As a fan of the first game I'm curious if anyone else has a strong feeling towards the feeling of a world war design/asthetic. I've always loved the series as it explored that whole development period between ww2 and modern day but as I look towards the new series and how it seems to be that you are the special valkire, and you have the most zappy blue laser, and the original idea of soldiers fighting for what they love is lost. Having super charged characters in this series seems wrong, as this series always seemed to be those small soldiers that made a difference, not the ones who had super powers. Course I'll admit I haven't finished the main game of the original but I played the hell out of Edy's campaign, and some of behind her blue flame. I know it's odd it's just how the chips fell for me at the time.

I wouldn't mind learing about the other two games as I've only known of the first one as I've never had a handheld console.

I don't really have any strong feelings towards one particular overall theme. The thing I'm struggling to get over is that I personally feel like the designs of the 3 core characters of this new game kinda sum up a lot of what I hate about modern-day anime.

Oh boy oh boy, they really did just mush up all the "best" animu has to offer. We got kirito in his edgelord trench coat and his many useless belt buckles carrying his giant god eater which is really just a dumb overdesigned piece of iron, his waifu in a wedding dress with her lightsaber and a vacuum packed pair of boobs with her own dumb over designed piece of iron, oh wait we also have attack on titan lady. There is no restraint or consistency, its the type of design a child makes, just stick spikes on and over detail everything because you're unsure of what the (focal)point is, adorn each limb with its own unique useless ornament and put ribbons and pouches wherever there is too much blank space.

Nobody belongs in the same game, it seems no effort was put into crafting an aesthetic. OK whatever, a lot of jrpgs are anachronistic jumbles, its just weird because it already had a cool, cohesive aesthetic to run with.

Oh i also noticed they have that Photoshop filter a lot of trashy modern anime have which cranks up the saturation on the blues and greens and puts this weird purple, pink hue on all the warm stuff and in the shadows. i guess they are trying for a watercolour look, goodbye deliberate colour choices in the first game.

I'm not far into Chronicles, but this is a prequel or is the description on giant bomb wrong? It looks like future fantasy with lazer's and glowing energy swords?

Considering this is a sequel to a game that was lauded for its visuals and combat they've really fucked up by totally changing both of those things. The aesthetic looks like modern anime. I kind of look forward to the day the pendulum swings back around and we start to see simpler designs out of Japan.

*googles game images*

....HAHA WHAT.

Miyazaki is right, anime fans are ruining anime. All of these characters look like they've fallen out of different games, each with different aesthetics, and all designed to be a cute figurine on someone's desk.

This used to be a good franchise, even if the PSP games were not really that good. I'm interested in playing the game, but it's no longer as unique as it used to be. Who thought this art style was a good idea. WHO.

I think going forward in the future from their semi-logical anime WWII setting could be done well. But they went full anime.

I like the water color-y look they are achieving in that style still but yeah. I didn't really quite love all the old art either but yeah I appreciate the restraint and cohesion of that style.

Based on what I'm seeing, the new look isn't all that well executed. However, considering that I'm in the minority that feels Valkyria Chronicles is a narrative abomination, I'm not offended by the fact they changed in the first place. Valkyria Chronicles started off strong with an original aesthetic and blending of themes. Then it took about a million steps back by visually and thematically evoking WWII while completely failing to realize their gravity in terms of its tone.

@veektarius: I totally agree. Part of why I never have been that grabbed by the series even though I love SRPGs. I don't really love the whole "moving around and aiming" aspect either I don't think it adds much compared to a say XCOM type feel. It has always felt unnecessary to me. VC did have it factor into gameplay in some ways but I never enjoyed it.

@zombaholic: pretty much have to agree with everyone else here. It looks like a Tales games. I love Tales games but Valkyria has its own look and thematic aesthetic. I know this game takes place prior to the other chronicles games but there is no reason it can't share the same grounded visual design that the previous games had. I will still get this since it's still some appeal but visually, and game play wise it's an entirely different genre.

I just bought and played Valkyria Chronicles for the first time over the holidays and really enjoyed it. Having seen previews for the new one, I'm a bit ehhh on the new aesthetic. One of things I really like about the original was that it was very definitely anime, but it was at least semi-grounded anime. The characters uniforms looked like they could actually be real uniforms and the weapons were either real looking guns or in the case of the Lancer class, something where you could squint and see how an alternate universe might build that as a RPG.

Sure, there were giant-ass tanks, but those were very clearly the "boss fight involving the bad guy with access to super-tank-technology" exception. For the most part tanks looked like tanks.

The stuff I've seen of Azure Revolution just looks all over the place. Giant scorpion tanks and laser swords and people wearing so many different kinds of clothing you can't tell which side they're fighting on. Basically, they went full anime.

(HINT: Never go full anime)

I'm generally pretty ok with/into this kind of stupid giant sword wielding bishie bullshit. But maaaaaaaaaaan VC1 was awesome in part because it was more focused on the uniformed grunts of the army. Sure, that game was anime as hell too, and only got more so over the course of it. But I really liked the slightly more grounded WW2 feel of it. This is kind of a bummer. :/