Valkyria Chronicles 4

If there is a VC5, please let me kill enemies by running them over with a vehicle.

Tldr: This game is a meet point for art, strategy, jrpg, anime and war.
Each of the Valkyria Chronicles game has their own theme story to tell.
Valkyria Chronicles 1: Nationalism, Neutrality and Independence
Valkyria Chronicles 2: Racism, Civil War and Ultranationalism,
Valkyria Chronicles 3: Truth,
Valkyria Chronicles 4: Morality, Humanity, World War and Peace.
Now, let us begin to review this game seriously. Firstly, on the PC port.
PC Port: It is good. There is no lag. It can run on 60 fps constantly. The only bad is in 1 mission where there are a lot of destruction. The frame rate will drop. You will notice the drop when your pc is low-end like me. But, you can forgive it. Despite, with the drop, you can play it. The destruction destroy your frame rate lol.
Gameplay: It is a same with the first entry. Nothing different. Rather, they enhance the bullshit thing. The enemy is strong. Their placement is hell. If you don't be careful. It is easy for you to fail. Which is good. That is why we call this game as strategy game. Use your brain to destroy that bullshit with your own way. Also, don't skip the tutorial. If you don't master the basic then you won't finish this game. You won't be bored with the same gameplay. Rather, the story will distract you from it.
Character: I can see where people complain of character because of certain personality. There is cheesy one. There is gangster. There is tsun-tsun. There is angel-like. Many different personalities. Which is good. That is how it should be when it come to war.
Story: It is about world war. But with anime characteristic and less-blood. You can expect the story will deliver the message of conflict and peace. All the sacrifice for the peace. The morale in the war. You can see them all. I would like to specify it. But, the more I do it. The more I spoil it. The less message you get.
That is main story. Let's go to side story. The side story is where you can see the background of each character. You may sympathize with them or hate them. Each character is their own reason to go to war. They aren't a pawn for sacrifice.
Art: The art is excellent. They are expressive enough to tell the mood of story. It is good decision to make it canvas paint to depict the war story.
Music: BAD ASS.
The orchestral come in and out. There is no out of place background music. Rather, you will overjoy about it. You will be glad that you play this game.
Overall, it is 11/10. Your money will not be waste for this game.

War crimes and breast

I played VC1. I loved it except for the eternal problems of turn-based strategy games where the computer alters the rules as it pleases, and the problem of rewarding speed instead of game quality that ended up spoiling the replayability. The characters were charismatic enough to remember and love, the story was epic enough to enjoy (with some ups and downs), the drama was a bit predictable but not bad and the atmosphere has a unique WW2 appeal mixed with fantasy that allowed you to have that romantic touch of WW2 but being able to jump the wall of reality pleasantly.
So it was inevitable to play VC4.
The good thing:
It looks like VC1.
The atmosphere is still intact and enjoyable.
The gameplay and mechanics are the same, and in some cases improved. The inclusion of the granadier is appreciated. Sometimes you have the feeling that it is a little overpowered but soon you see the drawbacks. Among others when you have him on the opposite side.
Play time and replayability. I’ve decided to cut off at 101+ hours. All unlocked and passed except 1 mission against the clock (which I don’t like). It includes some farming to reach a certain level of money that you need to unlock a certain event, but I didn’t feel it was too heavy. The dlcs included some are short but fun but usually bring extras (usually I do not complain, they came in the pack) and the expert level missions has given gameplay. This point I think is a special improvement over VC1. The extras that are unlocked when you pass the campaign, the subcampaigns and others give a feeling of lengthening the life that I didn’t have with VC1.
Squad Stories : This is the other point in which VC4 wins a lot against VC1. They invest in telling you little stories of the secondary characters that allow you to unlock their biography, get to know them better and like them even better. Sometimes in fact… it feels like it’s better than the rest of the campaign. It’s something that VC1 lacked quite a bit and would have been appreciated.
The “it depends”:
It looks too much like VC1. Sometimes it gives the feeling of wanting to follow the path of a previous success before taking a risk with something new. It suffers from trying to pass by certain parts or milestones of its predecessor.
The characters. Referring to the above, although the characters are really different, there is a feeling of VC1-VC4 parity that I can’t get rid of, making the characters feel somewhat emptier than those of VC1, although I didn’t really dislike them. The feeling that they’re a bit more “cookie cutter”. And well, I admit that I almost can’t tell VC1’s protagonist Claude from VC4’s Welkyn. They even added to Claude the “weird” touch of Welkyn, but in this last one with the insects and his relationship with Isara he got along much better.
Loot. Every time you kill an ace or on certain occasions you get weapons or items. The items to equip are not bad. 90% of the weapons are useless. Although there are cases of some that change the style of game, as the sniper rifle against tanks. It is a point that could have been exploited more because it allows the same unit to have different uses.
The Downsides:
It wants to look too much like VC1. As I said before, this sometimes plays against it. If you come from VC1 you know what awaits you and partly makes you want to make a bingo card to go marking the events as you see them coming.
The campaign. It’s horrible. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes it’s good but it commits a series of very important failures:
1) Predictable. As I mentioned above. If it happened in VC1 then there has to be something similar here.
2) Continuously from second to third act and back again. Two thirds of the campaign you spend in a continuous back and forth from “we are lost!” to “we are going to win!” and back again. This roller coaster may be fine at some point or up to a point, but there is a limit to how many times you can be “ambushed”, “surprised” or “attacked from behind”. When you overdo it you get into a feeling that every time you win you are waiting for the counterattack (each one more absurd), or it leaves you with a feeling that deep down your characters are idiots.
3) Too much investment in the enemy side. Maybe this is a problem of mine, although it is related to the next point. I don’t see redemption in them, I don’t see good characteristics in them, I don’t like them… but the game tries hard to shove them down your throat. It includes a character that is considered your rival that ends up being annoying, a Valkyrie that doesn’t say anything to me and two killer girls that not only don’t interest me but also get on my nerves. And the worst thing is that from the second half of the campaign you invest a lot in them.
4) Absurd motivations of characters. Related to the previous one. One of the reasons why the antagonists don’t tell me anything is because they are horribly constructed. You could throw out their logic with a single phrase: “why?”. Or they have reasons for doing certain things or choosing certain sides that contradict each other.
5) Enemies who refuse to die. There is a law that says that if you want an enemy to feel invincible, don’t take him out, don’t let him cross you. Or if he does cross make him immortal, untouchable. In this case they have not followed it. You get to defeat each of the antagonists several times. In some cases you may think they survive somehow but in others… like massive explosions of their vehicle or literally dying inside your “house” (How did he survive? Did he get up and walk out the door full of guards?). It’s ridiculous.
6) The last missions of the campaign are absurd. I can’t go into details without making spoilers but the motivation, the outcome and the way it is handled became frustrating. How can you fall into the same trap several times in a row?
Speed is still rewarded over quality. There are several criticisms on this point. Getting an A in the mission is directly (and only) related to the number of turns. This can be fun sometimes, when you find a way to sneak a scout to his final base as if it were a puzzle. But trying to repeat it in all the missions takes away fun and in quantities. It would have been nice as it is done in other games to have a list of achievements of the missions. For example 3 per mission: 1) Finish it in X turns, 2) Finish it without touching anyone, 3) Kill all the aces. That would give replayability, allow you to have rewards for doing well and still keep the fast-puzzle mode.
Hell… if you give a swimsuit DLC put it on the whole troop!
The problem: Do I recommend it? I love it as much as I hate it. Because they have all the tools to be one of my favorite games, the atmosphere, characters, style, graphics, gameplay, game type, narrative… and they end up screwing it up massively because of laziness when it comes to creating a story and characters to match. It’s easier to throw in a bunch of characters cut from the dotted line and a bunch of worn out tropes. But all in all, have fun, 100+ hours of gameplay speaks for itself.

How can Kai be a good sniper if her big fat butt sticks out in the air when she's prone?

def would get entire series if they had the rest of the games

It expands and improves the gameplay from VC1.
However, the characters and story are a step down from previous games.
The plot doesn't pick up until halfway through the game so it's a matter of forcing yourself to stay interested.
Once it picks up, the storytelling slowly starts going off the rails. At some point, even the cast members start becoming self-aware of how ridiculous certain events play out.
The main cast have less development overall since they're already part of "the best" to begin with. The 'forced' anime cliche fanservice scenes do not help. While I haven't played VC2, those two can duke it out whoever has the worst characters out of the series. For a game that relies on it's writing for points (like most RPGs), it's a notable flaw. Period.
I'm still giving this game a thumbs up. VC4 is serviceable enough and scenes do have a skip feature.