Today, Sega announced that Valkyria: Azure Revolution is coming to North America via Sega and to Europe via Deep Silver as Valkyria Revolution sometime in Q2 2017. Further, it is also getting an Xbox One release in the west, in addition to a PS4 and PlayStation Vita release. It will be available both digitally and physically on PS4 and Xbox One, and digitally on PS Vita.
As for the reason for dropping Azure out of the title for the western release, Sega provided the following explanation:
-
The way the first Valkyria title was localized had a really nice ring to it: Senjou no Varukyuria (lit. Valkryia of the Battlefield) became Valkyria Chronicles. When faced with Aoki Kakumei no Varukyuria (lit. Valkyria of the Blue Revolution), a literal translation was unwieldy, and difficult from a graphic design standpoint as well, and adding in extra punctuation (e.g. Valkyria: Azure Revolution) didn’t help either. So we stuck to a similar cadence of the first Valkyria title and went with a two-word title. Plus:
-
Given how vastly different the two games are (Revolution drops the turn-based gameplay, takes place in a different time period, different world, different almost everything), the new name helps to ensure the two titles stood equal but apart from each other.
As you may already know, Valkyria Revolution is appropriately described as a "revolution" from the series and universe, and is set in alternative timeline in the European industrialization era. Further, it eschews the traditional turn-based strategy gameplay for a new hybrid of real-time combat and tactical strategy across battlefields. It also features new characters, a new world, and new gameplay mechanics.
Valkyria Revolution is set to first release in Japan on PS4 and PS Vita on January 19, 2017.