Demo Impressions: Valkyria Chronicles II (PSP)

If you are one of the enlightened few who purchased Valkyria Chronicles on the PS3 you already have a solid foundation of expectation built up for the upcoming PSP release. The demo for Valkyria Chronicles II was released as a Tuesday PSN surprise-o-rama with no prior announcement or hype from Sony or Sega. I eagerly downloaded the minuscule 80mb demo hoping for a few skirmish missions and a taste of the new features the all good sequels bring to the table.

Having played through the 15-minute mission that constitutes the bulk of the content offered, I feel Sega have put their worst possible foot forward. The pedigree of the console title demands a more impressive and polished sample of the new game’s experience. Valkyria Chronicles sold very poorly here in the US, partly due to a limp marketing campaign and a troubling lack of cleavage and chainsaws.

A demo for VCII could have gone a long way to emphasize the unique features that make the title (now franchise) so special. There’s a well-rounded cast of characters and a unique pseudo-WWII story, all presented via a gorgeous hand drawn-esque art style. Despite the hardware limitations, the look of the game comes close to the PS3 progenitor. They’ve had to sacrifice a lot of the layers of shaders and filters that complete the look, but the character models, while blocky, are competent and the color palate is bright and vibrant.

There is a brief training period accompanied by one single mission. The single new feature offered requires you to capture one location which activates a spawn location on a completely different map. Capturing points were a main feature of the first title, allowing you to regenerate health and ammo as well as swapping out characters with others from your roster.

Both maps that made up the single mission were small    and claustrophobic compared to those of the original. Since there is only one level available in the demo, the geniuses at Sega designed it to be horrifically easy to complete, leaving even new players with little incentive to replay the mission.

As someone who enjoyed Valkyria Chronicles with little to no reservations, this demo has me second guessing my plan to purchase the PSP sequel. I’ve gone from complete dedication to skeptical optimism and all it took was 80mb and 15 minutes of my time. I for one will be waiting on the reviews for some further information regarding this title. Don’t break my heart Sega, please.

Valkyria Chronicles II launches in North America on August 31st and September third in Europe. Will you see a review from Nukezilla? The magic-eight-ball says “Maybe”.

All images contained in this post are from the Japanese version of VCII.