Esper Wing Chronicle

Esper Wing Chronicles is a game that from an external point of view can be seen as the "usual jrpg about combat". While this is partially true, this is also a medium lenght game that also possess some singular features. Oh and despite that Shin Megami Tensei (or SMT) is mentioned several times in the game, remember that this game has nothing to do with it, except for the presence of angels and devils. Ok, concerning that let's start from the beginning:

In this game the protagonist is Cain Abel, a half demon and half angel guy that is hunted by God's angels and initially accompanied by his friend Breeze Pueblo. While being on the run he has several adventures meeting new friends, exploring the world and fighting a lot of opponents including Lucifer and other powerful beings. Prepare to fight a lot in this game!

Combat is often activated by random encounters (don't worry you can always escape) but there are also mandatory fights and unavoidable bosses. Boss fights are often hard but they become really difficult especially during the end of the game.
To eliminate the opposition we have a team with a vast number of abilities (that will even increase during the game after certain events!): the protagonist for example can cause several status effects or make special attacks that damages some of the opponent's abilities, then there's the gunner that posses various elemental attacks (and can use elemental bullets with the guns) but can also heal, even if not as well as the real combat medic that later joins the team. The angel instead has many buffs and debuffs, the mage is a glass cannon with many elemental attacks, and so on. Nothing new, but quite complex since you have a lot of skills to use and it's mandatory to learn and exploit the weaknesses of the enemies, managing the use of Mana and Tp. Oh and I fortgot to mention that when defending the character also recover some Mana and Hit Points.
Like every other jrpg you can visit towns to rest and buy gear and supplies, but remember that you can't rely too much on them, if you want to survive you have to learn how to use the different abilities.


Combat in this game is the usual Jrpg classic setup. The enemies? Not so much!

Ok, but there's not only combat, even if the game is largely linear and filled with random encounters, we have also some optional subquests. For example the Labyrinth of Suffering is an optional dungeon in which all the opponents are visible (so no random encounters! Yay!) BUT they are also invincible and if you run away you start from the entrance (ok, so I guess now you can understand the "Suffering" part)!

Anyway the party members aren't just combat monsters: they all have distintivo personalities and the dialogues among them are really entertaining. I'll say that again, REALLY entertaining, trust me! But the story has also serious parts, well unlike the typical Jrpg that has comedic parts, this is a comedic Jrpg with some serious parts. And great characters, all of them.

Graphically the game looks rather average: there are Rtp for the most part and maps aren't that complex, but they are serviceable, and at least you can save anywhere, not only on the main map. Music and sounds are also pretty average and in some cases repetitive (for example the combat music at a certain point is a bit irritating).


Oh well this is really helpful, probably the most useful dialogue of the game! Listen to Qwen!

Any other flaw? Unfortunately we have several typos ("ex-soilder doctor", "genuis", "asure", "soilders", etc...) and also an error of design that made me skip a part of the game: after a certain point the access to the place in which you find the mage will be unlocked, BUT the access to the snow region is ALWAYS unlocked so you may skip that part and find yourself in an area dedicated to higher level parties (not to mention that you will have one less party member!). The funny thing is that the Npcs in the area day that the enemies are supposed to be strong, but when I saw the dialogues of a party member I did NOT have, I realized the error!
Also the first part in the beginning, in which you play a party composed by just the angel is really hard since you have just one character, and not one of the best fighters. It's better skipping most combats since you will have also to face multiple opponents at the end of that section, and being this at the beginning can discourage new players, but things get better and more balanced after that part.
Then some cannot probably appreciate the difficulty of some combat encounters, or can criticize the linearity, limited exploration and lack of interactions with items. This is true, but I think are really minor flaws, this is a short-medium game so it's focused on some activities.
Anyway there are also some little but nice details, for example after a timeskip characters change clothing and facesets, and some extra activities or sidequests that have to be discovered by the player.


Ok the game is difficult, but not SMT hard. And I think it's fine as it is, despite Breeze's opinion...

Verdict
Esper Wing Chronicles is a Jrpg parody with an unusual setting and story: angels, demons, faeries replace the usual knights, wizards and rogues of the usual settings. That's not a big difference, but this game has two strong points: a challenging and complex combat system (in which you cannot just spam your most powerful move... there are no ultimate attacks!) and a hilarious and entertaining adventure.
EWC is a great game if you like comedy and challenging jrpg combat, a solid experience,and my only gripe is that the sequel was cancelled since maybe it could have improved the flaws of this game, reproposing the same great cast of the first adventure.

So it's 4/5.
Well made, perfect for these players who love both challenging combat encounters and humorous dialogues, I almost liked it more than Shin Megami Tensei!