
As with previous Valkyira Chronicles games , Valkyria Chronicles III is a tactical role @-@ playing game where players take control of a military unit and take part in missions against enemy forces . Stories are told through comic book @-@ like panels with animated character portraits , with characters speaking partially through voiced speech bubbles and partially through unvoiced text . The player progresses through a series of linear missions , gradually unlocked as maps that can be freely scanned through and replayed as they are unlocked . The route to each story location on the map varies depending on an individual player 's approach : when one option is selected , the other is sealed off to the player . Outside missions , the player characters rest in a camp , where units can be customized and character growth occurs . Alongside the main story missions are character @-@ specific sub missions relating to different squad members . After the game 's completion , additional episodes are unlocked , some of them having a higher difficulty than those found in the rest of the game . There are also love simulation elements related to the game 's two main heroines , although they take a very minor role .

The game 's battle system , the BliTZ system , is carried over directly from Valkyira Chronicles . During missions , players select each unit using a top @-@ down perspective of the battlefield map : once a character is selected , the player moves the character around the battlefield in third @-@ person . A character can only act once per @-@ turn , but characters can be granted multiple turns at the expense of other characters ' turns . Each character has a field and distance of movement limited by their Action Gauge . Up to nine characters can be assigned to a single mission . During gameplay , characters will call out if something happens to them , such as their health points ( HP ) getting low or being knocked out by enemy attacks . Each character has specific " Potentials " , skills unique to each character . They are divided into " Personal Potential " , which are innate skills that remain unaltered unless otherwise dictated by the story and can either help or impede a character , and " Battle Potentials " , which are grown throughout the game and always grant boons to a character . To learn Battle Potentials , each character has a unique " Masters Table " , a grid @-@ based skill table that can be used to acquire and link different skills . Characters also have Special Abilities that grant them temporary boosts on the battlefield : Kurt can activate " Direct Command " and move around the battlefield without depleting his Action Point gauge , the character Reila can shift into her " Valkyria Form " and become invincible , while Imca can target multiple enemy units with her heavy weapon .

Troops are divided into five classes : Scouts , Shocktroopers , Engineers , Lancers and Armored Soldier . Troopers can switch classes by changing their assigned weapon . Changing class does not greatly affect the stats gained while in a previous class . With victory in battle , experience points are awarded to the squad , which are distributed into five different attributes shared by the entire squad , a feature differing from early games ' method of distributing to different unit types .

= = Plot = =

The game takes place during the Second Europan War . Gallian Army Squad 422 , also known as " The Nameless " , are a penal military unit composed of criminals , foreign deserters , and military offenders whose real names are erased from the records and thereon officially referred to by numbers . Ordered by the Gallian military to perform the most dangerous missions that the Regular Army and Militia will not do , they are nevertheless up to the task , exemplified by their motto , Altaha Abilia , meaning " Always Ready . " The three main characters are No.7 Kurt Irving , an army officer falsely accused of treason who wishes to redeem himself ; Ace No.1 Imca , a female Darcsen heavy weapons specialist who seeks revenge against the Valkyria who destroyed her home ; and No.13 Riela Marcellis , a seemingly jinxed young woman who is unknowingly a descendant of the Valkyria . Together with their fellow squad members , these three are tasked to fight against a mysterious Imperial unit known as Calamity Raven , consisting of mostly Darcsen soldiers .

As the Nameless officially do not exist , the upper echelons of the Gallian Army exploit the concept of plausible deniability in order to send them on missions that would otherwise make Gallia lose face in the war . While at times this works to their advantage , such as a successful incursion into Imperial territory , other orders cause certain members of the 422nd great distress . One such member , Gusurg , becomes so enraged that he abandons his post and defects into the ranks of Calamity Raven , attached to the ideal of Darcsen independence proposed by their leader , Dahau . At the same time , elements within Gallian Army Command move to erase the Nameless in order to protect their own interests . Hounded by both allies and enemies , and combined with the presence of a traitor within their ranks , the 422nd desperately move to keep themselves alive while at the same time fight to help the Gallian war effort . This continues until the Nameless 's commanding officer , Ramsey Crowe , who had been kept under house arrest , is escorted to the capital city of Randgriz in order to present evidence exonerating the weary soldiers and expose the real traitor , the Gallian General that had accused Kurt of Treason .

Partly due to these events , and partly due to the major losses in manpower Gallia suffers towards the end of the war with the Empire , the Nameless are offered a formal position as a squad in the Gallian Army rather than serve as an anonymous shadow force . This is short @-@ lived , however , as following Maximilian 's defeat , Dahau and Calamity Raven move to activate an ancient Valkyrian super weapon within the Empire , kept secret by their benefactor . Without the support of Maximilian or the chance to prove themselves in the war with Gallia , it is Dahau 's last trump card in creating a new Darcsen nation . As an armed Gallian force invading the Empire just following the two nations ' cease @-@ fire would certainly wreck their newfound peace , Kurt decides to once again make his squad the Nameless , asking Crowe to list himself and all under his command as killed @-@ in @-@ action . Now owing allegiance to none other than themselves , the 422nd confronts Dahau and destroys the Valkyrian weapon . Each member then goes their separate ways in order to begin their lives anew .

= = Development = =

Concept work for Valkyria Chronicles III began after development finished on Valkyria Chronicles II in early 2010 , with full development beginning shortly after this . The director of Valkyria Chronicles II , Takeshi Ozawa , returned to that role for Valkyria Chronicles III . Development work took approximately one year . After the release of Valkyria Chronicles II , the staff took a look at both the popular response for the game and what they wanted to do next for the series . Like its predecessor , Valkyria Chronicles III was developed for PlayStation Portable : this was due to the team wanting to refine the mechanics created for Valkyria Chronicles II , and they had not come up with the " revolutionary " idea that would warrant a new entry for the PlayStation 3 . Speaking in an interview , it was stated that the development team considered Valkyria Chronicles III to be the series ' first true sequel : while Valkyria Chronicles II had required a large amount of trial and error during development due to the platform move , the third game gave them a chance to improve upon the best parts of Valkyria Chronicles II due to being on the same platform . In addition to Sega staff from the previous games , development work was also handled by Media.Vision. The original scenario was written Kazuki Yamanobe , while the script was written by Hiroyuki Fujii , Koichi Majima , Kishiko Miyagi , Seiki Nagakawa and Takayuki Shouji . Its story was darker and more somber than that of its predecessor .

The majority of material created for previous games , such as the BLiTZ system and the design of maps , was carried over . Alongside this , improvements were made to the game 's graphics and some elements were expanded , such as map layouts , mission structure , and the number of playable units per mission . A part of this upgrade involved creating unique polygon models for each character 's body . In order to achieve this , the cooperative elements incorporated into the second game were removed , as they took up a large portion of memory space needed for the improvements . They also adjusted the difficulty settings and ease of play so they could appeal to new players while retaining the essential components of the series ' gameplay . The newer systems were decided upon early in development . The character designs were done by Raita Honjou , who had worked on the previous Valkyria Chronicles games . When creating the Nameless Squad , Honjou was faced with the same problem he had had during the first game : the military uniforms essentially destroyed character individuality , despite him needing to create unique characters the player could identify while maintaining a sense of reality within the Valkyria Chronicles world . The main color of the Nameless was black . As with the previous Valkyria games , Valkyria Chronicles III used the CANVAS graphics engine . The anime opening was produced by Production I.G.

= = = Music = = =

The music was composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto , who had also worked on the previous Valkyria Chronicles games . When he originally heard about the project , he thought it would be a light tone similar to other Valkyria Chronicles games , but found the themes much darker than expected . An early theme he designed around his original vision of the project was rejected . He redid the main theme about seven times through the music production due to this need to reassess the game . The main theme was initially recorded using orchestra , then Sakimoto removed elements such as the guitar and bass , then adjusted the theme using a synthesizer before redoing segments such as the guitar piece on their own before incorporating them into the theme . The rejected main theme was used as a hopeful tune that played during the game 's ending . The battle themes were designed around the concept of a " modern battle " divorced from a fantasy scenario by using modern musical instruments , constructed to create a sense of atonality . While Sakimoto was most used to working with synthesized music , he felt that he needed to incorporate live instruments such as orchestra and guitar . The guitar was played by Mitsuhiro Ohta , who also arranged several of the later tracks . The game 's opening theme song , " If You Wish for ... " ( もしも君が願うのなら , Moshimo Kimi ga Negauno Nara ) , was sung by Japanese singer May 'n . Its theme was the reason soldiers fought , in particular their wish to protect what was precious to them rather than a sense of responsibility or duty . Its lyrics were written by Seiko Fujibayashi , who had worked on May 'n on previous singles .

