Valkyria Revolution Reviews
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.
Sega's spin-off of its much loved series only serves as a melancholy reminder of other, better games.
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.
Players need to wade through too much dull story and repetitive combat to get a glimpse of Valkyria Revolution's redeeming qualities, and the trade off isn't worth it
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.
While satisfying at times, poor story presentation and an abundance of superfluous elements make Valkyria Revolution less than the sum of its parts.
Valkyria Revolution 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.
But that level of sensibility doesn't come front and center enough. 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. Sega shifted its direction many times during its development due to feedback, and I'm not convinced it was the right move. Maybe if they had just stuck to their guns and made it a full action romp it would have turned out better.
Ultimately I'm not sure that fusing action and strategy for the latest Valkyria was a wise move, especially when the latter ultimately feels tacked-on in comparison with the depth found in previous games. Throw in gameplay that feels wholly isolated from Revolution's original, compelling, but also convoluted and overwrought plot and narrative delivery, and overall pacing and flow end up becoming a weak point despite their success during individual sections.
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 becom boring.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
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.
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.
Review in Italian | Read full review
There's a good game to be built on the bones of Valkyria Revolution, but the game itself is too one-note and ill-considered to get anywhere near it. Skip it.
Anecdotal and experimental delivery that will not happen to the annals of history and that will live in the shadow of the trunk series of Valkyria Chronicles.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Valkyria Revolution is an average action RPG with some strategy elements that is held back by way too many issues and only really has its soundtrack working in its favour.
If the question is To Play or Not to Play, I would say play, but just be prepared for a few tragic flaws.
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.
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.
Valkyria Revolution comes from a line of highly-acclaimed titles, but this one undoubtedly misses the mark.
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.