![]() And it’s hard to say that they failed in their goal: Valkyria Chronicles had a slow start, both in Japan and abroad, but in the 14 years since its release, it’s sold over 1.92 million copies, and is available not just in its original Playstation 3 form, but in a remastered edition on Windows, the Playstation 4, Xbox One, and the Nintendo Switch as well (plus availability on the backwards-compatible PS5 and Series S|X systems). ![]() Sega’s Valkyria Chronicles was designed to stand out from the crowd, and come away as a more successful addition to the tactics space than much of its competition. Tactics, as said, was both great and a Final Fantasy game released during the golden era of that franchise - it might have had a head start, but it was a deserving one. ![]() It took Fire Emblem some time to become a true hit, but Intelligent Systems and Nintendo got there by focusing heavily on the characters and player choice, and combined that with a battle formula that’s been heavily tweaked and refined over the years to be one of the genre’s best. Which is all a long way of saying that it’s rare for games within the genre to thrive commercially in terms of raw sales figures, and that the ones that do tend to be doing something special while also having plenty of name recognition to build off of. ![]() The original Playstation 3 box art, released early enough in the system’s life that it still has the “Spider-Man font” on its side. Final Fantasy Tactics, which had the triple-threat advantage of (1) being a Final Fantasy game (2) on the Playstation that (3) also ruled, helped bring the genre to a larger audience, and allowed for a further proliferation of the genre and an increase in how many of these games ended up localized. Sega also never bothered to bring Sakura Wars, a tactical “ dramatic adventure ” series to North America. Sega’s Shining Force did get an international release, but, while popular enough to persist as a strategy RPG across three different platforms (the Genesis, Game Gear, and Saturn) and receive international releases at a time when that wasn’t the norm, it was never a system-selling, flagship franchise, and Sega eventually switched genres to something a bit more flashy and action-y. Nintendo didn’t even bother bringing Fire Emblem anywhere outside of Japan for a decade after the series’ inception, and exactly none of the series’ Super Famicom’s output has seen an international release or remaster even now. It’s really some nerd shit - which is fine, says the guy writing a newsletter about retro video games - but yeah: lots of strategizing, lots of reading, not much in the way of flash or pushing the limitations of the hardware, and often brutal difficulties means tactical RPGs have always been a bit more niche, even if they have a built-in audience. The tactical role-playing game is an excellent genre, but it’s never been one to generate massive sales. Previous entries in this series can be found through this link. This column is “Retro spotlight,” which exists mostly so I can write about whatever game I feel like even if it doesn’t fit into one of the other topics you find in this newsletter.
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