This SRPG can be fun but it can't be enjoyed by everyone.
- Familiar characters from other games
- Good gameplay mechanisms
- Nicely done background environments
- Pleasant music
Negative
- Horrendous english and japanese voice acting
- Gameplay is slow paced
- Doesn't do much what other, similar games haven't done
- Who the hell came up with the idea to recover health automatically?
Chaos Wars might remind you of other SRPG such as Disgaea or Phantom Brave, but surprisingly enough this isn't from Nippon Ichi, despite having almost the same strengths and weaknesses. The gameplay is somewhat familiar to that of past games, and many will recognize some of the characters found in this game, since Chaos Wars is a crossover between several Japanese gaming companies.
Settled in Endia, a parallel world to ours, young students end up here from the hillside behind their school. After hearing several times from his grandfather, Hyoma decides to search the hill after seeing a ray of light from the hill towards the sky. When entering a cave which apparently wasn't their before, they are transported to Endia where you'll meet new but mostly familiar characters if you ever played Shadow Hearts 2, Gungrave, Growlanser and others. Throughout the game you'll travel from land to land. The stages are very, very similar to those of Nippon Ichi's which involve just battles and no explorations.
The core gameplay is very familiar and thankfully it works well. You don't move in grids like those of Disgaea but you can move freely around the battlefield at will. Attack within range and after you execute you can move again but beware of the limited amount of freedom. The characters have different skills and attributes. It practically works the same as any other of Nippon Ichi's game, with the addition of the skill 'realize' which lets a character get a stronger weapon for a short period of time. When you finish attacking your character will stand by and recover some HP, which can be an advantage but since the enemy does it too, some battles last more than they should which can add frustrating, and to add to that the game moves at a slow pace. You can perform varies combinations when near other characters, so you can deal more damage. These aren't anything special since the characters perform their own attacks. The people who come up with the idea to recover HP automatically should burn in hell literally. You wanna know why? Some bosses who have over 1000 HP recover around 200-300 HP after their turn,and your team much less. This is frustrating and disgusting and of course unfair. The limit of 5 characters per battle is also useless.
When it comes to presentation Chaos Wars has its good share of merits. The main menu look good and the loadings aren't much to bother with. There is no motion in cutscenes which makes them lifeless, worse than those of Disgaea. Characters rarely show emotion in scenes which are rendered worse but the terrible English voice acting. Thankfully there are the Japanese voices which can be switched at the options menu. Even if you keep the English voice, when characters talk in battle they will use Japanese without subs, making you what they are saying there. The camera is as bad as all similar games.
The graphics of Chaos Wars aren't exactly great everywhere. The background designs are excellent, but if you had ever played a game from Nippon Ichi (which is an SRPG) you will notice that the character designs are almost the same. Here are merely decent but at least they are recognizable but far away from greatness. Also most of the enemies look exactly the same, normally with slightly different HP. But looks a bit better than Disgaea 2.
The background music changeswhen a new character takes a turn. The soundtrack is rather pleasant with satisfying sound effects but the English voice acting is atrocious. The voices really don't suit most characters at all, like Hyoma which appears to be too young for the voice he's given. And there is also a character which voice is horrendous. The other characters don't do a very well job either. The Japanese voices aren't much better, but the english voice acting is the worst i've ever heard.
The game is flawed and wrong. Some incorrect names can be found here like Shadow Heart's 2 Yuri is called Uru, Karin is named Karen, and to be truthful that game's story is messed up big time. When it comes to voices Uru's voice is decent, but Karen's voice is seriously awful.
Chaos Wars isn't a very challenging game compared to others in the genre. It's just a bit frustrating due to the time that it will take to defeat bosses since most of them don't fight alone. Also the gameplay is a bit slow moving and some fights (even against weak enemies) can take more than 20 minutes if you are outnumbered.
It may haven't gone where no other SRPG has gone to, Chaos Wars is still a good strategy game which offers the similar gameplay that fans of the genre enjoy without excessive usage and combining characters from other series make it a good combination. But if you never liked these kinds of games, Chaos Wars won't certainly can't your mind.
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Graphics = 8.0
Looks a bit better than Nippon Ichi's games, with good looking environments and still those decent character designs which really need to be changed.
Sound = 7.2
The music is pleasant and the sound effects are ok, but that aside the English voice acting is terrible. Thankfully for those who are really annoyed by this can change to the Japanese voices.
Presentation = 7.1
The main menu is well designed. The load times are short. The camera is as bad here as it is in Disgaea. Cutscenes are lifeless with little motion, not helped by the terrible voices.
Gameplay = 7.0
The experience may be familiar with a few tweaks, but combining characters from other games together adds a unique atmosphere. The gameplay itself is a bit slow moving, sometimes monotonous, but can be really fun.
Story = 7.7
Good story and a lot of familiar and new interesting characters. The game is not so linear since you can take side quests. There are a lot of items and equipment. If only the cutscenes and voice acting were better…
Difficulty = Medium
Unless you are under leveled, the game offers a good level of challenge. The fact that everyone recovers HP lengthens the time of the battle and some other frustrations diminish the fun, but SRPG fans should enjoy this.
OVERALL = 7.0 / 10
This SRPG can be fun but it can't be enjoyed by everyone.