Chroma Squad is a Power Rangers parody, where a group of 5 people set up their own studio to record a Power Rangers-style series.The gameplay is a turn based strategy, played out on an isometric grid. There will usually be many enemies and a boss, and the scene is complete when you defeat the boss.
You will have a few bonus objectives which sometimes force you to change your strategy, the best one being to hit the boss on every turn. It’s usually a good strategy to take out the minions as fast as possible and attack the boss when he is on his own. If the boss moves about a lot, then it forces you to think about how you can maneuver your team efficiently so you can hit the boss while reducing the amount of damage you will take.
Each member of the team has a certain focus; so the Pink is the healer, Blue uses guns, Black and Red are strong fighters, and Yellow is agile - can move further and has a higher chance of dodging and counter-attacking. Your team may vary as you can choose characters with different abilities - I stuck with the default selection it gave me.
You can move then attack, or move then move again (if you want to cover large distances without attacking). I liked this system because you could also move a character, move a different character, then reselect the first to issue their attack command. So if you thought of a couple of options, then you can decide after moving others into position.
Instead of attacking, you can select Teamwork. If you place a team member next to an enemy with this command, when another member attacks the enemy, then both team members will attack at once for a double-team attack. You can do this with multiple members, and doing it with all 5 performs a Finisher. Performing a Finisher on the boss is usually an objective, but you are penalised for performing it when it does not kill the boss.
Large damage from standard attacks can knock enemies back a square. This can be used to knock enemies into range of your team members, or conversely, knock them out of range of the next attack.
Often, you begin the Episode in your regular form (without your suit) and can only change after defeating a few enemies. In your regular form, you can do basic attacks and Teamwork moves. It may be tempting to switch as soon as the option becomes available, but switching has a few behaviors which are worth exploiting. The person that issues the command calls all members over to them which is a perfect way of saving team members from danger, especially because everyone’s health is fully restored. Additionally, any nearby enemies retreat to give space for your team.
As you progress through the game, each member gains new abilities in each “Season”. Sometimes you are given an ability, or sometimes you pick between 2 or 3. Some of these abilities are passive, whereas others are used in battle and have a cooldown of x amount of turns until you can use them again. These can be special attacks, healing, buff/debuffs.
Some of the “Episodes” are split into multiple parts, often doing the typical Power Ranger thing where the enemy boss becomes huge and so the squad have to use their Mech. This is a simple mini-game which is usually incredibly easy. You choose to Attack or Defend. When Attacking, there is a gauge that is coloured red, white, and yellow. You time your mouse-click when the indicator reaches the white section for the most damage. Yellow does decent damage, and red means you miss, so the opponent then attacks you. If you land a hit, you go again but now the target zones are smaller; so you keep attacking until you miss, or decide to play it safe and choose Defend which reduces the damage you take. The opponent really only has enough health for 1.5-3 decent combos, so most opponents don’t come close to defeating you. You do need to play 3 rounds though, apart from the final boss which is only 1 round. Depending on your upgrades, you may have access to special abilities. I only used the Final Slash move which is often an objective to use to end the fight.
The Episodes feel about the right length but the final episode was a bit of a slog and took me about 45 mins, although I did fail the 1st part (tip: if you defeat the mini-bosses, more mini-bosses spawn in, so it's best to ignore them).
You can acquire crafting items when you defeat enemies or you purchase the loot boxes (don’t worry, it doesn’t use real money). These can be used to craft weapons/armour for your squad, or new parts for your mech. There is also a shop that sells different weapons and armour. There’s also some upgrades you can purchase for your studio which just cost money.
I didn’t care much about the story or humour, but I think the gameplay had enough ideas to provide enough strategy and make it entertaining. Some sections felt a bit easy, but most episodes felt like I used some great strategic moves to eradicate the enemies. There’s a few alternative endings, then different difficulty modes, as well as New Game+ if you really want to replay it. A playthrough takes around 13 hours.