Today’s review is a special one, you see, I have an absolute disdain towards deck builders, however, this one is among the exceptions, among the few deck builders I don’t hate.
Funnily enough, the other deck builder I don’t hate (Library of Ruina), is South Korean as well.
As for development, all I know is that it was on Early Access for a while, that’s it.
Story & Setting
A great disaster has occurred, wiping out a great part of humanity, and leaving the planet on an almost unrecognizable state.
The few survivors, managed to escape the disaster, thanks to The Ark, the last bastion, and hope for humanity. Yet, they were powerless against the calamity, all they could do was watch as the world collapsed.
Eventually, they will have to find a way to rebuild, not just survive, and expeditions to the now Twisted Land beyond The Ark will be necessary.
Hope finally arrived, when Azar found Lucy, the girl of the prophecy, the one meant to guide the investigators through The Twisted Land, to find the time shades, and use them to rewind the clock to better times.
But, what is the truth? What happened to the world? Is this the real history? What is the world hiding?
Perhaps there is more than meets the eye?
How many lives will it take to save humanity?
The few survivors, managed to escape the disaster, thanks to The Ark, the last bastion, and hope for humanity. Yet, they were powerless against the calamity, all they could do was watch as the world collapsed.
Eventually, they will have to find a way to rebuild, not just survive, and expeditions to the now Twisted Land beyond The Ark will be necessary.
Hope finally arrived, when Azar found Lucy, the girl of the prophecy, the one meant to guide the investigators through The Twisted Land, to find the time shades, and use them to rewind the clock to better times.
But, what is the truth? What happened to the world? Is this the real history? What is the world hiding?
Perhaps there is more than meets the eye?
How many lives will it take to save humanity?
Presentation
The artstyle has its obvious anime inspiration.
For portraits we see the anime style, and for the rest of the game, there is chibis of the characters.
When it comes to design, each area has its motif, both the tiles and enemies make them memorable in their own ways, despite the fact that there aren’t that many different creatures.
Its the same with bosses, but, some do break the motif of the area, nothing too outrageous, besides the tank in the theme park area I suppose.
The art for the cards can go from serviceable, to decent, I don’t consider this an issue per se, since its readable enough, and abilities are unique enough to be recognized at a glance.
The same can be said about the color coding for the mana cost.
Some attacks come with little animations when casted, cards which have the “cutscene” keyword when you hover over them have these.
DLC skins have their own animations for different attacks, as well as replacing some card art.
The game relies on a Visual Novel style to tell the story, however, there are moments in which animated cutscenes happen, and they are by far the biggest highlight.
Both animations and cutscenes use the anime artstyle.
When it comes to the visuals, the only aspect which I don’t really like, is the UI, its not fit for the card game aspect, and a lot of the inventory management is very clunky due to this as well.
For portraits we see the anime style, and for the rest of the game, there is chibis of the characters.
When it comes to design, each area has its motif, both the tiles and enemies make them memorable in their own ways, despite the fact that there aren’t that many different creatures.
Its the same with bosses, but, some do break the motif of the area, nothing too outrageous, besides the tank in the theme park area I suppose.
The art for the cards can go from serviceable, to decent, I don’t consider this an issue per se, since its readable enough, and abilities are unique enough to be recognized at a glance.
The same can be said about the color coding for the mana cost.
Some attacks come with little animations when casted, cards which have the “cutscene” keyword when you hover over them have these.
DLC skins have their own animations for different attacks, as well as replacing some card art.
The game relies on a Visual Novel style to tell the story, however, there are moments in which animated cutscenes happen, and they are by far the biggest highlight.
Both animations and cutscenes use the anime artstyle.
When it comes to the visuals, the only aspect which I don’t really like, is the UI, its not fit for the card game aspect, and a lot of the inventory management is very clunky due to this as well.
Sound wise, the game has some REALLY good music, I’d argue the best tracks are left for the 2nd half of each run.
Although, I gotta say that the silly music of the bosses of stage 2 did grow on me by the end.
For sfxs, the game really knows how to make an attack hurt, both healing and attacking have some really good ones which really show the impact of the skills.
Although situations in which the skill has more fanfare than what it actually does can happen as well.
There is no voice acting, but there are a few generic sounds coming from enemies.
The laugh some enemies make to annoy you, the feeling of impending dread once you hear the whistling of the Crimson Wilderness boss, etc. etc.
Besides the UI, the presentation of this game is top-notch.
Although, I gotta say that the silly music of the bosses of stage 2 did grow on me by the end.
For sfxs, the game really knows how to make an attack hurt, both healing and attacking have some really good ones which really show the impact of the skills.
Although situations in which the skill has more fanfare than what it actually does can happen as well.
There is no voice acting, but there are a few generic sounds coming from enemies.
The laugh some enemies make to annoy you, the feeling of impending dread once you hear the whistling of the Crimson Wilderness boss, etc. etc.
Besides the UI, the presentation of this game is top-notch.
Mechanics
As you would expect from a good card game, its easy to learn, hard to master.
You start your run with 2 investigators, at the start of the game you will only have access to a handful of them, and slowly you get to unlock the rest for later runs.
If you have the DLC you can also choose a different starting Lucy card.
You can pick difficulty as well, I never tried easy so I have no idea how the hope mechanic works, normal is what you would expect, and expert, besides some stat changes to the enemies, it adds special enemies, extra mechanics to investigators, and new patterns to all bosses.
Once you unlock modifiers, you can use them as well, they too can greatly change the way the game is played.
The difficulty of an investigator, its more about how gimmicky they are, and how much you need to understand said gimmicks to make them work.
Once you leave to the wilderness, you are free to explore as you wish, enemies have set spawn locations (whatever the encounter spawns, is somewhat random) which you can choose when or if to tackle, and, as you explore, you will run into different places of interest.
Each area has both unique places of interest to them, and some generic ones you can find in all areas (mostly related to cards).
When you interact with a new place of interest, you get to choose between 2.
Due to the sheer amount of these, I will leave them for you to discover.
Besides the random ones, there are the shop, and ruins which contain treasure.
Once you get into combat, is when things get interesting.
Skills have diamonds beside them, these have a number and a color, the number its their mana cost.
The color of the diamond determines if its a swift action (blue), or a regular action (purple), the biggest advantage of swift cards, is that they don’t advance time, and they don’t cause overload.
Since enemies have a delay to their attacks (based on the speed difference of both parties), advancing time means getting closer to being attacked. You can willingly advance time to better time certain cards.
Each time a character uses a regular card, they get 1 point of overload, each overload is a +1 to the mana cost of their cards. Overload goes back to 0 at the end of each turn.
You also get 1 exchange (discard a card, and draw a new one), and 1 free wait (it starts to cost mana afterwards) per turn.
Keep in mind that mana, exchanges, and waits you don’t use in a turn, don’t carry over to the next one.
When an investigator is damaged, they 1st take it as pain damage, represented as a green bar, this damage can be easily healed.
But, if they receive damage while having the green bar, they receive it as serious damage, which limits their max health. Serious damage can be healed with normal healing skills, its just far slower, you can also heal this damage in resting spots (more about this later).
You start your run with 2 investigators, at the start of the game you will only have access to a handful of them, and slowly you get to unlock the rest for later runs.
If you have the DLC you can also choose a different starting Lucy card.
You can pick difficulty as well, I never tried easy so I have no idea how the hope mechanic works, normal is what you would expect, and expert, besides some stat changes to the enemies, it adds special enemies, extra mechanics to investigators, and new patterns to all bosses.
Once you unlock modifiers, you can use them as well, they too can greatly change the way the game is played.
The difficulty of an investigator, its more about how gimmicky they are, and how much you need to understand said gimmicks to make them work.
Once you leave to the wilderness, you are free to explore as you wish, enemies have set spawn locations (whatever the encounter spawns, is somewhat random) which you can choose when or if to tackle, and, as you explore, you will run into different places of interest.
Each area has both unique places of interest to them, and some generic ones you can find in all areas (mostly related to cards).
When you interact with a new place of interest, you get to choose between 2.
Due to the sheer amount of these, I will leave them for you to discover.
Besides the random ones, there are the shop, and ruins which contain treasure.
Once you get into combat, is when things get interesting.
Skills have diamonds beside them, these have a number and a color, the number its their mana cost.
The color of the diamond determines if its a swift action (blue), or a regular action (purple), the biggest advantage of swift cards, is that they don’t advance time, and they don’t cause overload.
Since enemies have a delay to their attacks (based on the speed difference of both parties), advancing time means getting closer to being attacked. You can willingly advance time to better time certain cards.
Each time a character uses a regular card, they get 1 point of overload, each overload is a +1 to the mana cost of their cards. Overload goes back to 0 at the end of each turn.
You also get 1 exchange (discard a card, and draw a new one), and 1 free wait (it starts to cost mana afterwards) per turn.
Keep in mind that mana, exchanges, and waits you don’t use in a turn, don’t carry over to the next one.
When an investigator is damaged, they 1st take it as pain damage, represented as a green bar, this damage can be easily healed.
But, if they receive damage while having the green bar, they receive it as serious damage, which limits their max health. Serious damage can be healed with normal healing skills, its just far slower, you can also heal this damage in resting spots (more about this later).
When an investigator’s health reaches 0, they don’t die outright, they reach death’s door, which simply means that the next time they receive damage (from any source), they will go down, but, there is a chance they can endure and continue fighting (don’t rely on it).
When an encounter ends, all pain damage will be automatically healed.
Barriers don’t carry over to the next turn, with the exception of special party barriers.
Characters can have a fixed skill, a card they get access to at any moment, however, you can only cast 1 fixed skill per turn (there are a few exceptions to this rule).
And, each encounter has a soft timer, in the form of fog, after a certain amount of turns, fog will envelop the battlefield, greatly enhancing enemies, and making your characters suffer pain damage every turn.
All of these combat rules can be broken, with items, equipment, and relics.
Relics are special, they are items which only work when you place them inside the relic stand you find in rest areas. Most relics have effects which can change drastically the way you play the game, some equipment can do this as well.
Consumables like potions, skill books, and scrolls are so varied, I will leave them for you to discover.
When it comes to boss fights, I can only think of 2 of them which are straightforward fights, while the rest has its own gimmick, some can mess with your deck, others require you to hurt party members, others have extra attacks under some conditions, others summon enemies, etc. etc. etc.
Each area has a pool of bosses, whichever you get is random, however, there are a few bosses which you can spawn if you interact with their related place of interest (before fighting the actual area boss).
Both DLC bosses have set spawn locations, which are places of interest you find while exploring as well.
The secret area does have its set boss.
And, of course, relevant endings related bosses are the same ones as well.
When you win encounters, besides being awarded items and money, you get soulstones.
Soulstones are used to level up characters, besides getting some stat boost, you get to pick a new card for their decks.
You can use soulstones to upgrade Lucy in 2 ways, either give her a new card, or to increase the amount of mana you get each turn. Keep in mind, that some Lucy cards are influenced by which investigators you have in your party.
Finally, soulstones are necessary in the process to get to the secret area.
After leaving an area, you get to enjoy some rest in the campfire, here all characters will heal and revive, and you get access to extra options.
You can upgrade 1 card, you can use campfire items to their maximum effect, you can fuse equipment to get better ones (you can fuse relics as well), you can recruit investigators to the team (max party size is 4), you can give gifts to your party members, and, you can increase blood mist (challenge mode).
None of these options are mutually exclusive, so you can do them all with no issue.
You also get access to the relic stand.
Gifts are the most important ones, they are used to increase the bond level with the investigators, and once bond is at max, you get more cards to pick from when they first level up.
Once they are at max bond level, giving them gifts again will allow you to have more cards to choose from next time they level up.
Bond level its also important for the true ending.
You can only give 1 gift per campfire visit, and, of course, giving them their favorites increases the bond faster (you also get some special scenes when you increase bond levels).
It wouldn’t be a roguelite, without meta progression.
Besides the fact that you can unlock more investigators, there is something else, the laboratory back in the Ark, there are a few other things, but, I am gonna leave those for you to find.
When you beat a boss, besides the usual loot, you get credits, these credits are used in the laboratory, to unlock new equipment and relics to the pool of random loot.
DLC items are added to the pool after you buy them from the merchant.
The other aspect of meta progression, its related to the story, which I will not spoil.
Don’t worry, when you are in a story relevant run, you will be given 2 extra lives, just so its not anti-climatic if you lose.
When an encounter ends, all pain damage will be automatically healed.
Barriers don’t carry over to the next turn, with the exception of special party barriers.
Characters can have a fixed skill, a card they get access to at any moment, however, you can only cast 1 fixed skill per turn (there are a few exceptions to this rule).
And, each encounter has a soft timer, in the form of fog, after a certain amount of turns, fog will envelop the battlefield, greatly enhancing enemies, and making your characters suffer pain damage every turn.
All of these combat rules can be broken, with items, equipment, and relics.
Relics are special, they are items which only work when you place them inside the relic stand you find in rest areas. Most relics have effects which can change drastically the way you play the game, some equipment can do this as well.
Consumables like potions, skill books, and scrolls are so varied, I will leave them for you to discover.
When it comes to boss fights, I can only think of 2 of them which are straightforward fights, while the rest has its own gimmick, some can mess with your deck, others require you to hurt party members, others have extra attacks under some conditions, others summon enemies, etc. etc. etc.
Each area has a pool of bosses, whichever you get is random, however, there are a few bosses which you can spawn if you interact with their related place of interest (before fighting the actual area boss).
Both DLC bosses have set spawn locations, which are places of interest you find while exploring as well.
The secret area does have its set boss.
And, of course, relevant endings related bosses are the same ones as well.
When you win encounters, besides being awarded items and money, you get soulstones.
Soulstones are used to level up characters, besides getting some stat boost, you get to pick a new card for their decks.
You can use soulstones to upgrade Lucy in 2 ways, either give her a new card, or to increase the amount of mana you get each turn. Keep in mind, that some Lucy cards are influenced by which investigators you have in your party.
Finally, soulstones are necessary in the process to get to the secret area.
After leaving an area, you get to enjoy some rest in the campfire, here all characters will heal and revive, and you get access to extra options.
You can upgrade 1 card, you can use campfire items to their maximum effect, you can fuse equipment to get better ones (you can fuse relics as well), you can recruit investigators to the team (max party size is 4), you can give gifts to your party members, and, you can increase blood mist (challenge mode).
None of these options are mutually exclusive, so you can do them all with no issue.
You also get access to the relic stand.
Gifts are the most important ones, they are used to increase the bond level with the investigators, and once bond is at max, you get more cards to pick from when they first level up.
Once they are at max bond level, giving them gifts again will allow you to have more cards to choose from next time they level up.
Bond level its also important for the true ending.
You can only give 1 gift per campfire visit, and, of course, giving them their favorites increases the bond faster (you also get some special scenes when you increase bond levels).
It wouldn’t be a roguelite, without meta progression.
Besides the fact that you can unlock more investigators, there is something else, the laboratory back in the Ark, there are a few other things, but, I am gonna leave those for you to find.
When you beat a boss, besides the usual loot, you get credits, these credits are used in the laboratory, to unlock new equipment and relics to the pool of random loot.
DLC items are added to the pool after you buy them from the merchant.
The other aspect of meta progression, its related to the story, which I will not spoil.
Don’t worry, when you are in a story relevant run, you will be given 2 extra lives, just so its not anti-climatic if you lose.
Craft Item is one of Leryn's abilities.
Final Thoughts
Besides the UI, this game is pretty solid all around.
Each investigator is unique in the way they play, and the way they interact with each other’s skills can make a myriad of possibilities when it comes to team comp.
The different areas have their own unique vibe, and I really liked the use of music and sfxs to better enhance the experience.
Story wise, I liked the way they were able to tie in the roguelite elements into a cohesive story. There is a moment in the true ending route which I was quite impressed with.
I didn’t take many screenshots, mostly to keep spoilers to a minimum, the fun of the bosses is to figure out their gimmicks after all.
I really liked the way DLC is handled in this game, besides them having their own little side stories and skins for different investigators, you get a lot of new cards, relics, equipment, items, and animations.
The bosses are pretty fun to fight, although some have a few infuriating mechanics.
Reaching the true ending is a struggle, since the requirements are hefty, but its very well worth getting there.
The gameplay is great, but, the story really adds that extra spice to make you want to actually keep playing.
Of course, all the modifiers and extra challenges you can do, add to this game’s longevity.
This game is going to ruin deck builders for you, once you have seen the top, everything else looks subpar.
This is a true bang for your buck, and, I am looking forward to the next game these devs are working on.
Each investigator is unique in the way they play, and the way they interact with each other’s skills can make a myriad of possibilities when it comes to team comp.
The different areas have their own unique vibe, and I really liked the use of music and sfxs to better enhance the experience.
Story wise, I liked the way they were able to tie in the roguelite elements into a cohesive story. There is a moment in the true ending route which I was quite impressed with.
I didn’t take many screenshots, mostly to keep spoilers to a minimum, the fun of the bosses is to figure out their gimmicks after all.
I really liked the way DLC is handled in this game, besides them having their own little side stories and skins for different investigators, you get a lot of new cards, relics, equipment, items, and animations.
The bosses are pretty fun to fight, although some have a few infuriating mechanics.
Reaching the true ending is a struggle, since the requirements are hefty, but its very well worth getting there.
The gameplay is great, but, the story really adds that extra spice to make you want to actually keep playing.
Of course, all the modifiers and extra challenges you can do, add to this game’s longevity.
This game is going to ruin deck builders for you, once you have seen the top, everything else looks subpar.
This is a true bang for your buck, and, I am looking forward to the next game these devs are working on.
Pros
- + Very deep combat and deck building systems.
- + Great story, with interesting characters.
- + Great blend of VN like storytelling, with cutscenes.
Cons
- - The UI makes things clunkier than they should be.
- - Runs can be quite long, specially story progressing ones.
- - RNG can make or break some character's decks.
10
Gameplay
It managed to get a hater of the genre like myself to enjoy it, its deep and rewarding to learn, with a lot of possibilities, and each character is unique.
9
Graphics
The art for the game is very good, with a lot of creativity, but the UI is very lacking and makes things way clunkier than they should be.
8
Story
I really liked the story, and the themes it presents, as well as all the philosophy involved, BUT, it suffers from a lot of meandering in pointless little things.
10
Sound
The music of the game is very good and really enhances the atmosphere, the same can be said with the sfxs.
8
Replayability
Its a roguelite, its meant to be replayed, the fact that the story finds a way to explain this in-universe makes it even more interesting.
9
out of 10
Overall
Chrono Ark is the peak of the deck building genre, it has a lot of mechanics, but they aren't hard to understand, the true complexity comes from the way in which you choose to build the decks of your investigators, each character plays differently and are pretty unique from each other, with a lot of possibilities for team comp, the game also offers both a great story and a lot of challenge modes for those who really want to master it, the artstyle is charming and creative, only falling short with the UI, and the music and sfxs add a lot of immersion to both exploration and combat. Chrono Ark is among the greatest roguelites I have ever played, and the fact it managed to make me like the deck building aspect, is an achievement in on itself.
