Sega's Valkyria Chronicles series is rather beloved series that rarely seems to match sales with the amount of critical praise it receives. Sega appears to be trying their hand with the franchise once more in the mainstream space when they release a remastered version of the original game and Valkyria Chronicles 4 onto the PlayStation 4.
Originally Kotaku caught wind of the news from the latest issue of the Japanese magazine Famitsu, where it was revealed that a new game was in the making. Additionally it was hinted at the original game getting a remastered version to appear on Sony's PlayStation 4.
The news was definitely welcomed among gamers, but it seemed kind of thin. What was the price? How long has the remastered version and the fourth game been in development?
Well, a lot of those questions were answered in a more detailed piece by Gematsu, where they it was revealed that the fourth game will be called Valkyria Chronicles: Azure Revolution. It will be a direct sequel to Valkyria Chronicles 3, which released exclusively on the PSP over in Japan back in 2011. Once again, Sega was reluctant to carry through with a regional port of the game given that the series has historically sold very poorly in America.
The new game, however, will pick up where the last game left off – though I do hope they decide to do a recap for people who didn't import a copy of the game for the PSP. The alternate World War II setting Valkyria Chronicles is known for returns, and the story sees the Rus Empire vastly expanding with industrial might, and a small band of fighters emerge from a land attempting to maintain its independence.
The game will have real-time battle encounters with a traditional RPG leveling system. The turn-based style combat from the original games has been replaced, and there will be a magic system available through the rare in-game resource known as Ragnite.
Given that the game works in real time, players are able to control the flow of the battle similar to a real-time strategy game by commanding their units on where to go on the field and what to do – setting up strategies for them to carry out during combat. The player will assume the control of one of the five team members during the actual battles, similar to Star Wars: Battlefront or other squad based third-person shooters.
The game will retain its iconic and distinct visual look, this time with a stronger focus on the water painted look that will make the game look even more like a painting than previous games. There are some fuzzy scans from the Famitsu magazine but it's hard to get a good gauge of how the game will look. I'm pretty sure we'll be able to see exactly what this newest Valkyria Chronicles looks like throughout 2016 leading up to its release.
Speaking of release... according to the info gleaned from the magazine, Gematsu is reporting that the game is scheduled to drop on the PS4 during the winter of 2016 in Japan. That's a long ways away.
