Let's Play Valkyria Chronicles 4: Chapter 5: Food Fight

Squad E enters a captured Federation town in search of food and supplies. Interactions with the townspeople are awkward, and there's no food to be found. It's almost like someone got there first. Hey, what's Squad F doing over there?

Let's Play Valkyria Chronicles 4! Squad Story - Gambler's Ruin

Another side story. This time featuring a hard-luck gambler, a dissection obsessed scout, and author who talks far more than he actually writes. Can Jester find a way to change his luck, or has he been dealt his last hand?



This was an interesting little story. Nothing really of consequence, but Jester, Teresa, and Connor are interesting to play. Definitely better than last week's Treading New Ground story.

Let's Play Valkyria Chronicles 4! Squad Story - Tanks for the Memories

Squad stories are little side vignettes which unlock after playing with a particular set of characters for a while. It's a chance to get a little more insight on three of the "regular" members of Squad E. Successfully completing a Squad Story usually either unlocks a new potential, or changes a negative potential to something better.



I feel like Treading New Ground is one of the weaker Squad Stories, but it's the first one that I did. This one centers around Aulard, one of Squad E's engineers, and Dan and Miles, Squad E's APC and tank drivers, respectively. It's a fun enough little story, it just doesn't really mean much overall, except that Aulard gets a better potential out of it.

Let's Play Valkyria Chronicles 4! Chapter 3 - Rangers In The Storm

More backstory! Well, sort of. What we have here is some light-hearted squad hijinks that turn silly, plus some mandatory anime silliness between Claude and Riley. Then combat. Lots of combat.



The whole thing ends on a really tough note though, as we finally get some backstory on what happened between Riley and Claude when they were kids. It's the first time the story gets dark for a little bit, but it's not the last.

Remember, this is a war story. Not everyone gets a happy ending. Not everyone started with a happy beginning either.

Lets Play Valkyria Chronicles 4 - Interlude: Origin Story

This game gets surprisingly deep sometimes. Squad E's origin story goes to some interesting places, and Claude is shown taking a very mature approach (mostly) to learning how to lead his new team.



Obviously Squad E has had some discipline issues, but Raz is going to improve as the story goes on. What happened to Kai though?

Let's Play Valkyria Chronicles 4 - Chapter 2: Tanks? You're Welcome!

We've got all our units introduced, so now we can get down to the meat of the game. This chapter starts off by introducing the Headquarters Camp, where players will spend most of their time in between missions managing and training personel, upgrading weapons, and shifting around equipment.

But all that menu stuff is boring. It's necessary from a gameplay standpoint, but to watch? SKIP! So I do.



The battle is interesting for being split into two parts. Sneaking around in the fog is interesting, especially when you're not sure whether you're going to find a wooden dummy, or a heavy tank that's going to eat your lunch. Moving fast is the key to an A rank, and I managed to do that on the first go.

Let's Play Valkyria Chronicles - Chapter 1 - Get Cinderella To The Ball!

As expected, Chapter 1 still has a lot of tutorial stuff going on. However, it does introduce Valkyria Chronicles 4's new unit type, the Grenadier.


I don't know why they didn't call this unit a Mortar carrier, or something similar, because "Grenadier" has traditionally been a term associated with team members or whole units focused on throwing grenades/carrying a grenade launcher/being heavy assaulters. None of these things are true of the VC4 Grenadiers. I refer to them as mortar units in-game most of the time. Scouts, Machine-gunners, and mechanics all carry grenades.

Regardless of the terminology issues, the Grenadier/Mortar unit is a really fun addition to the game. They unlock some great indirect fire strategies, and can help slow down enemy units with reactive fire during the enemy's turn.

Let's Play Valkyria Chronicles 4 - Prologue

Last week ended my LP series for Ash of Gods: Redemption. While that was fun, now it's on to a game that I have excited about ever since it was announced for a Western release: Valkyria Chronicles 4!


Part squad level turn-based strategy, part anime cartoon, Valkyria Chronicles draws heavily on World War 2 history for its inspiration. The original game pitted a Gallia (standing in for Great Britain)
 analog against the military might of a continent spanning power (think Germany). "Darksens" stood in for Jews, and the story revolved around plucky Gallia's war retain their freedom.

Valkyria Chronicles 4 abstracts the war a lot more as it's based more in the battles on the Eastern Front. This time players step into the boots of Claude Wallace, commander of Ranger Squad F in the Federation army. They are part of a massive land strike force attempting to push through the heart of Imperial territory to take the capital before winter slows things to a crawl.

Anyone who remembers their WWII history can take a guess at how well that initial plan is going to go.

In this scenario, the good guys should win out in the end, but it's going to be a challenge getting there!