Six years to the day after beating Valkyria Chronicles, I've finished off what might as well be its direct sequel, Valkyria Chronicles 4. (Yes, Valkyria Chronicles 2 and Valkyria Chronicles 3 both exist but they were PSP-only games and the third one never even received an American release. Lame!)
Now, six years is a long time and I've beaten (hang on, counting) - oh wow, exactly 150 games since then, so it's very likely I've forgotten more of Valkyria Chronicles than I remember. But it was my favorite beaten game of 2014 and frankly an all time great. I bring all of this up because I want to stress how impressed I am by Valkyria Chronicles 4 and it's no small priase when I say that it improves on the original game in every conceivable way. Seriously, every single one. The gameplay is identical or perhaps moderately improved by the addition of a grenadier class; the art style is identical and as such the PS4's graphic capabilities make for a prettier picture than the PS3's; the characters - from mains to secondaries to villains to troops - were so much more memorable this time around; and the story was more moving.
I dumped 40 hours into this game's main campaign and I've already played three or four postgame missions. I'm debating spending mroe money on the DLC than I did on the entire game just to keep unlocking content. I've been borderline obsessed with this title for two or three weeks straight, playing it almost every night, the type of thing you can only really get away with doing in the dark and lonely bowels of the calendar known as February. How long can I keep going? Who knows! Daylight Savings Time is just around the corner and spring should be right behind it, so another 20 hours of this game might be a bit of a stretch. But apparently there are just as many postgame skirmishes as in-game missions, so I say why stop playing a game I'm absolutely loving?
I'd say more - I have so, so much to say - but no one reads this blog and I'm just as happy to talk about the game with a couple friends who've partaken. Peace!
