This mean dungeon crawler's mediocre combat and awful visuals poison its charm.
+ Using magic is pretty fun
+ Dungeons are pretty well varied
Negative
- Combat is tedious and frustrating
- Annoying difficulty spikes for a very unrewarding game
- Character and enemy design don't fit well at all with the background
Experience is a necessary step to move forward. For game developers it helps them improve of previous problems and flash out weak areas. That doesn't apply to Chantelise - A Tale of Two Sisters that is from the same developers at the highly addictive and satisfying Recettear released last year. A few concepts from the latter are found in this one; same enemy design and the brutal difficulty. But Chantelise has lost almost everything that made Recettear a great game and manages to deliver a pointless grind fest.
The story follows the tale of two sisters (as the title so generously suggests) where the older sister Chante has been transformed into a small fairy, and with her younger sister Elise, the two must find a way to undo this witch's curse which happened under a red moon, and their journey takes them in a village very close to ancient ruins. The story presents some interesting characters but it takes some time for the story to truly get going. Also, the game is completely presented in 2D Japanese dialogue cutscenes without voice acting and the little there is, is completely Japanese. For those curious about the strange title, it's a combination of the names of the sisters; "Chante" and "Elise" exactly how the name of the two of the protagonist formed "Recettear" in the previous game.
Chantelise presents a completely different combat experience from Recettear, this being a standard action RPG. Elise uses her sharp swordswoman skills to battle very, very familiar enemies and further enter deeper into the dungeon. The combat is very straightforward with only sword slashes with the Z button and now the X button to jump for Elise and by pressing the Z and X button simultaneously Elise can slide dodge. She has no special attacks but Chante can use magic by collecting colorful magic stones (which were the EXP stones in Recettear) and with one or two, by pressing the C button Chante can use a magic attack and depending on the color of the stone the magic attack varies, from lightning ball, fireball, and more. Using magic adds some twist to an otherwise boring and unbalanced combat system which occasionally provides some fun and satisfaction but nowhere near enough to make up for its frustrations. The keyboard controls are all within reach but getting used to them needs getting used to. The camera in the game is manually controlled with the A and S buttons while trying to hit the enemy; it's too difficult to do both simultaneously especially with enemies that act in packs and not one alone. The camera is awful and too much of a nuisance, but fortunately a lock-on system has been provided that allows you to lock-on to an enemy. It has some issues like it always targets the furthest visible enemy but it simplifies combat. There is a strange thing in the game; pop-ins. You can see the land quite well but the enemies just pop-in when you get too close to them and always appear out of nowhere. It happens everytime so it makes you wonder whether this was on purpose or not.
Fighting in dungeons is the only activity. This is no item shop simulator; it's just one hell of a hardcore dungeon crawler that lacks the level up mechanism and rewarding system. So you basically go visit a dungeon, kill every enemy and advance to the next stage, die and go back to town keeping all money and progress saved, buy better equipment, go back and pass the cleared dungeons (where once you kill all the enemies that level is cleared) and go even deeper and find stronger enemies to kill you. Death is an inevitable cycle since you don't care health supplies so you have to hope for an enemy to drop a healing item and on the top of that the difficulty level of the game is way too hard and unfairly unreasonable from the beginning. The tutorial is quick and nails most of the basis, but you can't help but feel that it could have explained more in depth how the game is played.
The game feels like an endless repetition of repeating the same events; go to the dungeon, beat level, die or defeat dreadfully infuriating bosses, go back to town and buy new gear and go back again. There is no fun in exploration or talking to the townspeople or the reward of getting new items and treasures because they're worthless. There is no point to this game. Without alternative activities, leveling up and a healthy combat system, Chantelise has a short lifespan.
While playing this game a thought came to mind. Recettear established an addictive combat system that was so rich and rewarding with a punishing difficulty that was worth the trouble. Chantelise was the opposite, how and why rolled inside my mind. If the combat made you awe, you have to look at the visuals to believe. This is an awful looking game with bad and low-res textures and everything from most enemies ported directly from Recettear (and rendered in 3D) to the unimpressive anime character models don't fit at all with the slightly realistic visuals. That aside, the enemy models look horrendous. Going close to them reveals pixels and tiny squares especially the skeletons which seem to be made of squares rather than bones. For a good thing, the dungeon design is well varied but lacks the randomly generated dungeons. The game runs on low-end system without frame rate issues and other performance hiccups and very fast loadings. For sound, Chantelise does a better job. Voices are completely Japanese without any English voice anywhere to be found and the dialogue is well translated. The soundtrack however is the best thing around and it's solid.
Referring back to Recettear, last year's effort was ambitious and it hit the nail right on the head with a complete experience with a few flaws. Chantelise is a disaster in comparison. The gameplay is almost agonizing and the visuals will make you want to yell at how bad the combination of character design and background is. Without any EXP and rewards, this action RPG unworthy of the genre it claims to belong to is a pointless dungeon crawler that is only needed by the most hardcore of dungeon dwellers looking for something to test their patience.
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Graphics = 4.0
Colorful and familiar enemies can't possible detract from the terrible combination of characters and backgrounds together for long.
Sound = 7.2
Good soundtrack with repetitive sound effects and minimal voice acting.
Presentation = 6.2
Very quick loadings and saving for a change. Standard Japanese cutscenes pass and the production values are good. The controls are fine but the camera is plain terrible in combat.
Gameplay = 5.5
An action RPG/dungeon crawler that forces you to adventure in dungeons to kill without being rewarded for all your trouble. Frustrating, pointless but there are times the combat is fun for a short time.
Story = 7.0
A good story which has good development and merely interesting characters. Definitely outclassed by the genre titans' story standard.
Difficulty = Very Hard
Why is this game so hard and frustrating? Because it's a mean dungeon crawler that will make you want to die.
OVERALL = 58 / 100
This mean dungeon crawler's mediocre combat and awful visuals poison its charm.