🎮 zero APM Game Review - Battle Chasers: Nightwar

is a JRPG inspired role-playing romp that marvelously manages to combine and streamline tried and tested exploration elements (which remind of Breath of Fire or Torchlight), turn-based combat (complete with magic and limit breaks a la Final Fantasy or Chrono Trigger), Super Nintendo reminiscent overland maps (including a fun fishing mechanic with useful rewards), stellar art direction with level design and character work to die for, along with a crisp interface and control scheme to bring us one of the best role playing games of the year. Developed by Airship Syndicate and published by THQ Nordic. I had the chance to dig my teeth into an early press release of the game so let's have a look at it in a bit more detail!
Gameplay: You'll quickly feel at home in Battle Chasers: Nightwar is you have any affinity for games like Final Fantasy, Pokemon or Chrono Trigger. The turn based combat system is the mainstay of the game. Your party consists of three characters that you need to pick from a colorful roster of heroes that unlock as the story progresses. You'll need to consider each characters individual abilities and fighting style while creating synergies. How you manage to make the characters fit together is crucial for success especially at higher difficulty levels. You've got combat specialists, healers, tanks, magicians and assassins to build a cohesive team with. When you are not in combat you will often be greeted with a top-down view reminiscent of Diablo or Torchlight in which you'll explore dungeons and special areas in real time. You also have a separate set of skills for each character while crawling these areas. Discovering hidden treasure, weakening enemies and buffing yourself along the way. At it's core this is a dungeon crawler! Big dungeons and fortresses await at the end of each region. You can choose to do these raids at different difficulties for the chance for far superior loot. Be careful though, it can get very unforgiving very quickly!
Remember, it's all about the loot baby! Inventory and treasure junkies will have a good time with this. The crafting system is also worth a mention as it is pretty slimmed out and very intuitive overall. Over the course of the game you can keep switching around the perks and talents of your characters to adapt to your playstyle. You can get quite a lot of different combinations out of all those options!
The third main aspect is the Overworld map where you travel, discover locations, meet enemies, gather clues and collect loot. I especially like the way the map is drawn and it's a blast to navigate as it reminds me of a board game. Finally there are a bunch of minigames like Fishing, the Beastmaster and the Arena. These are all fun, easy to learn and provide meaningful upgrades and items for your party. Collectors, Grinders and Treasure Hunters are certainly rewarded here!
Graphics & Audio: One of the strongest aspects is the design and artwork behind Battle Chasers which is actually a fairly long running comic book series from Artist Joe Mad! He also acted as creative director on this one and it shows as the game can draw from a rich tapestry of already established lore and designs. While the graphics themselves aren't mindblowing and in parts may even be behind the times a bit everything is rather lovingly crafted and fits together so well that this isn't much of an issue. The combat is rather smooth and especially the Ultimate Abilities are something to look out for. Furthermore the cutscenes in comic book style are simply put terrific. When out of combat you see a good use of lighting, personality and detail while exploring the towns and dungeons. There are games out there with better graphics but they make a lot out of what they have. Lots of cute little ideas spread everywhere. The 2D parts of the game like during conversations are interspersed with awesome character drawings and top-notch voice acting. Speaking of the audio, this is one of the areas where the game really shines and reverberates. From the drops of water on stone while walking through ancient caves to the little combo and bonus noises when an ability hits it's all rather fetching. The music provides and atmospheric backdrop and is especially good during boss fights!
About the Characters: Gully: She's the main character of the game. Equipped with a magical fist Gully acts as a tank, shield and general combat character for the party. Garrison: An offensive Swordsman or Berserker type. Damage and Combo heavy. Calibretto: A healer, support and tank character. In more ways than one! Knolan: The classic mage. Alumon: Somewhere inbetween a vampire, damage dealer and healer. Red Monika: Assassin style DPS. Glasscannon.
Input, Tech Specs and more: Best played on: 🎮(Controller) Current Price: ‎$29,99 on Steam Gametime: 20 hours (casual) - 80 hours (completionist) Engine: [Unity] Genre: RPG Developer: Airship Syndicate Publisher: THQ Nordic Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac.

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Verdict:

Graphics : 8
Audio: 9
Gameplay: 9
Controls: 9.5

Final Verdict: 9/10 (excellent)

Hope you guys enjoyed my first proper video game review for steemit! Hopefully it's the first of many. Gaming and streaming is a big part of my life and I am stoked to share some of those aspects with you guys. You can catch the Order of Chaos and I stream new and classic games live on my twitch channel at twitch.tv/zeroooc!

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