Cognition Dissemination: The Unrecorded Chronicles — The Missing Case of Valkyria Chronicles 3

The writing
was on the wall for a while, but Sega’s western offices officially confirmed
that Valkyria Chronicles 3 for PSP
will not be getting localized. They stated there were two reasons why this had
to happen: the first was that the PSP is on its deathbed outside of Japan. The second
is that Valkyria Chronicles 2, also
released on PSP, didn’t make its localization costs back for Sega. It appears
the “Unrecorded Chronicles” won’t be seen by westerners unless they read
Japanese, and it puts the entire franchise in an unfortunate position outside
of Japan.

This was
probably inevitable considering the virulent reaction Sega received from
western gamers after hearing about the console switch VC2 made. You could say
the PSP software market was never healthy upon observing sales trends from the
last few years — though most of that data has vanished into the either after
the NPD became stringent about only giving their sales numbers to subscribers.
There are various reasons for why this happened, and the fact that software
sales on PSP had taken a massive downturn in the last couple of years in the
west while swinging in the opposite direction in Japan had a lot to do with it.

 

Sega had
logical reasons for moving the franchise to PSP on the surface. Though Valkyria Chronicles‘ sales on PS3
didn’t light the charts on fire everywhere, it sold pretty well, and sold best
in Japan. The PS3 wasn’t in the best state everywhere (this was before it got
its second leash on life with the slim iteration), but Sega put the second game
on PSP to lower the budget and strengthen domestic sales — even if it would
result in severely weakening the franchise in the west. Forgoing the
warzone-aesthetic in favor of an academy-based one didn’t help matters either,
along with some other flaws like eschewing the first game’s fantastic leveling
system for a typical SRPG one, grinding for credits nearly being a requirement,
smaller and repetitive battlefields, and a few other smaller ones. It’s a good
game despite its flaws, however.

 

Unfortunately
for Sega, VC2’s sales weren’t much better than the first game’s on PS3 in Japan.
And you don’t need me to tell you they were much worse in the west considering
Sega’s response. For as much as it blows, you really can’t blame them for not
localizing VC3 for PSP…

 

…but you can blame them for not formulating the
best plan for the franchise, and for (seemingly) having no intention of making
an HD version so westerners can play it. Sony has started a PSP Remaster
program, so it wouldn’t be too hard to make a package consisting of the already
localized VC2 and VC3 on one disc for around $60 so more people can experience
them. That, or releasing an enhanced version for Vita would be fine. However,
Sega hasn’t given any indication as to whether either of the aforementioned
scenarios could happen.

 

If VC3
doesn’t make it over in any way, this will leave the entire franchise’s fate in
haze outside of Japan, should Sega choose to continue it. And that’s a real
shame, too, since word from importers and gamers in Japan is that the third
game fixes a lot of the problems the second game had, and takes the setting back
to a war-torn battlefield one (it takes place at the same time as the first
game). It still has the problem of reusing battlefields, but it’s pretty
evident that Sega took the criticism they received to heart when they let
Media.Vision (of the Wild Arms
franchise) handle it. Of course, that only makes you wonder what the internal
team has been doing in the interim between VC2 and now.

 

Hopefully Sega
finds some way to let us play it. But the chances of that happening will
continue to lower as long as Sega stays silent on the matter.