Valkyria Chronicles 4

It was apparently announced 2+ weeks ago but I only just found out about it, and thought maybe others may be unaware, if anyone is even interested. I know the series isn't held in very high around here sometimes, and Valkyria Revolution probably didn't do a whole lot to alleviate that problem, both here, and in the series own fandom in general

But anyway, to the point, Valkyria Chronicles 4 is apparently a thing, and they are adamant about going back to their roots, and it looks a lot better than it probably has any right to. So I'm cautiously optimistic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_otGpDTvbM

Not held in high regard if you're Wolf Kanno maybe (love ya dude)! I love this series. Shame it's on PS4 though since I don't have one.

There was a lot of talk in the comments about how they'll be porting it. I'm not sure where they got their information, but it sounded weirdly definitive that it'll get a port to other platforms. Take it with a grain of salt, but it's not without merit, since the original was ported to Steam with the re-release, and I imagine they're using the same engine, so I don't see why it wouldn't get at least a PC release. But there was a lot of talk about how they plan on making sacrifices to fidelity for the Switch release, so maybe it will be multiplatform. I haven't investigated anything, personally

Kinda makes me want to play through the original. I bought the re-release again when it came out to have it on a newer console, but never tried playing it again due to the huge spike in difficulty I never got past the first time. I wonder if they fixed that, or maybe there are better guides out now. The ones that were written at the time were no help with the team I was using

Either way, it seems Valkyria Revolution's luke-warm reception didn't hinder the series somehow. I'm thankful for that much at least. Now I just hope they don't hold the localization hostage due to that luke-warm reception like they did with Valkyria Chronicles 3

4? There were three games?

4 technically so far, if you include Valkyria Revolution.

If people had high hopes for VC based on word of mouth but were disappointed, I strongly recommend they try VC2. I thought VC was a nice little game but lacked depth. VC2 was better in almost every way and had much more depth to it. It's one of my favorite PSP games. Unfortunately we didn't get a fully localized VC3 and I had to rely on a fan translation. It was still very fun though and I loved the parallels with the first game.

I'm excited for VC4 so I hope they localize it.

For anyone interested there is a demo available. Feels a lot like the original in game play with some interesting tweaks. Unfortunately the cast is tropey as all he'll. It didn't ruin the experience but there was some groaning escaping my lips. But there are a hand full of likable characters as well. So here's hoping. I'm still excited

Hm. The game is definitely on my 'to buy' list for the Switch, no question about it, but I am a bit worried reading that, as the extremely trope-y characters and 'Anime Highschool: The Game' vibe contributed heavily to my general dislike of the second title, despite mechanics I otherwise enjoyed. How long is the demo?

Like four battles. It's two chapters that carry to the main game. I didn't get a high school vibe, thank God. And only two characters made me groan. And yeah, one is the main character. But people liked Final Fantasy X and Star Ocean 4 despite terrible main characters. He's not nearly as unlikeable as Tidus and Edge. They do insinuate something bad happened ten years ago and give off this "troubled past" vibe pretty blatantly. And the fact that they're like 19 makes that also kinda meh worthy but I also don't know the "big reveal" as to what they're actually talking about so it might be okay. In either case the game play is on point. The characters just need some work. Hopefully the story flashes them out more. But nothing makes me feel like I can't stand anyone. It's just average fairly okay and benign typical anime with fun game play. Here's hoping it picks up steam or at least doesn't take a dump all over my intelligence

Did they happen to introduce any new classes or mechanics from what you saw?

Yes to both. There is a Grenadier, which is basically a portable mortar expert. Introduced in a way where you need to take out heavy machine gunners up on sniper towers. Also the engineers can now double as medics. Snipers can assist partners in shooting. And heavy vehicles use one command point, which may be OP but it didn't seem to really change anything. Ground troops were still the bread and butter