How to Play Valkyria Chronicles 3 Even if You Don’t Speak Japanese

In the year-and-a-half since the Japanese release of Valkyria Chronicles 3, it’s become painfully apparent that it will not be leaving Japanese shores–at least in the foreseeable future. If you are one of the many fans of the series dying to play the newest Valkyria Chronicles, fear not! You are not alone.

Thanks to the efforts of many fans, all the information you need to play the Japanese version of the game is at your fingertips–you just need to know where to look. Luckily, that’s what we at Kotaku East are here for. Using the following links, you, too, can play this amazing game, even if you don’t know Japanese.

Of course, the first step is actually buying the game. Both versions of Valkyria Chronicles 3, the original version and the extra edition (which comes complete with more story missions and all previous DLC), are available on the Japanese PlayStation Network. Creating a Japanese account is free and easy and buying a Japanese PSN card is as easy as hitting up eBsy or a store like PlayAsia.

Now that you have the game, you may want a bit of specific information on it. The best place to go is the Valkyria Chronicles 3 WordPress blog. It has interface and menu translations, tutorial videos, and tons of other useful Valkyria Chronicles 3 information for those who have imported the game.

But where should you go if you have a specific question? The Gamefaqs message board is a good place to try. While not that active anymore, a search through the message archives will often answer any questions you may have.

And what if you still find yourself stuck in the game and just wish you had someone to show you what to do? Welp, that’s what YouTube is for. YouTube user Ongoing Chronicles has the entire game on his channel, broken up by mission. He even speaks English so he may be able to answer your more specific questions–if you ask him nicely.

So now that you actually have all the information to play the game, there’s one last thing you’ll be wanting: the story translation. Committed fan Guerrilla Soldier, armed with nothing but the Chinese and Japanese scripts–and no ability to speak either language — has translated all 20 chapters in the main story and shared it on Google Drive for all to see. The translation is loose, to say the least; but the vast majority of the time, it captures the general intent of what is being said–and that’s far better than nothing. Guerrilla Soldier has also included translations of the mission objectives for each mission in the main story as well as information pertaining to enemy ace units — which is more than a nice touch.

As for the non-main story information that isn’t included in the translation, there is no better place for this than the Valkyria Chronicles wiki. It has a blurb on every character explaining their backstories and is a wealth of general information on the game.

There you have it. Everything you need to play Valkyria Chronicles 3 when you don’t speak a word of Japanese. It just goes to show that nothing can stop some games from migrating west–even the companies that made them.

Valkyria Chronicles 3 was released in Japan on January 27, 2011, for the PlayStation Portable. It is (regrettably) not scheduled for release outside of Japan.


The Cheapest NBN 1000 Plans

Looking to bump up your internet connection and save a few bucks? Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Kotaku, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

Comments


9 responses to “How to Play Valkyria Chronicles 3 Even if You Don’t Speak Japanese”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *