The developers of the controversial sequel to Valkyria Chronicles have openly admitted their decision to shift the title to a bishonen-based school RPG on the PSP is based on a desire to exploit the modest success of the anime adaptation and their distaste for the “95% male” fan-base of the original.
In comments on their official blog, they offer the following sentiments:
We’re being asked a lot why we are releasing Senjou no Valkyria 2 on the PSP and not the PS3.
Firstly, there is the issue of not wanting to leave a gap between 1 and 2. Put bluntly, it took about 3 years to make 1. With the experience of making the first one we could probably make a sequel in less time, but we’d have to improve things too, which might take even more time.
Also, with the broadcast of the TV anime we really wanted to get the game out before the impact of the anime subsides.
Secondly, we wanted as many users as possible for the game. Market analysis for the first game indicated fans were older and mostly male. That was the main target, but we had to think about things when we ended up with 95% males.
…
My vision is to develop Valkyria on both PS3 and PSP… Next generation titles cost a huge amount to create, and if we don’t develop our customer base we can’t get a return on our investment.
PS2-era hit games like Metal Gear have developed expansive fan-bases. If we build up the base of the mountain that is Valkyria, the peak can reach higher.
Put succinctly, the developers are desperate to ride the sequel on the back of the anime and want to capture the female demographic even if it means dumping the existing fans of the game.
Reading between lines also gives a tacit admission of the fact that a cut-down handheld version can be accomplished without innovation or improvement.
Considering the success of the anime was based solely on the impact of the excellent PS3 original, and that the fan-base for a strategic military RPG is always going to be skewed towards a male demographic, the wisdom of this marketing decision is questionable at best.
In fact, looking at the promotional materials it seems their marketing is now 100% concentrated on selling to a female audience, with a clichéd academy setting and female characters well out of sight behind a selection of bishonen lead heroes, as opposed to the original which proudly displayed Alicia and Selvaria alongside Welkin…
Considering the prospect of a true PS3 sequel has already been tied to the sales of this “sequel,” it seems the franchise might just end abruptly here, a truly unfortunate demise for one of the most innovative games of its generation.












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Just give me a Selvaria and I'm good to go.
She's dead... Unless you want a ghost...
a zombie will suffice
I've actually seen some bits and pieces of the game and it's online features... not much was shown though.
it looks pretty good for a PSP title, especially an RPG on the platform.
the gameplay looks to be the same fair, most likely an effort to keep the game familiar, while being on a whole new system.
from previews, I can guess that this game will probably be good, I can't place my bets on whether it will match or surpass the original, so I'll just wait and see.
also, for fans who want to keep this series alive, I'd say give it a try. the game seems to have some heart to it, even if the developers seem to be putting an emphasis in gaining a new fanbase...
If this game was for the DS this would make more sense. Alot of females do own portables in Japan but I am almost certain the number of female psp owners is much than the number of female DS owners (not to mention the overall # of DS owners is much higher as well)... gosh you're really not thinking it through Sega.
Beside all the illegal downloads on PSP...
Can't say anything till I played it. Hope it's good...
they gotta put more bishonen in it if they want a larger female fanbase
just more reason not to buy the game.
Just because very few males put next to tons of big breasted half-naked females? Oh my...
How do you know "very few males" and how do you know what made me not buying this game? Did I ever say it was "because very few males put next to tons of big breasted half-naked females"? Stop making baseless assumptions, you whore. And the one who upped your comment is prolly a whore too. *Prepare for whores to thumb down my comment and LOL over their rage since they obviously read it*
Because you complained about a piece of news that is about few male characters being added.
What? They expected otherwise originally? A school setting...are you fucking kidding me?
I'm so pissed off right now, I don't even know what to say...
This is one dude that doesn't care
I like the anime of Valkyria Chronicles very much, and have the game, but haven`t installed it yet.
After reading this i won`t.
With this decision by game company it seems they desperately aim to go bankcruptcy.
What?? Dude, this is about the sequel. Don't shun the original game for something that's not its fault. Valkyria Chronicles itself is still a very good game (and this is coming from a 360-fanboy).
As long as the gameplay is as good, and they add multiplayer versus modes for PSP, I'll be happy.
I really wanted to like the first game, but the ranking system just threw me off. Your rank gets punished for using strategy in the first game, but the only way to get the best rank is to have one person run straight to the goal so you have enough CP to do it as fast as possible. I just couldn't get into a game where all the main gameplay was about letting my characters get shot a million times in favor of faster field coverage time.
Business wise, this is the best decision they could make, actually. Of course male fans are butthurt that there are a few characters for female players now, but that is because male fans generally have huge issues with females playing videogames.
See all the nerds here pretending that women don't or rarely play games. It's really cute.
We're in the game, fragging you in shooters and ruining your base in Strategy Games, deal with it ^_^
This is just like the morons in Hollywood.
"Our 'R' rated movie just made millions of dollars. If the sequel is 'G" rated, just think how much more money we'll make!"
lehnerus2000
So if I understand well, they want this to be like the anime, so since the anime was bullcrap then they want the sequel to be bullcrap!
"In comments on their official blog, they offer the following sentiments..."
Indeed, they offer sentiments and don't make much sense.
Hmph. As a female gamer, I was proud to have an all-female army. It will be a sad day when I'll have to include some useless men on my team.
Wow, talk about stupid. "We're kicking 95% of our userbase in hopes of getting the 5% magnify tenfold."
"We're not going to be making gameplay improvements."
"We're throwing out the old storyline wholesale and pretending it never happened."
Forget all this bullshit about how many female gamers there are and how many male ones there are and how the characters will change it - they're just running headfirst towards making a shit game, period. Yaoi fanservice is all it'll have. 'Girl Gamers' like to play actual GAMES too. There's cheaper ways to find fanservice. And more enjoyable ones, too.
Danm Artifact can you be any more pessimist?
WHAT.
this is VERY NO
Am I the only one who's wondering who drew that last picture? It doesn't look like Raita Honjou. The style looks so familiar, especially that grin.
I watched the anime but i didnt play the game yet, idk im not a fan of shooting games,so should i really play it, i mean is it worth it
It's not a shooter. If you like tactical RPGs, this is for you.
please keep this "awesome!" logic a secret from kotick
imagine what he will do with modern warfare 3 to get more female customers
oh and about the MGS thing
people only like raiden because of his mgs4 comeback
kojima learned his lesson with mgs2 when he created raiden to appeal to the female population
at elast read some history sega since mgs2 is an exellent "not rushed" "not exploited" game that did poor because of fan backlash
Most Eastern cultures pride themselves on "Ancient" wisdom, and there sure are some profound realizations from there, but the "Western" world knows a thing or two...
There's the story of "The Greedy Dog".
Dog gets a piece of meat, then walks off to eat it. He stops by the water to drink also, and sees his own reflection in the water. Of course, he's a dog and doesn't get that his reflection is himself, he thinks it's another dog with another piece of meat. So he decides to bully this other dog out of its piece of meat and opens his mouth to bark. The meat drops from his mouth and goes into the water. So now the dog has no piece of meat...
Well, big companies become like this effectively, as due to "PC" a vocal minority can get them to put off the majority or quash the "Edge" they have.
A shame. I still wanna play the first game.
Guess that yaoi manga of Senjou no Valkyria didn't work out.
If they really wanted to appeal to females, they would've made better looking guy characters of CANVAS quality. If the new Valkyria or blond chick is a potential love interest, then the female fanbase is sure to go down the drain.
Hmm...I thought both male and female fans were supposed to get into this game, but 95% male!? Come on.....*sighs* I know I like Valkyria Chronciles, but even I know that girls would like this game even more than me, so what the heck....?
First off, I'd like to admit that I know relatively little about the gaming market and its demographics.
With that out of the way, I think that the way they are going about it seems wrong, but I understand their sentiments. A 95% male audience isn't just more males than females, it's completely dominating. Wanting to expand their audience isn't in itself necessarily a bad thing. I know a bunch of girls that love to play RPGs (my friends and I) so gaming isn't just for guys. I admit I haven't played the first one (though that's because I'm banning myself from playing anything else until I finish Persona 3 -.-;), so I can't say if the game is clearly a "guys game" or if it does need a little bit of maneuvering if it wants to successfully attract a female audience.
In any case, changing it to a bishounen game isn't the right way to do it. Wow. Do they really think that's all it takes to gain revenue?
Because it is, unfortunately.
Since when has a game's fan base not been mostly male? Last time I checked the only games popular with females were things like Wii Sports.
Don't forget barbie's horse adventure
finally a SFW bestiality game
My Little Pony isn't SFW?
Umm.. you forgot the Tales Of series..
*Traumatically hears the echos of fangirls squealing "Leon-x-Stahn", and "Asche-x-Luke"...*
Or all the games made by Square Enix.
Your sexism makes me sad, good sir.
they can be forgiven for this bold move if they release a vc2 ura with all the male characters ditched in favour of female ones. ;)
so they dropped their male audience for a female audience i don't see how this will help at all
wait. they wanted to compare their game to metal gear solid? isnt that game mostly male based fans? hence why it had a strong following throughout?
their reasoning phails.
MGS has GAR and MANLY TEARS...
The Boss, Big Boss and Snake are GAR...
This is how you make a game appeal to men and women...
Funny thing about Metal Gear... MGS2 was an attempt at luring in female fans.
Feels embarrassing, man.
Everyone knows Metal Gear = GAR, with ninja, blood, fanservice etc. The reason Snake can't reproduce is because his gruff voiced mulleted and bearded GAR babies would destroy the Earth through pure GARness. Sadly, Kojima isn't my hero since 2006 when he said "Games are not, and will never be art." I was shocked then it turned to anger. All I thought was FUCK YOU KOJIMA! Now every time I see him at TGS I glare with burning hatred.
It also had sexy, skinsuit wearing females all over the advertisements and in the game itself. This combined with lots of firepower, and tactical kills so......