Most of us are familiar with time. You know, that emergent phenomenon that allows for things to play out as a linear sequence of events? It’s pretty much taken for granted by most people. Valkyria Chronicles 4, on the other hand, refuses to take silly things like basic chronology for granted, making use of confusing time-traveling squadmates in order to draw attention to all of this. Or maybe they’re just included out of sheer laziness. The latter is probably the case, now that I think about it. Setting that aside, however, chapters 8 and 9 open things up a bit and give you some additional options in an attempt to complicate the underlying strategy. All of these new options are purely decorative when compared to the consistent simplicity and effectiveness of running past enemies to capture their base, though, and you know what? That’s a good thing considering how it smooths out the gimmicks.

The last chapter ended with most of the ranger corps being wiped out before everyone was conveniently rescued by a giant ship, which means that this interlude is confusing on multiple levels. For one thing, it seems to rewind a chapter to before Claude’s group attacked the supply depot, with Riley asking Raz about why guy-Kai had his sister take his place. That flashback leads into another flashback, with the general story being that guy-Kai is good enough during ranger training that he gets chosen for special ops, only to hurt his leg and discover something that requires going AWOL to deal with. To cover for him, he swaps in his sister Leena and the instructors don’t notice because they’re not observant (and also, the squad distracts them in stupid ways). Speaking of the squad, at 10:58 a guy speaks up who I swore wasn’t a part of my squad, which was endlessly confusing. He formally joins the squad at 46:22 despite being a part of their ranger training from the beginning. Valkyria Chronicles 4 has nothing but contempt for silly notions like chronology.

The combat map in this interlude is actually more of an egregiously bad puzzle than anything. You’re given control of Leena-Kai (who can’t hit anything, but only because her sights are screwed up), Claude, and Raz, and you’re trying to pass a sniper drill by hitting certain enemies during the same phase that Leena shoots at them. Only having three characters makes moving around a bit awkward, though, and there are numerous instructors wandering around who can’t be attacked for obvious reasons. That means that you’re stuck sneaking and get a game over if you wander into their sight, which can be extraordinarily cheap considering that you don’t know how they’ll move around. Basically, if you don’t take a certain path, you’ll face moments like at 32:10 where an instructor that there was no way of seeing caused an instant-fail.

Headquarters are unavailable at the start of this chapter (and possibly during the interlude, though I didn’t check) since you’re on a boat and don’t have access to your camp, but you’re quickly given access to the boat’s facilities. Claude gets promoted to the rank of captain and is put in command of the ship’s guard convoy, Minerva joins up as a unit to get revenge for that puddle-deep sycophant who died in her arms, and a new attack tank type is made available. Of course, most maps only let you use two tanks, meaning using it would require not using the APC, so it might be awhile before this new tank sees any kind of use. Everyone also gets new cold-weather equipment, a new skirmish map opens up, and you’re given the ability to tag one of your non-leader units as a leader for an extra command point and the ability to boss others around. That means that Millennia can now drag a bunch of people around with her once per phase, expanding everyone’s movement possibilities. This extra leader tag can be reassigned, too, which might help during squad stories.

There are two combat maps in chapter 8, with the first being a mock battle between the navy and army troops to build camaraderie. This one is dead simple and consists of—what else—driving/sprinting to the enemy base and then quickly taking it over. The second map, on the other hand, requires taking over a base, then evacuating with your tank while grenadiers take out your AP with interception fire and two crossbow-wielding mutant toddlers do a surprising amount of damage. Driving the tank until you can see the grenadier makes it possible to hit him with your own grenadier/s, though, after which point it’s trivial to make it to the escape area.

Chapter 8 ends with a creepy scientist named Belgar enlisting the awkwardly sexual tank guy (Walz), and we find out that the mutant toddlers belong to him. He also has an adviser who’s clearly guy-Kai in disguise, as well as a creepy lab-created Valkyria named Crymaria who looks like she suffers from some kind of vitamin deficiency.

Leena-Kai has been in contact with guy-Kai, which seems to be how the enemy knows where everyone is. Long story short, they launch an attack on one of the other ships, causing the captain of Claude’s ship (Captain Morgen, who doesn’t seem anywhere near as drunk as he should) to order everyone to go to their defense. We also find out that these ships are powered by Riley’s probably-dead father’s work, a kind of ragnite nuclear power that’s highly volatile and capable of taking out the entire ship. That seems like something that’ll become important later. For now, though, it’s another map where you have to capture the enemy’s base. Walz’s tank (the Vulcan) stands between you and it and takes significantly less damage than it used to, but that’s not the real danger here; once you get halfway to the base, Crymaria shows up and shoots magical icicle explosives at everyone. That doesn’t seem to be what destroyed my APC on my first try, though the damage came so quickly that it’s hard to tell either way. Taking a different route worked to quickly capture the base despise the barrage of bullets and explosive icicles, which is a good thing considering that Crymaria appears to be invincible during this map.

In addition to her vitamin deficiency, Crymaria is also entirely insane, attempting to sink Captain Morgen’s ship despite Belgar’s orders being to capture it. Morgen plays along and sinks his ship intentionally, though he seems to be using this as some kind of feint (a submarine mode or the ability to reemerge seem likely). Guy-Kai is distraught, ostensibly because Leena-Kai was potentially on the ship, and then Walz takes the passed-out Crymaria and her pet wolf back with him since her overkill ruined their mission. He seems to have taken a liking to her, which is hardly surprising given the fact that they both suffer from vaguely similar emotional issues.

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