Topic: Valkyria Chronicles 4 Coming to Nintendo Switch!

@JasmineDragon Is it that it's unrealistic or too easy?

In the original game taking out tanks is never so straightforward. They'll usually shoot you dead before you can get the chance to take them out from behind. I imagine it'll be the same when the main game of VK4 kicks off.

@JasmineDragon Valkyria Chronicles has never, and will never, be a realistic depiction of war. It's fantasy WW2 (the fantasy part becomes much more apparent as you play further into the first game) with a VERY heavy dose of anime mixed in.

Honestly, though, that's a part of its charm for me. I hate realistic military-themed settings in games and fiction (with a few exceptions: the film Dunkirk was exceptional, for example).

@JaxonH Maybe the cult classic original is more "cult" than I initially realized. It really shouldn't be. It's probably second only to Super Mario Galaxy as my favorite seventh gen game at this point.

Monster Hunter Generations Ult, Valkyria Chronicles 4, Mega Man 11 and The World Ends With You are my 4 most hyped games of the rest of 2018. Even above Smash Bros, Pokemon, Team Sonic Racing, Dark Souls Remastered or DB Fighter Z. And Red Dead Redemption 2 looks insanely awesome, and Tomb Raider and Spiderman.

For now, just give me my Monster Hunter.

@Buizel It's just kind of ridiculous. To be clear, I don't want to slam the creators. I know perfectly well that Ultimate Realism is not what they were going for here, and that it's a fantasy game.

It just kind of undermines the gravitas of it all for me as a former tanker, like when a sci-fi show relies on a completely preposterous "technical" solution to, say, a problem with the warp drive. It's not the end of the world, if you like the show and care more about the characters you just shake your head and move on, but it's hard to take it seriously.

Real world tanks are, for all practical purposes, invulnerable to small arms fire. Infantry troops can take them out with shaped charges or anti-tank weapons, but just shooting at them with submachine guns is a tactic that will end with a lot of dead infantrymen.

Even in the early days of tank warfare, nobody built tanks that you just had to sneak up behind and shoot them with your rifle. It's true that tanks are almost always more lightly armored in the rear, but even there they typically had enough armor that you had to get really, really lucky to do any damage with small arms.

@Ralizah I get that, honestly. Just watching the trailer is enough to tell you that they are not looking to create a gritty, realistic war sim here. All I'm saying is that for me, personally, this was a bit of a stumbling point. I may even get over it, as the game definitely looks cool in other ways. I plan to play the rest of the demo and see what they're offering before I make up my mind.

The Bad Guy Empire really needs to step up their tank design game, tho. Frickin newbies... SMH.

@JasmineDragon I'll pretend to understand the game as it was presented during the demo: they don't use gasoline in this universe, just a clean burning energy source called Ragnite which honestly the whole world is fighting over. The tank engines that process ragnite must burn super hot which forces them to mount the engine externally, while the extreme heat and delicate nature of the engine, make it so that its vulnerable to any kind of interruption which can easily lead to a catastrophic explosion.
Somehow it doesn't blow up into a mini mushroom cloud like a car in Fallout, but I assume that's because ragnite is more magic than actual science cold fusion.

@Alikan Yeah, I get it. I don't have a problem with the pseudo-science of it, my issue is a military one. The reality is that no nation at war for several years would continue to manufacture a top-of-the-line war machine with such a ridiculous vulnerability built in. They couldn't possibly afford to keep using tanks if they were so vulnerable. Tanks are hella expensive and you don't just roll another one off the assembly line every time you lose one. Sooner or later someone in the high command is going to take serious issue with the constant expensive losses, at which point they will demand a better armored vehicle, a different fuel source, or a complete reversal in doctrine that covers this vulnerability.

I know, I'm a dork.

Happy gaming, everyone!

@JaxonH I'd say Smash is to blame on the Switch side. The way Nintendo has promoted Switch since June has been such that as if Smash was the only thing coming to Switch in the 2nd half of this year.

• 3rd parties at E3? Nope, more Smash.
• Info on the paid online service that's a month away? Nah, Smash.
• A general Direct which gives people an idea of what's happening in the near future and early 2019 outside of Smash? Of course not, let's have a Smash Direct instead.

Don't get me wrong, the Smash content has been fantastic but Nintendo has been focusing way too much on promoting it over even their other 1st party games.

Just how big (in terms of gigs) is this demo!?

I've had it downloading for just a tad over an hour, and it's only now at about 50% downloaded.

@JasmineDragon Unlike real weaponry, games need some balancing. Maybe the tanks will become more of a problem later in the game? Normal tanks in Advance Wars are quite a joke as well but I really hate bigger tanks in those games.

@RR529 Seems to be 4.3 GB. It's quite meaty, though. Took me 6-7 hours to get highest rank in every mission.

I just downloaded VC1 from Steam and played about as much as VC4 demo on Switch and I must say I’m kinda disappointed atm.. VC4 looks and plays almost exactly like first one but with worse voice acting

@Grumblevolcano
Ya, too much Smash 7/10

@CroRock
It's supposed to look and play like the first one. One of the biggest complaints over the last decade is that the series kept straying further from how the first one looked and how the first one played.

This is the series' glorious return to form.

Not to say there haven't been some changes made- balancing scouts, adding in new classes, etc. but the art style is absolutely supposed to look just like the first. This is what the fans wanted to see.

@JaxonH
I’m a big fan of the art style so no problems with that.. just wanted to say that VC4 feels like DLC for VC1, and not like brand new game in the series. And that voice acting reminds me of FE Echoes actors but slightly worse done. But again, I’m just few chapters in first one.
Still, I’ll probably end buying it before Fire Emblem comes out to fulfill my strategy needs.

@CroRock
I don't think equating it as DLC is fair. Sequels can have the same art style and gameplay (Assassins Creed, DOOM, Wolfenstein, New Super Mario Bros, DKC, etc, all of which follow the same trademark art style and same gameplay). But returning to the roots of what made the series great is not only what people wanted to see, but it's what they needed to do to get Valkyria Chronicles back on course. I would hope that every game in the series going forward would retain the same gameplay and art style.

Also, I thought the voice acting in Fire Emblem Echoes was some of the best in quite some time. Anything in that ballpark is a complement to the game, I think.

@CroRock I love that VC4 is finally getting back to the roots of the series, particularly in terms of the art style. It still feels fresh enough to me, but then I did play the original VC and VC2 years ago. It probably would be weird to play VC and VC4 simultaneously.

Honestly, I don't have any problem with the voice acting either. Seems pretty good to me. shrugs

This game is pretty interesting, but maybe I'm just not in the right mindset because I'm feeling like I'm not making correct use of my time. You lose mission 1 if it takes you more than 20 turns, but it takes me 10 just to clear the first half, which feels way too long for such an early mission (I just can't think of a good strategy to clear those turret gunners in a timely manner, which I'm assuming you have to do before capturing those two camps).

I like the artsyle and theme though (a breath of fresh air compared to all the more traditional fantasy theming seen in most Switch JRPGs so far).

@DarthNocturnal, is there a way you can check their firing range on the map? I had assumed it was that curved line with the dotted line in front of it, so I don't send any troops beyond that point until I have both cleared (I'm talking about the two at the front of the castle, each one on a tower just behind each camp).

@RR529 The snipers work great against the turrets. At some point in that level (IIRC), you also get a grenadier, and she can take out some of them too. It can take a little practice, but I bet things will go pretty fast once you get your rhythm down.

@RR529 You can just ignore the turrets for the first half of the battle. You'll get a new unit in the second half that can one shot them. The turrets won't shoot you until you're trying to cross the bridge.

After playing every mission again over the weekend I broke down and preordered this from amazon. The danger of putting out a great demo of a good game.
I don't even normally like tactical RPG games, but the combo of turn based, real time, actually aiming the weapons, not to mention the appeal of anime fantasy wwii. Good job.