Review for Valkyria Revolution. Game for PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita and Xbox One, the video game was released on 19/01/2017 The version for Xbox One came out on 30/06/2017
Revolution is a word we generally associate with a positive value, a change for the better. Yet revolutionizing something does not always mean improving it, especially if you try to change an excellent formula such as the strategic-role-playing hybrid of Valkyria Chronicles, one of the best exclusives of the PS3 era recently returned to PS4.
Despite the excellent workmanship of its titles, the series has never enjoyed great sales results, especially due to the fact that strategic is not exactly the most popular genre on consoles. So here is that Sega entrusted the new Valkyria Revolution a Media.Vision (development team of Wild Arms, but also of Valkyria Chronicles 3, among other things) in an attempt to bring the series into the hands of a wider audience, making it veer so much towards action that it leads to musou.
It would take a real miracle to balance all these elements, a miracle that Media.Vision could not perform.
Story of betrayals
It should be noted that Valkyria Revolution it is not set in the same timeline as the other chapters in the series, but is a separate chapter. Even the world seems to be a re-imagination of the original Europe presented to us in the first Valkyria Chronicles, even if it is always a fantasy-steampunk interpretation of the Old Continent.
The events are presented as a tale of the past: a history student of the kingdom of Jutland is determined to discover the truth about the war between his country and the empire of Ruz, in particular on the role of the so-called "Five Traitors" authors of the revolt who freed the kingdom from imperial oppression. Cornered by her questions, her teacher begins to tell the true story of that war never recorded in the books.
The world has recently discovered how to harness the power of ragnite, a special material with magical properties, and in doing so has embarked on a path of technological advance never seen before, bringing a new era of prosperity to Europe. As expected, however, the ragnite mines soon became the subject of contention among various nations, triggering a bitter period of war.
The kingdom of Jutland is suffocated by the economic embargo put in place by the oppressive empire of Ruz, which for years has been carrying out all kinds of war actions against the surrounding populations in order to achieve its goals. The main protagonist of the game is Amleth Grønkjær, commander of the anti-Valkyrie platoon and one of the Five Traitors, a secret group of conspirators who, pulling the strings behind the scenes of the kingdom, aim only to take revenge on Ruz by killing the emperor and his four great generals.
The story of Valkyria Revolution has the good of involving darker themes than its predecessors, and on various occasions it places us in front of situations that make us reflect on topics such as revenge, justice and the value of human life. Unfortunately the narration proceeds through a quantity of cutscenes capable of seriously testing our ability to endure.
The large amount of non-interactive scenes per se would not be an absolute defect, after all it would certainly not be the first time that we are faced with a game that relies on long narrative sequences (just think of Metal Gear Solid 4 or Xenosaga), the real problem is how they are presented to us. Except for a few engaging key plot moments, a good portion of the non-interactive scenes are downright slow and overly verbose, and what's worse is that they're not particularly good looking either.
Historical fresco
Valkyria Revolution is unfortunately a perfect example of disharmony between the artistic and technical sectors. It certainly cannot be said that the graphics of the game fully exploit the potential of the PlayStation 4, thanks to its cross-platform nature with PS Vita. The development team has abandoned the previous Canvas engine to switch to the new Gouache, but the results are really unflattering. Although the particular graphic effect that shows us the game as a painting on canvas has been kept, the three-dimensional models, the textures that detail them and the animations are really unconvincing, and do not do justice to the good work of character design by Hiro Kiyohara. The latter, for his part, has chosen a style that differs considerably from the semi-realism of the Chronicles and turns to a more typically Japanese design, with more whimsical clothes, broadswords and various luminous weapons.
Fortunately the music sector is of a high standard thanks to the excellent work of the master Yasunori Mitsuda (composer of Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Xenogears and the main themes of the various Xenoblade Chronicles), who with his songs contributes to improving the experience both during the cutscenes and in the accompaniment to the actual game. Too bad we can't say the same about the quality of English dubbing.
On the front line
As mentioned in the opening of the review, with Revolution Sega wanted to create a sort of action-RPG spin-off of the series. After the first demo released in Japan, fans reacted very negatively, especially to the removal of strategic elements. The development team then took a half step back and attempted to launch a hybrid system.
Instead of moving one character at a time in the various turns that mark the battles, Valkyria Revolution puts us in control of a party of four characters free to move in real time on the battlefield, even if we can directly control only one character at a time leaving the others to control the game's AI with the ability to give them specific commands or a generic line of action. To be able to act it is still necessary to wait for the filling of a turn bar, after which we can choose whether to physically attack using a special button or perform other actions organized in a special menu that freezes the game action and allows us to select special techniques, use objects, etc.
Interesting is the introduction of various states of mind of the enemies that it is possible to induce with one's actions: if you surprise a group of enemies with a sudden action, they will be scared and therefore more exposed to our attacks.
The choice to try a middle ground between action and strategy resulted only in failing in both directions, mainly due to a poor artificial intelligence of the enemies that does not really test the player and does not make us feel the need to use all the possibilities of the system. Often the most effective approach will simply be to outwit enemies as quickly as possible with physical attacks and special techniques; ranged firearm attacks won't be as effective as sidearms, and covers like sandbags won't protect enemies much from our bloated weapons.
The AI is scarce not only for enemies, who will often be impaled waiting for you to go and slice them, but also for members of your party who will not infrequently ignore some orders or will move away to attack enemies in the distance. Fights against bosses (usually large mechs) pose the best challenges, but these are fights that focus more on endurance than on real difficulty.
Obviously there is a progression system for our party, which will be able to learn techniques and magic gradually more effective, upgrade weapons, acquire and develop secondary weapons and even create equipment using materials obtained from the battlefields. All this leads to repeatedly grinding in very little exciting side missions. The development system would not be bad in itself, the problem is that it is the game itself that does not seem to justify its complexity and customization capacity, precisely because it does not create a balance and a level of challenge that make us feel the need.
With Valkyrie Revolution Sega and Media.Vision have sought a utopian balance between frenetic action and strategy, but precisely this duality hinders the battle system that ends up not fully satisfying both targets: too cumbersome for action lovers and too superficial for pure strategy fan. It is not a bad game, but it fails to extricate itself from this paradox and to rise due to a perceptible disharmony between form and substance, even on the narrative level. Valkyrie Revolution tells a war story with interesting themes, but it does so in a way that is really hard to digest. If you are looking for an unpretentious action-RPG, with a particular style and plot, it could be for you; if you are looking for a new Valkyria Chronicles look elsewhere.
► Valkyria Revolution is a game developed by Media.Vision and published by Deep Silver Sega for PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita and Xbox One, the video game was released on 19/01/2017 The version for Xbox One came out on 30/06/2017
