Are you busy collecting stickers for your tanks in Senjou no Valkyria 2? The game was released to some hot reception in Japan last week, selling more than 90,000 copies to debut at second spot of the latest Japanese charts. To begin its strategy guide, Weekly Famitsu ran a little interview with Chief Producer Shuntaro Tanaka, Producer Shinji Motoyama and Director Takeshi Ozawa where the trio share some tips for the game.

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Despite being featured in almost every battle, tank customizations are very limited in the original Senjou no Valkyria (aka Valkyria Chronicles) but that is about to change in the sequel. The video above show how you can make use of your tank to carry out works like building bridges or remove obstacles like rocks by attaching certain parts to it (view the steps in this video).

There are also a little bit of new info on the co-op mode, which support up to four players. Each player get to deploy his/her team as usual, so you can use your carefully grown characters here. You can see other players in both Command and Action Mode separated by colored tab above them. This is where having friends beside you is more helpful since you can discuss on the tactics and deployment to use for the particular mission.

The latest blog post at Sega’s Hatsune Miku’s website announced that works has started on the sequel of Hatsune Miku: Project Diva. However, they won’t confirm the hardware for the rhythm game base on the singing synthesizer Vocaloid but it appears to be a PlayStation platform… The first game debut with more than 100,000 copies sold on its first week and surprisingly ranked at 5th for Amazon Japan’s 2009 best selling games (and also the best selling PSP game for the year).

The original game is also in this week’s Weekly Famitsu with info on upcoming paid DLC (tentatively titled Hatsune Miku: Miku Uta, Okawari) set for early next year. Nine carefully selected new songs will be in the DLC (four have been confirmed at official blog) together with a side-scrolling action mini-game based on *Hello Planet. The DLC will set you back ¥1980.

Been wanting to get the game when it gets cheaper at Play-Asia but don’t think it will happens anytime soon:(

Update: Added more info on the DLC.

If you haven’t been visiting Senjou no Valkyria 2 (aka Valkyria Chronicles 2) official website, here are the videos that get uploaded to the site in the last few weeks, including the refreshed weapon upgrade interface above (more vids after the jump).

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The second Download Mission for Phantasy Star Portable 2 has arrived and as revealed in one of the collaboration news, Sony’s mascot Toro and Kuro will be featured in the game. Not sure what the quest is about to be honest but you’ll be able to include the duo in your party once you cleared the mission.

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This shouldn’t be too surprising but really nice to know that Phantasy Star Portable 2’s heroine Emilia will make her guest appearances in Valkyria Chronicles 2… only if you own both games as the latter will look for PSP2 save data in your memory stick before unlocking missions with her in. There will be two missions for her and the rewards are stickers to customize your tank.

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One of the winning entries for the recent Phantasy Star Item Design Contest will be available for free on the Japanese PSN tomorrow. Time to give your male CAST in Phantasy Star Portable 2 a new look.

The latest post at the official Senjou no Valkyria 2 (aka Valkyria Chronicles 2) blog shares with us some reasoning behind the game’s platform switch. Chief Producer Shuntaro Tanaka says a PS3 sequel would probably takes around three years to make even after taking into consideration that certain assets can be reused and their hardware know-how is better now. This is because the amount of time it takes to produce new content could be quite lengthy too.

With the anime series just ended, this could means a long period of time before we see another Vakyria Chronicles title again and people will forget about the series soon. But then there is a new Ryu ga Gotoku (aka Yakuza series) game every year you might say. Tanaka’s answer to that is they need to expand the series to new players especially since survey shows that 95% of Valkyria Chronicles players are male. PSP can do a better job at expanding the series according to him. However, fans of the series need not worry too much about the PSP version since the content are sure to satisfy both new and current players.

Tanaka’s personal vision is for the series to expand on both PSP and PS3. He also reminds us that next generation titles costs a lot of money to make and without expanding the user base, it would be difficult to get positive returns. Big PS3 titles like Yakuza and Metal Gear Solid have built their fanbase on the PS2, an advantage that Valkyria Chronicles do not have. Apparently he is saying all these without the permission of the higher ups at Sega and not sure if they will be angry at him for this. Pretty sure they won’t if Valkyria Chronicles 2 sold well next month in Japan :)

Phantasy Star Portable 2 is out today in Japan and Sega didn’t wait long to release the first Download Mission for the highly anticipated title. The mission is called “Fanta Quiz Mission” and it supports both local and Internet multiplayer. Players are required to answer questions related to the game’s collaboration with Fanta, so could be hard for non-Japanese speakers. Only started the first game recently (loving it a lot), so will get the game later.

If you haven’t been following Senjou no Valkyria 2 (aka Valkyria Chronicles 2), this trailer should give a better picture of what the game is about. Otherwise check out the video about the crazy powerful artificial Valkyrias after the jump, some tough battles ahead folks :) The release date is January 21st in Japan.

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