Even with Valkyria Chronicles II barely out on American shelves (see Elder-Geek’s review here), Sega has been knee-deep in production on its sequel. Continuing on the PSP but returning to the timeline and story-progression method of the original (as opposed to II‘s mission-based progression), Valkyria Chronicles III: Unrecorded Chronicles (tentative title based on previous game translations) had its reveal in the pages of Famitsu less than a week before its playable demo on the floors of the Tokyo Game Show.
While set in the same time frame of the original’s Second Europan War, Unrecorded Chronicles follows a new cast of characters known in the game as the Nameless squad. A Bad Company-esque collection of troublemakers (and previous outlaws) referenced by number rather than name, players will take control of Kurt Irving (Number 7) and fight alongside Valkyria-descendent Riela and Imuka, whose village was wiped out by said Valkyria. The game will remove its predecessor’s multiplayer components in favor of more expansive single player maps and a “Super Mode” mechanic that highlights the extreme abilities of its two heroines (Riela’s being her Valkyria form and Imuka’s being her mastery of big guns). Valkyria Chronicles III: Unrecorded Chronicles is set for a January 27th release in both disc and download format, at least in Japan.
Sega, I hate you. I don’t have a PSP, and don’t intend to in the near future. Your excuse for going PSP is pathetic; “Needs to have a drastic new mechanic to go back to the PS3.” Bull. Now if you want to please all of your VC fans that don’t own a PSP (a big market in fact), then you should put them up on PSN for download. I am sure it is not hard to tweak the controls by adding the second analog stick to the matter, and all will be right with the world.
However this is Sega we are talking about so they won’t listen to fan concerns for awhile.
This decision is an odd one, but for my estimate the reason is the eternal one: all about the money, Lebowski. The production time and financial risk for a PSP title is much less significant than a PS3 one, and the original Valkyria Chronicles did under-perform despite stellar reviews. Even with the piracy on Sony’s handheld, its probably much simpler for Sega to maintain the IP on the cheaper platform and attempt to build a larger fanbase before returning to the big guns.
Although, to be honest, going multi-platform would ease much of these worries, and I haven’t heard of any deal between Sony and Sega for the franchise, so I’m not sure what’s holding them back…
The problem for the lesser sales on the first game had to deal with it being a new IP and being released during a time when Sony was struggling with PS3 sales world wide (granted console sales in 2008 were much better than 2007 numbers and more quality titles were released in 2008). Still Sega’s marketing is to blame, and it is a cop-out to go the financial route. Time and time again it has been proven that sequels sell more than their original because of brand recognition. I really want to play the sequel and now the third, but I do not have the money to buy a PSP with school coming up (I really have to budget this year).
Now Sega as we should all know has financial concerns on their mind and it is all their fault for making bad investments in bad games; Sonic releases over the last few years. See Sega really has gone downhill after the death of the Dream Cast, and that is a shame, however they are starting to redeem themselves with the two good Sonic games coming out soon (Sonic 4 and Colors), and with Beyonetta (although they should have patched the PS3 release for the screen tearing and other glitches the 360 version didn’t have). If Sega is really concerned about money then they would just make VC2 and then VC3 downloadable when it comes out to appeal to the original fan base. This should be hard since Warhawk, Burnout Paradise, Call of Duty Classic, Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection, and other once retail games are now for download on PSN, as well as a host of PSP games that you can download on PSN but not play on PS3 (This is something Sony should do, they would get more revenue for those who don’t want another device but want to play the games regardless).
Well that is a rant. And to address your last question in brief. What is holding Sega back is their own incompetence that we have witnessed over the last few years in not listening to their fans until way later and they pay the consequences for their misjudgments.
The Sonic games have actually proven to be a good investment, if not for quality’s sake. Sonic Unleashed, for example, sold a total of 3 million units across platforms since launch, and considering how lackluster the development cost/time it must have taken (based on observations of the final product), its a great return.
Yes they are, but review wise they suck. Now rest assured though Sonic 4 Ep1 (whenever it comes out in the next month or so) will be good as I played it at PAX. Really Ep 1 is just Sonic 3 but with the homing attack introduced in Sonic Adventures (if you want to know I played it at PAX, and if you want to hear it straight from my mouth then check out my youtube channel, PAX day 3). Also my friend says Sonic Colors is turning out to be good (PAX day 2 if you want to listen to my friend, or just look for other people else where on the net).
So Sonic will sell good and will actually play good for once in a few years (Ok, the Day levels of Unleashed were good, but that’s it).
Some more added things. I am tempted to get a PSP because of the backcatalogue they have amassed over the years, and that Monster Hunter Portable 3 one looks like the one for me (It has the bigger battery for more hours of play). The only thing holding me back is money, and the rumors of a PSP2 release, as well as that stupid second analog nub that should have been on the PSP since launch (serious over sight on Sony’s part), and also having to buy the necessary Pro Stick Duos just to play my games (seriously Sony I wish you could have just used SD cards and not gone with your proprietary cards, but that just secures your place in the electronics industry). Both Sony and Sega need to look at their company structure and fix their failing part, heck I will just state more since I am on a roll. Namco Bandai with the Tales of series (that would require an entire article on that fiasco), Microsoft, Nintendo (Wii HD, Virtual Console support and various other things), and I can go on for a bit.
Really I just wish Sony would allow people to play PSP games on PS3 without the use of a PSP (PSone classics don’t count), but I can see their argument with needing the sale of the PSP to justify the games being existing in the first place. I guess I am just one jaded gamer that really wants to play it, but like a lot of gamers has financial concerns and can’t support buying every game and every console.
After posting these last two posts here I feel like I want to write an article on how Sony could improve PSN (don’t have to about the PSP2 since that has been written time and time again, as well as HOME).