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So why didn't you buy Valkyria Chronicles 4?
- Thread starter DJwest
- Start date
They kinda kneecapped themselves with the fantasy WW2 setting, since the first game wins the war. They've been sticking to it so hard that the successive VC games are sidestories or "the story being hid from history" angle. I dunno why, the plot is barely related to it's historical roots since Day 1. They can invent a new Empire if they want.
... For what it's worth, I think VC4 found a neat angle to approach the conflict from.
I don't think it explored it very well but I can recognize an effort was made to make a more nuanced story than VC1's plain racism allegory. It's just that what they made instead gave me a feeling similar to when my brother came back from watching The Lorax (2012) and announced he wanted to chop down all the trees.
I am surprised how many people avoided the game due to not playing past games. Do you people play all of the numbered Final Fantasy games too or what?
They did move the story to a different timeframe with Valkyria Chronicles 2 and it was terrible. I do not see how being in the same war is an issue, it takes place in an entirely different part of the world with completely unique story beats.
I can see why you would assume it is more of an upgrade than a next gen successor that changes around the mechanics, but it absolutely is all it's own game. All of the unpolished and undercooked aspects of the first game have been greatly refined and even the types of units and level designs are a big jump in quality from the first IMO.
They did move the story to a different timeframe with Valkyria Chronicles 2 and it was terrible. I do not see how being in the same war is an issue, it takes place in an entirely different part of the world with completely unique story beats.
Here you go. Do you own a PS4? The other versions are still fully priced, though.
EDIT: Thanks, Wario64, for showing up in my Twitter feed!
I really wanted to get into VK and VK4. I was on the purchase trigger for both SO many times, and I generally enjoy what the games offered (I played the demo).
What really bothered me was the birds eye map perspective, which is where the major strategizing seemed to happen. It just removed me from the experience so much. It made it feel like a board game vs a battle. Every turn back to that ugly map with little dots to represent your squad. I hated it. I need more visual representation to immerse me. Advance Wars/Fire Emblem is about as 'board game' feeling as I can handle while still being immersed in the world. That damn map view took me right out of the game.
I would love to find out I have options or hear other gamers that had the same weird OCD issue as me and then got over it with VK4. Looking to be pushed over the edge.
What really bothered me was the birds eye map perspective, which is where the major strategizing seemed to happen. It just removed me from the experience so much. It made it feel like a board game vs a battle. Every turn back to that ugly map with little dots to represent your squad. I hated it. I need more visual representation to immerse me. Advance Wars/Fire Emblem is about as 'board game' feeling as I can handle while still being immersed in the world. That damn map view took me right out of the game.
I would love to find out I have options or hear other gamers that had the same weird OCD issue as me and then got over it with VK4. Looking to be pushed over the edge.
User Banned (Permanent): Dismissing sexism. Long history of severe infractions.
So you didn't buy a game you probably would have loved, because you read a post from a guy who played the first 2 hours and though a "one" character was misogynist.
Honestly, if sexism is the stated problem, I doubt anyone stating that the ass grabbing was their breaking point would end up loving VC4. Like, the role that the women play in the game is everpresent.
You'd have to be willing to give that stuff a pass and if you state that that that scene is the breaking point, you definitely won't give it a pass.
I did and I played until like chapter 8 I think. The game was still then giving me tutorials on new mechanics. I get it, introducing stuff bit by bit but like all those missions that I already played were effectively identical to the 10 yo game so maybe you should have made those new stuff more front loaded? It was just boring playing the same game again. VC1 back in the day had the novelty going for it, the basis of the game was interesting enough by itself and it was a pretty short game, other games since have used some of its concepts as well so it's not fresh anymore. This game actually has new stuff for as far as I got but it's just spread so thin that it feels the same. Like it takes quite a while until you even get to see the new class the game has, and then start revealing environmental stuff and so on. I felt it was too slow for somebody that had played the previous game.
Overall, I feel the game needed to do a lot more. It's basically a traditional PC expansion pack to the first game rather than a sequel after 10 years. It's too similar. I will get back to it at some point, it just didn't feel I need to play now and I looked up, it's a decently long game and I liked the story actually.
Overall, I feel the game needed to do a lot more. It's basically a traditional PC expansion pack to the first game rather than a sequel after 10 years. It's too similar. I will get back to it at some point, it just didn't feel I need to play now and I looked up, it's a decently long game and I liked the story actually.
Still expensive here in BR, could have it on sale on xbox but really see myself playing it on switch.
I don't know, I just checked a let's play and game looked like Valkyria Chronicles 1.5 to me, not that there's anything wrong with that but I don't want more of the same, been there done that.
As for the writing, I guess the problem I have with it is that it makes it seem like a side story, especially because I know how thing are going to go down, though I guess everyone could already guess who will win the war in the first game also.
In short, this game is too deja vu for me, I like Final Fantasy way more than Dragon Quest if you know what I mean.
Bought it around new year when it was 50% off and played it for a month straight. Such an amazing game and would have easily made it into my top 10 of 2018 had I played it earlier. Really love the story and Squad E, gameplay is great anyway and has some great quality of life improvements over VC1. Saw the credits roll a couple of days ago and will definitely fumble around with the post-game content.
And yes, there is one character in your squad and one on the opposing side who are kind of sexist a-holes and made me cringe two or three times throughout the game. I can totally understand why some people take offense with that behavior, but it's also part of their story-arc and character development. Also they are getting called out on it by the other characters, the cast is really diverse overall and women like Kai, Riley and some others I don't want to spoil are some of the most interesting, strongest and useful characters in the game. Therefore it didn't bother me that much in the end.
And yes, there is one character in your squad and one on the opposing side who are kind of sexist a-holes and made me cringe two or three times throughout the game. I can totally understand why some people take offense with that behavior, but it's also part of their story-arc and character development. Also they are getting called out on it by the other characters, the cast is really diverse overall and women like Kai, Riley and some others I don't want to spoil are some of the most interesting, strongest and useful characters in the game. Therefore it didn't bother me that much in the end.
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i bought it and liked it
still have some post game content to return to after kingdom hearts 3
the sexual harassment thing probably turned a lot of people off from the game, understandably
still have some post game content to return to after kingdom hearts 3
the sexual harassment thing probably turned a lot of people off from the game, understandably
User Banned (1 Month): Excusing sexism; history of severe infractions.
It's an extremely niche game.
You have to be into Japanese style of anime,
You have to be into strategy games
The previous games were mixed review wise.
If I was Sega I would have left out the "4" in the title, at least for the west.
and it wasn't helped by people overeating to a few out of context lines of dialogue in the game.
I'm sorry guys but there is some serious double standard on this forum sometimes.
Persona 5 then gets a pass for it's literally rapey gay dialogue which I found VERY STRANGE and a lot worse than anything VK4 had.
Unique games like this need all the help they can get.
You have to be into Japanese style of anime,
You have to be into strategy games
The previous games were mixed review wise.
If I was Sega I would have left out the "4" in the title, at least for the west.
and it wasn't helped by people overeating to a few out of context lines of dialogue in the game.
I'm sorry guys but there is some serious double standard on this forum sometimes.
Persona 5 then gets a pass for it's literally rapey gay dialogue which I found VERY STRANGE and a lot worse than anything VK4 had.
Unique games like this need all the help they can get.
Persona 5 has gotten plenty of critique for its gross homophobia, as well as horrible handling of sexual assault victims.
It had a thread or 2 of this forum yes but honestly every single time someone brings up VK4 you'll get complaints about those lines of dialogue from people that were put off playing it. I created a thread very similar to this one a few months ago and those responses were typical.
It's way way worse than persona 5 and I think it hurt VK4 in the end and thats unfortunate.
It just proves to me that if it's big enough game people will be all talk and no action but if it's a niche game that needs word of mouth it'll suffer.
There were other factors of course to it's bad sales of course.
I did quite like the first game when I played it, even though didn't end up finishing it. But it wasn't so good I absolutely have to play the other entries. Also the story isn't allegedly as good and the sexual harassment stuff is also bit off-putting. The first game was already stretching my tolerance for what I consider "too anime". So it's a pass.
This was me. I saw some questionable screens posted too. I mean I'll probably play it eventually, but finding out about all this killed my excitement. Loved the first game and triple dipped (PS3, PS4, PC)
It didn't help that it released near Dragon Quest XI, FFXIV 4.4 and during a busier time period in my life. Now it's just a case of uf/when I have time for it with no other games to play
Regardless if this is stand alone I refuse to go from 1 to 4 without playing 2-3. Going to PSP was a mistake for the series and hurt it in the long run.
OP
OP
Given how people say that VC4 is more of the same, I'd argue that you should try the latest episode. Forget that VC2 and 3 exist
Forget that VC2 and 3 exist lmao. And I agree, the PSP games should not have been numbered episodes.
I felt it was more of a misunderstanding than an overreaction and that the player was meant to feel disgusted with Raz's actions in some of those early scenes. He's introduced as a sexist, disrespectful character by intent and it also showed the sort of additional challenges women in the Gallian army had to overcome compared to men with a major theme in the game being the growth and maturity of the cast and Raz especially learning to be a better person. I thought it was well done and not "bad" or "less bad".
The Persona scene you likened it to was awful and outright homophobic even within context, I don't think they should be compared.
You're downplaying VC4's issues of sexist portrayals of women. The women might be good in the context of gameplay but there is more to the issues of sexist treatment than just one ass grab scene. First of all, the "character development" that one character goes through is hardly well handled and a couple of characters shaking their heads is hardly some kind of decent way to handle sexual harassment within a story. Also, there are plenty of ass & boob shots, iffy commentary, BS reasoning for some very dumb clothing decisions (yeah, I'm sure female soldiers would wear the kind of clothes they do in VC4 in a fucking blizzard), character designs etc.
And I don't see what's the point in making this a case of oppression/shitty treatment Olympics. Persona 5's homophobia and sexism is bad. Valkyria Chronicles 4's sexism is bad. Both valid reason to skip both games and go for something that doesn't have these issues or handles them better.
I bought and played it, but didn't finished it. I actually liked the gameplay very much, but the story was the problem. There were just too many cut-scenes, i didn't liked the character and the plot, which made all those cut-scenes even harder to swallow.
The main problem of the plot is the inconsequential conflict between characters. Issue either get solved quickly or been ignored to an dangerous level ... And then have no consequences.
Dumbass Rax is the worst in this example. So far i got with the story, the guy gets everybody almost killed multiple times. He should be either get killed, injured or thrown out of the squad at one time. Instead all his teammates either laught it off or just see it as character flaw of a friend. It's freaking war! The guy is a dangerous loss canon! Why are you all so "understanding"? He calms down at one point, but only because he got a friend shoot and almost killed! Thanks Claude!
Claude and Riley also get along to fast. There was either no tension or stupid tension between the characters. Also since they all knew each other, there are not many backgrounds to explore. In VC1 Rosie and Largo were amazing support characters, since they were older and had extremely different backgrounds and views to all the younger main characters.
Also the overall plot of the war felt inconsequential. Clearly the squad is just one screw in the war machine, but enemies and allies just felt so faceless. With the weak cast, this part of the story just made the expierence worse.
On top of all you have bad dialog and the Anime cliches ...
About the sexist angle. Overall woman were not threaded as weaker as the male characters in gameplay and in the story. There are female support, fighters and generals. Except that terrible, infamous cutscene. Clearly written by a men, who had the same terrible mindset as Rax. I understand, that is hard to trust the developers after this cut-scenes to actually have respect for woman. So far i went into the story, it felt like a big misstep, but not the overall tune of the game.
The main problem of the plot is the inconsequential conflict between characters. Issue either get solved quickly or been ignored to an dangerous level ... And then have no consequences.
Dumbass Rax is the worst in this example. So far i got with the story, the guy gets everybody almost killed multiple times. He should be either get killed, injured or thrown out of the squad at one time. Instead all his teammates either laught it off or just see it as character flaw of a friend. It's freaking war! The guy is a dangerous loss canon! Why are you all so "understanding"? He calms down at one point, but only because he got a friend shoot and almost killed! Thanks Claude!
Claude and Riley also get along to fast. There was either no tension or stupid tension between the characters. Also since they all knew each other, there are not many backgrounds to explore. In VC1 Rosie and Largo were amazing support characters, since they were older and had extremely different backgrounds and views to all the younger main characters.
Also the overall plot of the war felt inconsequential. Clearly the squad is just one screw in the war machine, but enemies and allies just felt so faceless. With the weak cast, this part of the story just made the expierence worse.
On top of all you have bad dialog and the Anime cliches ...
About the sexist angle. Overall woman were not threaded as weaker as the male characters in gameplay and in the story. There are female support, fighters and generals. Except that terrible, infamous cutscene. Clearly written by a men, who had the same terrible mindset as Rax. I understand, that is hard to trust the developers after this cut-scenes to actually have respect for woman. So far i went into the story, it felt like a big misstep, but not the overall tune of the game.
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I never played the series, and when I wanted to try the demo on Switch it wasn't available, so I decided to get VC1 on sale to see if I like it.
Until I play that one, I won't get VC4.
But reading the amount of people who got it on sale.... Yeah, Sega sent it out to die.
Until I play that one, I won't get VC4.
But reading the amount of people who got it on sale.... Yeah, Sega sent it out to die.
Because I tripled dipped on VC1 instead. With the hopes of actually finishing it this time, before I buy 4.
I'll probably buy VC4 later this year. Hopefully.
I'll probably buy VC4 later this year. Hopefully.
The first game was quality, but kind of anime as fuck so you had to look past a lot to enjoy it. Luckily I could do so and its charms won me over.
That was young me and a long, long, time ago. A lot has happened since then. There is no way I could get into a game like vc1 these days and given vc4 is supposedly weaker there is no reason to open the wallet.
I bought it and all the DLC as they became available. Now I just gotta find time for it is all.
This. The game does nothing great, just a bunch of things that are okay. And also, from a strictly gameplay standpoint, it's not even close to being a top 5 SRPG.
I wasn't huge on the first one, I heard the fourth one was just more of the same, and there were stories about gross character moments on top of it all. It also seemed like a game that would be cheap really fast.
The timing (of release) was off for me personally. Will pick it up eventually, just haven't gotten around to it yet.