Valkyria Revolution

An intense, special, and downright important game, with a powerful message to share not just about war itself, but also how we also talk about, and share stories about, war.

Dropping the tactical experience of the Chronicles series, this spinoff opts for a darker take on war, focusing on swordplay and subterfuge in a tale of revenge that will forever shape the future of Europa.

There’s a lot of repetition for battles, and lengthy sequences of cutscenes can certainly slow things down, but Revolution tells an engaging story with characters that grow on you over the hours of gameplay. Similarly, the combat system and customization grow, providing a much more engaging action experience in the latter half of the game.

Valkyria Revolution is an excellent action-RPG if you’re looking for something new after playing through Final Fantasy XV.

Valkyria Revolution's story falters while its different, action-oriented combat shines brightly.

Quotation forthcoming.

Overall, I started the game with a bit of skepticism since I was only familiar with it’s turn based system which I quite enjoyed for the setting it was in, as it presented you with time to think and was more of an RTS, tactical kind of approach which I enjoyed greatly. At first it was a little odd to adjust to, but the faster pace gameplay fits the setting better than a turn based system would with all the options for combat they’ve put in and it actually gets quite addicting to play the different class roles, I miss the old play style, but I can enjoy both quite easily so I don’t feel I’m losing out. The games’ value is great too at $59.95 upon release, I’m actually quite pleased it’s not more, it’s around the average price for this kind of game, but in a world where a lot of games are $80+ for base editions and $100+ for special editions it’s a welcome bracket to fit into.

Valkyria Revolution offers a new combat system (instead of the classic turn based system) that doesn´t work well. Levels are too similar and the secondary missions become boring.

A touching story and decent gameplay aren't enough to lift Valkyria: Revolution out of the uncanny valley. The whole thing just feels a bit off, which is a damn shame.

Valkyria Revolution is not a bad game by any means, but fails big when trying to reflect the essence of the Valkyria Chronicles series in a genre that doesn't suit it at all like Action. Yeah, it offers a functional gameplay and interesting strategy mechanics, but in the end none of them work that well nor capture the magic that made the original Chronicles trilogy become a cult among gamers.

Quotation forthcoming.

If you like a deep, interesting story in your RPGs, Valkyria Revolution will deliver. There’s a compelling 70-plus hours of content her that almost justifies its Shakespearean ambitions – despite the slings and arrows of boring combat, and the sound and fury of long cutscenes. If the question is To Play or Not to Play, I would say play, but just be prepared for a few tragic flaws.

Despite having many good elements, such as the amazing story or the great characters, the game tries to be different from Valkyria Chronicles while being too faithful to it. Therefore, the result is gameplay that lacks personality and doesn't really know what it wants to be.

Valkyria Revolution is an experiment, more similar to a musou than to all of its predecessors, and this won't resonate with the majority of the fans of the franchise. But, taken for what it is, it's still a decent action game with light RPG and strategic elements.

Valkyria Revolution is a rather canonical JRPG, seeking its own identity within the SEGA gaming universe, succeeding only in part. The combat system is unreliable, and its hybrid nature does not fully exploit the interesting ideas of which the game is still dotted. The Media.Vision game stands out for the topics dealt with, the great atmosphere and the extraordinary OST. It is a shame that the heart of gameplay is not as powerful.

Anecdotal and experimental delivery that will not affect the annals of history and that will live in the shadow of the trunk series of Valkyria Chronicles.

Those expecting the same level of depth and strategy as Valkyria Chronicles will likely end up disappointed by this spin-off. When judged on its own, though, Valkyria Revolution delivers an interesting narrative and some solid, if unspectacular, action. It’s too bad that the game never truly hits a stride, as missions are rarely memorable, and ultimately a lot of interesting ideas never get fully fleshed out.

Valkyria Revolution seems like an experiment to get new fans for the main franchise, although we don't think it's going to achieve it. It isn't a bad game, but it is far from the quality of the original trilogy.

I can’t praise Valkyria Revolution‘s story enough. It’s a clear-eyed meditation on the horrors of war – even, perhaps especially, justified war. If the developers had found a way to make the dreary, repetitive combat as worthwhile as the story that frames it, this would have been an incredible game.

Revolution has little to do with Valkyria Chronicles, as it is not a turn-based strategy, but an action-RPG, so closest point of reference would be Final Fantasy XV. Compared to it, some things in Revolution are better – like being able to control any of the four characters, – and some are way worse, like overly-simplistic gameplay and graphics that make Dynasty Warriors series come to mind. [Issue#222, p.58]

Valkyria Revolution is a title that undoubtedly suffers due to the comparisons to its superior predecessor. However, when viewed as a standalone title, it features an interesting story with a cast of characters well worth exploring. Even though the combat engine is dull and flawed in many ways, it’s serviceable for the scenarios that the game presents and at a bargain price, you could do worse than pick up Valkyria Revolution.

A great deal of time devoted to very little gain. Revolution’s lacklustre action RPG gameplay is matched by a nearly complete disregard for building sympathetic characters, who exist to serve an underwhelming narrative. Valkyria Revolution fails on almost every level to recapture the qualities that made its predecessors cult classics.

Series newbies lacking preconceived expectations will probably have the most fun with Revolution, but it’s hard to imagine fans being thrilled with the game’s at-times confused direction even if they do fully understand its proclaimed spinoff nature.

The attempt to make everyone happy resulted in a a battle system hindered by its duality.

Melee attacks and a general active feel just don’t work in a tactical RPG.

Taken as a whole, however, Valkyria Revolution just doesn't come together as well as it should. Between the poor story presentation, AI issues, and numerous superfluous systems that add little to the experience, it feels like the game needed a bit more time and planning for all of its ideas to properly congeal. While Valkyria Revolution offers some enjoyment, you're going to have to wade through the trenches to get there.

While there is some fun to be found in Valkyria Revolution’s battle system, it’s just not worth sitting through the story bloat and excessive loading to get there.

Valkyria Revolution is nowhere near as good as Valkyria Chronicles and luckily it may be just a short detour into a hybrid musou/action territory. Story is kind of OK but plagued by overstaying cutscenes and loading screens, while everything else is shallow and very low budget.

If you dig deep, you can find charming parts of Valkyria Revolution – the thrill of taking down a group of foes with a well-placed grenade, or the rousing music and majestic scenery combining for a memorable moment. But these bright spots are far too rare in an experience that deals primarily in drudgery, from repetitive missions to overlong expository scenes. Even if you find and appreciate the good parts, the prize is too small for the price you pay on the battlefield.

Valkyria Revolution tells a decent tale of war, but the strength of that story is dulled by overlong, boring, and poorly animated cutscenes. It sacrifices the unique historical setting and art style of the Valkyria Chronicles series proper in favor of generic JRPG elements that fail to leave a strong impression, and its hack-and-slash combat offers little in the way of strategy and ruins its own flow with an poorly matched magic system.

Valkyria Revolution is a noble effort at providing fans with a fresh take on the series but it unfortunately doesn't quite live up to its genre contemporaries. That being said, it may satisfy if you simply want to be immersed in an intriguing tale.

Valkyria Revolution tries a lot of new things, but loses the Valkyria-soul in the process. The combat system is stuck between action and tactics and the style is completely different. It's only saved by an interesting story and beautiful soundtrack.

It is a confused mess of superfluous mechanics, confused AI, unfinished approaches and monotonous Brawler gameplay. Valkyria Revolution is well-presented and well-written, but in the end, it is just a nice package for a game that has failed at its core.

Valkyria Revolution’s biggest crime is that it is utterly dull. The tonal changes to the narrative, and to the combat system, are completely pointless, and not only do a disservice to the Valkyria name, they render it meaningless. Such are the differences between the two titles I don’t understand why they bothered to sully the series’ fantastic reputation with this release.

It isn't clear why this real-time game was created at all, when the world would be far happier with another BLiTZ system title. It makes it tough to recommend, even for a Chronicles aficionado, because the other things that went into making the earlier game so enjoyable – a jaunty alternative history/fantasy plot populated by an interesting bunch of characters – feel half-baked here. Everything, from gameplay to graphics to the storyline, is worse.

The video game monster of Dr. Frankenstein, Valkyria Revolution is a huge pile of dozens of mismatched, poorly designed systems, bland presentation and poor design choices all over the board. It bears no similarities to its wonderful predecessors apart from an interesting plot, which is unfortunately torn apart by the thousands of cutscenes and loading screens.

Valkyria Revolution is a game that is just wrong in so many ways, we wonder how it could end up this way. The cutscenes are way too long, the story is bland and it is just so frustrating all together.

Boring, verbose and too easy to complete: Valkyria Revolution, despite its name, is a real "involution" of the series. Easily forgotten.

Valkyria Revolution is constantly at odds with itself. It tries to be an action game, but at the behest of fans, more strategic elements were shoved in. You'll go into an action-packed warzone full of enemies to slice up, then you'll be rewarded with a seemingly endless amount of cutscenes lacking sound and fury and signifying nothing.

The true misery of Valkyria Revolution is how much of the series’ roots show through, and how much Revolution itself doesn’t know what to do with them. The qualities that defined earlier Valkyria games are mostly vestigial, but Revolution doesn't present anything strong enough or distinct enough to replace them. What it does do often directly conflicts with those legacy bulletpoints, making a game that feels like a bland timesink at its best and a fractured mess at its worst.

For all its many faults, the script does at least make a valiant effort of recognising and explaining the politics of war and propaganda. That doesn’t change the fact that there’s an army of games more worthy of your money. [October 2017, p75]

This all may come across as overly harsh and a tad vindictive, but I really wanted to love this game. There's so many juicy elements in Valkyria Revolution that could have been molded into a truly wonderful experience, but all those pieces just never seemed to properly assemble. I appreciate that the designers tried something new with the combat, but trying to blend strategy RPG elements with a hack 'n' slash just didn't work in this case. If you're curious about the Valkyria franchise, my advice would be to pick up the HD remaster of the original Valkyria Chronicles. I can't speak for the two follow-up games released on the Vita, but I can say, with certainty, that Valkyria Revolution is not worth your time or money.

This revolution deserves to be mercilessly crushed. [Sept 2017, p.82]

By the time I finished Valkyria Revolutions, I was almost comically over it. The most telling moment of the entire experience came as I was nearing the end, and my wife came downstairs and asked me, "Ugh. Are you watching that game again? Play something more interesting!" That's right, "watching that game again." With so many cutscenes, only broken up by uninspired action with ideas that don't work or aren't utilized correctly, Valkyria Revolution is tough to recommend to anyone for any reason. If the alternate history angle of the story excites you, you'd be better off playing any of the Chronicles games. If action RPG combat is your thing, Dynasty Warriors, Hyrule Warriors or the upcoming Fire Emblem Warriors should scratch that itch much better than this game can. And if you are a longtime fan of the series, like I am, I can't do anything but warn you; this is not the game you wish it was, nor expect it to be. Please, Sega, let's go back to the way it was. This Revolution is not a welcome or a successful one.

Valkyria Revolution is an extremely wrong-headed attempt to re-invent a series that needed no such treatment, and falls short on just about every level.

An inexplicably dull follow-up to Valkyria Chronicles, that jettisons almost everything that made the original interesting in favour of bland Dynasty Warriors style combat.

Valkyria Azure Revolution is the spin-off no one was waiting for. Every component which made the Valkyria Chronicles saga so famous is absent from this bad "sequel". The graphics look awful on PS4, the casting is generic at best and its action-RPG mechanics are some of the worst we've ever seen in the last decade. Why would an action-RPG make you pause the game every time you want to use a skill? Why, SEGA ?

Tries valiantly to weave a tale of political intrigue, but it's undermined by repetitive mission design, poor menus, and an anonymous cast. If you were hoping for a worthy successor to Valkyria Chronicles, you will be sadly disappointed.

Very tragic: There is actually an interesting game hidden somewhere in Valkyria Revolution. Well, sorta - there would be, if all the elements and layers would be connected.

I do genuinely think that the story itself is serviceable, but its presentation absolutely destroyed my interest in it. There’s some merit behind constructing a band of characters manipulating an entire nation for their own purposes. It’s a nice change of pace from typical RPG protagonists and though all the story beats aren’t all that good, there were intriguing ideas behind it all. It’s difficult to recommend Valkyria Revolution if you’re looking for an enjoyable game. This was an ambitious direction to take the series to and I don’t think it was the right call.

The result is a tiresome slog that proves the first casualty of war is not innocence, but brevity. Valkyria Devolution might have been a more honest title. [Sept 2017, p.108]

There is almost nothing to recommend with Valkyria Revolution as it fails to hit the mark in every aspect having, for some reason, changed pretty much everything which made the first game great. What you're left with is a very forgettable action RPG which frustrates with an overly long and dull story and simplistic and clumsy combat.

Valkyria Revolution is like a bizarre, alternate reality version of Valkyria Chronicles in which everything that the original got right has somehow been twisted into something awful. The devolution of interesting and quasi-relatable characters into eye-roll inducing stereotypes is upsetting, and the technical shortcomings of the game are disappointing. But it's the combat of Revolution that suffers most in comparison to Chronicles, and indeed, in comparison to practically anything else in the genre. Where Valkyria Chronicles was a constantly rewarding strategy game, Revolution is an action RPG so utterly devoid of any potential to challenge or delight that the only strategy you'll require is working out the quickest bus route back to the shop to get your refund.

Even worse, the real-time action, a departure from Valkyria Chronicles, fails to heighten the drama of the proceedings, constantly bringing to mind the superior combat system of 1990s RPGs Secret of Mana and Secret of Evermore.