Valkyrie Drive: Bhikkhuni gamescom Preview

Valkyrie Drive: Bhikkhuni is a game with nudity and lesbianism in it. The sad reality is that for the target audience, that is all that matters. Nothing else that I put in this preview will make any difference. Also, the game is already out so they’ve probably already bought it. It’s taken me so long to flesh out my notes into something tangible (no pun intended) that the game has already come to the west.

Created by the same team that brought us the Senran Kagura games, Valkyrie Drive: Bhikkhuni features, according to the short trailer that we were shown at gamescom, “100% more plot”. They also gave us a promotional leaflet, with a tagline that I’ve been chastised by my colleagues for obsessing over; “weaponised girls powered by pleasure, what a time to be alive”.

The problem that I’ve had when working out exactly what to write about this game is the complete lack of subtlety. At least with Senran Kagura, there was some semblance of focusing on the game. Marvelous UK are focusing their marketing totally different here. They know full well what people will be buying this game for and they’re just running with it.

I’m not going to claim to be some kind of social justice warrior because frankly, I’m just as bad as any other male that plays video games. I tried to activate the nude Lara cheats in Tomb Raider and paused Street Fighter 2 to see up Chun-li’s skirt like everyone else did. I got ‘that achievement’ in Lollipop Chainsaw and, yes, I’m not ashamed to admit that I quite like the Dead or Alive games. But everyone has a limit, and for me, I’ve hit a limit break here.

The premise behind the game is a virus that affects women, because reasons. This virus powers them up but also will ultimately kill them. The only way to cure it is to become more powerful and fight to master the powers of the game. Each girl will either become an Exter or a Liberator. This means that they will be able to turn into a weapon, or wield these previously human weapons respectively. Not only are women treated as objects here, they actually physically become objects as part of the game mechanics.

Exters and Liberators are paired up with each other, and their level of “closeness” is what determines their power. A quick peck on the cheek will get a limited amount of power, hugging will make it stronger, heavy petting makes it extra powerful, right up to full blown sexual intercourse for ultimate powers. This is literally pornography masquerading as a game.

Like I alluded to earlier, chances are, if this is your bag, then you will already know it. In fact, I fully expect people who want to play this game have already stopped reading and the only people still here for this paragraph are those who just want to see how dumbfounded I get about this. Well done for making it this far; Christ knows I struggled to do so.