One of the most beloved games of the previous generation was Valkyria Chronicles; a title that sadly ended up underperforming, and was then subsequently mismanaged with two PSP only sequels (the latter of which was never localized), and an attempt at a revival with a misguided spin-off, Valkyria Revolution, that ended up underperforming critically and commercially, ending all hopes that a true follow up to the original game would ever come.
And yet, Valkyria Chronicles 4, which was announced yesterday, aims to do just that. Speaking in an interview on the PlayStation Blog, Producer Kei Mikami confirmed that the game would try to return to the roots of the franchise which made everyone fall in love with it to begin with.
“The aim of this Valkyria Project is to expand the series on a global scale. We haven’t released a mainline title since Valkyria Chronicles 3 in 2011, so our goal from the beginning was to attract new audiences worldwide,” he said.” Our overarching vision is to return to the original Valkyria Chronicles’ roots, while building on improvements from the rest of the series. Valkyria Chronicles 4 is the culmination of everything we’ve learned up to this point.
“We began setting the groundwork for this project with Valkyria Chronicles Remastered for PS4. Our intent was to let fans experience Valkyria Chronicles’ origins and core gameplay on a next-gen console before moving forward with a brand-new numbered entry to the main series.”
He also confirmed that the game has been in development for over two years now; thankfully, this means that Valkyria Revolution, while a misguided experiment, was never going to be the hill the franchise would die on- there would always be this follow-up. Which is worthy of celebration- let’s hope the new game is what we all want it to be. It launches next year on the PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.