Welcome to our review of Battle Chasers: Nightwar, ported to Nintendo Switch and released physically!
Battle Chasers: Nightwar is an RPG inspired by the console genre-greats, featuring deep dungeon diving, turn-based combat presented in classic JRPG format, and a rich story driven by exploration of the world.
There are basically two parts to this game, the way the overworld is handled, a map style checkers board where a clean line describes which way to go and then there is the underworld, the dungeons, the puzzles, the towns, … I loved the art style of this game and how elaborate this game was. Despite the vast amount of options presented, it did not cave under the weight, no, it flourished under it.
You are a band of heroes, led basically by Gully who inherited the power gloves once worn by her father. She leads the protagonists on their journey to find out why bandits have been organizing or so it seems… It becomes quite clear that a lot of JRPG games provided the main source of inspiration, but nothing wrong there. Nothing beats a good turn-based RPG with a timeline.
On top of the usual fighting, they also added overcharge, a new system that allows for more combat options. Use your non-mana attacks and build up your power, I’d say!
The overworld provides mostly a walking around function as you move from one side to the other, meeting enemies and entering combat. You often meet friends, loot, … as well. It may not seem very inspired, but it could come straight out of some of the best anime series like Lodoss War, Slayers, … There is an excellence to how beautiful this part of the world was made, like it was not just originally kickstarted, but a full-fledged AAA game. But do be aware that this was indeed a kickstarter, making this even more impressive!
As a game, this does do the trick of providing a solid experience, sound, music and voice are all well above level, but at the same time, this might be where the more experienced players will complain as there is little to no development of the main protagonists. All 6 barely get their past explained or their motives. You are left with several questions along the way as the main storyline advances, the characters don’t get evolved at all.
Aside from that minor detractor, there is little else to consider a bad point. Battle Chasers: Nightwar provides an overall great experience with some interesting new takes on a genre that has been more than time-tested. Personally speaking, I have a few minor gripes as the action can get repetitive or slow, some games have an autofight feature, which might be a feature this game could use, at least in my humble opinion.
I also did not appreciate the near-violent rumble of my joy-cons, thankfully I could just turn that off in the settings. Settings which are very basic, to say the least, but then again, that is just a side note at this point.
The good points clearly outweigh the bad ones, it looks gorgeous in handheld mode and one of my gripes that I usually have with RPGs and too small text, that was not the case, though small, I never had to squint to read any text, feeling it was just under perfect size.
In conclusion, when you weight out the good points, like overall atmosphere, the battle system, crafting items, how cheeky some characters can be, …. and compare those to the bad points, you are left with a big positive list compared to a small negative one. This game, Battle Chasers: Nightwar was fun and I am very happy to own a physical copy.
My rating is 80%
