Like many other fans, I was pretty stoked to hear that Valkyria Chronicles was going to get a re-release on PS4. I’m not usually a fan of re-releases of previous gen games on current systems but my love of Valkyria Chronicles runs deep. I was also one of the many who were excited to hear that a new game was in development called Valkyria: Azure Revolution and we thought we would be getting another sequel to a great series… well, yes and no!
The game was billed as a prequel to the original games, being set many years in the past but with some links to the original games, such as the valkyria. However, if you are expecting a strategy RPG in a similar vein to the Valkyria Chronicles games, you will be disappointed. This is nothing like the games that have come before it!
The demo gives you 2 stages to play through, the first being a basic tutorial to explain how the mechanics work in the game and the second mission is more akin to an all out stage. Note that Sega have said that they will be using feedback from this demo to aid development (and the game even hints at a Ver 2.0 demo somewhere later down the line) so things mentioned in this first impression may be obsolete by the time the game makes it to shelves. You can also check out videos of the demo on youtube. Sadly, sega decided to make the entire demo a blocked scene so unless you stream using a 3rd party video capture unit, you won’t be able to show this demo off on twitch.tv.
Anyways, onto the game itself. The first thing that grabs you is that you are no longer in control of individual units in an army squad. Instead, you are given control of a group of 3 characters which function as 1 group. You can swap between the 3 characters at any time and each have unique skills to help you along. In this demo, you control Amleth, A guy with a huge ass sword and the ability to control Flame, Ophelia, a princess who fights using a thin Rapier and controls water and Brigette, a girl who uses twin knives and controls lightning.
you see, unlike Valkyria Chronicles, these 3 characters are able to cast a sort of magic based on the element they control as well as augmenting their melee attacks to increase damage or range.
Onto the gameplay itself… The demo had only very linear maps but there is definitely potential for more complex and open maps later down the line. You control 1 character while the other 2 are controlled by AI. As mentioned before, you can switch between characters at any time to take advantage of their special abilities. All 3 are armed with a basic rifle which has infinite ammo but only fires 4 or 5 shots before requiring reloading. Cover based mechanics are present but the rifles themselves are very weak and not really able to take out any enemies as you cannot adjust your aim and have to rely on the auto lock-on and aiming. Instead, they can be used to inflict negative status ailments on enemies (such as fear) to give you an advantage when you go into close combat. And that is where the meat of your damage will be dealt. Whilst in combat, you have access to a light and heavy attack. Pressing L1 also gives you access to special attacks. X will always be heal, regardless of the character but the other 3 attacks all follow similar patterns. [] is a basic magic attack, /\ is a focused attack which deals large amounts of damage to a single unit and O is an area melee attack which can hit multiple enemies. Depending on the character you are using, different attacks are more effective. Amleth is very good at dealing damage to a single enemy while Ophelia is a dab handy at attacking multiple enemies. While in close combat, a part of the map is effectively cordoned off to make a makeshift battle area, similar to what happens in Tales of Zestiria. Outside of close combat, you can shoot with your piddly rifle but each character also has a secondary weapon. Amleth has explosive grenades, Ophelia has smoke grenades which can be used to disorientate your enemies and Brigette has a sniper rifle, which is incredibly powerful as you can control your aim but only comes with 5 shots.
There is permadeath in this game but it is of little consequence at this point. Characters have 2 bars next to their portrait. A life bar and a segmented blue bar which is filled by attacking enemies and controls the number of times you can use your special attacks (each L1 attack uses up 1 bar). If a character loses all their life, you have 60 seconds to get to them with another character and revive them. They then come back with half their health.
The game as a whole feels more like an action RPG and there is very little strategy involved at this point. Tactics basically revolve around shooting a few rounds to scare the enemies and then run at them and hit them harder than they hit you.
The final boss of the demo is a gigantic quad-legged tank which is powered by a large ragnite crystal. As far as technology goes, this retcon goes way beyond even Metal Gear Solid 5! The technology available in the ancient past is leagues ahead of what we see in Valkyria Chronicles! The boss itself isn’t difficult but it does help give a feel for how the various systems work.
Although the demo is a work in progress, it does feel rather solid but at the same time it lacks depth and is rather 1 dimensional. Maybe things will change as it goes on in development but right now, it’s no more than a curio and I wonder if the mechanics shown can be expanded to a full game while still maintaining the players interest.
At least we still have the original Valkyria Chronicles, I guess!
