It used to be that JPRGs were the cream of the crop when it came to video games. Titles like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest (or Dragon Warrior if you lived in America up until the 8th entry), and Chrono Trigger all meant something special. Each one had turn-based combat, was rich in story, and had easily recognizable characters with distinctive personalities, typically with an intriguing arc. In recent years, these have fallen by the wayside, and while devs like Tokyo RPG Factory are going back to the roots, creating I Am Setsuna and the upcoming Lost Sphear which looks absolutely fantastic, JRPGs aren’t a dominant genre. Thing is, Dragon Warrior on the NES stole my heart and I’ve never gotten it back, so whenever a new game comes out in the vein of the genre, I get excited.
Enter Battle Chasers Nightwar, the newest entry from THQ Nordic, partnering with Joe Mad for an adaptation of his comic series by the same name. If you don’t know the comic, you may know him from another game series he worked on at Vigil Games: Darksiders. It’s pretty obvious, looking at the character designs – they have very similar body compositions.
This a game with a battle system to die for, assuming you are a fan of turn-based combat. All the character models are stunningly beautiful, the music is on point, and the characters are fun to explore with. Other than the excruciatingly long load times, this will be an absolute joy for anyone longing for an isometric dungeon crawler with in-depth combat.
9 out of 10
Pros
- Gorgeous Environment/Character Design
- Deep Combat System.
- Side Content
Cons
- Load Times
Battle Chasers Nightwar was developed by Airship Syndicate and published by THQ Nordic. It was released on PC, PS4, and X1 October 3rd, 2017 for $29.99, with an NS release coming soon. The game was provided to us for review on PS4. For more on Battle Chasers Nightwar, visit its official site. To see our full review, make sure to watch the video at the top.
Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.
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This is such a short review . . .
I get that it’s a pretty old game now, but you really didn’t say anything except that there was “in-depth combat”
It seems like you were prepped to write a lot for this review given how you dedicated a large background paragraph to JRPGs, but I’m sad to see the rest not follow through.
Fair enough! This was actually a video review. I was experimenting with these at the time – I don’t have the time these days, so written is mostly what we do now. I wrote the script, recorded, and edited it all through the PS4 editing program. I certainly understand wanting the full written review, so I apologize for not posting the copy as well. I didn’t want to be redundant.
Ahh I see, I was under the impression that all the embedded videos were just game trailers. Thanks for pointing this to my attention 🙂