Battle Chasers: Nightwar Preview - A Dungeon-Crawling, Steampunk JRPG

In that location are a few things you should know about Battle Chasers: Nightwar. The commencement is that information technology's being developed past Airship Syndicate, headed upwardly by manufacture veterans Joe Madureira and Ryan Stefanelli, two of the founders of Acuity Games, the studio backside Darksiders. The second is that it's an unusual alloy of a dungeon crawler, with the visual aesthetics sure gameplay elements of a JRPG. It certainly shines thanks to this.

The choice of visual design actually makes a great deal of sense when you learn that the game is based on a series of comics. The comics, authored past Joe Madureira himself, were released from 1998 onwards. It's possibly a footling ironic, because the fate of Madureira's Darksiders, that this series too went unfinished. The tenth and final issue never did get published, leaving the ending on a cliffhanger.

Battle Chasers: Nightwar takes on the aforementioned Steampunk fantasy theme as the comics and this seemingly runs throughout the game in a beautifully colorful, and ultimately cohesive, style. Not only that, only the game also lends sure designs from JRPG's and, as easter eggs to fans, Darksiders, with such as characters, weapons and enemies.

The style Battle Chasers works is through exploring largely randomly generated dungeons, full of puzzles, traps and enemies. Working their mode through these dungeons will be three of six playable characters, each with varied skills and abilities that tin exist used to complement each other and aid your progression even on the dungeon map, rather than in battle. This is key as any dungeon you explore leaves you with a limited amount of healing possibilities, making resource and character management key.

Where you make a large choice is in choosing the difficulty of a dungeon to explore. There are multiple levels of difficulty and the higher you become, the more opportunities you take of receiving rarer crafting materials and other items, as well as the traditional gains in experience and skills. Though one previously unmentioned benefit of exploring multiple types and levels of dungeons is the corporeality of lore you tin can find, with tombstones, scrolls and more than being spread throughout the game to permit you understand what has happened to the world and the town of Harm's Way.

As an instance of abilities working outside of boxing. Garrison, the fallen Paladin, has a dash ability that can exist used to evade traps. Other abilities he has include the power to blind enemies and evade a possible encounter. This works peculiarly well thanks to the game'south blueprint choice that is reminiscent of the game Grandia. Monsters are visible, wandering throughout the dungeon, until you make contact with them which takes y'all into the battle screen. What wasn't fabricated clear during the event is if pre-emptive strikes can be fabricated by sneaking upwardly on enemies.

Moving into a battle places you lot in a battle that will be familiar to anybody who has played a JRPG in the past. Featuring what seems to be a like arrangement to the CTB constitute in Final Fantasy 10 or Grandia 3. What these battles also feature are a meter that lead to battle bursts, powerful special attacks that crave different quantities of the level. In addition, there is an overcharge mechanic. The apply of normal attacks, rather than magic or special attacks, conserves your mana levels and allows it to regenerate to an extent – working in conjunction with the limitations on healing per dungeon. This overcharge too offers a certain level of protection to characters that accept enough of information technology.

Each dungeon is said to last between xx to 40 minutes. Between each dungeon you are based in the town of Impairment's Way. You will use the resource gained from the dungeons to upgrade Harm'southward Way, advancing the levels of your arsenal, armorer and others to use for crafting more than advanced weapons and armor. Though it'southward in the dungeons that you will observe the ability to craft the best gear. Certain rare crafting stations volition appear that let you craft the biggest and all-time in the game, provided you have everything required.

The full gamescom presentation can be found on YouTube beneath, recorded and posted by PCGames.de.

The impression I got of Battle Chasers: Nightwar from the presentation at Gamescom is an ultimately positive ane. Non only the outstanding aesthetic design, but borrowing some of the best aspects of JRPG'due south like the Grandia series, also as a compelling exploration and crafting system should make Battle Chasers a very interesting game. It'due south certainly one to look out for if you're a fan of dungeon crawlers or JRPGs, coming next year for the PC, PS4 and Xbox One.