Every so often, I’d think it be great to take an opportunity to highlight particularly cool content found amongst our staff that will be of interest to our readers. Whether these pieces now and in the future enrich your understanding of a franchise’s history or serve as a lighthearted complement to your experience of a franchise, I hope you’ll like these unearthed treasures.
First, I wanted to point our readers to a Gamasutra interview with series director Shuntaro Tanaka and game producer Ryutaro Nonaka. The article was published a couple of weeks after Valkyria Chronicles was released in North America. It’s a lengthy read and highly enjoyable. The interviewees spend some time talking about how Valkyria Chronicles evolved from a standard tactics-RPG to the genre-hybrid that incorporated action elements. The need to have players emotionally connect with the characters they played as significantly informed the developers’ decision to push Valkyria Chronicles’ gameplay in a new direction.
The interview covers a wide range of topics. Nonaka and Tanaka spend quite a bit of time talking with the interviewer about creating games for a particular audience. It starts with a conversation about mechanics that facilitate people making emotional decisions in playing Valkyria Chronicles, leads into comments about the appeal of certain graphical styles (“gritty realism” vs “blue skies”) to audiences, and then to the conceptual greatness of Toy Story and how, surprisingly, Pixar movies enjoy the same success in Japan that they do in America with adults being inclined to see some of their movies. They also go over their goals with the game and inspirations as artists. This is definitely something to read: not just as a Valkyria fan, but as someone who might like a variety of small insights into Japanese game development and how these artists work. I also found it interesting that Tanaka saw the Valkyria as analogous to weapons of mass destruction. I don’t entirely buy the connection, but it would explain some of Squad 7’s reticence to embrace the power of the Valkyria and the true explanation of history between Valkyria and the Darscens.
Secondly, I’d like to direct our readers to a performance of the Valkyria Chronicles Main Theme by L’Orchestre de Jeux Vidéos (abbreviated as OJV,) which is French for The Video Game Orchestra. Please be aware that this is not an official recording, and that all of the video after 3:43 is blank footage.
OJV are a Canadian orchestra group who regularly perform arrangements of video game music. This performance took place on January 21st, 2012. They have a Facebook Page that you can check out here, but do note that most all of the conversations and the news postings seem to be in French.