That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime ISEKAI Chronicles (Nintendo Switch) Review

The intro briefly explains the main gist of the franchise, which is how an ordinary 35-something year-old man dies and somehow gets revived in a fantasy world, but with the body of a slime, which thankfully means that he has a neat arsenal of helpful powers. Fans already know all that already, so they can safely skip this chapter altogether, unless they want to take a look at some screens from the anime and read some boring text. Because it is boring. So boring that those who don't know anything about That Time I Got Reincarnated… and so on and forth, won't exactly be convinced to check the real thing.

The needlessly long intro doesn't create any excitement for what's up next, doesn't make you want to explore and learn all about the generic fantasy world that you are now a part of, and you are barely given any purpose. You are supposed to visit a couple of locales, complete quests, and "upgrade" the main town, but players won't feel anything during their adventure. There's nothing to feel a connection to here. One just needs to do stuff just to do them. Maybe it's hard to create a meaningful, epic adventure, when the Anime on which this is based on is basically a comedy with little to give on the side of storytelling.

What are the "stuff" that can be done here? Visit A, fight against groups of baddies through a simple real-time combat system with hits, evasions, special skills, and the like, watch numbers fill the screen, and listen to your characters shout everything they do like in pretty much Every. Single. Anime-inspired RPG. And then go back to the town, upgrade a couple of things, "enjoy" some sleep-inducing visual novel-esque interactions, and return to the fray for some more. It's all very repetitive, lacks challenge, and as mentioned earlier, it lacks that special something that can make you want to keep on playing. The vast majority of missions send you to the same (or same-y) stages, to collect crafting materials, so if you want your RPGs to have some RPGing in them, look elsewhere.

'Basic,' is the word that perfectly encapsulates everything here. The combat system is simple, the character skill tree is simple, the town-building part is simple… and it all feels the same from start to finish, with no sense of progression. Yes, your party creates a more impressive mayhem as time goes on, but the action doesn't really feel any different. It's so mediocre that's it's actually hard to find something to criticise. This sits right in the centre between good and bad. As a final comment, it has to be said that this is a hard recommendation even for fans of the franchise, as it looks like a generic licenced title, where one can enjoy the anime world in video game form, but with nothing that actually stands out. Oh, and by the way, for the same price (and maybe a few more coins) one can buy a juggernaut the likes of Final Fantasy and The Legend of Zelda, so try it only after a heavy discount.