Valkyria: Azure Revolution is coming to North America via Sega and Europe via Deep Silver as Valkyria Revolution in Q2 2017, Sega announced. It will be released physically and digitally for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and digitally for PS Vita.
Described as a “revolution” from the traditional Valkryia Chronicles universe, Valkyria Revolution is set in an alternate timeline based on the European industrialization era and moves away from the traditional turn-based strategy gameplay of the series for a new hybrid of real-time combat and tactical strategy.
Here’s an overview of the game, via Sega:
About
All it takes is a single spark to start the inferno of war, and in the story of Valkyria Revolution, players will experience that firsthand. Five lifelong friends consumed by personal revenge plunge an entire continent into a terrible war, sacrificing the lives of countless innocents for a cause based on twisted half-truths and outright lies. This “Circle of Five” use their combined influence in their political and military positions to motivate their small, economically blockaded homeland to rise up and become a powerful resistance against its imperialist oppressors. Will the Circle of Five be remembered as heroic liberators, or will their selfish motives expose them as traitorous conspirators who sacrificed untold lives just to carry out a personal vendetta? Players will watch this history unfold in Valkyria Revolution and find out the truth behind the events…
Features
A Brush with Death – Turning the tide of battle in Valkyria Revolution is Brunhilde, one of the last of the ancient and powerful Valkyrur, magical beings with near limitless power. She’s bound by oath to the enemy forces and players will have to figure out how to defeat her.
Prepare for LeGION – Valkyria Revolution has a brand new battle system that mixes real-time combat and tactical strategy. Players can take control of the battlefield using brazen combos or cunning tactics and finding a balance between them is the key to excelling in skirmishes.
The Ingenuity of War – Through adversity comes great engineering, and with a besieged homeland, players will have upgrade their existing weapons through branching customization paths.
A New Painterly Look – Valkyria Revolution has a refined look thanks to the new Gouache rendering engine, giving the graphics a unique canvas texture.
Classic Composer – Valkyria Revolution has a vibrant soundtrack brought to life by the incredibly talented composer Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger, Stella Glow).
Valkyria Revolution is not just a new chapter in the legendary Valkyria series, but a whole new entry with new characters, a new world, and new gameplay mechanics. The static, turn-based battlefield has become an action-oriented stage for devastating melee combos, lethal ranged attacks, and strategic shifts to turn the tide of battle, all while exploring the incredible history of the Circle of Five.
If you’re curious, here’s Sega’s explanation of why they decided to drop the word “Azure” from the title of the English localization:
The way the first Valkyria title was localized had a really nice ring to it: Senjou no Varukyuria (lit. Valkryia of the Battlefield) became Valkyria Chronicles. When faced with Aoki Kakumei no Varukyuria (lit. Valkyria of the Blue Revolution), a literal translation was unwieldy, and difficult from a graphic design standpoint as well, and adding in extra punctuation (e.g. Valkyria: Azure Revolution) didn’t help either. So we stuck to a similar cadence of the first Valkyria title and went with a two-word title. Plus:
Given how vastly different the two games are (Revolution drops the turn-based gameplay, takes place in a different time period, different world, different almost everything), the new name helps to ensure the two titles stood equal but apart from each other.
In Japan, Valkyria Revolution is due out both physically and digitally for PlayStation 4 and PS Vita on January 19.
