Identity crisis: Valkyria Revolution review | Technobubble (2025)

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Identity crisis: Valkyria Revolution review | Technobubble (1)

Identity crisis: Valkyria Revolution review | Technobubble (2)

Video: Behind Valkyria Revolution’s haunting soundtrack | Technobubble

If there's one thing that Valkyria Revolution gets right, it's the musical score. Composer Yasunori Mitsuda and vocalist Sarah Àlainn offer a behind-the-scenes look.

Sega

As someone who mourned Sega’s departure from the console race, I’m finding a lot of reasons to rekindle my love for the company recently.

Yakuza 0 proved to be a revelation with its wonderful mix of drama, action and open-world mechanics. The upcoming Sonic Mania, meanwhile, is giving me warm, fuzzy flashbacks to the summer of 1991 with its retro aesthetics. I even commend Sega for not meddling and just letting Atlus do its thing in creating the JRPG masterpiece, Persona 5 after it acquired the developer.

Then there’s its decision to release a new Valkyria game. I still remember going out in the cold of winter and hunting down a copy of the original Valkyria Chronicles for PlayStation 3 back in 2008. The game would proceed to hijack weeks of my life as I played and replayed it to get the highest rank for each skirmish while fawning over its beautiful art style and compelling story. The game even got a new loyal convert after I introduced it to my niece by way of Valkyria Chronicles Remastered.

Even after I learned that Valkyria Revolution was being developed more as a side story with different mechanics, I still approached it with an open mind. Some fans understandably decried the decision. But I had no problem giving Revolution a fair shot and judging it on its own merits. Besides, an action game set in the world of Valkyria sounded like it might be fun.

After playing the game, however, it’s clear that the complaints voiced by Valkyria fans prior to the game’s release left an indelible imprint on Revolution, and not in a positive way. As much as I loved Chronicle’s tactical gameplay, I now wonder if Revolution would have been better served if the developers stuck to their guns and hewed to the original action-oriented path they planned instead of shoehorning in RPG elements to placate upset fans. As it is now, the game finds itself in a No Man’s Land from the resulting schizophrenic gameplay.

That being said, the game gets certain things right.

Music, for example, is arguably Valkyria Revolution’s strongest suit. From its haunting ballads to its snappy instrumentals, the game’s various musical scores work quite well in setting the mood for its various scenes. Songs also play an important role in Revolution, which weaves them into the narrative tapestry in much the same way that Macross does. In that sense, Japanese composer Yasunori Mitsuda — whose catalog of work includes Chrono Trigger and Xenogears — does commendable work in creating scores that help evoke emotion and add extra layers of emotion to Revolution’s tale.

Given its chunky narrative, Revolution does not shy away from dialogue, either, boasting a solid cast of “seiyuus” or voice actors for its Japanese audio version. You have well-known folks such as Hiroshi Kamiya and Saori Hayami lending their voices to key roles. For folks who prefer English voices, the game includes a full-on English dub as well.

I also liked Valkyria Revolution’s art direction overall, thanks to a diverse palette and nod to the original game’s canvas-style filter. Revolution’s visuals were the main thing that caught my attention when I first saw screenshots of the game, which looked like kicked-up versions of Chronicles’ art style. Instead of the pencil and watercolor aesthetics of the first game, however, Revolution uses a more vivid painter style that adds some more richness to the game. The final product has it share of hiccups, including a limited range of expressions for characters and lack of detail in certain areas. Main character Amleth Glencaire, who looks like he came flying straight from “Attack on Titan,” has a weird little mouth that has a bit of an uncanny valley quality to it when viewed up close, for example. Overall, though, I liked the aesthetic and look of the game, which has a very Japanese fantasy and steampunk style to it.

The story, meanwhile, starts out with an intriguing premise. You’re basically thrust ahead about a century after the main cast’s exploits during the Liberation War. What makes the plot interesting, however, is that the main protagonist is seen in the present as one of the “Five Traitors” who nearly led the kingdom to ruin. What could have possibly happened during the war’s aftermath that led to these five heroes being judged as such?

Once you get through Revolution’s promising opening, however, the game’s warts start to show. At the top of the list is the combat, which is arguably the most important part of any Valkyria game. We could endlessly debate the reason why the developers opted to shelve Valkyria Chronicle’s tactical gameplay and decided to go toward a more action-oriented route. Maybe they thought tactical RPGs don’t have the widespread appeal of action games. Perhaps they just wanted to do something new. Regardless of the reasons, the developers should have went all-in with their vision and tried to make the most compelling action-based combat mechanics that they could.

You could see part of that vision when the first demo was released last year. Although Revolution had some tactical elements such as using grenades to obscure foes’ vision, it was clearly designed to be an action game.

Then came the fan reaction, which was swift and brutal. Players, who were expecting a faithful followup to Valkyria’s tactical “senjou” franchise were caught by surprise and voiced their displeasure in droves. The negative feedback was so fierce that it forced the developers to overhaul the battle system less than a year before the game was set to release.

Part of the problem involved the lack of of clear messaging that this was essentially a spin-off game. Apparently, this game was to be the first entry in the"kakumei” or Revolution series, which is planned to be a more action-oriented take on Valkyria. The “Chronicles” name, meanwhile, will be reserved for the classic “senjou” or "battlefield" series.

Personally, I think it would have been better if they announced plans for Valkyria Chronicles 4 alongside Valkyria Revolution. That way, fans could more easily see the distinction and not feel that Revolution was taking away resources from a true successor to the Chronicles series. Once the demo dropped, however, the damage was done. At that point, the developers had three choices. They could double down and continue making the game they originally planned. They could scrap everything and implement a tactical combat system in the vein of the Chronicles series. Or they could compromise and re-jigger the system to be a mix of both.

Given how the game was due out in less than a year, I could see why they decided to go for option No. 3. Overhauling the game to be more tactical likely would be tough barring a delay and an infusion of additional resources. In the end, the people behind Valkyria Revolution chose compromise, which is certainly reflected in the battle system. Like a hotshot basketball player who looks lost on the court after making a big mistake and getting booed, Revolution’s combat system seems unsure of itself and lacking in confidence.

Instead of a fluid action-based system or rock-solid tactical combat mechanics, the game’s fighting system feels like a mishmash of both elements that don’t quite gel. Tactical touches like hiding behind walls and sandbags feel totally unnecessary. This is especially true given your ability to advance while using your weapon as a shield as well as the importance of speeding through the battlefield to get a higher rank.

Enemy grunts, who could still be serious threats in Chronicles, feel like Dynasty Warriors cannon fodder with bad AI in Revolution. It’s as if they were designed for a different type of combat and aren’t quite sure to react under the changes developers made to the system. Charging through the line of fire isn’t much of a threat and you could just bull rush grunts without any serious consequences. It also doesn’t give you much incentive to use firearms except maybe for rocket launchers against armored foes or bosses. Even the risk of permadeath feels trivial due to the lack of challenge. Bosses can certainly pose some difficulty, largely due to their large health pool, but the ability to revive downed allies makes victory in battle feel more like a matter of time as opposed to being the fruit of tactical proficiency.

Revolution tries to mix things up outside of battle by including a town segment as well as the ability to research weapons and gear. Developing weapons, however, feels tacked on and isn't as fun and impactful as in previous games.

The narrative, meanwhile, is adversely impacted by a plethora of loading screens as you go from one scene to the next. Even the intriguing premise surrounding the Five Traitors, which starts out quite promising, buckles in the end as the ultimate decision about their fates feels forced. Although the idea behind a noble sacrifice is admirable, the way that the final decision played out did not make sense to me because I thought other avenues were still available.

Then again, all those issues honestly feel minor against the combat system, which is ultimately what does this game in. Even creative touches such as the ability to inspire panic or fear on enemy soldiers don't really mean much when you can you can just mow them down like bowling pins when they're not scared.

In the end, Valkyria Revolution is an intriguing experiment that crumbles under the weight of mismatched expectations and an honest attempt to set things right that doesn’t quite pan out. Would sticking to the original action blueprint have been a better choice? It’s hard to say but it likely would have felt more cohesive at the very least compared to the hybrid mechanics that were implemented in response to the criticism of the first demo.

The sad part is, this game likely would have done much better if it simply continued the tactical approach of the Valkyria series. Just look at Fire Emblem, which continues to sell like gangbusters despite a system that looks positively archaic compared to Valkyria’s unique third-person approach to tactics. If we’ve learned anything from the Fire Emblem series and Persona 5, it’s that old-school mechanics will still sell if done well with obvious love and care. As a fan of this Sega tactical franchise, it honestly pains me to give this game a low score knowing that it could adversely impact the development of a new Valkyria Chronicles game. I just hope Sega shows faith in the franchise once again in the futureand releases the awesome Valkyria Chronicles game that I believe it's quite capable of making. I’m sure all the folks who bought the original Valkyria Chronicles and its recent remaster would love to see that, too, instead of an ignoble end to a beloved franchise.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Despite some promising elements, mismatched expectations and an unsuccessful attempt to set things right cause this Valkyria Chronicles spinoff to crumble under its own weight. Ultimately, Valkyria Revolution is a game that suffers from an identity crisis and ends up not being quite sure of what it wants to be. I just hope that the Valkyria franchise gets another chance to do what it does best and deliver a new entry that’s more faithful to its roots.

Identity crisis: Valkyria Revolution review | Technobubble (2025)
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