Battle Chasers: Nightwar: Mid-game impressions

At least I think I am mid way through the game based on the size of the map and how much of it I have been able to access.

This is a game that I purchased late one night after drinking all day. It was 70% off so therefore I tend to order with reckless abandon at those times of night. I wont normally pay more than say $10 for a game in these "one eye open" situations though, despite my inebriation.

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I'd like to believe that I at least watched a trailer before buying this and I think that I did because it is a turn-based RPG with crafting and leveling up / item discovery and seeing as how that is one of my favorite genres of games, I likely did a bit of research. However, when I logged back in to my PS4 the following day with a hangover, I am staring at the icon without any idea as to what the game actually is.

Thankfully, my experience thus far has been mostly a positive one.

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The game functions in a very similar manner to other turn-based RPG's and while I am sure that this same system exists in other games this is the first one that I can recall where the upcoming turns is pictured on the left hand side of the screen. Therefore, you know how to plan your attack strategy since the square indicates whose turn it will be to decide an action and the exclamation point indicates the execution of said action.

Knowing what your opponents are likely to perform during that action is based on experience facing said enemy. If you have faced this enemy a great many times in the past, it will actually display what they are intending to cast or which action they are going to perform. Therefore, if you are aware that one of these attacks is particularly gruesome, you focus your strength on that one opponent. There is some strategy to it and debuffs can be the difference between winning and losing. Poison and bleeding are particularly terrible, since they often will do more damage than an enemy's actual physical strike.

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Wandering around the map is simple enough and you can't simply go just wherever the hell you feel like it. There are certain things in your way that make travel impossible and you are not allowed to exit the pathways. Thankfully, enemy encounters are NEVER random and this makes me really happy because that is something that has really annoyed me about games in the past. You can see the bubbles of enemies up the road and you can simply choose to go around them if you are not feeling up to the challenge.

Another plus is that once you reach a certain level minor enemies can be avoided altogether and they will never attack you - the system gives you a choice as to whether or not you wish to attack them and honestly, you should since the xp and drops after the fight will be so below the level of anything you need for progress that the fight simply isn't worth it.

This brings about one of the negatives about the game: Fights take entirely too long to load even if it is a simple "us three vs some spiders that we have faced 45 times before." In this respect, particularly when you know that you are going to win simply by mashing the attack button over and over and over again, the fights just seem a bit dumb.

Boss fights, and certain dungeon fights require a great deal of strategy because buffs, haste, and debuffing you opponent can be and usually are, the only path to victory.

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As you would expect each of your party members have certain strengths and weaknesses and herein lies another slight problem I have with the game. We are all going to have our "favorites" and leave a person or two behind for major conquests. However, if you do that for too long you are going to find that the unused character toons remain the same level that they were when you left them at the inn and the difference in just a few levels can make a world of difference as far as survivability is concerned. The only way to counter this is to find an area where you know you can defeat the enemies with just 2 of the 3 allowed party members and then just do your best to make the underpowered member stay alive. He (or she) still gets the xp if they die, but it can become cumbersome to continually be resurrecting and healing this person over and over and over again. I think a passive XP generator of some sort would have been a nice addition to this game.

Overall, I think that this game is well worth the $5-$8 that I ended up paying for it and this game is perfect for people who are not hardcore gamers or even just casual ones. You can pick up and play and leave this one alone for long periods of time and since it is turn based, you will re-figure-it-out after just 10 minutes or so. This hasn't been an issue for me since I have been playing it basically non stop for the last 20 hours of gameplay in the past week.

If you have a few bucks and enjoy a casual and classic RPG, this might be the right choice for you as well.