With the recent news of SEGA making a new entry in the Valkyria series and bringing the first game to PS4, a teaser trailer has now been released for Valkyria: Azure Revolution. This teaser doesn’t show any gameplay, rather showing off the sort of battles you will be fighting in during the course of the game, as well as revealing some of the principal characters that you will see during your time with Azure Revolution.
With this trailer also comes greater clarification of how Valkyria: Azure Revolution fits into the greater Valkyria series. Rather than being a direct sequel from the traditional Chronicles, Azure Revolution will act as a sort of spin off, moving away from the SRPG roots of Chronicles and following an more typical JRPG formula. Imagine if Final Fantasy Tactics was the original series and the traditional Final Fantasy series was the spin off, and you can see what SEGA is doing with the Valkyria series.
The trailer itself is a bit of an odd one to tell you the truth. You’ve still got the lovely watercolour art style of Chronicles but the designs of the main characters are certainly more anime-esque, with a dark haired chap wielding a ridiculously large sword and a woman fighting on a battlefield in a white formal dress. It’s a far cry from the sensible army outfits and tanks of Valkyria Chronicles, let’s say that much.
I’m honestly still a bit torn over this new entry for the Valkyria series. It’s definitely good to see SEGA still wanting to back the project and they are making good on their promise that a fourth installment in the series would take a different direction but I’m not sure making a typical JRPG was the right way to go. Valkyria fans also seem betrayed, hoping that this new entry would return to the tactical roots of the series as that was what was so appealing about Chronicles 1 and 2. There is the consolation that VC1 is coming to PS4 and if that does well, it may convince SEGA to either make a proper Valkyria Chronicles 4 or at least remake Valkyria Chronicles 2 and 3 on console.
Check out the teaser trailer for yourself and tell us your impression of Valkyria: Azure Revolution below.
