Valkyria Chronicles 4
PC, PS4, Switch
The scenarios are often ingenious, finding fresh ways to breathe new life into familiar systems
Developer/publisher Sega (CS3) Format PC, PS4 (tested), Switch Release Out now
After the calamity that was last year’s Valkyria Revolution, Sega’s otherwise admired series of tactical RPGs has wisely returned to first principles. Valkyria Chronicles 4 doesn’t just look and feel a lot like the original; it’s set at the same time, following a new group of soldiers, Squad E, within the Atlantic Federation, who seem to be fighting a losing battle against the crushing might of the Eastern Imperial Alliance. It begins with a gambit that ultimately results in a long and arduous campaign for the troops: the idea is to push deep into enemy territory in an attempt to capture their capital and end the conflict. Inevitably, it doesn’t go according to plan, but that’s a factor of just about every mission here. The rules of engagement change mid-battle, strategies are regularly scuppered by the unexpected arrival of reinforcements, and that’s before weather and even natural disasters come into play.
The formula remains at once thoughtful yet thrilling, a blend of turn-based strategy with realtime movement where you’ll take tentative steps down unexplored paths, poking your head around corners to check for hidden enemy grunts. Or you might opt for a risky sprint across open ground, hoping to reach a wounded colleague. You’ll need to keep moving when you hear the whoosh of a mortar, clenching instinctively as you anticipate it landing near your feet and blowing you off them. Or you’ll jam the analogue stick forward to make it past a gatling turret, its rounds hopefully chewing up the mud behind your feet rather than gouging chunks from your health bar. The trade-off is having to accept the odd contrivance of a turn ending with you and an enemy facing one another, guns locked and loaded, yet with no fire passing between them until either spends their next action point. New to this fourth mainline entry are grenadiers. These carry portable mortars that initially seem grossly overpowered, even though their movement range is extremely limited. Should you need to guide leader Claude through a canyon with anti-tank weaponry on both sides, there’s no finer way to clear a path. And yet you’ll need to keep them protected, since their HP is dangerously low compared to other units. Keeping them out of enemy range is essential, then, so a scout or sniper will need to tag along to spot them: as long as a friendly unit can see the enemy, you can hit them from a relatively safe distance. You’ll need to have an Engineer on hand, too, to refill their sparse ammo stocks – and suddenly you’re having to think about micromanaging three other units to get the most from them. There’s always the option to stick them in an APC to cover more ground more quickly, but if that’s taken out any units inside are instantly forced to retreat from the front lines. In other words, they’re only as useful as your tactics allow them to be, and the game’s delicate equilibrium remains.
With a unit’s movement gauge lowering for each successive action per term, you can’t rely on a single soldier to do all your hard work, either. You can, however, use specific orders to empower individual troops. On one mission, we send our sniper on a suicidal sortie down the left flank to take out a row of enemies. But the ability to refill her health from afar allows her to complete her objective without needing to call for a stretcher. And on the occasions where a unit is in critical condition, they can sometimes shake off their injuries for one heroic last stand, their actions inspiring nearby units to a stat boost, or allowing them to fire off a few rounds to gain revenge on the soldier who shot them before they collapse.
The scenarios, meanwhile, are often ingenious, finding ways to breathe new life into familiar systems. The second proper story mission is a classic: with the fog of war descending on a small town, you’re asked to creep through narrow streets to identify the real enemy tanks among a number of wooden decoys so that the Federation artillery can launch an assault without suffering friendly casualties. But when help fails to arrive, it suddenly transforms into a tense backsagainst-the-wall escape. Later, you’ll need to activate railroad switches within an enemy factory to redirect an armoured train that keeps pulling in to drop off new troops. And when an unexpected Imperial attack leaves your base in flames, you’re asked to secure an escape route before digging in for four agonisingly long turns when their tanks roll up to finish the job.
These are not short missions, sometimes stretching beyond the hour mark, but their length is fully justified, each one balanced in such a way that by the end you’re always running short of something – whether it’s time, ammo, or in the debilitating cold of winter, stamina. Often, you’re made to feel like you’ve barely trudged over the finish line, and as a result the ‘operation complete’ fanfare feels all the more triumphant. Hitoshi Sakimoto’s powerful soundtrack heightens the tension, and the sound effects are equally terrific: the ping of a sniper shot taking an enemy down in one hit is endlessly satisfying.
The game’s more downbeat moments are handled affectingly, but the supernatural elements that become more prevalent in the final third are a disappointment, as are the rare lapses into anime lechery and a rather needlessly laborious upgrade process. Yet these moments are only so exasperating because of the brilliance found elsewhere. Not only does Valkyria Chronicles 4 capture the drudgery of war without ever making it a chore for the player, but, perhaps more remarkably, it’s a Japanese RPG that is exactly as long as it needs to be. It’s no revolution – but at least it’s no Revolution.