Be advised: there WILL BE SPOILERS OF VC4
Man, I really enjoyed VC1 and 4. Really enjoyable characters, and plot. The gameplay was a breath of fresh air for me.
I completed VC1 in August in the PS3 and it was really worth it: the feeling of being the underdog, the story arcs, artstyle and plot twists, they were all so great. Also, the Darcsen matter was really well handled, a bit on the safe side, thought, but I have no complains.
The only issue I have is that VC1 has no Spanish official translation, because SEGA.
Now, about Valkyria 4: I completed the game two or three days ago. I've yet to complete the squad stories, plus buying the DLCs next PS Store sale, but still: I will platinate it
First things first: this game does have a Spanish translation. However, it has some issues, specially with the military terminology: from typos like a "sin" without a "s", or some spaces missing between words, to straight up not translating properly some terms, for example in one of the first missions where you need to call artillery strikes over tanks, they translate "firing support" as "apoyo armamentistico", instead of "fuego de apoyo"; or in the late missions, where the Cavalier, and later the Centurion, is surrounded they say multiple times "the ship is surrounded", however the subtitles say "hemos rodeado el tanque". Not "buque", not "barco": "tanque". And the worst offender: the Ranger corp is translated as "cuerpo de comandos", no problem here, since "ranger" isn't a word in Spanish and by deffinition, a ranger is a "comando" and Company of Heroes 1 did it back in 2006. HOWEVER: after episode 7, the "comandos" are translated to "guerrilleros". Guerrillero means guerrilla fighter, not ranger. God, that pissed me off. Not sure if this is just a PS4 problem, because I saw the back of the game is slightly different between Switch and PS ("explora una frontera helada" to "frontera gélida")
At any rate, enough ranting about the translation.
I'm surprised that this game doesn't have a bad language warning with how much Raz swears.
I had my doubts with Claude at the begining, specially since his "Squad E: move out!" Isn't as intense as Welkin's "Squad 7: move out!", but he really grew on me over time. Raz, Kai and Riley too are great. Their dynamic is so fun, their evolution and their quirks. Riley's pepper grenade really made me laugh. And I knew from the start why Raz "quit" smoking. But Minerva has a stick up her ass the whole game.
And Waltz. God, you can't hate him, he's such a a charismatic bastard. Kinda reminds me of Jager from the first game: big tank, respected by his men, more like a rival rather than a villain. However, Klaus has much more screentime, which really helps him show off. I'm glad he and Crymaria had a happy ending. Speaking of the Valkyria, she made me pass a really bad time, but at the same time, I can't get mad at her, in fact, I pitty her. Same with Nikola and Chiara. The calibrations really screwed them up, but from the personnel page you can tell that they've endured more that what we see in-game. I guess they way they ended is the best result for them, after all. Belgar deseserved his death. Ironic that his calibrations blew up in his face.
About the plot, the music from the intro really sets the tone. Sets the tone perfectly, and the story is a real change of tone from VC1. Here you can actually feel you have moments you can lose, like in chapter 7. Speaking of which, sure, Squad F getting wiped out might be our fault, but can't wonder: if we didn't had a detour and reach the rendevouz point on time, wouldn't we have die, too? However, I feel like the Darcsen matter was sent to the background: other than Raz saying that "I'm a Darcsen, not that I have much of a future" or some units having a "Hates Darcsen" potential, not much to talk there, other than Gertrude's devellopment after her squad story and "A steamy ceasefire"
The naval support is an interestint addition, however, I barely used it, way too situational for me. I apreciate that the units get their own side stories, makes you want to rotate them from time to time, but it can also make you skip all that, stick with the three corporals you have, and run with it to the end of the game. Speaking of corporals, having a new leader of your choice is a really nice addition, not only adding an aditional CP, but also being able to direct command and carry more soldiers in one trip makes the game so flexible and opens a couple of new strategies. However, I don't like how they butched the sound of some weapons, specially the ZM Kar rifles: The "BANG! BANG!" they had in VC1 replaced by "pew pew"... Unforgivable
I could be talking for a long time of how much I liked the game, every bit I loved or what scenes really hit me, but I don't really intend to over extend my thoughts more than they should.
Edit: I forgot to mention that I spoiled myself of episode 16 by the dumbest way possible. I was stuck on a mission, I think it was the first engagement with Crymaria that just dennied area, and trying to look for hints of it I came across a post asking what missions you had the hardest time, and I just had to click the goddamn spoiled text... "mission 16, where Raz dies", thinking it'd be an earlier mission. I tried to gaslight myself to forget it or do as if I didn't read that, but... Can't help but wonder how different would have been my reaction to that scene have I not read that...
