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| Jesse Woo |
It's Rag-nificent!
10.25.16 - 8:19 PM
Valkyria: Azure Revolution's Battle Demo 2.0 has been out in Japan for some time now, but Sega has continued to promote the game through multiple channels. It has released a batch of new screenshots and details on the gameplay while hinting at yet another demo that will be available to all.
As we detailed earlier, the demo will include two new combat missions and introduce players to the central hub and mission based structure of gameplay flow. What we did not cover earlier is the role of ragnite in the game's combat and economy. Ragnite is the catalyst for special abilities called Magic Arts and can be obtained in the field from treasure, fallen enemies, and mission rewards, or purchased in the city of Elsinore in exchange for Ragnite fragments. These fragments are found in game or from free DLC. Ragnite will have varying levels of quality as indicated by its rank that will affect the Magic Arts' performance. Further, if a piece of Ragnite is of a greater rank than a character's level in a particular attribute, she or he cannot equip it.
Finally, some special types of Ragnite are specific to magical characters like Ophelia, but the otherwise they are not character specific. However each character has an attribute that they specialize in, so the highest ranked Ragnites come with some limits. Ragnite doesn't only grant Magic Arts however, it can also be used to power up a character's Ragnite weapon (usually their melee weapon).
Sega also released a short cutscene as part of a promotion where fans can guess the Japanese voice actors of characters Blum Tomasson and Helena Anderson. For a quick glimpse (or listen), catch the video below, although the company notes that this video's visual quality is not reflective of the final product.
Although the Battle Demo is well under way, it is only available to a select group of Japanese gamers. Sega is holding demo events around Japan, but the producer Youichi Shimosato promised a new demo for general release sometime in the near future. Regarding the game's development, Shimosato said that the team is focusing on building the game's core elements and leaving bug fixing and polish for later.
Valkyria: Azure Revolution comes out in Japan on PS4 and Vita on January 19th, 2017. No western release date has been announced. For those curious about the battle demo, Dual Shockers released an hour of gameplay from the demo, which you can watch below in four parts.
