Tag Archives: Valkyria: Azure Revolution

Helena Andersen

Valkyria: Azure Revolution Blog Update Features Helena and Blum

Some may remember that the official Japanese website for Valkyria Chronicles featured a blog  where the side characters Edy Nelson and Homer Peron exchanged thoughts about all sorts of topics related to the game. SEGA’s upcoming action-RPG Valkyria: Azure Revolution, set in the Valkyria Chronicles universe, now has a similar blog on its own website. This time, it features discussions between the childhood friends Helena Andersen and Blum Thomasson. Both are members of the Vanargand, an anti-Valkyria unit of the kingdom of Jutland. You can find the blog here.

Continue reading »

Valkyria Azure Revolution Demo 21

Valkyria: Azure Revolution Gets First Demo Footage, New Screenshots and Characters

Bundled with the release in Japan of Valkyria Chronicles: Remaster was a battle demo for Valkyria: Azure Revolution. The first footage of the demo has appeared online, offering us a good view of the game’s action-RPG combat mechanics. These can be split into two main parts: ranged and close quarter combat (where your characters switch to melee weapons). The game transitions into close quarter combat when you get close to the enemy. If you ambush and hit the enemy from afar before closing in and entering close quarter combat, you will trigger a “Good Situation”, giving you an advantage over the enemy. On the other hand, simply rushing in will trigger a “Bad Situation”. For more information on how this works, look up our notes on “Reactions” in our previous article.

Continue reading »

Jutland Azure Revolution Valkyria

New Valkyria Azure Revolution Media/Info – Making-of for Songs, More Battle System Details

Sega has produced a new webpage on their Valkyria Azure Revolution website detailing some of the information recently made available on the demo for the game being included alongside Valkyria Chronicles Remaster’s release in Japan. We’ll focus on what’s not been previously covered in our most recent article on Azure Revolution.

First, some additional pieces of information on Maxim, the new character that opposes the kingdom of Jutland and the protagonists. Besides  as having a rather direct personality. We also have a full body official artwork piece of the character, which you can view below:

Valkyria Azure Revolution MaximNext, the kingdom of Jutland. This article’s featured image is of the lovely land itself. The main characters are from Jutland and fight on its behalf against the Rus Empire. It is structured as a constitutional monarchy (it has a king) and it is ruled by the father of Ophelia, who is the game’s heroine. However, the king is more of a puppet with little real influence. This influence belongs to the House of Lords and the House of Representatives seem to have more direct administrative sway on the country’s affairs.

Jutland has a mostly warm climate which lends itself well to agricultural development, and overtime the country has developed a citizenry well-known for its artisanal skills. However, unlike Gallia from Valkyria Chronicles, Jutland severely lacks for Ragnite. As a multi-purpose resource and a prime energy tool, a deficiency of readily accessible Ragnite is difficult for Jutland. Magic Arts industrial production has fallen off, and the “Azure Light” has disappeared. What the Azure Light is specifically and what it means for the plot of Azure Revolution, we’ll learn later.

In the year 1852, four countries formed the BRuFH Alliance, with the Rus Empire at the Alliance’s core. The congregation decided upon obstructing Jutland’s ability to import Ragnite, perhaps as an attempt to weaken Jutland to such a state where it could be conquered and repurposed/occupied to Rus’s liking. This decision, which resulted in an impoverished Jutland, triggers the war that the story of Valkyria Azure Revolution revolves around.

Mission Briefing Azure Revolution ValkyriaSega’s also released some more information on the demo and on the battle system. First – Briefing screens are back! It’s a nice touch from previous Valkyria games. They appear after you select a mission. In the battle demo that will accompany Valkyria Chronicles Remaster’s release, there will be two missions; the first one is described as a tutorial, and the second one is a “real mission.”

Morale Bar Azure Revolution ValkyriaAt the top of the screen, there will be a morale measurement bar that is mutually exclusive between both sides. The HUD for missions when you’re on the field reminds me of Dragon Ball Z: The Legend for the Playstation…anyway, Sega also mentions that mission ranking is a function of clear time and the number of enemies defeated. Rather interesting direction – depending on how the battle system turns out, achieving the highest rank may be very difficult.

Reactions Valkyria Azure Revolution

In our previous writeup about the new information unveiled for the battle system, we learned about preemptive attacking a mob of enemies and how they provide advantages for the player. Sega offers some additional detail by talking about Reactions – which are noticeable on the map prior to engaging in Close Combat. Surprise is a state of shock which lasts for a couple of seconds, and is a chance to gain an advantage in Close Combat. Impatience denotes being in an disadvantageous situation; this is good when the enemy is afflicted with Impatience, because the ability to act is hindered when in this state. Anger increases offensive ability and decreases defensive ability. There is some risk to this Reaction. And lastly, Determined increases defensive stats.

Concluding this deluge of information, Sega released a couple of new videos for Valkyria Azure Revolution. Two of them are for important songs in the game: a making-of for Aoki Kakumei, and another making-of for Eternal Rest (both featuring the talents of Yasunori Mitsuda, the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, and Sarah Alainn.) The last trailer is an extended preview trailer. Check them out!

Aoki Kakumei Making-of, featuring Yasunori Mitsuda:

『蒼き革命のヴァルキュリア』メインテーマ「蒼き革命」 試聴&メイキング映像

Eternal Rest Making-of, featuring Yasunori Mitsuda and Sarah Alainn:

『蒼き革命のヴァルキュリア』メインテーマ「蒼き革命」 試聴&メイキング映像

Extended Teaser Trailer:

『蒼き革命のヴァルキュリア』ティザートレーラー映像 完全版

Credit for the images goes to the Sega website linked at the article’s beginning. Credit for additional information belongs to this Gematsu article.

SEGA Releases New World Introduction Trailer for Valkyria Chronicles Remaster

SEGA of Japan has released another trailer for Valkyria Chronicles Remaster, the PS4 port of the original Valkyria Chronicles on PS3. The trailer details the various factions in the game: the neutral nation Gallia, the Atlantic Federation and the East Europan Imperial Alliance. The player assumes the role of Welkin Gunther, who is tasked to defend Gallia when it’s invaded by the Imperial Alliance. You can take a look at the trailer (in Japanese) below!

Continue reading »

Valkyria Azure Revolution – New Character, Battle System/Demo

This week’s Famitsu arrives with a substantive feature on Valkyria: Azure Revolution.

First, the reveal of new character Maxim. His outfit prominently features teal and he sports white hair. Maxim is an antagonist character. The Valkyria series has had a propensity for creating a squad of sub-antagonists under one main antagonist (as the Drei Stern were to Maximilian), perhaps Brynhildr and Maxim might fulfill that same role in Azure Revolution. Besides that, we learn that he was born in Rus Empire-occupied territory, selected to be a young soldier, and received an experimental (possibly unsafe?) Ragnite implant that allows him to use Magic Arts.

Additionally we’ve also got some new information on the battle demo for Azure Revolution that is featured in Valkyria Chronicles Remaster, and how battles for Azure Revolution play out. You control your party through a field and when encountering enemies on the field, you can choose to preemptively attack an enemy party with long range options (described as R1 or L1+Square, separately.) The Circle button can be used to interact with your environment to give yourself cover. If you successfully use a long-ranged attack to surprise the enemy party you’ll be given an as of yet unspecified advantage for the “real” combat phase – Close Combat.

In Close Combat, the player is given four attack inputs, which are assigned to your melee weapons and Magic Arts. The behavior of your allies and the enemy is sensitive to things like terrain, whether or not you attacked first, and how the battle is going thus far. If you initiate a successful preemptive attack, for example, the enemy party will react to your moves in a sub-optimal manner. This all would seem to capture standard Japanese ARPG combat with some Valkyria Chronicles-flairs.

However, should one of your party members reach 0 HP, they’ll enter a near-death state where a timer where appear above them. Either you reach them and heal them, or your party member is permanently incapacitated. Another Valkyria Chronicles staple with a new twist on it for Azure Revolution!

The Famitsu article states that music transitions between the field and entering battles will be seamless. A focus on how to treat and create seamless transitions seems to be more of an adopted trend amongst Japanese RPGs as of late, as opposed to loading screens that produce fights on a separate battlefield.

Yasunori Mitsuda will be contributing his talents for this game’s OST – it’s not clear in what capacity he’ll be around, whether it be for direction or composition, or if he would even be the sole composer. It also notes that Australian-Japanese singer Sarah Àlainn sings the “Song of Death” that can be heard in a recent Azure Revolution trailer. I’ll link it below in case you missed it or want a refresher!

『蒼き革命のヴァルキュリア』ティザートレーラー映像

Credit to Gematsu for the translated information.

Valkyria: Azure Revolution – Battle Demo, Difficulty, and Perma-death

Gematsu noted that Hachima Kikou published an article featuring some insights into Sega’s plan for Valkyria: Azure Revolution. Specifically, director Takeshi Ozawa and producer Youichi Shimosato touch upon what sort of playing experience the demo for Azure Revolution represents, and also mention some additional gameplay characteristics being implemented into the game.

These characteristics include permanent death that impacts available side-story events, and the suggestion of a relatively high difficulty level. The development team carefully considered the introduction of permadeath into the game, but in the end moved forward with it. Death as a theme is apparently quite important to Azure Revolution (certainly, if the dramatic tagline for the game is any indication) so the team saw it as important to incorporate permadeath. If you lose a character in-game, the main story campaign will still continue, but you will lose access to character-specific side events. While you could permanently lose certain characters in Valkyria Chronicles, character events were not attached to them. It remains to be seen if any characters will be exempt from permadeath as was the case with the Command Point characters in Valkyria Chronicles. The development team does say that it will be possible to experience all character events if players progress through the game correctly, but this might be difficult. Speaking of difficulty, director Ozawa had this to say (courtesy of Gematsu’s translation:)

There are obstacles in the game and we are thinking about how to go about them without toning them down. We plan on including something like an easy mode to help with the obstacles.

That’s pretty telling. Seems that there’s a particular type of gameplay experience that they want to preserve. Easy mode should be popular with more consumers, so this doesn’t seem like too bad of an idea.

As for the demo, producer Shimosato says that it isn’t a beta test, and that it’s supposed to “win you over right off the bat.” Remember that Valkyria Chronicles Remaster is releasing in February while Valkyria: Azure Revolution is releasing in Winter 2016 in Japan. The very early demo release will allow the development team to incorporate feedback with minimal shock to development schedules. The main point of the demo is to experience a preview of the battle system (which they also mention will feature a level-up mechanic!) For waiting Valkyria fans and new prospects, the battle system is most probably the most anticipated feature. It seems the development team has a plan in place to both convey their ideas and work with some fan feedback. While superficially the demo might seem like a beta test, the development team seems to have a strong idea of what they want to do.

I myself anxiously anticipate news of battle system!

SEGA Releases New Batch of Valkyria: Azure Revolution Screenshots

In our previous update we showed you the new trailer for Valkyria Azure Revolution, along with a link to the official website. Aside from the new screenshots on the website, SEGA also posted some more artwork and screenshots on their official Twitter account. We bundled all of them in this post, so feel free to take a look!

Continue reading »

Valkyria Azure Revolution Trailer

Valkyria Azure Revolution: First Trailer, Website Update

The first trailer for Valkyria: Azure Revolution was recently published by Sega. It’s cinematic and features Amleth and Ophelia as they participate in a battle. Brynhildr, the enemy Valkyria, makes an appearance at the end. We knew that there would be a demo included with Valkyria Chronicles Remaster for PS4, but this trailer confirms that an Azure Revolution Battle Demo is included with Remaster.

Gematsu noticed that this same Azure Revolution trailer was uploaded to a Playstation Taiwan YouTube account, and that Azure Revolution will be receiving a Mandarin Chinese localization. This localized version is set to release in the Winter of next year – same as the Japanese version. I wonder when an English version will be released?

Anyway, Sega’s official Azure Revolution website has been updated with a large batch of screenshots, and short character profiles for the three known characters. It also offers info recaps, including the story premise and the battle/graphics systems.

Continue reading to check out the trailer.

Continue reading »

Val AzuRevo Title

Valkyria Promotional Blitz: Teaser Websites, Screens, and a Twitter Account!

There’s no two ways about it; Sega of Japan is really betting on Valkyria’s growth as a franchise.

Sega of Japan has created a Twitter account for the Valkyria franchise. Give them a follow! If the Twitter accounts for other franchises like Yakuza and Sakura Wars are any indication, the Sega staffers for each franchise are quite dedicated and take note of all sorts of minutiae related to the franchise (the Yakuza and Sakura Wars accounts occasionally posted information on their characters being present in Project X Zone 2, for example.)

The Valkyria franchise seems to be addressed on this page as the “Valkyria Project”, so as to encompass the Chronicles games (Valkyria Chronicles 1-3) and Azure Revolution. We can probably expect to see it addressed as such in the future.

The first tweet of the Valkyria Twitter account announces Sega’s Valkyria portal website. It features links to official websites for all console/handheld Valkyria games at the bottom, and at the top there are three tabs. The first offers summaries and images for each Valkyria game (including Duel.) The second is an anime tab, with pages for the anime adaptation of the first game and the Valkyria Chronicles 3 OVA. The third tab is a Goods tab; it’s a cataloging of Valkyria Chronicles media and merchandise. It doesn’t offer product pages or purchase links for everything (though some items do have purchase links) but it’s an effort that is much respected.

Next, let’s check out the promotional website for Valkyria: Azure Revolution. Suffice it to say, at the moment it won’t take you too long to check out the whole site, though I like the background colors. Worth noting is the caption for the logo – it could be a tell for the plot events of Azure Revolution. If you missed the release of screenshots for the game earlier today, check out our writeup.

A website for the PS4 remaster of Valkyria Chronicles – Valkyria Chronicles Remaster, is also available. It features a large collection of screenshots and details the plot, gameplay and visual features, and added DLC content (all previous DLC episodes, Hard EX mode) present in the remaster. PSN trophies will also be available for this game. You may recall that the absence of trophies was met with some backlash after the game’s PS3 release. The planned boxart for the can be seen below:

Valkyria PS4 remaster JPn boxartHere’s to hoping the West follows suit! Valkyria’s second wind could be quite the storm.

Famitsu Reveals First Screenshots of Valkyria: Azure Revolution

Famitsu posted the first screenshots of Valkyria: Azure Revolution, the RPG set in the Valkyria Chronicles universe which was announced yesterday for PS4. While they’re in a low resolution, they do give us some idea of the game’s art style and graphics. And the difference in style is certainly apparent. The art style reminds me more of Shining Resonance than Valkyria Chronicles, which may make sense given that the developer of Shining Resonance was Media Vision, which is also in charge of this game. That said, we’ve yet to see high resolution screenshots and a video of the game in motion, so it’s difficult to form an opinion of it just yet. Aside from the Valkyria: Azure Revolution screenshots, Famitsu also posted two low-res screenshots of the PS4 remaster of Valkyria Chronicles. Take a look at the screenshots below!

Continue reading »