E3 2018 Preview – Valkyria Chronicles 4
Venturing into the Sega Atlas booth at E3, I had the opportunity to go hands-on with the upcoming tactical role-playing game, Valkyria Chronicles 4. As someone who has never taken the time to enjoy any of the previous Valkyria Chronicles games, I asked the helpful attendant if I would be at a disadvantage coming into it as a rookie. The response was quite reassuring. While the game takes place in the same universe, the story is essentially self-contained. There will be some upcoming DLC that’ll bridge the gap between the previous games and this new game – but it’s non-essential for new-comers. So, if you’re like me and new to the franchise, you won’t be at much of a disadvantage if Valkyria Chronicles 4 is your first foray into this universe.
For those unfamiliar, Valkyria Chronicles is a turn-based tactical, role-playing game. On your turn, you’ll lead your team around a large battlefield, moving into tactically advantageous positions. While I only played two levels, the objectives were generally kill all the enemies on the field. While I imagine there might be other criteria to complete levels in the full game, I can’t say for certain what these might be. To move your characters, you’re assigned CP points each turn. Using any character uses one CP and during that usage, you’ll have a stamina bar that allows you to move for as long as you have stamina and attack once. You can opt to use a second CP on a character twice in one turn.
Even during my short time with the game, I was introduced to at least a dozen different characters, each with their own dialog, personalities, and abilities – including some hilarious vulgarities that I couldn’t help but laugh at while playing. There are sniper classes for long-range attacks, scouts with extended stamina, and tanks that blow shit up. The attention to detail and level of depth is clearly apparent. It’s worth mentioning that visually, the game has a beautiful, hand-drawn watercolor style that just looks incredible.
Fans of strategy style role-playing games are in for a treat when this game releases. In the meantime, you could check out the original Valkyria Chronicles that was recently remastered. Valkyria Chronicles 4 is set to launch worldwide in September 2018 on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Oh, and if collector’s editions are your thing, Valkyria Chronicles 4 will also have it’s very own collector’s edition – which you can learn about here.
