Roses are black, PS4 lights are blue; This is a game, and it has valkyries too?

If I told you the writer of Tales of the Abyss/Symphonia had teamed up with Tales of and Sakura Wars character designer to work on a game about a task force dealing with a virus infecting people in the early 1800s through 1900s that drives them mad but makes them superhuman, would that sound potentially cool? If I added that there will apparently be some sort of system in place where a traitor will be amongst your ranks, randomized every play through the game, would that perhaps pique your curiosity as well?

If these things sound interesting, I am afraid, as with many things, there is what to some will be a catch and to others will break this deal right here: While I will not tell you the above described game isn't real, I do have to tell you it's being developed by Compile Heart.

Recently announced PS4 title Black Rose Valkyrie is all of the above, as well as the first Compile Heart title under the Idea Factory International brand. 

This, weirdly enough, does not seem to be referring to their overseas branch under the same name that focuses on localizations, but instead may perhaps mean that games under this label are meant to have more global appeal, similarly to how games under their Galapagos branding (Fairy Fencer F and Omega Quintet) were targeted at more mainstream sensibilities for Japanese audiences, something I've sort of talked about before in the case of the former title.

Gematsu posted a summary of the game's story and setting earlier this evening, and honestly, it sounds pretty cool. We know a little from some magazine scans and other sources already, but all in all, it really does sound like a pretty solid sounding premise. 

While the game isn't, to my knowledge, being developed by their Neptunia team (whose only other recent titles were the Fairy Fencer F games and their contributions to the Neptunia spinoffs, I believe), given what we can see here, it does seem likely it'll

Still, I'm optimistic. Fairy Fencer F benefited greatly from calling in a writer and so on from outside of the company, and from what I'm hearing (Siliconera's had new articles gushing about it every few days it seems), the new Neptunia is a huge step up from the last main console title too.

The mechanics and gameplay and interfaces and all that may not be up to standards of other companies, or maybe they will be depending on what you've played recently like certain Bandai Namco titles, but even so, it does sound like it might be something to keep an eye on.

Yeah, Lost Dimension is a thing (a thing I need to play at that), but with a mechanic that cool sounding, I would hope people would think to imitate.

Reality being what it is, though, I am positive at the end of the day it'll most definitely be a Compile Heart title, with all that comes with, but with all that comes with, it sounds like this might be a decent one, if nothing else. 

Oh, and speaking of Compile Heart games made by outside staff, that game made by the Disgaea people that ditched NIS for Compile Heart is coming out on Vita in March. (April 1 in Europe). That's a thing too!

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