#30
Change YoY: = My Rating: 9.2 / 10
The original Valkyria Chronicles is one of my absolute favourite games of all time, and to my great delight it proved to be an unexpected success back in 2008. I was anticipating another home console sequel to be announced relatively quickly, but then it turned out the next game in the series would be released on the PSP instead. That wasn't a huge issue in the end, and I liked the game, but it was definitely held back by its platform, and failed to sell nearly as much as the first game, especially in the west. Following this, the third game was never even released outside of Japan as the PSP really wasn't doing very well in the west at that point. As a result, for quite a few years it felt like the series was effectively dead. Then finally, Valkyria Chronicles 4 was announced for home consoles and eventually released in 2018, making this without question one of the longest waits for a game I've ever experienced. Fortunately, it more than lived up to my expectations.
Valkyria Chronicles 4 is not quite on the level of the first game, mostly because I liked the story and characters in the first game just a little bit more, even if the ones we got here are great too. On the gameplay side there are some great improvements and additions made to what we had in the earlier games, including a new character class and some more variety and improvements to the existing ones. Visually, this is a beautiful game, the anime-inspired, watercolor-esque style creating some truly impressive moments. The score is fantastic as well, composed by highly talented Hitoshi Sakimoto. This is without question a worthy follow-up to the first game, and hopefully we don't have to wait another ten years for the next title in the series.
