Valkyria Chronicles 4

Of the mainline Valkyria Chronicles games, VC4 is by far my favorite one.
VC1 is a classic, but also very simple gameplay-wise. Especially considering scouts are so over powered. I actually recommend watching the anime adaptation of VC1 over playing the game as the anime gives the characters so much more depth.
VC2 is the worst of the mainline games by a wide margin. Very odd choice to make a PSP sequel to a PS3 game. Overall its very generic, even having a school setting. It is the only game in the series to NOT take place during the Second Europan War.
VC3 is the darkest of the 4 games. You play as the Gallian black ops which are made up of condemned criminals basically being forced to go on suicide missions. It shows Gallia in a very different light. Unfortunately its the only game to not have an English release, so you have to emulate it with the fan translation patch.
VC4 is the most well written of the games in terms of characters. The added gameplay mechanics and larger scale battles really do wonders cause this is the first time we are actually playing on the front line of this war. Its the longest of the 4 games and has an admittedly slow start, but once it gets going, its non-stop enjoyment.

We are long overdue for a Valkyria Chronicles 5 that builds on this game's formula. Even in 2025 I still find myself coming back to play this occasionally because of the experience it offers.
The gameplay is fun, The Characters are interesting, the music is fitting. Until we get 5, Grab this one.

Pretty nice game. It's held back by its ranking system, though.
If you want to get higher ranks, you need to finish missions in the fewest turns possible. That means that you have to rush objectives while ignoring most enemies. Not particularly fun :C

Preface this by saying that I played the original Valkyria Chronicles many years ago on PS3, and also played this one on my PS4 a good many years ago. I own it on my PS4, Switch, and on Steam. Just getting around to playing it again and decided to leave a review on it because I feel I have more than enough hours from the years of playing it on and off to make a few quick generalized takes on it. There was little to no thought to how this all flows, and I typed as I thought of things to say, so I'm sorry for any redundancy in advance. I don't usually write these, but I have a real soft spot for this game, so it deserved me wasting a quick ten minutes to type this up.
In a nutshell, this game is anime WW2 with some "modern" twists, like single-man portable mortars, APCs, and other things I won't get into too much. If anime tropes or style of story telling make you roll your eyes, you will have a hard time enjoying the story and majority of its cutscenes. I can't act like this isn't an anime game, because it very much is, and it's not trying to pretend it isn't in the slightest.
VC4 is not ground breaking, as VC1 existed over ten years ago already and literally invented the system this game is based on... Turn based, infantry-focused WW2 with light elements of tactics and decision making. And usually a tank you can control. But VC4 isn't trying to be ground breaking. It's just an easy to enjoy ride, much like VC1, but with a new story and new characters, who are all very lovable for the most part. So long as you don't try to take VC4 too seriously, you're likely to enjoy it.
With all of that said, mechanically, VC4 feels like a much fresher, more streamlined VC1, with some minor quality of life and overall refinement/slight balance changes. That means it took a tried and generally favorable formula, and +1'd it. The game still suffers from some issues that were in VC1 that veteran players will be familiar with, but for the most part, the foundation makes for an enjoyable game all the same, as the formula was always novel and unique.
Like mentioned before, the game tries to tell a serious story, which it sometimes succeeds in, while sprinkling in the usual anime tropes to help ease the tension between story beats. To an extent, this is present in the gameplay mechanics to a degree. Much like how I feel about the story, if you don't try to take the game too seriously, it's a solid gameplay loop, with a familiar mechanics system that can begin to feel very samey, but missions and circumstances around them are always unique, keeping the gameplay loop fresh. The missions usually reflect what is going on in the story well, usually centered around otherwise decent twists and surprises and character growths. Nothing ever seems to get too stale or overstay its welcome, even on some of the longer missions.
With all that said, the game is 100% weeb trash, if I haven't made that clear enough by now. Much like anyone familiar with the life cycle of an anime fan, you will ultimately realize all anime is trash, but it's enjoyable trash, if you choose to enjoy it and not be a total square who can't enjoy things. This game is no different. It's the box mac and cheese of video games. Very much something you can turn on and jump right into with little to understand outside of fundamental mechanics, something that is easy to consume, low effort to play (generally) and not really need to use your head too much to enjoy it, especially if you play on easy.
All and all, a splendid time for those who either played the original Valkyria Chronicles on PS3, or if you enjoy video games with anime aesthetic and think you'll enjoy a turn based strategy game with an action-oriented twist. The game really does climax around the two thirds of the way in, and it's an absolute blast leading up to it and the resolution after. I'll always love this game, even if it's ultimately anime trash by my otherwise much more mature standards these days.

Great game. Knowledge of previous games is not required
Valkyria Chronicles is one of the best gaming franchises in history - story, gameplay, music, universe - everything is simply PERFECT!

Pros and cons are down below) If you want to see a (spoiler free) video review, this game is the 3d (out of 3) that I discuss:
Pros:
1. One of the best games ever, on god. A literal gem. I played through the 1st part when I was much younger and that game still lives rent free in my mind to this day. Story is absolutely brilliant, you can't even imagine how many times it made me feel the feels, cry and celebrate with the characters. My fav part is that every unit that you have and can use in a fight is a person with their own personality traits and friends who they feel more comfortable to fight alongside with. Moreover, if you use a character enough, they reach rank "corporal" which unlocks their respective squad story that makes them grow and develop new character traits or change their previous flaws into something positive. So, every single unit goes through their own little adventure (if you use them often enough to promote to corporal). Absolutely amazing. It's ultimately a game about war but for me it's a game about friendship, love, sacrifices, bravery and what people mean to each other. It also has magic just so you know). Story length is about my playthrough time ~ 60h long but there are also reasons to replay fights and there's plenty of post game content as well.
2. Style. I loved the anime vintag-y style, I think it works perfectly for such game. It doesn't take away from the heavy topics but overall keeps the experience light-hearted, wonderful stylistic choice inmho. Every single character looks great, some models are absolutely amazing. It's just a joy to play as them and to look at the cutscenes and story fragments. Complete edition also has an obligatory anime beach episode if you wanted to know XD
3. Combat. SO MUCH FUN! It's a turn based game. Each unit can move and attack during their action and you have limited amount of actions during your turn. The less actions it takes you to beat the level, the higher the grade and rewards that you get. IF you wanna see more, I showcase stuff a little in my vid, so you can get a better idea. It's a strategy game but it doesn't require you to be a strategic mastermind to have fun and be able to beat the game. It's perfectly balanced, hard enough to be challenging to get a rank A and easy enough to make it possible to enjoy the story without try harding the fights (most of them at least).
4. Pacing. The game managed to keep introducing something new throughout my 60h of playtime to keep fights interesting. It never got boring.
Cons:
1. Main villains of the story are poorly written. (2 of them have the weirdest motivations ever, the rest are great). I get that "they're just crazy" is a good explanation but is a very weak motivation for a good story. Made the ending very anticlimactic imho. I feel like the game should have ended 1-2 fights sooner than it did. But it's just my personal opinion.
2. 2 boss fights (not the same one that I talked about in the previous point) felt very puzzl-y. This game is supposed to be a strategy yet 2 particular boss fights that are happening back to back and were meant to be fun and fresh and unique are actually just puzzles that you have to solve by doing a specific thing in a specific order in a specific amount of turns or you gonna start losing units and will lose. These fights were so annoying, they deserve a place in a "cons" list. On a positive note, you can always look up a playthrough of the fights on YouTube and repeat those specific step to get rank A without any issue.
3. If you dislike standart anime overreacting overacting overgasping etc, then there's plenty of that in this game. I don't mind it that much but sometimes it just made my eyes roll. Still, I don't think it's such a big deal. I'm not an anime fan and it didn't take away from the story a bit. It's still SUCH A BRILLIANT STORY!!! imho of course
Overall we got 8.5 Crymarias out of 10 (to be fair) but it's a 10 out of 10 in my heart!
Thank you for reading my review <3 Hope you have a nice day and fun gaming!

Absolutelly love this game. While I prefer story in VC1, this one is considerably more polished.
I really recommend to try this unique tactical shooter, there isn't anything like this on the market.