A War For Home, Yet Far From Home - Valkyria Chronicles 4 Review (Nintendo Switch)

Zacky Dhaffa
Apr 16, 2020
13 min read

Turn-based strategy and J-RPG have been the two genres that I particularly have a strong interest in and this game is basically the combination of both ends. However, I had no interest to play this game at this time as I just purchased Animal Crossing: New Horizon and most likely am going to save for Pokémon Sword’s DLC and Bravely Default II later, but I got the chance to borrow this game with my friend while he borrows my Fire Emblem: Three Houses. I played Valkyria Chronicles on Steam way back then, and I really enjoyed playing it (although I haven’t completed it yet), so I decided to give it a try. Also, this is not a direct sequel of the original series, but more like the events that happen during the original ones but with a different squad and at a different front-line of war.

Story

The story sets in the Europa continent. Yes, it is basically a fictional Europe as we know in the real world. Politically, it is being contested with the two major power, the Atlantic Federation (referred to as Federation) and the East European Imperial Alliance (referred to as Empire). Federation consists of notably The United Kingdom of Edinburgh and The United States of Vinland. Yes, it is basically the UK and USA as they share a common political ideology of democracy state and geographic landscape. Empire shares a common territory and ideology of the imperialistic rule of government such as the Russian Empire, the Austro-Hungarian, and the German Empire combined back in the early 1900s. And you have a neutral country, the Principality of Gallia. We can think about it as Belgium because they were a neutral country yet they got invaded by both the German Empire and Nazi German in WW1 and WW2 respectively.

When the Valkyria Chronicles covers the front line of the Second European War (EW2) in the Gallia, Valkyria Chronicles 4 covers the story of another front line of war. The story focused on Squad E of Edinburgh Army, led by Claude Wallace of Gallia. His squad contains Kai Schulen and Raz, which are both also from Gallia. Squad E is enlisted in the Operation Northern Cross, which aims at attacking the Empire's capital, Schwartzgrad (equivalent to St. Petersburg, or Leningrad if you prefer the name during the wartime).

Valkyria Chronicles 4 tells us the story of a war for home, yet far from home. Squad E who mostly consists of members from Gallia with new people coming to fill up the squad roster (including Riley Miller in Chapter 1), is devoted to ending the war as hope for stopping the Empire's invasion of their homeland. Moreover, it is also a war for those who they meet along the way to the capital.

Although the theme and story seem to explore the valiant side of soldiers on the battlefield, it also shows how they are as a human. For example, fighting because a simple matter, like bacon and bread for breakfast got taken by another fellow soldier.

The story also shows the tragedy of war: fallen comrades, the cruelty toward civilians, the resentment towards the invaders, racism towards a certain race (in this case, Darcsens), or even making a decision that can cause casualties yet it is necessary for changes.

But then, how our characters respond to those tragedies while keep moving forward were told really great in this game. We always keep being reminded that, after all, we are humans, even if you are a Valkyria, a superhuman being with massive destructive power.

But remember: We're soldiers, not machines. We have to carry out our mission, but that isn't our only purpose. You should always make choices that you won't regret. Even if they aren't the "right" ones.

Roland Morgen, The Captain of Centurion Ship

I feel like I am a part of the journey of Squad E of trying to end the war that only causes a severe loss on both the Federation and the Empire. From the early chapters, I knew there was something going on when the 4 main characters gathered together for the first time. Something is not right. Along the way, the "truths" are revealed and somewhat it is kind of relatable with real-life situations of knowing that sometimes the what do you think is right to do might not be the one you desire to do, partly due to moral standards and emotions playing role in a rational decision making.

About the pacing, if you compare the timeline of what actually happens in the first few chapters that took around almost half a year, and the later chapters almost took around 1-2 months, you can say that it was somewhat a bit slow-paced and then move fast exponentially, but I do not think so. The thing about Valkyria Chronicles 4 is that the focus of the story is on the second half of the story after the winter starts. It is shown as to how the game was marketed, I mean, look at the game cover and you see our main characters in a winter suit. The navy and the ship system were shown as well, rather than keeping it as a secret to be discovered later in the game. So I think the pacing of the game is fine at all.

Characters

Main Characters

Claude, Raz, Kai, and Riley came from Hafen, a town in the Principality of Gallia. Although they have known each other since childhood, they still have bad past experiences which led to early conflicts among them, especially between Claude and Riley. They have different personalities and that is how conversations among them are becoming lively.

Along the way, they got even closer as they are often faced with difficult situations. As mentioned previously, the story and the characters' personalities and developments are aligned with each other. How they managed to past through the impossible by trusting each other, how they managed to face the reality of an existing legend of Valkyria and her power, or how they had to decide a crucial decision yet blocked by their ethical and moral standards are really portrayed in each character.

The difficult situations helped themselves to develop over the course of the story and it is really interesting to see that even how they have changed, there are still some parts of themselves that remain unchanged. Their past experiences do hinder yet help them as well in developing themselves while surrounded by the tragedy of war. It is very worth it to understand them and pay attention to each dialogue as the story progress. The battlefield was really where they grew up.

"It was a battlefield...But it was where we grew up."

Claude Wallace

Also, did I mention before that romance also happened among the main characters?

Antagonists

Of course, we all know from the beginning that the Empire is the enemy. But the people we are fighting against specifically were introduced in a later chapter of the game. They are the X-0, an experimental team founded by the Imperial Science Board, Heinrich Belgar. It consists of his strategist, Forseti, a Valkyria named Crymaria, the duo Nikola Graf and Chiara Rocino, and later joined by Klaus Walz, a tank commander from Ausbruch Unit.

Each of the antagonists has its own personal reasoning and background of how they behave. It is really interesting that not all the antagonists are being "evil". Obedience to authority is one of the factors of their behavior, as expected in a military organization, although you can say that X-0 does not follow orders as the usual chain of command in the military due to its special status. But still, the head of X-0 is Belgar, and as someone who would like to achieve his goal, in the name of science, he still does whatever it takes. For the others, frankly, they have their own agenda as well.

It is noteworthy to acknowledge the character development of Forseti, Klaus, and Crymaria. Crymaria's development especially does happen as you progress the story. For antagonists, I think they deserve a shoutout for having the traits that really goes along with the story theme.

That being said, it is quite sad to not really see Nikola and Chiara's development as much as the three mentioned previously as they lack screentime and I think their purpose is just being mere pawns rather than a living one, for the sake of the story. I personally think they can be told more differently as the duo is very similar to each other.

As an enemy on the battlefield, they really created some headaches for me. Especially the duo. But then, they all (or the AIs or bots in this case), has some kind of patterns so after figuring that, the missions are more doable.

Don't these two deserve a bit of happy ending although they're the antagonists?

Squad E

Squad E consists of people from various backgrounds and ages. Each of them has its own background stories than can be accessed by looking at their records on the headquarters. However, you won't able to access the full profile (even after the story ended) unless you play their Squad Stories, which is accessible if you made the units promoted to the rank of Corporal (spending 40 Combat Points).

Units personal potential skills are being explained at the Squad Stories. Completing them can either change the current skills or unlock a new one that can be useful for your missions. One example here is how Curtis and Elieen’s skills (both are negative ones) of concerning the other person changed after completing the Squad Stories (turned into positive ones).

These Squad Stories also offer great dialogue lines and situations that happened to them, some of them show why they joined the armies and one questioning about justice and evil. After completing some, I really feel like I would like to play some of these characters as often I can during the deployment. Those happen to characters like Laurent, Vancey, and Mabel, as I do not often need a Lancer or an extra Shocktrooper or Sniper as I already have Raz and Kai on the battlefield. Then, on a certain mission where I had to choose a character that might not be coming back, I really had a hard time choosing one of the squad as I would not like that to happen as I feel attached to each of them. However, a decision needed to be made and I was awarded a heart-touching post-battle scene. I am still able to play that unit during the post-game, but a certain part of the profile is not completed as he/she was declared dead.

Game Mechanics

Difficulty

In terms of the game itself, I think it is pretty comprehensible for the newcomers of the series. Tutorial keeps coming along the missions, and you can always revisit them in the headquarters in case you just missed them due to constantly skipping dialogue boxes.

I was expecting ‘easy’, ‘normal’, and ‘hard’ difficulty as it is a common set of difficulties in the game but I only found the first two at the beginning of the game. I chose the normal mode in this game and it was not really that hard for the obvious reasons. Having to say that, I ended up having a lot of C ranks (and occasionally D ranks) as I used too many turns to complete the mission. Yet, it is still possible to achieve it in A or B ranks. You just need to complete the mission using as few turns as possible.

Units

Players are given 7 types of units: Tanks, Scouts, Shocktroopers, Lancers, Engineers, Snipers, and Grenadiers. The first 6 are returning units from the Valkyria Chronicles while Grenadiers are the new units in the series. The new addition Grenadiers are the slow-moving artillery units that can hit far using arc trajectory that kind of work against personnel and tanks, depending on which weapon type you equip them.

Because of this, I thought that I won't be needing Lancer that much in this game since I have Grenadier. But then, on the late-game story missions, I ended up having Lancers as well, especially for Tanks as I can just one hit them accurately if I attack their weak points. Grenadiers are still useful though, but mostly for targets that are higher in elevation and hard to reach by the Lancers.

Scouts are nerfed in this game, compared to Valkyria Chronicles. It seems that their accuracy is lowered and I feel that it seems frail (although not as Engineer). However, I still maxed my Scouts as I often hoped for the random chance of "Double Movement" skills of a certain unit when using the "Command" option so I can lead my low AP (Action Points) Snipers, Lancers, and Grenadiers, aside from using APC.

Speaking of APC (Armored Personnel Carrier), we also get that in a bit later chapter of the game (still in the first-half). Cactus, our APC, has the normal capacity of carrying 2 units but can be upgraded into 4 units maximum. This has been a game-changer for me in my strategy making to complete the missions. It also guarantees (unless the APC got destroyed) that the units inside are safe from damages.

New squad members are unlocked throughout the story (automatically and if accomplish certain requirements), but I only use a few new ones. During deployment, I often prioritize the ones that having CP (Combat Points), which is Raz, Kai, and Riley. The Player will also receive another new member with CP and also one slot to units who achieve the rank of Corporal. I usually put this slot to Eileen, as she is an engineer, and I always bring at least one of them to missions.

Grinding

I think grinding has been a lot easier than Valkyria Chronicles as we can revisit the battles of previous chapters which can give a ton of EXP and DCT (currency) in the game. I was not going to do grinding in the beginning, but eventually, I felt that I need to since I feel that my attacks need more power and units’ potentials are not unlocked due to the low level of units. I was already at chapter 10 and having trouble in the mission (with two bosses in this case). So, I started to grind.

*cough* Chapter 8's Mock Battle in 1 turn that takes around 2-3 mins *cough*

Despite the grinding that has been done, it all returns to how you strategize the units and how you utilize the battlefield. Indeed, being at a higher level of units can unlock extra weaponry (such as grenade rifle for Scouts and flamethrower for Shocktroopers) orders, and potentials, but it does not make you overpowering the enemies.

Post-Game Contents

Although the story has ended, there is still something offered by the game, such as the "Hard Skirmishes" and extra chapter of Interludes and DLCs maps. Units, tanks, and weapons can be upgraded even further to help in these new missions. Furthermore, new features in the headquarters are also unlocked. Perhaps these contents would make you keep playing it for a while.

Visuals

Considering its initial release date in 2018, some of the players might be expecting sort-of AAA game graphics but this game is surely isn't at all. It is more like hand-drawing and really similar to the Japanese anime style of visuals. It combines the 2D and 3D styles but still feels like cartoonish and it's really appealing in its own way. During the combat mode, you can see comic-effects such as "kaboom" and "vroom" to represent an explosion and tanks moving respectively, which I can say it's quite a unique trademark for the franchise.

First-half chapters we explore through the green landscapes and towns, as well as the dreadful-looking and intense battlefield on one chapter, colored by its vibrant oranges. However, we are brought to snowy and icy landscapes later in the game. The levels are having similar backgrounds and atmospheres, but sometimes the ice crystals are also worth looking too.

Maps are drawn beautifully for each mission, although you can see it clearly after you start the deployment. It really helps the player to figure out the terrains and how to strategize and move the troops. Details showing high ground and climbable stairs for example, as well as bushes to hide troops and destroyable trees and ramps, are among some that make it really similar to what you can imagine of a war map during the 1900s.

Small details of facial expressions like blushes, tears, and face of disappointment are shown in the cutscenes which enrich the characters themselves to be more expressive. Each of the Squad E's character was drawn as how their personalities are, like the drunken Vancey, the weird-emo looking Odin who is actually a coward, the cheer-looking Nico, and the glamourously-looking Gertrude who is a nobility.

Personal Experience, Cons, and Hardware Issues

I really enjoy playing this game, but I think I should have strategized more in my playthroughs. Some of the missions have map-based events, whether it can change the objective of the mission, or making it easier to achieve the objective that might be difficult to do due to massive enemy blockades, for example. One of the maps that I really think much was the one that has a tank boss named Vulcan, commanded by Klaus Walz, and it deals quite a big amount of damage. However, it simply targets Cactus, so I used it as a bait to lure him into my Grenadiers’ range. Despite that, I accidentally trigger the map-based events which spawn Crymaria (I have no idea that she will come in this mission) so I had to improve while saving my troops from her flying ice shards.

Also, perhaps a tip: do not forget to focus on your objectives. I keep forgetting that and rechecking it after few turns passed.

I took around 4-5 days (40-50 hours of playing) to complete the game and I can say that it is very engaging as you feel like you should go further and try to continue the story (especially the second half) every time you finish the missions (which might take of almost an hour to finish it for some). If you want to play it, please play it on your holiday. Do not stay up all night before an important meeting or school the next day. I even almost stayed up all night before realizing that the next day was the day I had to register my classes.

I don't think the background music used was memorable for me, except the one for battle as it seems the game only used the same for all battle. Nevertheless, the sound effects of CP used, orders being enacted, or headshots still linger in my head until now.

As I am playing on the Nintendo Switch, I think there is still a bit of small lag between dialogues that make the dialogue box looks empty. Furthermore, sometimes the characters' animation during dialogues and their voice acting is not timed well, especially when Claude says something before we start the mission. Not only that, sometimes during the battle (when the troops are being moved), I feel quite lagging as well. Not to mention if there was an explosion near my unit which can cause way more lag. I usually play it when as I am charging my Switch, but the lags are still there sometimes.

Speaking of the cons, I also found that my units' positions are a bit messed up when using the "Command" feature. During one of the levels that have multiple altitudes and require climbing up or down the stairs, one or two units are still stuck on the other altitude or stuck on the same altitude but on the other side of the platform. This weirdness was solved when I had to move my "Commander" unit far away from the stairs so that the commanded units can adjust "automatically" and follow right behind the commander.

Other than that, perhaps it is quite weird that you can use the analog for vertical and horizontal movement during the game, but only vertical when accessing the save menu. I have to use the D-Pad for selecting "Yes" when the game asked me whether to overwrite the save file or not. That being said, D-Pad is still quite useful when I want to sneak up on the enemies without getting into their interception sight, and it provides my snipers and grenadiers to shoot more accurately.

Final Words

I will finish this piece of writing with a question:

What is the value of human lives in the midst of war?

The game portrays this question in the perspectives of Squad E with a tale that can hook you up to the characters and relate to their situation deeply. Hopefully, if you are interested in playing the game, feel free to do so and please enjoy it.

Zacky Dhaffa | Personal Website