My gut impression is that the combat looks very generic, and if you were looking for any gameplay even remotely resembling Valkyria Chronicles you'll find it disappointing.

It's a demo that comes with the Valkyria Chronicles Remastered for the PS4 in Japan, I'm not sure if it will come along with the western release later this spring (my guess is probably not).

Maybe this will end up being ok, but this is not at all what I wanted to see from a Valkyria Chronicles sequel. I don't understand why they would throw out its fairly unique blend of turn-based strategy and real-time action and just opt for something that looks like any other action JRPG.

They appear to have changed the gameplay into what you'd expect for an action rpg in 2016... but the result isn't really what I want out of a Valkyria game. There was so much room for improvement from that original game (which they may have achieved in the PSP games, I don't know) that to toss it out entirely strikes me as a tragedy.

Ah. They Shining-ed it.

@chaser324: Because the last two Valkyria Chronicles had abysmal sales (according to VGchartz Valkyria Chronicles 3 did around 150,000 sales + VC2 sold less than 500,000. COmpared to the 1.3 million combined sales of the original game) so, if I was a publisher, it would be time to try something new. That means either abandoning the IP altogether, or tweaking the formula into something that has the chance to sell better. In case you didn't gleen my opinion already, I am firmly against the idea that a franchise has to stay within a core set of mechanics in order to keep its name; I care so little about keeping the mechanics that the game could be a tank focused kart racer and my only opinion would be, "is it fun?"

@monetarydread: It's unfortunate for fans of those previous games, but I do agree with you that a change like this is probably the only chance this franchise had. They also have sort of rebranded this as simply "Valkyria" instead of "Valkyria Chronicles", so a departure in terms of gameplay was probably to be expected. That being said, the branding change also gives me a small glimmer of hope that if this new game and the updated PS4 version of the original are successful, there's maybe a tiny chance we could see another proper "Valkyria Chronicles" entry at some point. It's extremely unlikely, but I'll take whatever I can get.

No X-com-like turn based combat? ...Aaaand there goes my interest.

@monetarydread: If I was a publisher I would think "Why not put out a console version again?". I loved VC, but I wasn't gonna buy a PSP for the sequels.

So I know that Valkyria Chronicles have always been heavy on the anime, but yo. This looks anime. Aaaas heeeeelllllll. And like, bad anime. Completely at odds to the style established in that first game, and even that second game. Plus the gameplay looks slow and uninteresting, but that could just be an early level/result of an incomplete build.

Despite this website's enthusiasm for Starbreeze's Syndicate, I think we have enough historical examples to be skeptical of franchises being resurrected in a different genre.

1.5 million for VC1 sounds high. That game bombed on (US) release, <30k first month sales. I wouldn't be surprised if Sega considered the PSP games more successful than the original. But, an early 2008 PS3 release and two PSP games weren't exactly setting the franchise up for blockbuster sales.

Wow this looks lifeless. Good news is that a 2nd demo with improvements will come out in the summer after all the negative feedback.

@chaser324: For sure. The PC version of Valkyria Chronicles 1 sold better than the last two VC titles, so maybe there is a hope there.

Except that this is a Japaneese company, whose only real focus is the Japanese market, and in that country more people played games on PSP than consoles. Making a game for PSP also reduced the cost of development because you didn't have to design assets for high-definition. I agree that a console / PC version of those titles would have been great, but it is also a lot larger of a risk when sales aren't great. Even though VC 1 made around a million sales on console, it didn't recoup the cost of development on a then failing PS3 (VC 1 was a PS3 launch window exclusive). We have the gift of hindsight here, but back when VC 2 was announced, the PS3 was losing pretty badly and was less relevant than the Xbox One is in this generation.

I am going off of VGChartz.com (http://www.vgchartz.com/game/18897/valkyria-chronicles/) and they say it was around 1.3 million lifetime sales and that number includes PS4 and PC sales. I have updated my original post with the updated number.

I'm not interested in this game, being I'm one of the players who was attracted to the original purely because of its genre, but I am very curious to see how this goes, and if that could ever result in wrap-back-around true sequel.

Though, I have my doubts.

God why.

If I wanted to play a Tales game, there's already a billion out there. LET VALKYRIA CHRONICLES BE VALKYRIA CHRONICLES!

Oh man they changed the genre too... what a mess.

I think this looks like it could be fun. I am on board.

Fuck that noise, looks beautifully boring as fuck. I am so sad.

I didn't get that far in the first Valkyria Chronicles but I don't remember spider tanks and giant magical scythes.

No, Sega. You can't just put sandbags and Czech hedgehogs in your generic JRPG and call it Valkyria Chronicles.

I certainly understand that, but I think for western VC fans at least the core mechanics is the sole factor that made the game noteworthy. It certainly wasn't Welkin/Alicia or the sharp Anime WWII aesthetic or the world the game was set in.

Given that the Japanese market really doesn't support console or even handheld games anymore (it's all gone to mobile), the only realistic hope this game has of doing well is for them to recapture the zeitgeist the first VC had among Western fans.

If they think the ARPG genre will sell better in America, they might be making an extremely dangerous assumption.

Well for me at least, the setting and characters were a huge draw for that first game. That game to me still stands up as the gold standard of "3D anime" art design. And so far everything I've seen has been extremely disappointing on that front. Moreso than the gameplay, at least in my opinion. VC1 might have been anime up to the eye balls, but not like this. Not like giant glowing blue swords being swung around like they're made of air and fucking gothic lolita cosplay in a battlefield.

Ever since that first game, this franchise has been on a straight shot downward into the worst sort of anime nonsense, starting with the high school dating sim setting of that second game.

@beforet: That's very fair and I largely feel the same way about VC 1. But I also don't mind Anime stuff and probably have a higher tolerance for some of the tropes and conventions than it sounds like you might.

I should have been more careful said the" majority of western VC fans", because the gameplay does seem to be the source of the love for most fans I've witnessed.That's all I was getting at, the potential sales impact of this decision. I suspect if you were to ask 100 US VC fans 80+ of them would say the tactical combat is why they liked it. Imo this is a very very risky business decision for SEGA in a time where the Japanese market isn't really enough anymore for Console titles.

It now basically looks like a Dynasty Warriors game but slowed to a crawl. Can't say that I'm all that heart broken over it, however, since I didn't really like the original that much. Well, the gameplay was engaging (to a point) but everything to do with the story and its characters has permanently left a stain on my memories of playing it. Shame really, because if there was to be a VC with the original gameplay and like zero story (or just enough story for a premise ala XCOM) then it'd have a high chance of being something I could get into.

While the Anime is certainly off the charts with this one when compared to the original, you mustn't forget Selvaria and basically everything to do with her in the first VC. Her character design and her capabilities look pretty inline with what we have here - complete with exaggerated boob physics.

In fact isn't she in this game? She looks very similar to the spine-bending boob lady that's currently the default image of our wiki page. Though again, I'm not saying they haven't since doubled-down on the worst aspects of the series... but still, it's not like the first game was completely devoid of this stuff.

@yummylee: So yeah, everything that can be said about VC's 'grounded anime' is true...but falls apart when you include Selvaria, and to a lesser extent Alicia, into the mix. I was actually gonna try and address that, but I thought it would be a bit off topic.

But even then, at least the majority of the "~*ANIME*~" was kind of kept to one character. And she was exceptional, in universe. It was a case of "what the actual fuck is with the crazy glowing amazonian goddess on the battlefield?" Point being, it wasn't the norm.

I feel that that level of extreme, judging purely from what we have seen up to this point and from the trajectory present in the second game (I don't know a whole lot about the third game), has now become the norm here.

That first game was definitely anime as hell. There is no getting around that. And I actually liked the anime nonsense in that first game. But I also liked the juxtaposition of "semi-normal grounded anime" with the "crazy amazonian goddess anime". I'm just disappointed that they have doubled down on it soo hard on the latter, and having seemingly dropped the former.

Edit: Plus, I'm just not sure why this is the path being taken here? Going down the anime hole hasn't seemed to bear them the fruit they wanted, if those numbers from earlier in the thread are any indication. And I'm with @slag, I'm not sure the genre shift is going to do anything for them. I have no idea what they are hoping to accomplish here.