With Celes as my avatar, I wandered around plains of Yurudos, walked the streets of the great Ziazu and pushed my way through countless corridors of many dungeons. I took my time to build up a relation with this magical Arcadia and its dark secrets, to strenghten my friendship with my loony companions. They're the usual bunch you might already know from other games. This game's a love letter to these games of yore. And it was a long time ago I opened Chronicles for the first time. It was 8 months ago, maybe more, and I have spent over 30 hours within Tsufanubra since. Some may speedrun games. I prefer to walk.

Chronicles of Tsufanubra are a personal project. A hobbyist game. The creator took his fond memories of games he enjoyed as a youngling and turned them into the latest gem in the serie of nostalgic pieces. This all started with Dragon Fantasy, a barebone retro game inspired by Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, the two most iconic jrpg franchises. After many sequels and spin-offs this is the latest and the most shiny chapter in the saga. Everything's superior to the original Dragon Fantasy. Dialogues, battles, graphics, mapping. Maybe some of the simplicity, which made the original so appealing got lost in the process.
I think this summurizes ambitions of Tsufanubra quite well. And it mostly succeeds, when it comes to evoking a certain primitive feeling, which reminds me of good old games with their shortcomings and cliches included. This is by no means a modern game. The basic structure remains familiar, almost similar to the original game.
If you compare it to the two "source" franchises, this is much closer to Dragon Quest, which is sticking with the well-known formula of a chosen one defeating an evil overlord even in its newest installment. I could apply quite a few quotes from the review on Chronicles of Tsufanebra on waypoint. For example:

author=Cameron Kunzelman
If you yearn for the past, for the snuggly comfort of the Dragon Quest experience, then you will enjoy the game. And I have no judgement; you or a person who has never played an RPG before, are the target audience of this game. Both of these groups of people are going to have an awesome time with the game, and I'm glad.

If you play Chronicles of Tsufanubra for moar, it's a satisfying filler. The core gameplay is rock solid. But if you want something more from it, the title probably isn't for you. The game's very traditional, when it comes to structure and ideas. There's no inovation to speak of, when it comes to gameplay or storytelling. Ephiam is really trying with the narrative, there are many dialogues, bloated dialogues, and lenghty cutscenes including a myriad of plot twists, but it's all within traditional tropes of the genre and often close to some of the most iconic moments from various Final Fantasy games. This game's very old school compared to other popular RPG Maker games I got my hands on (Enelysion, Luxaren Allure, Paradie Blue, Helion for example).

Mechanically, the game's very straightforward with no side-quests. There are some optional boss fights for an extra challenge and the ones I bumped into were very enjoyable and probably better than some mandatory bosses. These tend to be on an easy side. I managed to keep one of the early ones down the whole fight.
There are some simple puzzles and many hidden treasures. Some chests are hidden so well, that it's a smile creating pleasure to find them.
During the game you travel on an overworld map and visit various locations. Some of them are towns. I appreciated a simplified design here. You can't enter most houses and shops are just a simple menu openable by interacting with doors.
There are other peaceful locations, which are a nice distraction from dungeons and usually a fine example of mapping. I especially enjoyed cooldown, which came with Cerberus Cage Fields.
The rest of locations are dungeons. Battles and grinding are the core of Dragon Fantasy games. Battles are in most part a classic RM fare and grinding's often little on a annoying side.

This is in my opinion a step back from the original Dragon Fantasy remake. That one uses ripped NES graphics and its thrilling first dungeon, in which you're always close to dying, is probably my favourite piece from Ephiam.
The first dungeon of Chronicles is somehow similar with much tighter and nicer maps. Battles are still very swift and you need to defend yourself a lot. That's a button you forget about later in the game. However, you quickly become rolling over enemy troops. The original thrill is gone. Still I liked this part of the game and it, together with the main character being female, got me hooked quickly. This first part of the game, while mechanically simple was very fun to play thanks to its pacing.
Later on, your party is joined by three other characters. I enjoyed having more tactical options at first, but after several dungeons a severe problem appeared. Battles take too long now. Grinding takes too long. Individual battles aren't challenging, but some of them might be exhausting. That's basically reason why I spent 8 months playing the game. Some dungeons just take too long. This was especially case with Hades Maw. There are clearly dungeons I enjoyed more. Among these belong early dungeons, which were fast and fun to grind. Crystal Cave was a great intro, Old Yurudos managed to use combined force of Celes and Sando, while staying swift. One notable thing is that I used the basic attacks of these two frequently even in the final battle of the game. At this point the game was slightly more about equipment and resources than in the later stages. It was important that a different kind of weapon has a different efficiency against a certain kind of foes.
The first dungeon, which felt like a chore, was the cursed castle, Borez. Fighting gets significantly slower as the party grows. It's really a difference to process 7 or 8 commands instead of 2-3. This was the first time I felt like the location has too many encounters. In 16-bit era Final Fantasy games you usually got 1-3 random encounters on a relatively big map. And after some grinding, they become very quick. In COT small rooms exist with three or four encounters in them. I prefer to cruise a little between two battles.
Abandoned mines was the first dungeon I enjoyed with the full party. It could be because I took a break after beating Giruvega's Tower. And because I got some new spells, which allowed me to use crippling tactics. As a nice bonus the dungeon included probably the best boss of the main storyline.
After that followed Hades Maw. The dungeon caused me to put the game aside for months. Encounters in this dungeon were pain. The dungeon itself was pain with locations you could lock yourself off from. It was the only dungeon I didn't manage to turn into a graveyard for that very reason. Troops itself are good. You need to use your brain to defeat them without heavy beating. The problem is that one such encounter takes too many turns to be enjoyable four times in a row. And Hades Maw is filled with encounters. It's not about resources, because a healing point is not far enough for you to be ever be short on mana. Maybe in a tiny room with four baddies in it.



This whole problem of pacing is caused by multiple factors. Early battles are fast, fairly easy and partially about resources. Here, it's much more about strategy, taking an advantage of weaknesses, sealing, confusing, healing. For one, I think that having a dedicated healer on your team makes battles less exciting. He's fairly weak at this stage of game otherwise and he removes the real need for most healing items. Other thing are hp and mana pools. Numbers just get too big. Even with my mage having 999 intelligence, I couldn't kill an enemy in the final zone just with two Mjolnirs (the strongest thunder spell). Resistances are another slowdown, but that one's expected and the game would be too easy without them.
Was this really avoidable in a big game like this? Partially. One option would be to leave out a dedicated healer. The solution would bring other challenges and some parts could become too difficult. The better option in my opinion is to stick with smaller numbers. That's harder done than said. Leveling up and seeing how the numbers grow gives players a great sense of progress. Smaller hp pools maybe? A smaller number of encounters in mid to late game dungeons seems like the best solution to me. It would make the game shorter, but leaving out one quarter of them wouldn't make the game any less epic.

Continuing with dungeons, Tower of Light and Diaboros are mediocre ones. Their visual design is the most remarkable in the whole game, yet they aren't as tight as most zones. Also, encounters are more boring than difficult. Especially on Diaboros, where most enemies were highly resistant.
I enjoyed the last dungeon immensely, Venaitura for various reasons. Killing almost every enemy in the game, I destroyed everything it threw at me easily. Mega Death works on some enemies here. I love the skill not only for it being an instant ramen of black magic but also for its animation! This made battles fairly quick, some troops could be defeated in two rounds. The location's really nicely designed too. Puzzles included and the whole backtracking element of it works well. Movement around this location is very well thought of.

Overall, gameplay wise Chronicles of Tsufanubra have a very solid early stages and a strong late game. The middle part isn't bad, just very overstretched. The number of locations and dungeons seems to be about right.



There's a narration too. I suggested earlier that it uses a lot of tropes, but that's not all to it. I liked the way important cutscenes were rationed with dungeons. It was rewarding. It's quite visible that a lot of effort went to the story and cutscenes. And given, that you don't mind a somehow generic themes, plot twists and characters, you might enjoy it a lot.

author=MahouTsukai
What makes this story amazing is the way events are and unfolded. Many cutscenes had me sitting completely still in my chair, reading line after line of dialogue, wondering what will happen next.

There is an audience for this kind of story and it's executed brilliantly. The direction of cutscenes is very precise and there's enough movement and dramatical breaks to break up big blocks of dialogue.
And I agree that some might love this blockbuster story with a load of drama and so many plot twists.
Personally, I enjoyed the lore most. There's a wikia worth of information behind the game. The whole history of the world and a sense that there's more to it than just Celes's story, makes me want to know more, to visit the world again. I need to know more about individual places and their history, I want to visit xxxx 42.
But...
There are reasons the story isn't an outstanding experience. Characters are with one exception bland. Their relations evolve mysteriously. There's a little hint of romance between Sando and Lifa, but that's all. How they all become such good friends is a little mystery to me. Althought, one could argue that fighting countless battles next to each other builds a strong bond without talking about it.
Celes is a good girl. She always does the right thing. She accepts her fate without hesitation. Is she an interesting character? No. She doesn't have any interests or a dark past. She's the saviour and acts like one. Luckily for players, she's still quite likable and her sprite is nice too.
Sando's the most emotional character in your party. The only one, which has some dramatic potential. Unfortunately, the rest usually manages to keep him back. His irrational bursts could lead another story somewhere interesting. Also, he has most of a backstory. It's something you would expect from a fantasy rpg and it leads to a fairly enjoyable and well preperad plot twist, which leads to a less predictable better twist. The second one taking place shortly before the final showdown is quite chunky.
Lifa is the loudest character in your party. She's probably a great motivator. Not really a likable character.
Yoor's just there. He's the most boring one and probably racist. He doesn't have any influence over the story. He's trying to be rational, but Celes's better at that. Interesting is that Yoor was the one with a backstory in the first Dragon Fantasy.
The other thing to talk about are ends. The traditional one is a satisfying last chapter of the chronicle. Yet It kills what was ineresting about the story and possible moral questions springing from it. You just slaughter the main villain and fulfill your destiny.
The alternative end is an interesting choice, but it doesn't offer a full-fledged experience, just a short cutscene. The first one answers all possible questions, this one doesn't bother hinting a single answer. Anyway, I like the inclusion, I just want it to be less of a cut-off.

Ephiam might stay calm. The story 100% succeeds on what it intends to do. If there's a sequel, I would like to see more of the less traditional themes. All the interesting points of the narrative are here to give characters, especially the antagonist, motivation. I would like to see some of these themes explored more closely. Make them a focus of the story.
And my personal preference in general are shorter cutscenes. It's nice when Epjiam used other means of sharing information. For example searching for lore in library worked great and the way it connected narration and gameplay was one of the highlights of the game.



The game's very pretty. I know Ephiam's older games tended to have a remarkable collections of resources and Chronicles aren't an exception. There are so many well chosen battlers, animations, chipsets. I appreciate custom pieces.
Maps by Corfaisus are mostly very pleasant. They use mostly REFMAP with some edits and probably some custom chips or heavier edits for the late game. My favourites are many times mentioned Cerberus and Venaitura.
Most maps are tightly designed, nicely connecting exteriors and interiors. Vertical locations are common and it's a delight to study their layering. The game design is very good with its constant changes.
On some maps, I managed to get lost or stuck as sometimes the esthetics of a map, can make the map confusing. This was especially true with Old Yurudos. After I exited the sewer, I couldn't find the way out of the map for 10 minutes.
I also appreciated the lack of fancy lighting effects as I find them distracting. Some tints were little darker than they needed to be, but that's nitpicking.

Best served with Bud Light and bacon crisps.

I hope I managed to comment on everything. I avoided sound and music as I played about a half of the game muted. From the other half, I collected an impression of a mostly classic fantasy score spiced with metal flavoured battle themes and some very good quirky location themes in the last part of the game. Veinatura's theme fitted the place great and helped to build its omniscient atmosphere.

So, conclusions...

It's not a must play. The original Dragon Fantasy wasn't and this game's on a very basic level an updated version. It's a hardcore old school project. It isn't a product. This is a piece of Ephiam and if you share his passion for old jRPG, you'll love it. If you liked the original DF, you'll love it. If you want to play a very classic jRPG for the first time, this is a good choice. Mechanics are straightforward, the story precise and the world fairly linear. Chronicles delivered. It's your comfort bowl of mac and blue.
In case you're a gaming snob, this game probably isn't for you. There's no point in playing it if you're looking for a new exotic experience. But that's ok, because you probably wasn't the targeted audience in the first place.

At one point, when struggling with Hades Maw, I wanted to call this game fairly bad. Now, after finishing it, I can see its qualities again. This deserves four stars.

Some notes:


A possible bug: