Valkyria Chronicles 4 |Import OT| Winter Soldiers

StarCreator · Jun 4, 2018

Sega, at least on the Japanese side, tends to not keep DLC exclusive forever. Rather, they are fond of timed exclusives, where things that were originally preorder or retailer incentives will eventually be available for everyone after 6-12 months. DLC pricing is also not usually 1:1 - the prices do tend to be lowered for localized versions, at least a little bit.

Kaidoi94 · Jun 4, 2018

Yunyo said:
-Every cutscene in the game is unskippable EXCEPT two short scenes during the final boss fight that repeat often enough to be annoying.

-If you lose in a mission you now have an additional option to restart from the briefing menu. Before in VC1 you only had the option of retrying from the start of the mission or reloading a save.

-Chiara and Nikola are tough cookies when you fight them and they were an enjoyable threat with their high HP and headshots but I think they could have been more of a threat during their own turn, especially considering the player-controlled versions have flashbang grenades that they don't use.

-VC4 goes back to VC1's critical multiplier system where criticals do 3.5x the normal damage. After thinking about it for a while, I don't like this system. It basically makes headshots the only option and balances the game away from bodyshots nearly entirely. Because of this, guns that rely on number of shots and weapons that rely more on splash damage like mortar lances are pretty useless, and it places way more importance on range over utility (like a DEF down weapon).

-Criticisms of these DLC: (Criticisms do tie into the fact that missions don't scale to your level and thus, it's too easy to turn them into a cakewalk).

-Hard-EX (Expert) Skirmishes: Exclusive weapon drops. The challenge on these are not half-bad but they could stand to be tougher. VC1's Hard-EX missions were much, much tougher than these. I'm a bit half and half on whether I could recommend these. If you're a VC1 expert I think you may be let down.

Addressing some of your points...

Did you mean "skippable" instead of "unskippable?"
VC1 actually does allow you to return to briefing if you game over, it just didn't give you an option to forfeit the mission (w/o TK'ing Welkin or letting an enemy cap your main base) like in all the sequels.
Chiara and Nikola do use their grenades, but it's pretty rare in that they use it against the tank (useless) or on squishier members of your squad.
Tbf I think the DLC's are balanced for when you unlock them in the main story, but yeah if you choose to do them later when you have better stuff in general they're a lot easier.
It really doesn't help that postgame enemy weapons for scouts/engineers/shocktroopers are significantly weaker compared to VC1 postgame weapons since they had their range, damage, and sometimes shot count nerfed. Snipers seem pretty similar to their VC1 counterparts and I haven't been able to tell from lancers.

Yunyo · Jun 4, 2018

I'm not sure how Sega USA is going to sell this stuff for cheaper but we'll see. I can see $9.99 for each DLC and a $30 season pass but given the incredible value a $30 season pass gets you in other games I highly doubt it will be a good sell.

The game releases in October so we will probably not see how they're going to sell it until September. I just think it's a shame it had to be like this.

Kaidoi94 said:
Addressing some of your points...

Did you mean "skippable" instead of "unskippable?"

VC1 actually does allow you to return to briefing if you game over, it just didn't give you an option to forfeit the mission (w/o TK'ing Welkin or letting an enemy cap your main base) like in all the sequels.

Chiara and Nikola do use their grenades, but it's pretty rare in that they use it against the tank (useless) or on squishier members of your squad.

Tbf I think the DLC's are balanced for when you unlock them in the main story, but yeah if you choose to do them later when you have better stuff in general they're a lot easier.

It really doesn't help that postgame enemy weapons for scouts/engineers/shocktroopers are significantly weaker compared to VC1 postgame weapons since they had their range, damage, and sometimes shot count nerfed. Snipers seem pretty similar to their VC1 counterparts and I haven't been able to tell from lancers.

Oops. Fixed the first typo. Yes I meant skippable.
You can return to briefing if you game over BUT you can't reload a save specifically to the briefing menu. Unless the game does autosave your newest weapon assignments prior to starting a mission? If so I don't mind taking that complaint back.
I never saw Chiara and Nikola use the grenades once. I don't doubt they use them in the main story but if it's that rare I think I can tie that into my complaint of "most bosses should be stronger". I feel like Klaus does a mostly good job of keeping you on your toes with his unique abilities but I didn't feel particularly threatened by anyone else.
I don't feel too bad about nerfed OP weapons because I think they did a good job making weapons reasonable this time around instead of auto-win ones.
I think regarding the DLC and side content / character missions they need to seriously think about whether they should scale missions appropriately or create custom mission scenarios (preset levels and weapons) for the next sequel.

Kaidoi94 · Jun 4, 2018

Yunyo said:
Oops. Fixed the first typo. Yes I meant skippable.
You can return to briefing if you game over BUT you can't reload a save specifically to the briefing menu. Unless the game does autosave your newest weapon assignments prior to starting a mission? If so I don't mind taking that complaint back.
I never saw Chiara and Nikola use the grenades once. I don't doubt they use them in the main story but if it's that rare I think I can tie that into my complaint of "most bosses should be stronger". I feel like Klaus does a mostly good job of keeping you on your toes with his unique abilities but I didn't feel particularly threatened by anyone else.
I don't feel too bad about nerfed OP weapons because I think they did a good job making weapons reasonable this time around instead of auto-win ones.
I think regarding the DLC and side content / character missions they need to seriously think about whether they should scale missions appropriately or create custom mission scenarios (preset levels and weapons) for the next sequel.

I think the easiest mission to have them use their grenades on a foot soldier would be Ch 17a and have someone like a grenadier posted on the top row of the camp (plus on occasion Chiara will issue orders that give any of her attacks a free crit, including her grenades) :P

I was actually referring more to the enemy-only weapons Imperials use since their rifles and smgs are weaker compared to their postgame VC1 counterparts (e.g. ZM Kar 8 vs ZM Kar 96, highest tier enemy-only rifles. 330 vs 350 range, 40 vs 50 vsPer, 80 vs 70 vsArm, 5 vs 6 shots, same aim rating)

Didn't all the character missions have preset enemy levels and weapons though?

Yunyo · Jun 4, 2018

Kaidoi94 said:
I think the easiest mission to have them use their grenades on a foot soldier would be Ch 17a and have someone like a grenadier posted on the top row of the camp (plus on occasion Chiara will issue orders that give any of her attacks a free crit, including her grenades) :P

I was actually referring more to the enemy-only weapons Imperials use since their rifles and smgs are weaker compared to their postgame VC1 counterparts ( Ex. ZM Kar 8 vs ZM Kar 96, highest tier enemy-only rifles. 330 vs 350 range, 40 vs 50 vsPer, 80 vs 70 vsArm, 5 vs 6 shots, same aim rating)

Didn't all the character missions have preset enemy levels and weapons though?

I meant preset weapons and levels for the player.

I think the only order I saw Chiara use was the reinforcement order. I think this is because I KOed her too fast in missions for her to do anything else. Guess that's my fault.

Kaidoi94 · Jun 4, 2018

Ah, like the case in Minerva/Christel's character mission? Imo it does seem easier to implement presets for the player if they do choose to go that route

Virtua Sanus · Jun 5, 2018

Some of SEGA's localized games just have all of their paid DLC become free for the Western versions. I believe that is the case with Valkyria Revolution, for example.

Yunyo · Jun 13, 2018

They noted on the E3 interview that they will be translating the demo to English and releasing it before VC4's release in the west.

Aters · Jun 16, 2018

Yunyo said:
Oops. Fixed the first typo. Yes I meant skippable.
You can return to briefing if you game over BUT you can't reload a save specifically to the briefing menu. Unless the game does autosave your newest weapon assignments prior to starting a mission? If so I don't mind taking that complaint back.
I never saw Chiara and Nikola use the grenades once. I don't doubt they use them in the main story but if it's that rare I think I can tie that into my complaint of "most bosses should be stronger". I feel like Klaus does a mostly good job of keeping you on your toes with his unique abilities but I didn't feel particularly threatened by anyone else.

They do use grenades. They used it on my mortar unit once.

Yunyo · Jun 20, 2018

IGN Japan did a Japanese interview (not sure why they uploaded this now as it appears to be a pre-release promo for the game) but I'll link it in here for anyone interested. Laughing at the US Air Force shirt the one dude is wearing lol

Yunyo · Jun 22, 2018

Sega announced that they are no longer keeping the Squad 7 DLC exclusive to the LE.

Unfortunately it appears that the only way to get it is to buy the season pass. Japanese players are understandably angry.