Sometimes the world delivers you a bit of proof that you've done a good job cultivating your online environment. For me, that proof was seeing RPG Site post on Bluesky about Ironwing Valiant: Record of Astera—a Valkyria Chronicles-inspired mecha action game from indie studio Tiger Team—and watching as a bunch of sickos near-instantly flooded my timeline with a unified, resounding "hell yeah."
Looking at Ironwing Valiant's Steam page, it's not hard to see why. The realtime combat moves more like Armored Core, but it's got plenty of the Valkyria Chronicles visual hallmarks: game menus that look like bits of weathered military paperwork, painterly fantasy countrysides, and charming rural youths with names like Reinhardt Bauchel who will undoubtedly be forced to watch as their idyllic homeland is ground into ruin by the churning gears of mechanized warfare. You know. The good stuff.
Team Tiger says Ironwing Valiant will emphasize full mecha personalization, with "full parts customization (Head, Arms, Legs, Core, minor components)" and "a large selection of unique melee, ranged, and auxiliary weapons." The mecha of your squadmates will be customizable as well, and you'll be able to utilize their abilities mid-combat through a real time with pause command system.
According to Tiger Team, "the world and story of Ironwing Valiant is based off of Chinese and Korean mythology and The Romance of The Three Kingdoms novel." I don't know if that means they've given Lü Bu a robot, but if it does, pursue at your own peril.
Iron Valiant doesn't have a release date yet, but if you're desperate to try it yourself, you're in luck: There's a gameplay demo on its Itch.io page. Some commenters have said they've preferred the combat feel of an earlier demo version, which apparently had a weightier heft than the latest demo's AC6-esque pace. If you try it yourself and have feedback to offer, Tiger Team is encouraging players to head to its Discord to provide further input.
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