Chronos Before The Ashes Review Switch
Yous know, it'due south become easier and easier to compare games to Nighttime Souls these days, as the series' staples of stamina management, punishing damage output, and detail-based lore are nestling their mode into many modern releases. There's something inherently satisfying about playing a game that is, well, hard, as the feeling of overcoming a set of enemies that has been giving you a hard time is very cathartic. Level-ups certainly aid that cycle, too. The two Ashes titles, Chronos: Earlier the Ashes and Remnant: From the Ashes, both have their ain unique twists to offer the tried-and-true Soulslike fundamentals. At present that the former has been freed from its VR-sectional prison and released on the Nintendo Switch, owners tin get a new taste of an anile, though not decrepit, action role-playing game with a not bad gameplay mechanic that'due south sure to endeavor your patience, at least, for a few years.
Gameplay
Chronos tasks its unnamed protagonist with tackling the Labyrinth, a serial of interconnected worlds filled with environmental storytelling and puzzle solving. Forth the way, you'll demand to fustigate some formidable enemies using light and heavy assail inputs. These moves are a hefty commitment in terms of animation length, just the light attacks can be canceled past using a dodge. Whether y'all choose a strength or agility-based build, you'll have admission to a shield that tin be used to cake or parry enemy attacks, the latter requiring a precise window of execution. Lastly, you'll have limited healing items to take advantage of, which becomes all the more important as the game's primary death mechanic comes into play.
To put information technology simply, in that location are very few recovery items in the game, and no blaze structures to renew them from when you've progressed far enough. The simply style to renew your healing items is through death itself. Though in that location's no grand fanfare when you laissez passer abroad (aside from an orchestral sting), you will exist booted back to the final gateway stone you activated, your healing items recovered… and your role player graphic symbol another yr older. In that location are some subtle aesthetic changes that occur throughout your lifespan of traversing the Labyrinth, simply after a landmark of ten years' time, you'll be given the choice to invest into one of three "perks" of age. These range from boosting your defensive capabilities, to allowing yous to farther upgrade weapons for more damage. Though some of these are one-off abilities that tin benefit any player, you'll want to double down on perks that will maximize the strengths of your build.
Another unique mechanic is that of Dragon Stones, an equipment-based class of magic that gains power from dealing harm to foes. You'll be able to cull between stunning enemies, dealing additional damage, avoiding taking more than, and siphoning health off of enemies when this ability is fully charged, but those moments can be few and far between. In particular, dominate battles are designed to gift every bit picayune of this magic power equally possible, which ensures that you'll be using your rock only in one case during these encounters.
Aside from gainsay itself, there are a slew of ecology puzzles to be circumvented while exploring the various worlds on brandish in Chronos. While many of these are simple, lock-and-primal designs, some require a very keen attention to detail. While a few are very well-telegraphed, some of these environmental details are subtle, with a number of objects and items lacking prompts to show that they possess multiple moving parts. Though these can frustrate slightly, my only communication would be to pay very close attention to interactive prompts, and empathize that Chronos is a now four-year-old game: guides exercise exist.
Narrative and Aesthetics
Though it starts with a g opening monologue, there isn't much to the narrative in Chronos. $.25 of lore are scattered near the environments, offer tantalizing clues to the cultures and storylines that have unfolded prior to your entrance into the Labyrinth, simply much of this narrative has happened outside of your control. That which does unfold is mostly your response to commands that other characters give to you. The narrative twist – something that seems to exist a frequent occurrence in Soulslike titles – is suitably earned, if only because there is no existent reason for your dim-witted protagonist to place as much faith as they do in the denizens of alternating realms. Yes, information technology's a betrayal. No, it isn't surprising.
With that being said, Chronos is no slouch at creating impressive set pieces. One of the first major bosses you'll face combines a truly fabled set of puzzle mechanics and level-pattern-every bit-narrative build-ups to experience particularly impressive. Likewise, many of its environments are beautiful… when viewed in the Switch'due south handheld mode. This may be the but instance in which I tin can confidently say Chronos looks better on the pocket-size screen than it does in docked mode. Many of its technical bug – strange and frequent moments of popular-in and hard-to-read text, namely – are much more than forgivable when viewed on a smaller screen. The former is just less noticeable – simple every bit that. Despite this, you lot'll see many pocket-size bits of flora pop upward in forested sequences and particle effects blip in and out of existence. The latter upshot is technically solved by a rather slap-up characteristic implemented by the programmer, which enlarges the in-game text when in handheld mode. This doesn't necessarily utilize to menus, but the thought is withal appreciated.
Chronos uses a very familiar musical motif throughout to punctuate important moments, which makes for a squeamish feeling of accomplishment and familiarity to the whole affair. The boss themes are incredibly epic for a game with a minimal corporeality of music, but that makes each encounter all the more than impactful. While its music is sparing, what does exist is well-composed, memorable, and extremely effective.
Impressions and Conclusion
While not ever a lovely sight to look at, my fourth dimension with Chronos was very fun. There are a variety of weapons to use throughout the feel, and although the more fascinating and fun weapon styles are saved for the late game, the enemy variety and environmental limitations that are featured throughout offer plenty of experimentation in approach. While I would argue that certain Dragon Stones are much more powerful than others, all of the variants have their uses for sure enemy types. While the mid- to late-game offer the all-time kinds of enemy encounters and behavior tactics, the slow progression of enemy assault options, raw power, and areas in which they are engaged is consistent.
My just gripe is that the age-related perks are non more explicitly telegraphed equally you continue to die, which in all honesty is likely because you're supposed to be proficient plenty to avoid death. But some of the perks and what they're capable of enhancing is not very well-described – an equipment-enhancing perk for example, is said to enable y'all to push weapons to their limit, which but ends upward being a unmarried additional level. While this might be an indicator as to the strength of all of these historic period-related perks, there are some that are simply more appealing choices when stacked up against the others they appear alongside when you pass a certain age.
Though Chronos isn't the best-looking Soulslike title on the Switch, its aging mechanic and the overall experience of play brand it an enjoyable plenty title to play through at to the lowest degree two-to-three times, in order to experiment with all of the weapon types and try harder difficulties. The product value, as mixed as it might be (again, this is a 2016 championship), is still loftier, the combat satisfying, and the environmental puzzles clever enough to give this a strong recommendation. This release makes me very curious equally to whether we'll encounter its sequel, Remnant: From the Ashes, appear on Switch, as the opening moments of the narrative and its overarching, mystifying lore are engaging enough to take hold of the interest of whatever private looking for a new and different idea from the Switch library. If you're looking to exist punished hard plenty to take years off of your life, and then Chronos: Before the Ashes volition permit you lot simulate that experience in a flawed, but certainly memorable fashion.
Source: https://switchrpg.com/reviews/chronos-before-the-ashes-review-switch/
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