Valkyria Chronicles III

Did You Know?

• Kurt, Riela and Imca appear in the Nintendo 3DS crossover Project X Zone.
• A two-episode original video animation series was developed by A-1 Pictures and released the same year as the game.
• Two manga adaptations were produced, one illustrated by Naoyuki Fujisawa and one by Mizuki Tsuge, both released by Kadokawa Shoten in 2012.

Plot

The game is set during the Second Europan War. Gallian Army Squad 422, known as the Nameless, is a penal unit of criminals, foreign deserters, and military offenders whose real names are replaced by numbers. They are ordered to perform the most dangerous missions the Regular Army and Militia will not undertake, guided by their motto Altaha Abilia ("Always Ready"). The main characters are No.7 Kurt Irving, an officer falsely accused of treason; No.1 Imca, a Darcsen heavy weapons specialist seeking revenge against a Valkyria; and No.13 Riela Marcellis, a jinxed young woman who is unknowingly a Valkyria.

They fight against Calamity Raven, a mysterious Imperial unit composed primarily of Darcsens. Because the Nameless officially do not exist, Gallian Army leaders exploit plausible deniability to send them on missions that would otherwise harm Gallia's reputation. This causes distress among squad members; one, Gusurg, defects to Calamity Raven. Meanwhile, elements within Gallian Army Command seek to erase the Nameless to protect their own interests.

Hounded by allies and enemies, and with a traitor among them, the squad struggles to survive while aiding the Gallian war effort. Their commanding officer, Ramsey Crowe, is eventually escorted to Randgriz to present evidence exonerating them and expose the general who accused Kurt of treason.

Development

Development of Valkyria Chronicles III got underway in early 2010, right after work on Valkyria Chronicles II wrapped up. Takeshi Ozawa, who directed the second game, came back to direct this one, and the whole process took about a year. The team looked at how fans had received Valkyria Chronicles II and figured out where to take the series next. They chose to stay on the PlayStation Portable because they wanted to polish the systems they'd built for the second game, and they hadn't hit on a big enough new idea to justify moving to the PlayStation 3.

Since the PSP was so popular in Japan, they designed the game specifically for that audience, which led to characters that felt more fantastical than those in the first Valkyria Chronicles. The developers saw this as the series' real first sequel: the second game had involved a lot of trial and error due to switching platforms, but the third let them focus on improving what worked best. Media.Vision helped Sega's own staff with development. Kazuki Yamanobe wrote the original scenario, while Hiroyuki Fujii, Koichi Majima, Kishiko Miyagi, Seiki Nagakawa, and Takayuki Shouji handled the script. The story ended up darker and more somber than the one in Valkyria Chronicles II.

Reception

On its release day in Japan, Valkyria Chronicles III topped both platform-exclusive and multi-platform sales charts. By early February, it had sold 102,779 units, ranking second overall to The Last Story. By year's end, sales exceeded 152,500 units. Famitsu praised the story and gameplay improvements.

Game Watch Impress noted pacing issues and recycled elements but was generally positive about the story and characters, finding gameplay entertaining despite difficulty spikes. 4Gamer.net's Naohiko Misuosame felt the game provided a profound sense of closure for the series, praising gameplay despite limitations to special abilities and noting the story's shift to a tone similar to the first game. PlayStation Official Magazine - UK praised the story's blurring of Gallia's moral standing, art style, and gameplay tweaks, but criticized difficulty spikes.

PlayStation Lifestyle's Heath Hindman praised non-linear elements and improvements over Valkyria Chronicles II, along with the serious tone, but criticized recycled elements, awkward cutscenes, pacing issues, and AI problems. IGN's Ryan Geddes enjoyed improved visuals over the second game and was excited after the TGS demo. Kotaku's Richard Eisenbeis cited the story as a return to form and the gameplay as the series' best, but criticized length, repetition, and the lack of localization.