Chronus Arc review: a lesson in mediocrity

Japanese company Kemco launched its latest JRPG Chronus Arc for iOS and Android on the 2nd of December. The game is currently 50% off, which considering its size is certainly value for money. However, does the the quality match up with the quantity?

Looking Good (mostly)

The first thing that struck me about Chronus Arc is how good it looks. Whilst its world is simply rendered in 32-bit Super Nintendo style, everything is clear and has a really nice clarity to it. This is especially true of the avatars whose hand-drawn style and bright colours are especially inviting. Whilst the game is not going to win any awards for modern graphics it certainly captures the aesthetics of early JRPGs whilst adding a small flair of its own, making it one of the better looking re-imaginings of the classic style.

The character design is one of the games better features.

However good a game looks without imagination and creativity the style can get old fast. Within thirty minutes of starting I had already began to run into re-skinned versions of enemies. This dynamic continues, so look forward to fighting the same wolf animation in brown, green, yellow and pink! Couple this with enemy design that sometimes leaves a lot to be desired and you have the recipe for some seriously stale-looking battles. This repetitive design also has practical implications as remembering the weakness of several different enemies whose only visible difference is the color is easier said than done.

Possibly the ugliest menu in JRPG history.

However the worst looking thing in the game is the menu. In nineteen years of gaming I don’t think I have ever seen a menu more ugly or requiring more effort to use. Because everything is done via pop up menus it is difficult to cycle between options and healing the party becomes a much more difficult task than it should be. Also choosing between “special skills” and “magic” every time seems an unnecessary layer of complexity as both use MP.

Sounding Bad

A game without voices relies very heavily on music to add resonance to locations, characters and important moments. In this, Chronus Arc falls woefully short. The music is totally uninspiring and repeats itself constantly. The same music will assault you in towns, caves, forests and castles and after a few hours you will be more than happy to turn the music off. Even stranger is the fact that the game scatters music tracks throughout the game as an incentive to explore further. This seems like an odd choice as it only underlines just how insipid the music really is.

Traditional to fault

When I first began playing Chronus Arc, I found it difficult to believe that the game was not a parody because it ticks every box of the traditional fantasy story perfectly; the rookie “Sorcerer-Knight”, the plucky princess and the very obvious initial betrayal are all just too formulaic to be enjoyed. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot to be said for the traditional heroic arc and many games do this successfully; however in order for the arc to be applied successfully it needs to be applied within a framework that is at least somewhat unique. That isn’t the case here, the story is stale and leaves the game feeling devoid of any real meaning.

Sadly the plot begin with a great angle; revolving around a ritual rewinding time and setting things right which is interrupted by the theft of the necessary magic artefact. I thought was a fantastic idea and one that could be played with and investigated thoroughly, why do these people worship the past so much, what is it like to live in culture that never progresses beyond a certain point, why is this ritual so important? These questions are never even hinted at let alone addressed and instead of an interesting concept being explored the player is forced to play an irritating game of catch the artefact! I played the game for 12 hours in the hope that the plot would be develop beyond cat and mouse but after 12 hours I gave up!

Finally the gameplay…