History YMMV / ValkyriaChronicles4

** The "Two Valkyria" DLC where Selvaria tells Crymaria that love is a powerful thing that can give anyone purpose. The fact Selvaria genuinely believed in Maximilian, a man who cruelly manipulated Selvaria's love for him, makes her death all the more painful.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Minerva can come off as this to players due to her pompous and arrogant attitude toward Claude. At the end of Chapter 7, she takes this attitude to UpToEleven, [[AccomplicebyInaction furiously blaming Squad E for Squad F's demise]] since Claude had made the decision for Squad E to destroy an imperial supply depot during the retreat and thus showing up late to the rendezvous. However, there are those who like her because they consider ''Claude'' to be a DesignatedHero with Minerva being fully in the right to blame him for [[spoiler: getting her squad killed due to his inaction.]] Then there are those who hate ''both'' for their flaws, while others ''like'' them for said flaws and even a contingent of fans have proclaimed they ship her with Claude instead of Claude/Riley.

* FoeYay:

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Minerva can come off as this to players due to her pompous and arrogant attitude toward Claude. At the end of Chapter 7, she takes this attitude to UpToEleven, [[AccomplicebyInaction furiously blaming Squad E for Squad F's demise]] since Claude had made the decision for Squad E to destroy an imperial supply depot during the retreat and thus showing up late to the rendezvous. However, there are those who like her because they consider ''Claude'' to be a DesignatedHero with Minerva being fully in the right to blame him for [[spoiler: getting her squad killed due to his inaction.]] Then there are those who hate ''both'' for their flaws, while others ''like'' them for said flaws and even a contigent of fans have proclaimed they ship her with Claude instead of Claude/Riley.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: Vancey's alcoholism stops being funny once you complete her squad story. [[spoiler: Gertrude explains that Vancey is the sole surviving member of an elite unit that was wiped out during a covert Op that went wrong. The particulars of how it happened aren't known and Vancey says she drinks to help her forget]].

** It may be hard to hear Zaiga's line "Hey Raz, check this out!" after [[spoiler: Raz dies in Chapter 16]].

* ValuesDissonance: Aladdin is referred to as a "feminist" in his Personnel profile, which might come across as weird to westerners. This is actually a case of LostInTranslation, as the Japanese loanword "feminist" doesn't mean what it does it English; its meaning is closer to ChivalrousPervert (which describes Aladdin perfectly).

** The Glory isn't considered worth the effort to deploy. Partially because it's so fragile that it's likely to be destroyed by an enemy lancer or tank in one shot even without getting hit in the radiator. Players have even less incentive to choose the Glory because of [[MightyGlacier the Haufen's]] superior firepower, plus the Haufen is mandatory for most missions. Nor can the Glory compete with the sheer utility of the [[AwesomePersonnelCarrier Cactus]], meaning the Glory usually remains in the hangar collecting dust. Only players going for some serious self-imposed challenges would ever deploy Glory.
* TooBleakStoppedCaring: Over the course of the game, you find out that your side's leaders aren't [[DesignatedHero much different]] than the Imperials. Including using deceit to get [[spoiler: young girls to serve as nuclear reactors to power their vessels and, if need be, as nuclear warheads which was their intention for Angie (i.e. the end goal of Operation Cygnus)]]. Some players will find this off-putting.
** It is made even worse when you consider that the [[spoiler: final flame is artificially induced]] and that the process was both extremely agonising and lasted long enough for the attacking Imperials to withdraw to a safe distance.

* MagnificentBastard: [[ColonelBadass Klaus Walz]], leader of Ausbruch, was born the [[HeroicBastard bastard son]] of an Imperial noble, but after suffering enough abuse forewent his inheritance and grew stronger by climbing the ranks with his own hands. Now [[AFatherToHisMen the respected commander]] of the Tank Unit Ausbruch and driver of the Vulcan, Klaus was given the responsibility to eliminate the Atlantic Federation forces and numerous times nearly wiped them out through his own cunning and charismatic leadership. Despite his losses, Klaus took his defeats with humility, which earned him a spot on X-O, a Special Imperial Force, for his talent and becoming one of the group's most effective members, even working perfectly with the unstable Crymaria, becoming one of the greatest obstacles Squad E faces. After seemingly killed, even Squad E showed great admiration for his tenacity and after the ceasefire was announced, he and Claud showed great respect for each other that he even helped them put an end to Belgar's plans.

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: Over the course of the game, you find out that your side's leaders aren't [[DesignatedHero much different]] than the Imperials. Including using deceit to get [[spoiler: young girls to serve as nuclear reactors to power their vessels and, if need be, as nuclear warheads which was their intention for Angie (i.e. the end goal of Operation Cygnus)]]. Some players will find this off-putting.
** It is made even worse when you consider that the [[spoiler: final flame is artificially induced]] and that the process was both extremely agonising and lasted long enough for the attacking Imperials to withdraw to a safe distance.

** In terms of gameplay this is completely averted as her buffs make her one of the best scouts in the game, and speed running/gameplay videos clearly favor using Minerva to guide troops and win battles on the first round alone. And of course, there are those that love the fact that Minerva is a glasses wearing MsFanservice that can unlock a very revealing bikini via DLC, allowing speed runners to have some eye candy while they complete missions with her as a central focus.

* TheScrappy: Minerva can come off as this due to her pompous and arrogant attitude toward Claude. At the end of Chapter 7, she takes this attitude to UpToEleven, [[AccomplicebyInaction furiously blaming Squad E for Squad F's demise]] since Claude had made the decision for Squad E to destroy an imperial supply depot during the retreat and thus showing up late to the rendezvous.

** Crymaria is the most powerful Valkyria in the world. She's also spent much of her life being subjected to inhuman experiments and suffers from a severe inferiority complex.

*** It is at least implied that the punishment inflicted on Zaiga and co was largely for [[DiggingYourselfDeeper coming up with a ridiculous lie]] rather than [[HonestyIsTheBestPolicy actually explaining the fairly legitimate reason for their actions]]. The squad assumed that Claude would order Ragnarok be sentenced to death for desertion, but given how things were going, he probably have spared Ragnarok as opposed to having him euthanized.

** To a lesser extent, some of Claude's own decisions are questionable, at best, to downright dubious depending on the scene and who he's dealing with. His idea of disciplining insubordinate troops is to assign them to mock combat (using live ammunition) against the Ranger Corp.[[note]]which nearly gets Simon, Viola, and Emmy killed during the ''Mischief Makers"'' squad story[[/note]]. But he'll readily and repeatedly turn a blind eye to his friends insubordination, by letting Raz off twice. And when he and Riley find out [[spoiler: Kai betrayed them]], Claude doesn't even ask how or what her reasons were. He and Riley [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality literally laugh it off]] and say [[EasilyForgiven they don't care.]] Yet, during the ''"Price of a Picnic"'' bonus DLC mission, Claude, Raz, Riley, and Kai punish Zaiga and the others for a considerably ''[[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking lesser offense]]''.
*** It is at least implied that the punishment was largely for [[DiggingYourselfDeeper coming up with a ridiculous lie]] rather than [[HonestyIsTheBestPolicy actually explaining the fairly legitimate reason for their actions]].
* DisappointingLastLevel: The final level is a boss fight, with the assisting troops not posing much of a threat at this point. The boss is a submersible drill tank, larger than any other land vehicle by far. This enemy effectively teleports around the map at random and has almost as many guns as you have squadmates. In theory you are supposed to climb on top of it by building ladders on it and shooting the radiators with anti-tank lances. The problem is that the hitboxes remain bugged months after release, and sometimes it will just completely ignore a direct critical hit from a lance. At other times, the radiators will all retract, preventing you from hitting them. Further still, it will sometimes get bugged into that state forever, making the battle unwinnable. And you have to fight it twice to get the good ending.

** Many non-officer squad members have proven rather popular among the playerbase, though naming all of them would take all day with such a huge cast of characters. Aoife, Neige and Vancey seem to be generally regarded as the most popular among them, mainly due to their personalities, and partly due to how some aspects of their kits are second to none in their classes.

** The Glory isn't considered worth the effort to deploy. Partially because it's so fragile that it's likely to be destroyed in one shot even without getting hit in the radiator. Players have even less incentive to choose the Glory because of [[MightyGlacier the Haufen's]] superior firepower, plus the Haufen is mandatory for most missions. Nor can the Glory compete with the sheer utility of the [[AwesomePersonnelCarrier Cactus]], meaning the Glory usually remains in the hangar collecting dust.
* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Forseti can come off as this in the eyes of some once his backstory is revealed. [[spoiler:He’s meant to be seen as a WellIntentionedExtremist who defected to the Empire in order to save the Valkyria in Federation captivity. But his motivations ring hollow given that he willingly joined the Empire which had been conducting similar experiments on its own Valkyria, him selling out his former comrades, plus his contemptous treatment of Crymaria, all of which end up making him a selfish hypocrite. Few players shed any tears once Kai kills him, as his actions make him out to be an AssholeVictim rather than the TragicVillain writers had intended. It takes a lot of thinking to start sympathizing with the guy, if one remembers that Forseti had also planned to flee the Empire once his job was done, as he did NOT want any more Valkyria turned into weapons or batteries.]]
** To some, Riley might fit this trope herself. When she first joins the team she's downright hostile to former ChildhoodFriend Claude. The reason is that, when they were both children, [[spoiler:they witnessed her family's company building being burned to the ground by imperials, her family still inside. Claude prevented her from running to their rescue, and they all died, thus she holds Claude partially responsable for their demise.]] However, no one ever point out to her the obvious fact that, as a small child, [[spoiler: she likely would have never been able to save anyone, and had Claude not been there to stop her, she would have probably lost her life herself.]] While it's understandable why she feels the way she does, and eventually "forgives" him, the fact remains that [[spoiler:Claude also suffered heavily from it all, spending years overwhelmed with guilt in a traumatized daze. Riley never arcknowledge any of this, nor she expresses any regret about what Claude had to go through himself.]]

** Leena, Leena, Leena. By the time the story wraps up, she [[spoiler: had to: keep up a facade of being another person the whole time, with all the stress that entails; gets shot and almost bleeds out at Siegval, is coerced into playing TheMole for the Empire by her own brother, is overwhelmed by the guilt of betraying the trust of her colse friends and allies, loses the man she loves not long after admitting her feelings, and finally has to confront and shot said brother, only to find out shortly afterwards that he still loved her very much, in his own twisted way, and wanted nothing more than a quiet, peaceful life with her and Angie. Then after that, she has to go on the run with the young Valkyria. Of the (surviving) main characters, she probably had it the worst.]] [[TraumaCongaLine To put it mildly]], the girl could use a hug.

*** It is at least implied that the punishment was largely for coming up with a ridiculous lie rather than actually explaining the fairly legitimate reason for their actions.

* CharacterShilling: The mysterious Angie, a doll-like cutesy young girl with bubblegum hair and a voice to match, shows up towards the final chapters of the game and she's immediately showered with praise by the rest of the cast, receiving compliments, gifts and extra rations. Riley even decides that she ''loves'' her, literally having met her mere days earlier. Clearly contrived to set up VideoGameCaringPotential [[spoiler: when [[TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth Angie's dark fate]] is revealed]], the gushing, for some players, is nonetheless excessive and cloying.

** With the passage of time, nowadays talk of the game is more concerned with the fact that it sold rather poorly in all regions, and has led to talk of it having [[FranchiseKiller possibly killed]] the ''Valkyria'' franchise.

** Leena, Leena, Leena. By the time the story wraps up, she [[spoiler: had to: keep up a facade of being another person the whole time, with all the stress that entails; gets shot and almost bleeds out at Siegval, is coerced into playing TheMole for the Empire by her own brother, is overwhelmed by the guilt of betraying the trust of her colse friends and allies, loses the man she loves not long after admitting her feelings, and finally has to confront and shot said brother, only to find out shortly afterwards that he still loved her very much, in his own twisted way, and wanted nothing more than a quiet, peaceful life with her and Angie. Then after that, she has to go on a run with Angie. Of the (surviving) main characters, she probably had it the worst.]] [[TraumaCongaLine To put it mildly]], the girl could use a hug.

* ViewerSpeciesConfusion: It's not made entirely clear what species Rags is supposed to belong to, if any. Its former use as a sled dog suggests Copper-Red Husky, its general appearance suggest Shiba Inu, or it might just be a mix of those or anything in between- or, altertatively, he belongs to the lesser known [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akita_(dog) Japanese Akita]].