Anime and game developer Marvelous announced new cross-media project Valkyrie Drive at Anime Japan 2015 over the weekend. Other Marvelous credits include recent Harvest Moons, the Rune Factory series, and Senran Kagura. The first Valkyrie Drive releases are console game Valkyrie Drive: Bhikkhuni, free-to-play mobile game Valkyrie Drive: Siren, and anime Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid. Marvelous has confirmed that “Siren” and “Mermaid” refer to two of five manmade islands where Valkyrie Drive takes place. Jury’s still out on “Bhikkhuni.”
The entire premise of Valkyrie Drive seems to be “girls turn into swords and other hurty things.”
“Mermaid” and Siren bear similar taglines: “Girls use their bodies as weapons,” and “Girls’ thoughts become the strongest weapons,” respectively. There you have it. The entire premise of Valkyrie Drive seems to be “girls turn into swords and other hurty things.” Producer Kenichiro Takaki offers more than just the TL;DR. Young girls are infected with a virus that temporarily turns them into weapons when they’re neurologically stimulated. Another group of girls called the Rebreakers specialize in wielding these people-weapons.
Rampant fanservice aside, the gameplay sounds promising. A Rebreaker and a weapon-person-partner pair up to fight groups of enemies; fighting well together improves your bond; this in turn improves your skills and combos. Maybe not out-of-this-world original, but Valkyrie Drive might give us some clever twists on the tried and true conventions of good old hack’n’slash.
Valkyrie Drive: Bhikkhuni’s seeing a Japanese release later this year; no word yet on the other two. Of course there aren’t any plans for an English release right now, don’t be silly.
