Valkyria Chronicles 4

[LoweGear]

[Dualshockers] Valkyria Chronicles 4’s New Screenshots and Info Are all About the Tanks on Famitsu

Originally Posted by Dualshockers

Today’s issue of Weekly Famitsu came with a spread on the upcoming strategy JRPG Senjou no Valkyria 4: Eastern Front, that will be released in the west as Valkyria Chronicles 4.

While the game is mostly about infantry combat, tanks remain the most powerful weapon for ground warfare. Even Claude’s Squad E fields its own tanks, and today we get to meet their crew members and more.

Miles Aabek is voiced in Japanese by Hiroshi Okamoto (Andy Bogart in The King of Fighters XIV) is the pilot of Claude’s tank, the Hafen. They have been together since the times of the academy, and Miles trusts the protagonist as the tank commander and as the highest ranking officer of the squad. His hobby is taking pictures.

Dan Bentley is voiced by Hisao Egawa (Falco Lombardi in the Star Fox series, Cao Ren in the Dynasty Warriors series). He loves cars and has been a member of the Federal Army for a while. After moving from unit to unit, he was assigned to Squad E. He is in charge of the tank pilots and cars and mechanics of the unit. He is a man of few words, but he can be a good friend.

Ronald Albee is voiced by Atsuki Tani (he is Master Chief in the Japanese dub of the Haloseries) is a tank commander belonging to Minerva’s Squad F. Back in the times of the military academy, he was impressed by her chivalrous spirit, and he believes that she will climb to the top of the ranks of the Federal Army.

Like in previous games of the series, tanks use three types of ammo, armor-piercing shells, grenades, and machine guns. Each is effective against different targets. They can also crush defenses simply by ramming them, and they can harmlessly destroy anti-personnel mines.

Armor-piercing shells have a linear trajectory and are designed to penetrate other tanks. Grenades are designed to attack infantry and are shot in a parabolic trajectory. They also explode affecting a large area. Machine guns are effective against nearby infantry positioned in the blind spot of the grenade launcher, and can also intercept during the enemy turn.

Since tanks are very resilient and cannot be easily damaged by infantry besides lancers, they can be used to shield your troops from incoming fire. However, you should be careful not to expose the back of a tank to the enemy, because the ragnite radiator is a tank’s weak spot.

Another common element with previous Valkyria titles is the R&D facility, that can be used to develop new equipment for your soldiers and new parts for your armored vehicles. There are plenty of parts to choose from, but there are limits to what you can equip.

When you create new equipment for your soldiers, you update the equipment of all those who can wear it, increasing the power of the unit as a whole.

Decorating your tank with different stickers has small effects on its performance, and you can change the camo color freely depending on the situation. Parts are fit in a block-based grid like in the original game, and more powerful parts require more blocks.

In the new game you can also use half-track armored personnel carriers. They can transport several soldiers quickly and protect them from intercepting fire. However, if they’re destroyed, their occupants are temporarily withdrawn from combat. It’s also important to remember that their armor is thinner than that of a tank, so they can be damaged by machine gun fire.

You can check out all the screenshots below, keeping in mind that they’re from magazine scans, so their quality is not perfect.

If you want to see more, you can check out the first gameplay, a recent trailer showcasing a wide range of gameplay features, some the previous batch of screenshots and information, the first trailer, more screenshots, more artwork and info, and the first gallery of images.

Valkyria Chronicles 4 will launch in both North America and Europe for PS4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One in 2018. It will release in Japan for PS4 on March 21st, 2018 and for Nintendo Switch later in the summer.

Images

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You know, it'd be funny if they get Steve Downes to voice Ronald Albee so we'll have both English and Japanese Master Chiefs voicing him

[JagdPanther]

Originally Posted by Yu Ominae

http://www.siliconera.com/2018/01/19...ation-4-japan/

Sony's having a LE edition of the PS4 with VC4 emblems.

Do want.

Only 2nd behind the PSX-version of the PS4 for me. I like my all-white PS4, but I wish I'd waited a couple weeks to get mine until that PSX version had been announced.

[blakstealth]

It's about time they added APCs in this joint.

[LoweGear]

Trailer for the First Print and Limited Edition DLC's featuring Squad 7:

YouTube

https://youtu.be/PgLlmikrDLc

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Isara's a Grenadier huh... not sure how I feel about that...

[blakstealth]

Would you have preferred a different class?

[LoweGear]

Originally Posted by blakstealth

Would you have preferred a different class?

I prefer her inside the tank where she's safe

[MrTerrorist]

Details on the Centurion and its crew

[blakstealth]

It would be cool if we get to run around in the Centurion

[MrTerrorist]

YouTube

https://youtu.be/MzkobAuqj9Y

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[blakstealth]

Kai~

Riley~

[Shinji103]

No NA release date yet?

[Yu Ominae]

Damn. Wanna buy the LE PS4, but I'm not sure if the saves on my bro's PS4 can transfer...

[LoweGear]

Originally Posted by blakstealth

Kai~

Riley~

Kai is best.

Images

Kai Concept Art from Twitter

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[MrTerrorist]

Trailer featuring the villains of VC 4.

YouTube

https://youtu.be/jO6T9daerWo

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[Firefly00]

Originally Posted by MrTerrorist

Trailer featuring the villains of VC 4.

-video redacted-

Look carefully at 0:55 - anyone else note that the ISB (no, not the Bureau) is actually identified as such in English? That aside, looks like we've got a full roster of HVTs... and now I've just reminded myself of how Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction handled its population of fifty-two. For each and every one you have the option to capture instead of kill (which latter netted you half the listed bounty). Granted, in many cases a bit of work is required to pull it off, but it's very satisfying to hand them over alive.

Spoiler for Example:

Choi Song, the Ace of Spades and final HVT, is perhaps the most epic example of this. He's holed up in an island fortress, but you can ignore the [i]Abrams MBT[i] (easily the best tank in the game) the Uni- er, Allied Nations offers at their beachhead, find a quiet spot to call in a civilian car... and bypass almost all of the defenses.

[Kurohane]

Originally Posted by MrTerrorist

Trailer featuring the villains of VC 4.

YouTube

https://youtu.be/jO6T9daerWo

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The Valkyrie looks so sad. A trace of hidden depths, good! Not that there's any competition. Anyone's better than MAXIMILIAN-SAMA.

[LoweGear]

[DualShockers] Valkyria Chronicles 4 Demo Announced; Coming to Japanese PSN on Monday

`

Hope this means the western release gets a demo near release too.

Also, a bunch of Q&A that occurred on the twitter:

Originally Posted by vaiowega on reddit

Q: Are the names of the others ships like the Centurion decided?

A: All starts with a C. N°1 is Cavalier, n°2 is Centurion and n°3 is Comet.

Q: I assume that most of the story will involve ice and snow maps but what about other kinds of situations and maps?

A: About half of the game will be played on snow and ice maps! But there will be many different environments amont those, like snowy cities and ruins!

Q: Won't the game be too difficult for me if I never played Valkyria Chronicles 1?

A: You can still play the remastered version! But don't worry, there's an easy mode and you can change the difficulty at any point in the game.

Q: Are there weapons to loot?

A: Indeed there are! We won't forgive you for stealing our empire weapons!

Q: What's the size of VC4 compared to VC1?

A: Main story is longer than VC1 and there are also squadmate scenes, something that wasn't in VC1! It's really gonna be one of the bulkiest games of the year!

Q: What kind of place is Hafen, the city the tank was named after and the home of Squad E?

A: Hafen is a city in Gallia, close to the border with the Empire. That's why it was the first destroyed when the Empire attacked. It's probably one of the reasons the heroes joined the Federation Army.

There's also an article detailing the Valkyria Chronicles 4 Event held by SEGA yesterday, with more info on the game:

[DualShockers] Valkyria Chronicles 4 Gets New Images, Videos, and Lots of Info on Gameplay, DLC, and More

Originally Posted by Dualshockers

Today Sega hosted a Valkyria Chronicles 4 preview event in Tokyo, and quite a few images and videos surfaced thanks to a few attendees that posted on social media.

You can see the pictures and clips at the bottom of the post, courtesy of Twitter users Ryouhei and なよなよ, who also reported on the questions and answers session hosted by the developers.

We hear that the game has been in development for two years, even if the planning phase started a long time before. Grenadiers were added to the game as a mean to include a mean of interception beyond visual range and more explosions. That being said, they have several weaknesses.

The main theme of the game is willpower to accomplish one’s mission, and the challenge of an environment covered in snow is perfect for that. That being said, only about half of the maps are snowy. There is a variety of environments besides snowy fields.

Compared to Valkyria Chronicles 2 and 3, the depth of all characters has been enhanced. There are also a lot more characters compared to 2 and 3. For example, the game includes six characters only among grenadiers.

Fencers are not included in the game, and will not be added as DLC. This is because the maps in Valkyria Chronicles 4 are bigger, and fencers aren’t well suited for that.

While characters from the original Valkyria Chronicles are included in bonus DLCs, Kurt and the rest of the cast of Valkyria 3 won’t appear. The game happens after the fourth in the timeline, so justifying their presence would be difficult.

The command point costs for an action with a tank has been reduced from two to one. The reason is that players weren’t able to use tanks much in previous titles of the series, and the development team wants them to be used more.

Unfortunately, a separate release of the bonus DLC (pre-order bonus and limited edition bonus) is not planned. That being said, there will be DLC, and we should look forward to future announcements about them

The team intends to deliver on the promises made to players that have waited for this game for seven years, and they want us to enjoy the battlefield drama especially through a great story.

Since the new version of the CANVAS rendering engine was developed targeting the performance of the PS4, an attendee asked what the Switch version will look like. The answer was that the team can’t say yet, but they’re doing their best, while a PR rep mentioned that today’s Q&A was only about the PS4 version.

Incidentally, impressions on social media seem to agree pretty much unanimously that the game feels a lot like the first, which is certainly positive. It’s worth mentioning that the build showcased at the event was not a demo, but the actual retail version. This means that the PS4 version has either already gone gold, or it’s quite close.

I find this image interesting, since it shows what a Federation Lancer looks like:

Images

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The weapon looks far less like a spear than the Gallian and Empire versions, and it has what looks like a magazine at the rear.

Finally, have a couple of new videos:

Squad E trailer

YouTube

https://youtu.be/GMAjDHp7ErA

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17-minute edited gameplay video

YouTube

https://youtu.be/LVLFqKrjVpQ

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Well, they have the new battle music up at the very least.

Also while subtle, I like the real-time shadow rendering of the moving clouds here that was absent in VC1, it makes the maps look more dynamic.

And.... why are the snipers in this game so cute?!

[blakstealth]

Holy shit. Why would I pick anyone else other than Kai as my sniper?

I'm disappointed that headshots don't blow people's heads off, though.

[MeoTwister5]

I can almost imagine the female snipers boppig their head and saying sorry if they miss.

[Tormenk]

Played through the demo last night, it was the prologue and first three chapters of the game. Having only played VC1, I had no problems jumping right into the game. The new grenadier was only available in one map to showcase their ability to bombard enemies at higher elevation so I can't really say how much they will change up gameplay. The main cast is likeable enough and seems like Kai isn't the sniper's real name and Riley/Claude's past are good enough hooks, so I'm sold on the game.