#Lancer finally called CPS

[minty364]

DPXDC Prompt #146

Danny didn’t know whom his real parents were he had no memories from before he was found. The Fentons had adopted him after he’d spent a couple years through the foster system. They turned out not to be the greatest and when his English teacher mr Lancer calls CPS both him and Jazz wind up in foster care. They get sent to Gotham as there wasn’t a home in Amity Park where a certain billionaire was visiting the shelter as he often did.

Bruce wasn’t expecting to find him but he finds a kid at his local shelter that looks exactly like Clark. He was a miniature copy of him right down to hair and eye color. Thankfully he was able to get a hair sample and what he found was a little suspicious. The kid was indeed a clone of his friend, he wasn’t sure how and after the incident with Connor he didn’t want the kid getting rejected so he decided to adopt both him and Jazz

[ew-selfish-art]

DpxDc AU: Justice League requires all of its youngest members to list at least one adult emergency contact in case something happens out in the field- And Lancer did tell Danny to put his number down if he needed help!

Lancer wanted to call CPS, wanted to call them for years, but something was wrong with his beloved town and the government agents that came were always… ill mannered. To say the least. So with the young Mr.Fenton appearing wounded in his class on multiple occasions, sleeping through lectures even more often, Lancer felt himself gradually accept that no other adult was going to step up to protect this child.

He figures out his Identity as Phantom and it makes his rage boil hotter than Dante’s sixth layer of hell. Danny refuses to abandon his parents (who continue to hunt him unknowingly), and he refuses to let any of his ghostly responsibilities fall wayside (this CW fellow is a real piece of work!).

But for all the things he expected when he told Danny that he could be trusted and could help- Ms. Manson and Mr.Foley coming to him for help, patching wounds, offering snacks and covering for Danny when attacks occurred in class- he hadn’t expected the Justice League to be knocking on his door.

Lancer blinked at the appearance of Batman in his classroom after the final bell, but then his stomach dropped.

TELLTALE HEART THATS THE BATMAN!!

“Phantom listed you as his emergency contact. Have you had any recent communication with him?” The deep, gravel voice startled Lancer.

Lancer checks his phone, Danny had skipped class today; and while Lancer was working with Danny to get him after school lessons and tutoring for all of the hours he missed, it was uncommon for him not to respond at Lancer’s text asking for a confirmation of his safety.

“Not in 24 hours, but I can message him again.” Lancer is shaking as he types on his phone to team phantom-Who wouldn’t be nervous at both the implications of Danny’s safety and the Batman??

Superman flies into the room from the open doorway, “No luck, without a heartbeat I can’t find him. Where ever they have him it’s lead lined or he’s keeping himself invisible.”

SCARLET LETTER ITS SUPERMAN!?!

Danny doesn’t reply to Lancer, and neither do Danny’s friends.

“He has two team members with whom he is inseparable, if none of them are responding then all three have been accosted. I’m coming with you until we find them.” Lancer declares and while he’s sure that Batman is unimpressed, Superman gives him a sad smile and nods.

Thus Lancer joins the Justice League for a day, Helps to save Team Phantom and Informs the takedown of an illegal government agency.

Batman also slides him some adoption papers and a card for a lawyer if Lancer decides to formally adopt Danny. Lancer also wins a Wayne Excellence Award for Teaching that year but he’s pretty sure the money is unrelated to Danny’s alter ego- after all, Lancer is a fantastic teacher.

[darkgeistgame]

More About Classes

(Picture of Aloe Village, circa 4/28/2024. Development screenshot, not final.)

Darkgeist is a very class-heavy game, with about 50 classes.

In the original design of the game, there was around 60 planned. The cut classes were "novelty" classes - such as "Slime", "King", "Queen", etc. These were gonna be classes that were focused around one gimmick, however this doesn't make sense under the new design.

All your party members start off as "Adventurer", and early in the game you unlock your basic classes: Knight, Thief, Black Belt, Elementalist, Medic, Ranger & Fool. And with the comboination of all 9 classes, you unlock more class. Have enough experience in Knight, and you can be a Sentinel. Unlock Priest and get enough experience with that and Knight, and you unlock Holy Knight. Even Adventurer can be used in these combinations - unlock Apothecary by getting experience in Medic & Adventurer.

The original plan was that you can unlock these classes by leveling them up, but this was changed for the betterment of player choice. The problem with using levels is that your levels would be reset on class change, meaning you lose your previous skills & passives, and it made balancing the game much more difficult, as these periods in which the characters were at level one had to be considered.

Now, you get a currency called CP, and that is what you use to unlock these new classes, and levels are shared among classes - as well as your abilities and passives. You collect AP (another class specific currency), and then spend it on abilities and passives. Each class has six abilities and one passive to spend.

Originally Adventurer was gonna be similar to FF3's Onion Knight or FF5's Freelancer, where you don't have unique abilities. This might change, and offering a bunch of passive abilities you can learn to help grow your characters.

As a result, this new class system design can be used to create a variety of combinations. You can have a Lancer who knows some healing skills, a Holy Knight who can become a Bezerker, an all around magic user who also knows pharmacology. It's all up to you.

[lonely-bored-writer]

Is Everything Okay? Ch. 4

"Does it still look real?" Danny questioned, anxiety filling him as he looked at his friends. "Will it rub off? Do you think anyone will notice? What am I going to do? I have Lancer today!"

"Danny! Calm down." Sam snapped, rubbing her temple.

"Yea dude, she has a point." Tucker piped in. "Sam knows her makeup and ignore Lancer. He should expect you to be pissed."

"I know…" Danny sighed, rubbing the non-makeup side of his face. "I just, what if someone finds out that the bruised healed? What if Vlad kills me for this?!"

"He's not going to do anything" Sam placed a soft hand on her distressed friends shoulder. "It would be stupid for him to disappear, and if you suddenly showed up dead, I'm pretty sure people would blame him." The trio stopped a little ways away from the school, noticing Daniel's face paling. Sam and Tucker shared a sad look.

"Do you think they know?" Danny questioned. He knew they knew, it was all over the news. Vlad Masters after all is the Mayor of Amity Park. The sullen looks his friends gave him told him there wasn't a chance that gossip wasn't going around the school about it.

"Don't worry Danny." Sam and Tucker positioned themselves on either side of the teen. "We'll keep the vultures away." Sam gave a small smile, motioning to her steel toed boots. Her smile grew when a chuckle left her friend.

"Where did you stay last night?" Tucker asked, as the trio began walking to school was surprised to be showing on school on time for once, no ghost had bother him since CPS showed up and it's just adding to his anxiety, but he's going to try and enjoy it.

"A holding home." Danny sighed, running a hand through his unruly hair. "I still can't stay with my parents. Smith and Anderson think there's more going on then I am letting on…"

"Are they going to move you to another house?" Sam asked, sending her infamous death glare to everyone who stared and gossiped. "You should see if they'll let you stay at Tuckers. I'd say mine, but my parents hate you." Danny nodded, keeping his eyes downcasted to keep from seeing everyone's eyes on him.

"Their probably going to look for a third party." Danny opened his locker,shoving his face inside to hide for the moment. "Smith said they'll try to find a student's parent who wouldn't mind taking me. Can you imagine if they send me to Dash, or Kwan?"

"Aw man dude." Tucker sympathized. "I doubt they would, or you could tell them they bully you?"

"Nah, I'd rather stay with one of those two then another night at that house." Danny pulled away from his locker with a shiver, seeing his friends shocked faces. "I know. I think the guy who runs the house is a pedophile honestly" Danny shook his head, turning to his friends. "Sadly, this isn't Freshman year and we don't have all the same classes. Don't worry guys, I'll be fine."

The two teens shared a look before threatening Daniel that if he didn't come to them if something does happen then he was going to have a personal meeting with Sam's boots. Danny agreed, preferring who ever messed with him to be kicked then himself. Hey, his hero complex doesn't always apply.

Danny's day was relatively okay. Aside from the stares, and mumbles around him, and the teacher's constant concerned looks. Some even stopped him on the way out of class to tell him if he needed anything they were there. Danny would just smile, thank them, and leave. It pissed him off that now when they heard something 'tragic' happened are they 'worrying about him'.

Yes, he was mad at Lancer. Lancer shouldn't have called unless Daniel told him he could, but Danny also knew that he was just worried and cared. It touched Danny through the fog of vexation, that someone (aside from Sam and Tucker) cared enough to make sure he was okay.

Regardless of that, Danny could still feel the growing anxiety as he walked his way to the last class of the day… Lancer's English class. Danny popped into the bathroom, texting Sam and Tuck to meet him at the door. All he did was stand in front of the sink, he had originally planned to splash water on his face but froze when he remembered the makeup bruise, leaving the water running instead.

He didn't get it. Something that the ghosts are doing is reducing the healing for those wounds. The one on his face seemed to be the only one that healed faster than normal, and he got that from being thrown head first into the ground. He needed to figure out what it is, but right now he can't risk his healing going back to normal. Who knows if they want to take a look at it all again.

The sound of the bathroom door opened, caused Danny to shove his hand into the sink, trying not to look like he was just standing there. He felt eyes on him and in the mirror, what he saw caused his whole body to tense, dropping his gaze back to the sink. It was none other than Dash Baxter. What unnerved him more was that the football player just stood by the door and watched him.

He quickly dried off his hands, and started walking out, keeping his gaze down. He figured if he ignored Dash, he wouldn't have to deal with anything. He just wasn't in the mood. Again, life just couldn't go his way for once. Dash had shoot out and grabbed Danny's arm before he could leave.

"Dash, I-"

"Listen." Dash cut him off, turning to try and look into the tense teen's eyes. "Can you meet me at the park later tonight?'

"I don't know…"

"I just want to talk." Dash's sudden out of characterness only helped to fuel Daniel's anxiety. "Can you just meet me there, around 10? Please…" Dash never said please, shocked Danny met eyes with the Jock. Before he nodded, Dash's eyes held nothing but pleading and honesty. Dash offered a smile before letting go of Danny who rushed to his class.

That wasn't any better than the incident in the bathroom. Taking his friends advice, Danny just walked in and sat down, not sparing a glance at Lancer. Class didn't start for another two minutes. Not long after Danny, Dash entered, sparing a look and smile at Danny. That didn't go unnoticed by his friends.

"Danny, what was that?" Sam whispered, leaning closer, as did Tucker.

"Dash ran into me in the bathroom…"Danny sighed. "He wants to meet up at the park to talk."

"You said no right?" The look Danny gave Sam caused her to scowl. "Danny he's your bully! Who knows what he has planned!"

"Yea man." Tucker chimed, sparing a glance to the group of Jocks and cheerleaders. "It could be a trap."

"Guy don't worry. I'll be fine." Danny spoke, his word was finally because the bell rang,signaling the start of class.

Class was not fun. Danny wasn't as clueless as people thought, well not anymore after all the ghosts he has dealt with. He could feel Lancer's eyes on him. He could hear the whispers that still fluttered around the room, half of which mentioned Danny or Vlad. It was getting too much, Danny didn't like this attention. He just wanted to run. Luckily, his prays received an answer.

In the middle of reading yet another excerpt from the book, the phone rang out. Lancer stood, facing away from the class, and spoke into the phone. No one could really make out what he was saying beside Danny who tensed and paled.

"Dude?" Tucker questioned, poking his friend's arm.

"Fenton, please report to the front office." Lancer spoke, after placing his phone back down, a grim look on his face. "You may take your things."

Danny nodded, and quickly got up, swinging his bag over his shoulders. He usually brought it with him to last class so he wouldn't have to stop by his locker afterwards. The moment he heard Vlad's and Danny's name in the same sentence, he stopped listening, mind reeling with all the possible things that they could want. When he entered the Principal's office, only the two CPS agents were there, they too had grim looks across their features.

"Hey Danny." Smith attempted to smile, but it came out more of a grimace. She shared a look with Anderson before releasing a sigh. "Vlad was able to talk the judge, and our superior into allowing him to talk to you." Danny's face paled, his palms became clammy.

"In a private session…" Anderson added, the remorse clear on his features. When he noticed Danny's hands shake, he continued. "He will be handcuffed to the table, he won't be able to hurt you."

Daniel felt tears prick at his eyes, his vision blurring slightly. God knows why Vlad wanted to see him, but he wouldn't be surprised if Vlad beat the living crap out of him. Danny bit the inside of his cheek to keep the tears and questions at bay.

"If it gets too much, you can leave the room. I will be unlock, and we'll be just a shout away with a few officers." Anderson gave a small smile and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I know it's going to be hard, and if you absolutely can't do it, than we can see if we could arrange it for another time."

"Now?" Danny asked, furrowing his eyebrows. "He wants to meet now?"

"School is almost over, we figured we'd let him have the half hour meeting and then you can spend the day how'd you like." Smith responded. "You'll be staying at the group home again tonight. We haven't found a student's whose parents are willing to take you in yet."

"O-okay…" Danny nodded, following the two agents to the car. "I still can't stay with Tucker… or Sam?" He asked again. He knew he couldn't stay with Sam, but Tucker's parents didn't hate him.

"Not yet, I'm sorry." Anderson glanced over at Danny from the passenger seat. "We need to make sure we clear all our bases." Danny nodded, picking at the brace around his fractured wrist.

Danny was lost in thought, wonder just how much things went downhill in only a few days. It all started because he couldn't stay awake in class. He need to be a whole lot more careful now, he needed to stay awake, and do his work. Act like everything was better, so people leave him alone… But what about Vlad? Vlad did beat the crap out of him on an almost weekly basis, so the abuse allegations weren't a complete lie. But how was he going to prove all this without revealing his and Vlad's secret? Did he even want them to even take this to trial? Vlad could easily escape, why not go through with it?

There were so many questions and things Danny needed to figure out but he couldn't think. The emotions he's been pushing down since he became Phantom were all resurfacing. It increased with the knowledge that Danny can't have his breakdown, he can't cry or throw a fit because who know knows what would surface from that. So, he'll suck it up. He'll hold back the tears until he's alone, or never release them.

He had to show people he was strong, needed Sam and Tucker to believe him when he says he's fine. Even if he was breaking on the inside, he wasn't going to let people know. He couldn't… He wasn't sure why, but he knew no one could really know how he felt,

"Here you go." Anderson smiled, handing Danny a can of coke. Daniel offered him a smile, taking opened can. "They'll prep the room, and then you'll go in. You don't have to do the whole thirty minutes if it's too much, okay?" Danny nodded, taking a gulp of the pop.

"I didn't know we had a build for you guys here." Danny changed the topic of conversation, not wanting to think too much about anything that can happen. "It's hard to think that something like that would happen here."

"Really? It happened to you." Anderson spoke, a look crossed his face that Danny couldn't quite make out what is meant. A soft blush filled Danny's features as he turned to stare the can in his hands.

"You know what I mean." Danny grumbled. Before Anderson could respond, Smith walked over.

"It's time." Smith gave Danny a melancholy smile. "After this, you won't have to do this again." Danny nodded, swallowing thickly around the lump in his throat. He followed Smith to a plain black door without a window.

"No one will know what happens in there, you don't have to tell us if you don't want to." Smith informed, her hand grasping the doorknob but not opening it. "Just know, if things become too much you can walk out. If anything, Anderson and I will be right over there, just a shout away with officer Brady and Jackson, Okay?"

"Yea, thanks" Danny mumbled numbly, missing the worried look on Smith's face as he stared at the door. When it pushed open, Danny bit his lip to stop any words from leaving him. He slowly walked in, eyes trained on the man handcuffed to the table, the door closed behind with a soft click as he sat down.

"What happened." Vlad Masters demanded, his hard eyes trained on the obviously distressed teen before him.

"I panicked…" Danny sighed, shaking his head. "Mr. Lancer called them, I couldn't let them blame it on my parents. I figured…"

"You figured what Daniel!" Vlad snapped. "That I would just go to jail to help you? Or I would disappear and live my life on the run?"

"It's not like I lied!" Danny respond with just as much venom as Vlad spoke with. "You attack me on a weekly basis! You try to kill my dad on a monthly one! You were the first person I can think of that actually does hurt me. I wasn't just going to let them serve me to you on a silver platter."

"I will not tarnish my reputation for you, Daniel" Vlad's glare intensified. "Retract your statement. Tell them you called me out because you dislike me."

"No." Danny shook his head, eyes flashing a green for a moment from the storm of emotions he felt. "All the heat will fall onto my parents. I'm not doing that."

"I'll tell them your father helped." A malicious smirk laced his lips, he thought he had Danny in a corner. "I go down, so does that oaf." Daniel froze for a moment, fear gripping at his stomach. Vlad's smirk falter when Danny had one of his own, arms crossing in front of his chest.

"I'll tell them our secret." Danny threatened, the fear of Vlad beginning to diminish. Daniel realized it was irrational, he had people who would come running in at a yell. "I'll be okay, after all I am the town hero. But you're the wisconsin ghost, you're evil. The GIW would be on you immediately, I have the town to back me up." Danny was right, and Vlad knew it. Vlad's face hardened, a silence lapped between the two. Each staring at the other, challenging each other.

Danny jumped when his the handcuffs clinked onto the table. The anxiety and fear he felt before entering slowly trickled back in. He kept his eyes on the man before him, as Vlad rubbed his slightly red wrists. Vlad smoothed the silver hair on the top of his head, smirking slightly at the way Danny tensed.

"Are you ready for the world to know you're a freak of nature?" Vlad questioned, folding his hands on the table. "Your parents to know that you are the thing that they hate? Let's say they do accept you, do you realize how much it's going to tear them apart knowing that they have been hurting their own son for this long?" Danny clinched his teeth, wrappings his arm around his midriff.

"Don't test me." Danny's word didn't come out as hard as he wanted them too. A slight quiver in his voice on the word 'test' gave Vlad all the ammunition he needed. A sly smirk making its way back onto his aging features.

"Don't make empty threats, little Badger." Vlad cocked his head. "I suggest you retract your statement."

Before Vlad even finished his sentence, Danny was already rushing out the door. Anger, anxiety, fear, self hatred filling him to the brim. Where were ghosts when he needed them?

"Danny?" Smith stopped him before he made it out of the building, her eyes gleaming with concern. "What happened?" Anderson helped her keep the boy still as Danny tried to walk past him. Daniel gave up, keeping his eyes on the floor as silent tears slid from his eyes.

"Danny?" Anderson tried, leaning down to make eye contact with the crying teen. Smith walked off to see the room the meeting had taken place in. "Talk to me, I just want to help." Danny shook his head, swallowing.

"Can I please just go…" Danny's voice was shaky and unsteady. "Can we just talk later?" Anderson paused for a moment, searching the teen's features before releasing a defeated sigh and nodded. Danny immediately made it out of the building, jumping behind to an area that didn't have any cameras and flew off.

He couldn't retract his statement, but he also couldn't let Vlad try to drag his dad through the dirt. Slowly the tears stopped, Danny taking a seat on the roof of the nasty burger, out of sight. He was going to meet Sam and Tuck there, but he needed to calm down first. Dropping his head into his head , he sighed. When did things have to get so complicated? Why can't things just work out for him in the end?

[butterfleyequeen]

Arial's thoughts about the Deltarune characters

Kris - Something about them makes her feel uneasy, but she doesn’t know why.

Susie - Good lord. What a brutish, delinquent young lady. Feels relieved when the girl finally cools it with the unbridled violence.

Ralsei - BABY BOY. FLUFFY BOY. VERY GOOD BOY. (Also, cloak buddies!)

Lancer - Thinks he’s too innocent to be a “bad guy”. Thinks he’s just a lonely boy that needed someone who loves and appreciates him. Thinks she needs to grab a phone and call CPS.

Seam - Pretty cool dude.

Rouxls Kaard - Seriously contemplates arranging a meetup between him and Papyrus for some puzzle-making lessons.

King - [john_wick_loading_gun.gif]

Jevil - What.

“The Voice” - D A D  I S  T H A T  Y O U

[killscreencinema]

Valkyria Chronicles (PlayStation 3)

Valkyria Chronicles, released by Sega in 2008, is one of those games I’d constantly hear about in passing as being a must-play hidden gem.  As interested as I was to check it out, it became a bigger priority when I discovered it was a turned-based tactical game.  Ohhh, that changed everything!

As implied by the title, the game chronicles a great war between two great countries on the fictional continent of Europa over precious energy sources called “ragnite”.  The evil Empire has invaded the peaceful country of Gallia to steal their ragnite, and it’s up to newly drafted tank commander, and nature enthusiast, Lieutenant Welkin Gunther to lead his squad and drive the Imperial forces out! 

The game is split into a series of “chapters”, with one or two battles per chapter in order to advance the storyline.  As you move along, though, you also unlock “Skirmishes”, which are non-story battles that you can fight for fun or to help earn supplemental experience and money to upgrade your troops and equipment.  Speaking of troops, there are different classes to choose from, such as Scouts, who have high stamina, and are effective offensively, but have low defense; Shocktroopers, who tote machines guns and have moderately high defense, but low stamina; Lancers, who serves artillery troops, with extremely high defense, and are best used to fight tanks; Engineers, who slightly weaker than scouts, but can repair damaged tanks (IMPORTANT), build barricades for cover, and deactivate landmines; and finally there Snipers, who have super low defense and stamina, but maaaan they are super useful for taking out enemies from a long distance. 

The key to victory for each battle is being able to deploy the appropriate class of troops depending on the nature of the fight.  Going up against a lot of tanks?  Probably should take a few Lancers.  Is the battlefield really expansive but with plenty open space to cross?  Better have a couple of snipers (cause trust me, the enemy will).  The good thing is if you find yourself with a squad composed of soldiers that won’t be helpful for the battle at hand, you can order them to retreat at any base camp, and then send out for the kind of soldiers you need.  No matter what, though, always ALWAYS have commanding officers in your squad, as the more of those you have, the more CP (command points aka “turns”) they bring with them.  The commanding officers are the primary characters of the game, such as Welkin (obviously), Alicia (Scout), Largo (Lancer), Rosie (Shocktrooper), and Zaka (Tank commander).

I mean, here’s the thing - you’re gonna want to take Rosie no matter what because she fucking rules.  Rosie was the MVP of my squad and was key to taking down the final boss.  I love ya gurl.

During missions, you can use up Command Points by issuing “Orders” that can either boost your troops in a variety of ways or bring the pain to your enemies in the form of artillery blasts, among other forms of offense.  For a long time, I never felt much need to use orders, but I can’t stress enough how useful they are if used wisely.  A good combination of orders can turn an already effective trooper like Rosie into a goddamn killing machine!  There are also useful orders to get valuable troops out of danger, such as “Retreat”, should they run out of stamina before finding cover.  At the same time, if you overdue using orders, you risk not having enough turns to make much *use* out of the status boosts, so you have to use them wisely.

So if you can’t tell already, I loved this game.  While I didn’t care for the story, which is just your standard anime fare, and HATED how many unskippable cutscenes there were, the actual gameplay is really, really solid.  The game presents a fair challenge, almost taking it too easy on the player at times.  For example, it seemed like the computer AI would have me dead-to-rights but not finish me off for no reason other than to keep the difficulty moderate.  Don’t worry though - there are plenty of difficult missions that will kick your ass throughout the game and you’ll feel like a goddamn tactical genius whenever you beat them. 

THIS IS AN ORDER - GO SEEK THIS GAME OUT AND GIVE IT A SHOT!

...although the less said about the homosexual caricature Jann Walker, the better...

[nazih-fares]

Before we start, I must be honest, I have heard many things about the Valkyria Chronicles franchise but never managed to play the predecessors. After doing some research, it seemed depressing to read how disappointed fans were about the unclear certainty and future of this saga. In 2017, the fourth episode was announced, and everyone saw the light at the end of the tunnel.

When I got my hands on Valkyria Chronicles 4, I decided to step into the game as a newcomer with absolutely no knowledge of the history, but it was a hard path to chose as you quickly realize that this game takes you back into the same conflict the first title presented but from a different angle. The history of Valkyria Chronicles 4 is quite complex, but the overall feel is always the same. Two sides fighting for control. Think of World War II reinvented. Our two sides here are the Imperial Alliance and the Atlantic Federation. The latter is your side in this new instalment.

Our story in Valkyria Chronicles 4 starts after the empire has pushed deep into our territory and with one last effort, the federation decides to go on an all-in attack on the heart of the empire, the Capital City of Schwartzgrad. This final conquest is led by our hero Claude Wallace and his unique section E. You will find yourself commanding this unit into beautifully designed and vast battles across a colourful Japanese anime version of Europe.

SEGA stayed true to the Japanese RPG style and remastered the exact same gameplay used in the first instalment. Valkyria Chronicles 4 is a strategy RPG firstly and a semi third-person shooter secondly, however, this last one comes with a twist which I will talk about later. The basics are simple, every camp starts their turn with a limited number of units to move into the battle. Your main currency is CP or Command Points. Every mission gives you a set amount of CP which will allow you to move units on the map. Once you are out of CP, your turn ends. The other currency used in Valkyria Chronicles 4 is AP and they are equivalent to stamina. When you control a unit, every move will see you AP deplete. Once you reach 0, you will no longer be able to move that specific unit.

The first thing that pops out is the beautifully designed system used in the missions. Unlike other Japanese RPGs, Valkyria gives you a unique 3D terrain with excessive depth and surrounding awareness that I have not seen anywhere else. You must keep track of your units, their weapons, the distance they can cover, the obstacles in front of you all while predicting the opponent’s moves. Positioning is key and choosing the right roles for each mission is crucial. The roles are interesting on their own. Grenadiers launch explosive shells from mortars in an arc to reach enemies behind cover or on high ground. They are even able to intercept enemies behind cover if there is an ally in their line of sight. Scouts are extremely mobile and can spot enemies waiting in to ambush from a great distance. They have the highest AP in Valkyria Chronicles 4 thus allowing them to cover more distance. Shocktroopers are the front-line troops. They have heavy armour and anti-personnel machine guns making them an ideal assault unit for engaging the enemy infantry. At close range, they should be your ultimate pick.

Then you have other roles like the Engineers makes up for low combat prowess with the ability to repair vehicles, reconstruct defences, resupply ammunition and revival allies in critical condition. They are extremely valuable on the battlefield. Lancers are your anti-tank unit. They have high defence and high HP at the cost of low AP. Snipers, my favourite class, are the units specialized in shooting down enemies from afar. They lack mobility and defensive capabilities but make up for it with superior range and critical damage. Finally, the tank which has Miles and Claude in it is your defensive vehicle and tank destroyer. All these roles will reach elite status once they reach level 11.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Progressing in Valkyria Chronicles 4 is also straightforward. Every mission awards you experience points or XP. As you progress, you will be able to unlock new weapons, armour, level up your units and upgrade your tank. One thing that I found interesting is the special abilities each unit can potentially unlock. As the units level up, certain perceptions can be awakened. This is purely RNG but once activated can turn the tide of a battle. Some of the perks I managed to experience where increased accuracy, defensive rise, increased damage, …etc. in addition, you are also to give orders. Something that only Claude can do as the commander of the section. Orders cost you CP but could be useful during harder missions. You can ask reinforcement, evacuate, call medics, focus on defence or attack, …etc.

I played for around 16 hours and I noticed that there is not a single mission that is similar. There are around 18 chapters in total and every one of them is unique. The maps you battle in are beautifully designed with a different conquest plan every single time. Certain missions are very original making you use a specific unit to do a certain task that you would have not originally thought of. For example, in one of the missions, your snipers need to hit a specific church bell to let your artillery know when to bombard the ground.

The enemy seems easy at first but as you progress, you will start feeling the ferocity of the empire and their vast creativity in their weapons. At one point and without giving you too much, you will face an opponent that is almost invincible and make you work hard to achieve victory. The game is designed to give you this dramatic feeling that everything is going wrong and that there is no hope up until the end where something happens and against all odds you win giving you this feeling of achieving something great.

    The narrative is well designed and very interesting. Everything is done from Claude’s diaries. This is divided into chapters. Cutscenes are beautifully animated taking you back to that 1990’s anime hand-drawn style. The music and voice over ads flare to the game although I played the other half of Valkyria Chronicles 4 in Japanese with English subtitles just to enjoy the authenticity of the game. The variety of units is also interesting. With over 60 different units to play with, each has their own personalities and traits. This also ads a lot of interaction between each unit creating a sort of a friendly vibe in your section. Some would pop jokes, others will be flirty all under the context of being a family under one command.

One thing that I did not enjoy was the villains. It did not feel imperial enough for me. I did not feel threatened nor did I get their intention. It was a little bit farfetched. I would have liked to see some sort of an evil tonality like Darth Vader in the empire. For me, they were mediocre and not credible taking away from the climactic ending I would have liked to experience.

Overall If you are a fan of strategy RPGs, I highly recommend Valkyria Chronicles 4 as they managed to capture everything an RPG should have and add colours and depth to it. The different playstyle it presents is unparalleled making it enjoyable for newcomers to this genre and veterans alike. The entire story was fantastic, and I would love to see an anime version of Valkyria Chronicles 4 come to life, however, I would have liked to see a better ending as I did not feel rewarded enough since the ultimate villain was mediocre with no real motives explaining their actions.

Valkyria Chronicles 4 was reviewed using a PlayStation 4 digital download code of the game provided by Sega. The game is also available on Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC via digital and retail store releases. We don’t discuss review scores with publishers or developers prior to the review being published (click here for more information about our review policy).

Valkyria Chronicles 4 has a rich lore and excellent gameplay system reminding us of the glorious days of the franchise. A worthy return for one of the best tactical-RPG from SEGA. Before we start, I must be honest, I have heard many things about the Valkyria Chronicles franchise but never managed to play the predecessors.