What’s that? RPG’s haven’t always been played on small, touchscreen devices? Are you sure about that? Because Square Enix’s Chaos Rings feels perfectly at home on the iPhone.
Chaos Rings is a pretty pricey title at $13, but it’s looking to be an epic one so far. I’m only about three hours in, and it’s only now that the turn-based combat system is starting to open up to me. It’s based around a rock-paper-scissors elemental magic system, but it’s more involved than simply casting ice-based spells on obviously fire-based enemies. I’m still not completely sure about one of my characters, though.. Either I really suck at turn-based combat (I hope not — I’ve been playing similar titles for years now) or Zhamo is really supposed to feel like two-legged baggage before he gets awesome.
The story is also getting a lot more interesting, now that I’ve found both rings for my characters. I’d say more, but I actually can’t — that’s pretty much all I know about the story. The couple I chose, Eluca and Zhamo, have literally been plucked from their homelands and thrown into an arena to duke it out for survival. I still have no idea why (maybe the enemies have some sort of sick level-up fetish?).
I do like the pair mechanic a lot so far, though. Combat revolves around issuing commands to your characters individually, or as a pair. Carrying out paired actions usually doubles the damage, but leaves both characters at risk when attacked. It sounds very simple at first, but it adds a nice layer of extra tactics onto the usual button mashing of random encounters (which can be turned OFF, by the way).
My main gaming computer is going to be without a video card for a little while, so instead of playing Bad Company 2 or Team Fortress 2, I’ll be spending my free time with Chaos Rings. It’s interesting that they priced the title above the normal $9.99 gaming price ceiling, but so far, this “Squeenix” RPG seems well worth the price. Kotaku reported getting at least 16 hours of gameplay from playing through two different couples, so it should be quite a ride!
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TAGS: JRPG
