Battle Chasers:Night War Review

g-mor (59)in #gaming • 9 years ago

If you don't know the comics of Battle Chasers, you will most likely know about their author Joe Madureira, former co-director of Darksiders and designer of Uncanny X-Men, who after a successful Kickstarter campaign gave birth to his most ambitious game : Battle Chasers: Nightwar . I've been through this action-GdR for more than a week playing it and feeling it intensely on PlayStation 4 Pro and I have to admit that once I finished after about 35 hours, I had a craving to find out the original comic book series ... if only I could find it at reasonable price.

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The adventure follows the adventures of the young Gully , the daughter of the legendary warrior Aramus who inherits his gauntlets of power and who, due to the magnificence of his father, becomes a very important target for the warrior's rivals. Fortunately, to safeguard her life, the young woman has the help of several companions of adventures, characters that we can control as we progress, being able to change from one to the other with the superior buttons.

It all in the title, each of these characters like:

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The reckless Red Monika

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The tough Garrison warrior

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The Calibretto robot

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The surprising Engineer Knolan

and many more has their own special characteristics and abilities, which we can put into action throughout a broad world that we can explore with freedom and that is represented in a world map of considerable dimensions.

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Battle Chasers: Nightwar can be defined as a game that blends a typical JRPG-style shuffle combat system, a much more "western" and Torchlight debut feature , dungeon crawler-style exploration, a lot of visual love for original comics and even some narrative inserts that will make the fan-game fantasy fans happy.

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Even if you have never played a JRPG before, you will be immediately at ease love Battle Chasers: Nightwar, whose gameplay is very rich, layered but absolutely approachable by anyone. The protagonists are the same as the original comic book.

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The setting is a mix of fantasy and steam-punk (more than the first and the second) that does not go unnoticed, helping to make something cool and original. The gaming party can consist of up to three characters at the same time, each with its own features at attack level and defensive actions. There are essentially three game plans.

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We find exploration of the main map in a very cartoon style, a second level that is accessed when entering a dungeon (and here the game really looks like Torchlight) and, as the third structural layer, the fighting in turn with the characters arranged on the left and the enemies on the right. In the first two cases, the fights are never random as in the JRPG classics, since we can see enemies in the form of icons (in the general map) or in more detail (in the dungeons) and, if desired, avoid them (but up to certain point).

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In the dungeon you can also switch from one character to the other in order to use in real time the special powers that best serve us for exploration. For example, Garrison can take a quick shot (useful to avoid traps), Gully can do a simple pre-combat attack, while Calibration can cure himself and his companions. All these actions are not infinite and only recharge after having rested in the classic inn.

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Diving Inn

As the story progresses our goal will take us to one place or another. Some routes contain more enemies or we will be interested in a detour to get loot, so within its linearity -and the obligatory nature of these confrontations along the way-, there is a small decision making . This is also the way to represent some village, with a view of the area and the places with which we can interact - stores, key characters, obtaining secondary missions.

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We would have liked to explore the extension of the island on foot , but the solution taken works perfectly; do not forget that Battle Chasers is not a blockbuster - it was funded on Kickstarter and 3D recreation is reserved for the key points among which there is some settlement.

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Some important locations are recreated in 3D, but this exploration is reserved for dungeons.
The battles use the base of the combats in turns, but with a series of novelties that add more strategy. To start, the characters have very different skills , and will learn more with the rise of levels. Some are oriented to the support of the group, and others -like Garrison- for the offensive, although in the basic techniques we find that all have good attacks and defenses that reduce the damage received.

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Under the life bar we have the manna, the points that limit the use of the most powerful actions. This bar can be recovered by objects, but as a special feature of Nightwar , many attacks increase the figure a little - even above its limit . It's the overload, and thanks to it normal attacks are important - we will not stop using them, especially at the beginning of combat.

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The front of gameplay, especially with regard to the pure combat system, Battle Chasers does a good job while leaving the whole (very classic) TTB structure perfectly intact. Playable characters are six in all, but in battle they can only carry three, and each one will have its unique specifications related to equipment, customizable skills and even Ultra (the Limit Break!). We meet an enemy, the screen crumble and the clash begins. The skills are so many, complex and fit well between the various possible combinations of the party, giving the title a good depth. The only real innovation in the development team is the overload mechanics, that is, the possibility of having a third bar besides the classics of life points and mana points. Simple attacks generate overload points that can be used instead of normal mana, thus allowing more frequent use of the most powerful abilities, the only limitation:
Speaking of the upgrades, we also come to the question of the development of the character. Each hero is naturally brought to a role from the healer to the warrior, but as he gains exp and rises, he will have two ways ahead of him, which is a further specialization with both unique and complete abilities optional, affordable at any time with special strengths. You can also prefer the critical probability probability statistic, the improvement of a single spell, and even some extra talents, for example, that allow you to move from one battle to another overloading points. The system still works, knows it is immediate and tactical at the right point, and this is also due to the large number of buffs and debuffs inserted by the development team.

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A basic action increases our overload, which is added to the mana figure - even above the limit.
This overload exceeds the maximum number of mana and are used before the mana itself, although the savings disappear at the end of each combat . It is one of the keys to endure the journey of the dungeons: avoid the unnecessary expense of the mana - recovery more expensive - in favor of spending extra accumulated with the attacks. With good management you will overcome 30 fights without spending a single point of mana.

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It is a mechanic aimed at players balancing the use of basic techniques with the most powerful ones -the ones that spend the points-, among which we find more damaging swords, offenses that hit several enemies simultaneously or that infringe some state - positive or negative-. In fact, in Battle Chasers: Nightwar altered states are very common : poisonings, curses, freezing, clothing on fire, temporary improvements in speed -more turns-, more force or bleeding -which causes additional damage to the characters who suffer -, to cite only some of these effects that can also be accumulated. Weakening an enemy with damaging states is a good advantage, but keep in mind that you will also suffer.

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Conclusion:

As i said earlier the combats follow a classic system in turns. We will choose, depending on the moment we are in the narrative, the protagonists of these. Each of them, as is usually the case, displays a certain kind of power.
Gully is the most balanced character of all because he has both defensive and attack movements. Garrison, the character with more attack power, Calibretto mixes power with healing powers, and together with Knolan are an excellent choice in our team to give balance and finally Monika and Alumon, the demon hunter.

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Each of them, as we say, will have a series of exclusive movements that will make us choose one or the other depending on the moment. As always, and almost not worth mentioning, the characters will have a system of levels through which they will increase life and mana progressively and constantly. In addition, we will be able to change the weapons, which in addition to the level have different linked elements, so it will be important the exploration of which we talked about above.
In addition to the normal blows and special blows, we will find a special blow that is charged with the achievement of blows during combat and that will allow us to make a special attack with animation included. As you can see, this is a classic and simple combat system.

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The work of Joe Madureira in the design, the most visible and mediatic head of the game, does not detract from the work behind a study that shows that he values the genre, offering a kind of homage to the classics with a special touch thanks to the well-known illustrator.
Battle Chasers: Nightwar, in short, is a "simple" but solvent title. Pleasant to play and fascinating, especially for those players looking for titles like those of before, which made us sit in front of the screen to see the credit titles.