Public service chronicles

Guys, I have a recommendation. You should go buy Valkyria Chronicles now.

[[image: ar_041509_valkyria_01.jpg:See what I mean? If I’d played it, I could have written some sort of hilarious caption here!:center:0]]
Gamestop has the game on sale for $30 this month, which is a steal. I played the demo and loved it, but hadn’t gotten around to purchasing it yet due to an insane backlog (among other things), so grabbing it new for half off seemed perfect. I placed my order online, and waited. And waited.

Today I realized my order appears to have been cancelled. Being the super sleuth I am, I decided to investigate. I spoke with a very nice man at Gamestop’s customer service center, and he informed me that the cancellation came direct from the publisher –- something that, according to my source, only usually happens when they’re not manufacturing a game anymore. I don’t want to prematurely alarm anyone — Gamestop dude could have been completely wrong, or it could be a temporary thing (though their website now confirms it’s unavailable) — but after just 6 months of poor sales it looks like Valkyria Chronicles might be joining the pantheon of criminally underappreciated RPGs that will go for more than a game should on eBay in a few years. I’ve never watched it happen in real time before; even with Suikoden II, it wasn’t until many years later I was informed that my copy was worth something.

I know it’s just one sale, but I’m kicking myself now for not picking it up when I should have, particularly in light of my disappointment in some of the other “big” games that came out last year. I really should have supported something so, so…fresh, something I’d tried beforehand and actually enjoyed! If you have any interest at all in playing the game some day (or want to make mad bank on eBay some day, I guess), you might want to look into securing a copy while you’re still able to.

31 thoughts on “Public service chronicles”

  1. All the time it was… we finally really did it. You maniacs! You blew it up! Oh, damn you! Goddamn you all to hell! (Seriously guys, get it while you can.)

  2. If a sequel gets made and doesn’t get localized because of this, I am going to cut every one of you that didn’t buy the game.

  3. $30 dollars!!! wow! now that’s a really good deal for a playstation 3 role play game, but, there’s just one problem. doesn’t gamestop have a history of selling used videogames as brand new ones? i don’t trust game stop at all(in fact, i hate gamestop!). if i were 100% percent sure that i was getting a fresh brand new factory sealed copy of valkyria chronicles for the playstation 3, then i would buy it in a heartbeat. can someone please confirm this for me? i’ll buy the game if it’s brand new. i’ve been meaning to pick up. damn!

  5. It’s sad when a great game doesn’t sell. It’s a travesty when THE BEST GAME IN A SYSTEM’S LIBRARY doesn’t sell.

  6. This and Rock Band are the only PS3 titles I’ve ever purchased.

    And both were for a friend of mine :)

  7. That’s pretty alarming. How am I supposed to pick up a copy, 4 years from now when I can actually afford/justify buying that shiny black monolith of a gaming system? Maybe I should just buy a copy and hold on to it…

  8. “If a sequel gets made and doesn’t get localized because of this, I am going to cut every one of you that didn’t buy the game.”
    Yeah, that would totally suck, but unless they really overhaul the game it’d still be one of the most import-friendly RPGs ever.

  10. Anthony, I think they had a copy at the GameStop near me. Let me know if you still can’t find it – no one with a PS3 should be without it. Especially no one who actually understand it’s sheer awesomeness.

  11. I’d have picked it up release day and waited until PS3s become as dirt-cheap as, say, used Saturns. Unfortunately, it’s hard to pick up someone else’s tragically-poor-selling game when your own is keeping you down in ramen land.

  12. The online Gamestop seems to be out, but I’m pretty sure a lot of the actual stores still have copies. You may want to check it out if you have one near you.

  14. I picked this up the minute i got my PS3 back in Jan. I haven’t gotten around to playing it, but i knew I would want to, and frankly I wanted ot buy it just to let Sega know we LIKE it when they get back to their Dreamcasty goodness. Picked up Madworld for the same reason.

  15. If you didn’t play this game because you were too busy with Fable 2 or Fallout 3 or Gears of War 2 or really just about any other game that came out last holiday season, you should kick yourself… really really hard. Yes, those are very good games, but odds are, you’ve played them before. And now with the financial flops of original IPs like this and Mirror’s Edge and the ongoing economic clusterfuck, we’ll be doomed to sequels FOREVER.

  16. This was an awesome game, it is worth 60$ and 30$ is a steal. The DLC is coming out today I beleive. I dare say the PS3 was worth it just to play this, especially if you are fan of the genre. But even a newbie to rpgs/strategies can find something to like about this game.

  17. This is the one game that makes me wish I owned a PS3. Just not enough to actually buy one.

  18. Anthony, consider your advice taken. I saw that this game was discounted to $30 before I read this article and knew I was getting a really good deal. I went out last night and picked it up. I had to go 10 miles past the gamestop literally 200 yards from my house to find a store that still had a copy left, and I took their last one. Now I find out that I might have just capitalized on a deal for a game that may be going out of print makes it even sweeter.

    Thanks for making me feel even better about my purchase.

  19. I bought it, and now I have buyer’s remorse. No, it’s not because I played it and hate it. It’s not because I played it. It’s because I bought a full-priced game for a system I don’t even own because some random on the Internet told me it might go up in price.

    Thought some guys at work have PS3s. Once they finish Ratchet & Clank I might borrow it off them.

  20. This game is taunting me, peeking out from the top of my pile while I slog through another dark, mutant-infested hallway in Fallout 3. I swore I’d beat Fallout before I pulled the trigger on the PS3, but it’s getting harder and harder to resist.

  21. I wholly support this. I bought it when it came out, but bought a copy for a friend during the sale just to spread the love. He’s loving it. :-)

  22. Ilchymis – I’ve got it covered, but thanks for the offer!

    Miss So-hee – as far as I know, they open up the packaging on new copies for some reason, but they don’t swap in copies that someone previously owned. It irks me, but not enough to not bite on this deal.

  23. I’ll be picking this up after work, 100% because of urging on the boards here followed by this post. Right now I’m busy with RE5 and Pokemon Platinum (both of which I’ll spend dozens of more hours on before I’m done), so I don’t really need a game right now. If it’s going out of print though, I may as well get it while the gettin’s good.

    Also, Miss so-hee, just look at the disk when you buy it. If there are no scratches on it, you’ll be fine.

  24. Did this sale end yesterday? I just called up a Gamestop that had it, but was charging $60 for a new copy and $55 for a used one.

  27. Can’t people also make a copy of this and take it to Best Buy for it to be price-matched?

    Does Best Buy even carry Valkyria Chronicles? It’s not listed on their website.

  28. And I just looked for it on Game Stop’s website and it says it’s not available in any stores within an hours drive of where I live. Not worth the gas money. Looks like Amazon it is.

  31. I was considering buying the game as an investment for this very reason. And the sole reason, since me buying a PS3 any time soon isn’t very likely. But I’m also wondering if Sega won’t shrug off their Valkyria melancholy and try again with a 360 version.

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