INTRO:
The Valkyria Chronicles IP debuted in Japan during a time when the “idol” phenomenon in Japan has metastasized into one that favours ladies with bubbly personalities and a lot of hair. The game’s developers had the bright idea of including a character that is very much modelled after one of these larger-than-life individuals, and their gamble sort of paid off among the Japanese fanbase of the game: Edy Nelson is consistently in the list of most favoured characters among Japanese followers of the series.
Hence, that is the excuse for this otherwise slapped-together DLC package.
SLAP-DASH PRESENTATION:
Unlike the other DLC packages, there is no preamble to this one. The narrator (or at least the Japanese one) does not even have a voice-over that announces the inclusion of the episode that this DLC implements. There is not even a non-canonical narrative set-up for Edy being included as a playable Shocktrooper.
SLAPPED-TOGETHER MISSION:
The DLC comes with a mission that the player has to complete in order to obtain Edy Nelson as a Shocktrooper.
The mission reuses the very first map of the story campaign; this map also happens to be used for the first (and easiest) skirmish map too. The map is small, but is saturated with tall fences, tanks, gatling turrets and shocktroopers. This can seem daunting.
MEANT FOR NEW PLAYTHROUGHS:
It would be daunting, if the player is beginning a fresh playthrough. This is because all of the enemies are low-level ones; none of them are elite or paragon variants of enemies.
In fact, a player that is playing with a post-game playthrough can finish the mission in just one turn: one CP for the Hafen to crash through the fences, and then a few more CPs for any Scout or Shocktrooper to dash over to the main enemy camp. There is little that the greatly out-classed enemies can do.
EDY IS STILL NOT GREAT:
In the first game, Edy is not exactly the best Shocktrooper around because she has a bad Potential that lowers her survivability when she comes under enemy fire – which is something that Shocktroopers are trained to endure. Unfortunately, this detrimental Potential of hers has been retained throughout the entire series wherever she appears as a cameo character, and this is also the case in the fourth game.
Furthermore, since she is a DLC character, there is no way to work around her bad Potentials because she does not have a Squad Story. Moreover, her “Rosie Hater” Potential becomes a problem if the player so chooses to get the DLC that would include Rosie as a non-canon squad member.
SUMMARY:
This DLC might be a must-have for any player that is Japanese (or a Japanophile), is a fan of the series, is a fan of pig-tailed bubbly girls and is a fan of Edy. For anyone else who so much as lacks any of these preferences, it is unlikely that the player would appreciate this DLC, even if it came free with a purchase of the main game.