welbney marlee benjie
Domenec Reynolds
Over twelve hours into Battle Chasers: Nightwar, and I can honestly say this is the most fun I have had with a dungeon crawler RPG since Diablo 3. If you have just picked it up, or are interested in what this game is all about, keep on ready for some tips and hints.
The action bar on the left side of the screen shows you what order your characters and enemies will take their turn. Use this to your advantage. Each attach has an indication of how long it will take for the character to use that ability. Some are instant, while others take a turn or two before they act. Using a very fast attack to finish off a weakened enemy might just be the edge you need to defeat a boss that summons more enemies during battle. Time these wisely, as they can be the difference between defeating a tough boss in a Legendary dungeon and getting your RPG-loving rear handed to you.
Hello, i just finished the regular play through, and immediatly started a new game plus. This game reminds me of old school final fantasy games. I really enjoyed grinding for mats to use in the crafting system and researching the bestiary to find what items drop from what enemy.
As the name implies, battle is the real star of the show here. Battle Chasers: Nightwar features heaps of satisfying, turn-based combat against a burgeoning bestiary of colorful baddies. These fights unfold using Actions, Abilities, and Bursts. Actions are your standard, damage-dealing or defensive techniques that can be used instantly. Abilities take time, however, requiring you to wait a turn to finish casting them. These can be group healing or attacks spells, buffs, and debuffs. Lastly, Burst Skills are tremendously powerful techniques that can only be executed when your Burst Gauge is full. Similar to the Super meter in many fighting games, the Burst Gauge fills automatically as you attack the enemy, cast spells, or take damage. Once filled, you can unleash a powerful spell or attack that can help tip the tides of a battle in your favor.
Nightwar is an interesting mid-tier title, formed by ex-Vigil game staff, not least because it straddles the middle ground between a turn-based role-playing game and puzzle adventure. Set in the tone of more classic RPGs like the earliest Final Fantasy games, it is a refreshingly western take on the genre, with modern, simplified mechanics and lushly painted, isometric levels that immediately draw parallels to the award-winning Bastion. Battle Chasers: Nightwar is addictive, works well on console at a higher resolution and yet is clearly going to be a perfect fit for the small form factor of the Switch.
Battle Chasers is played across three different modes that generally gel together and showcase the array of excellent artwork and music that have gone into development. Dropped onto the mysterious Crescent Island, players initially have control of only 3 characters, controllable in the over-world map. Players literally run around the map of the world from point to point collecting resources, and from there, can either engage in battles, enter exploration zones and dungeons or visit the main town.
Despite what appears initially to be a rather large map, the world is not huge, broken up into zones that range from classic fantasy to steampunk, desert regions to the obligatory snowy regions. Whilst somewhat clich, each area of the map allows players to then enter zones and dungeons that are uniquely stylised with themed characters and plenty of battle on the way.
This highlights one of the aspects outside of fighting that sets the game apart from other RPGs or even JRPGs. The traversal of procedurally-generated rooms in the dungeons, the loss of gold when dying, the single town that you have to leave from each day to visit dungeons, combined with the crafting and the room to room layout of dungeons means Battle Chasers has a little bit of a rogue-like feel to it. Thankfully, the fighting and combat is satisfying and interesting enough to make up for the number of times your party will wipe out at the hand of higher level enemies and grinding.
Out of the five playable characters, only 3 can form a party at any one time and enter fights. Buffs applied during dungeons or adventuring will carry over to enemies and players in battle and otherwise, it is a simple task of taking it in turns and balancing characters health with consumption of mana to cast spells, moves, debuffs, critical hits and defensive stances. Fighting is the core of what makes Nightwar so appealing but also worth playing, as truthfully there is not much else to do in the game. Yes, the game is beautiful and the soundtrack enticing but the overall story is basic and shallow, with animations and cut-scenes scarce.
Battle Chasers is a game that rewards players for playing it. Every new character level unlocks something new to add to your skill set and new quests and abilities to learn in town. The story itself is linear and unlike many RPGs, the game is not really open world. Many areas are locked off until later and the higher levels are impossible until characters have reached them, making the story very linear and the game to be played in a certain order.
Damage within combat is relative to the amount of health you have, despite debuffs or armour and the more health characters have the less damage enemies do. This is odd as it skews some of the gear available in favour of stamina. Crafting, such as it is, is also confusing and a bit convoluted as it involves so many different ingredients, but crafting stations are not readily available instead found inside dungeons halfway through or at the most illogical and inconvenient locations.
What justifies the $40AU the game is priced at, besides the lengthy and addictive campaign, is the sheer amount of artwork, love and attention the game has clearly received. Recreating the tone and art of the Battle Chasers comic, all the special move transitions, cut-scenes and dialogue are told through comic panels and speech bubbles. As a robot, Calibretto also has her own font and speech visuals. Even at 4K on a large TV, the animations look sharp, with the resolution of the rich, dark backdrops still holding up. References to WarCraft are not subtle, as a number of high profile artists have come from Diablo III backgrounds to work on this game.
All in all, Battle Chasers: Nightwar is a hidden gem and pleasant surprise. As gamers head into the middle year and may be looking for something to tide them over, Airship Syndicate is one to watch and have created an addictive RPG that gets better the more you play it. The instructions for gameplay and tutorials are slim to none, but the lush compendium and bestiary of characters, enemies and creatures to collect, learn about and battle makes Nightwar one to chase after!
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