Chronus Arc (Nintendo 3DS) Review

Loka is on a quest to find out what happened to his teacher following a time ceremony where she was kidnapped. Along the way, he is joined on the quest by various characters that make up his battle team, taking on the standard selection of monsters dotted around the world he is currently exploring. There is nothing revolutionary here, no in-depth yarn to draw gamers in, but it is not expected for a title originating on the mobile market where things need to be snappy and bite-sized. What you have, then, is a 'by numbers' style of "turn-based, random enemy encounter" RPG, and yet it works well, for what it is.

The key is to approach with the right attitude and not expect a classic Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, or that other immensely popular time-travel related release from Square Enix… No, this is what may indeed be referred to as 'generic,' and yet it has a certain simplistic charm that other retro-flavoured products aim for, yet miss.

It also comes with a slight twist in that dungeons, whilst indeed filled with some enemies (sometimes ones that will seriously blow the team apart if not enough grinding has been done prior!), are also filled with obstacles that come in the form of jars and blocks to move around and trigger the correct sequence of switches to grant progress. Thankfully, the monsters can be dodged during these instances, unlike the randomness of battles on the overworld, otherwise it would be thoroughly frustrating as some puzzles require regular resetting to crack the right combination and move on.

There is even an in-depth inventory system, with players able to upgrade their offensive and defensive items through the process of using items collected during the grinding and puzzling parts, to bolster their team's equipment considerably and fend off the fast-increase in enemy toughness.

Pleasantly retro visuals, enjoyable battles and grinding, in-depth item collection and upgrade system, beautiful soundtrack, and a great selection of in-dungeon brainteasers… Perhaps all of those positive reviews on Google's Play Store were not that far off the mark, after all!