography is jiggled up but look, it's notWW2. Only it's in a world where a race of magical warriors named the Valkyrur once came from the north and... mostly the series is about fighting with tanks and grenades and guns, but occasionally a superpowered anime or two romps about zapping things. It's quite fun, in a daffy way, and gets surprisingly reflective about war and genocide at times.
As for this latest one, ah, yup, it sounds like more Valkyria Chronicles 4 - for good and bad.
"However, though I tremendously enjoy the fusion of the surprisingly-endearing plot with the satisfying crunch of its micro-tactics, I'm still not sure if Valkyria Chronicles 4 is actually a well-designed strategy game," Wright said in his Wot I Think. "It's certainly a fun one, but there are several long-lurking issues that underlie the basic structure that I feel Sega should've weeded out by now."
In short, yeah, the game balance still seems wonked to the point of having certain dominant cheesy tactics that can whip through missions - which the game rewards you for using. He also wasn't too big on "its retrograde approach to difficulty, which hides both the enemy's powerful bosses and your own much-needed backup behind arbitrary turn counts or invisible tripwires that trigger climactic cutscenes." Boo.
Valkyria Chronicles 4 is out now on Steam for £50/€60/$60. Ooh yep it's a lot more expensive when it's not coming six years late. Also it uses Denuvo's extra DRM protection, which I'm sure will be cracked real soon to make Sega look silly but in the meantime will rile some folks a whole lot. The game's also out now on PS4, Xbone, and Switch but w/e.