Valkyria Chronicles Developers Interview Insight: VC1 Remaster & The Possibility of VC2 and VC3 Remaster

In February of this year, GAMER sat down for a long interview with Katsura Mikami and Takeshi Ozawa of SEGA, the producer and director (respectively) of Valkyria Chronicles Remaster for the Playstation 4.

Towards the end of this past August, a NeoGAF thread surfaced with a partial translation of the interview provided by Nyoro SF, a Valkyria fan and ardent follower of the franchise. The translated segments contain a variety of helpful pieces of information regarding the development process for Valkyria Chronicles Remaster and of course, the prospect of Valkyria Chronicles 2 and 3 being remastered for Playstation 4.

While we will post some of the salient points of the interview in the form of a short summary, please view the thread and if you have a NeoGAF account, post in it to show support for both the Valkyria franchise and the translator’s efforts!

Origins of the Valkyria Chronicles Remaster Project

To begin, Valkyria Chronicles Remaster came about due to a gap in SEGA’s development schedule and to find a way to acclimate new gamers to the Valkyria franchise and capitalize on the noted popularity of the Valkyria franchise overseas. Additionally, Media.Vision (Shining Resonance, Valkyria Chronicles 3) took this opportunity to develop familiarity with the Playstation 4.

The interview confirms that SEGA had been keeping tabs on reception to the Remaster’s announcement, at least with regards to Japanese fans. Back then, the Playstation 4 had picked up a modest amount of developer support, compared to the relative dearth of Japanese developer adoption of the Playstation 4 in 2014 and 2015. The company noted some of the positive sentiments within the interview. The interviewees also state that the same time of Valkyria Chronicles’ (PS3) release was during a boom period for handheld gaming, for the PSP in particular.

Developer Comments: VC2, Western Fanbase, and Minor Alterations to the Remaster

The PSP would go on to receive the second Valkyria Chronicles game and the third one, and Ozawa notes (as has been heard before) that the second Valkyria game was designed for middle schoolers in mind. That being said, Ozawa also says that SEGA believed these gamers to be aware of the Valkyria Chronicles anime and the popular first entry of the Valkyria Chronicles series for the PS3, even while developing Valkyria Chronicles 2.

It is also briefly mentioned that shortly after the publishing of Valkyria: Azure Revolution’s first trailer, many of the YouTube comments were in English, and so the developers had the comments translated so that they could read them.

Much of the game was not changed, with the exception of planned enhancements to graphical performance. The BLiTZ battle system remained intact, and so did the CANVAS graphical engine developed for Valkyria Chronicles. However, transplanting the physics engine from the PS3 game to the PS4 provided some bugs (resulting in some weirdness with the tanks, apparently) that required much of the development team’s attention.

Possibility of other Valkyria Chronicles Remasters?

The major development figures for the first Valkyria Chronicles game have changed positions or are otherwise occupied in the moment, leaving the prospect of another similarly-styled Valkyria Chronicles game quite dubious. Many important people still remain, including Daisuke Tabayashi (art director) and Media.Vision, which SEGA maintains a constant business relationship with, and programming staff.

Lastly, discussion of the first game’s remaster does invite speculation on remasters for the second and third games. Mikami acknowledges that the task to port and remake the PSP games to the Playstation 4 is a lot less simple compared to Valkyria Chronicles’ situation. Ozawa expresses sympathy and support for the idea, but SEGA is currently focused on Valkyria: Azure Revolution. Nevertheless, it is a prospect that would be revisited after Azure Revolution’s release.

This is an important discussion not just because of the generally good fan reception to Valkyria Chronicles Remaster, but because of the absence of Valkyria Chronicles 3‘s localization outside of Japan, and because of SEGA of Japan’s belief that the Valkyria series is noticeably popular in the West. It must also be said that console gaming is noticeably more popular in the West than in Japan, especially if the steadily dwindling sales of the Yakuza series (albeit at a rate that isn’t currently too alarming) and the Project DIVA series are anything to go by.

Future of Azure Revolution and the Valkyria Franchise?

Valkyria: Azure Revolution releases in January 2017 in Japan. What with the markedly negative reception to the initial demo and SEGA’s interest in turning the feedback into a more positive result by overhauling the game, it would seem likely that SEGA of Japan is not only having discussions on whether or not to revisit the idea of Valkyria Chronicles 2 and 3 remasters (costly as they may be), but also on the direction of the Valkyria franchise.

Anyway, once again, please do check out the entirety of the currently-translated segments in the link above! And share your thoughts with us on the future of the Valkyria series in the Comments section!