Gematsu noted that Hachima Kikou published an article featuring some insights into Sega’s plan for Valkyria: Azure Revolution. Specifically, director Takeshi Ozawa and producer Youichi Shimosato touch upon what sort of playing experience the demo for Azure Revolution represents, and also mention some additional gameplay characteristics being implemented into the game.
These characteristics include permanent death that impacts available side-story events, and the suggestion of a relatively high difficulty level. The development team carefully considered the introduction of permadeath into the game, but in the end moved forward with it. Death as a theme is apparently quite important to Azure Revolution (certainly, if the dramatic tagline for the game is any indication) so the team saw it as important to incorporate permadeath. If you lose a character in-game, the main story campaign will still continue, but you will lose access to character-specific side events. While you could permanently lose certain characters in Valkyria Chronicles, character events were not attached to them. It remains to be seen if any characters will be exempt from permadeath as was the case with the Command Point characters in Valkyria Chronicles. The development team does say that it will be possible to experience all character events if players progress through the game correctly, but this might be difficult. Speaking of difficulty, director Ozawa had this to say (courtesy of Gematsu’s translation:)
There are obstacles in the game and we are thinking about how to go about them without toning them down. We plan on including something like an easy mode to help with the obstacles.
That’s pretty telling. Seems that there’s a particular type of gameplay experience that they want to preserve. Easy mode should be popular with more consumers, so this doesn’t seem like too bad of an idea.
As for the demo, producer Shimosato says that it isn’t a beta test, and that it’s supposed to “win you over right off the bat.” Remember that Valkyria Chronicles Remaster is releasing in February while Valkyria: Azure Revolution is releasing in Winter 2016 in Japan. The very early demo release will allow the development team to incorporate feedback with minimal shock to development schedules. The main point of the demo is to experience a preview of the battle system (which they also mention will feature a level-up mechanic!) For waiting Valkyria fans and new prospects, the battle system is most probably the most anticipated feature. It seems the development team has a plan in place to both convey their ideas and work with some fan feedback. While superficially the demo might seem like a beta test, the development team seems to have a strong idea of what they want to do.
I myself anxiously anticipate news of battle system!