Valkyria Chronicles 4

Valkyria Chronicles 4 is a tactical action RPG released in 2018 for the PlayStation 4.

Plot
Taking place during the second Europan war, Valkyria Chronicles 4 follows the exploits of Claude Wallace as he leads Squad E of the Atlantic Federation against the East Europan Imperial Alliance.

Claude Wallace is placed as commander of a squad consisting of his childhood friends, Raz and Kai Schulen. Due to an incident in the past, Raz refuses to take orders from Claude, referring to him as 'Scaredy-Claude', noting that Claude's hesitant nature and past incident was likely to get him, Kai and the rest of the squad killed.

Claude, who has changed considerably since that incident, sets out to prove that he has what it takes to keep his comrades alive and makes the promise that he'll get all of his squad through the Ranger course, a notoriously difficult course. Raz refuses once again and runs off, but Claude uses Raz's reckless lone wolf push to his advantage, and co-ordinates a pincer movement between him and the rest of the squad. As a result the entire squad pass and make it into the Ranger corp as Squad E.

As time passes, Kai goes MIA, and his sister, Leena Schulen replaces her brother, taking his name and mantle to prevent the army from finding out her brother had deserted the army. Eventually the group's childhood friend Riley Miller appears, as a grenadier helping them out in a pinch, although when she finds out Claude is the one in charge of the Squad she puts in for a transfer, having not forgiven him for preventing her saving her father from a burning building when they were much younger due to his fear of them getting hurt.

Through his talent on the battlefield, Claude eventually gets Riley to trust him again and she officially joins Squad E. Squad E soon finds themselves facing off against the Imperial's secret experimental weapons team, X-0 headed by the executive science officer Heinrich Belgar and consisting of Crymaria, an incredibly powerful but unstable Valkyria, Klaus Walz, a charming but doggedly persistant ace tank commander who insists the Hafen is his soul mate, Nikola Graf and Chiara Rocino, two super soldiers calibrated by Belgar to be sadistic ruthless killing machines and Forseti, a tactical genius who appears to be the original Kai having defected.

Gameplay
Gameplay is very similar to the first Valkyria Chronicles with a few key changes;


 * Commands have been nerfed, preventing Scout rushes from being as effective.
 * Snipers upon becoming elites can now intercept fire.
 * Tanks only take one command point rather than two to deploy.
 * A new class, Grenadier, has been added, allowing for players to bomb the opposing army from above, although Grenadiers are easily flanked and cannot intercept fire.
 * Shocktroopers have been buffed with hardier armour and upon hitting elite rank become able to move further than before.
 * APC vehicles have been added allowing players to drive slower moving infantry such as Lancers, Snipers and Grenadiers to the front line faster by picking them up and deploying them.
 * When units fall in battle they have a chance of activating the new 'Last Stand ' system. When activated, a timer will tick down and players will be able to choose between two options. These options are as follows:
 * Inspire: Will give a morale boost to the nearest soldier and give them a stat boost based on the class of the Inpsiring soldier. It will also restore a command point. If no option is selected within the time limit, this one will be picked by default.
 * Stand Up: The soldier makes a literal last stand. They will be temporarily invincible, and recieve a full AP bar, but will die upon taking an action or at the end of their turn. Useful for taking out a particularly troublesome opponent. Ragnaid and Engineer tools cannot be used during this however.
 * Counter: The downed player will perform a regular automatic counter attack against the enemy that downed them. The opponent can however still dodge the attack, and this option does not appear if out of range (say for example, being downed by a sniper or a hidden grenadier) or for classes that cannot counter attack normally (Non Elite Snipers, Lancers and Grenadiers).
 * Squad Stories are a series of mini missions focusing on the various members of Squad E. To unlock them, the player must use a unit that stars in the Squad Story in battle a set amount of time. These focus on delving into the units backstories and personalities and completing them will replace negative potentials with positive ones, allowing the units to be more effective on the battlefield.
 * Ship Orders are unlocked upon obtaining the Centurion. These are orders that allow the ability to redeploy tanks that have fallen in battle, show hidden enemies on the battlefield map, and send out medical supplies and pick up fallen soldiers before they die.

Trivia

 * Welkin Gunther, Alicia Melchiott, Brigitte "Rosie" Stark, Largo Potter and Isara Gunther are all DLC unlockable non-canon units in the game.
 * Selvaria Bles appears as a playable unit in another DLC mission alongside fellow Valkyria Crymaria, delving into Crymaria's backstory.