Chain of Souls review: more than scantily-clad girls with a match-3 mechanic

When we first wrote about Konami releasing Chain of Souls, a match-3 game developed by its Singapore studio, I honestly felt rather worried. The marketing material and teaser site pointed to little more than a match-3 game superimposed over half-naked women. Thankfully, I’ve discovered otherwise now that the game has been launched.

Overview

Chain of Souls is a match-3 game, yes, but it comes with a twist. Instead of simply tagging gems of the same color, you’re instead encouraged to chain the gem combinations to cause even more damage to the enemy. Tagging a minimum of three gems allows you to jump across to another gem color, and continue chaining the combinations from there.

Each player’s deck consists of just six cards. These are interchangeable with more cards that you get from slaying bosses or from the game’s gachapon system. And like any good Japanese card battle game, the cards can be strengthened through the consumption of other cards, or upgraded into completely new ones when combined with specific, more powerful cards.

Enemies in Chain of Souls are found in different quests, with each boss at the end of every quest dropping cards to feed your collection. The game is centred around a main map, and quests cycle around different points in this map as you progress. The marketing material we first saw—that of scantily-clad females ranging from humans to succubi—does appear in the game, but is fortunately well-balanced out by fierce and fantastic creatures like manticores.

Consumables

Chain of Souls operates with a stamina system powered by EN, or energy points. However there are also SP, or social points, which you get from being social—using other players’ cards in battle, having your own cards used by others, or sending Cheers to your friends. Finally, there are battle points, or BP. BP is only used later in the game, when you start attempting raid bosses. Like EN, BP also replenish over time, though you can buy potions to refill both your EN and BP bars.

(See: If you put a stamina system in your game, I hate you)

The main currency in Chain of Souls is gold, which is obtained from quests. The premium currency, on the other hand, is gems, and must be bought. The game is a bit unforgiving, in that it starts off without any premium currency for new players, but you are given a premium card once you complete the tutorial. Subsequent premium cards must be paid for. Interestingly enough, gold doesn’t feature in the gachapon system; new cards can be purchased outside of battle with social points (SP). Instead, gold is used when strengthening and upgrading cards.

One really nice thing about Chain of Souls is that it doesn’t have aggressive monetizing. Although premium cards are a great addition to your deck, you can get by with just non-paid-for cards. Chain of Souls balances this out by allowing for card combos, which happen when specific cards are placed in the same deck. These cards will then activate a certain power that helps with your battle.