• Add Review
  • Subscribe
  • Nominate
  • Submit Media
  • RSS

Sacred Reviews: Chains of Fate

Intro

"Chains of Fate" is a turn-based RPG with branching paths that was being developed by Subzero_Dragon using RPG Maker MV that began development back in 2015 while the most recently released build is from 2022. Though my general advice is to avoid the most recent download since that version is so unstable the game will crash if you attempt to save the game.



It's also missing so many files that the game basically crashes every time an enemy attacks you as well. So it's basically impossible to get anywhere in that build of the game. As such I decided to download and base this review off of the demo build released back in February of 2016. Though I'll admit the combat balance in that version is so god awful that I actually gave up on the demo after about 50 minutes and was left loudly wondering what the bleep Subzero_Dragon was thinking. Seriously that game's combat is so poorly balanced you'll find yourself getting wiped out by enemies on a regular basis. Though, I suppose I should talk about the story before I explain why combat sucks in the demo build I spent a meaningful amount of time on.

Story
Summary

We play as Ashe who can be either male or female. Though it does appear your romantic options are restricted to hetero normative options. So you can't romance the princess if you choose to play a female version of Ashe. At any rate the game begins with Ashe returning from a patrol only to be attacked by a red bat at the castle's gate. A bat that proves to be a minor annoyance but also isn't native to the area so we should probably report this to the princess, but before that I decide to explore the castle a bit and partake in some recommended training by Captain Claire.

After that I finally report the results of my patrol to the princess who suggests we look up the monster in the castle's grimoire. Though why a book of monsters is called this is beyond me considering a grimoire is usually a book of spells. At any rate after learning that the grimoire is suddenly full of nothing but blank pages we take it back to the princess for more details. She then recommends we report this issue to the chancellor while she tries to study the book with her magic.

Of course as soon as the chancellor learns we left her with the book to analyze it he freaks out because the princess was cursed a long time ago. A curse that could allow the book to steal all of her magic and thus kill her. So we need to get back to her in a hurry. Of course as soon as we try to reunite with the princess the castle catches on fire and is full of slimes. So getting back to her is going to be a pain in the backside. Of course when we do find her she's cut off from us by flames, but being a noble idiot I decide to rush through the flames with little consideration for my own safety. After all, it was stuff like that made the Oda clan great in "The Ambition of Oda Nobuna".

Unfortunately for us it appears a weirdo is waiting in the Princess's room in order to kill her. So it looks like were going to have to team up in order to take him down. Of course over the course of the fight our true powers awaken. After all, Ashe's true backstory is a bit of a mystery considering she was found by the princess a few years ago after losing all of her memories, but being in danger allows her to unleash her full power. Sadly those powers are far to great for Ashe to control anymore and thus we seemingly blow up the castle and our forced to head out into the forest in order to search for the princess and any other survivors. And it's at this point I gave up on the game due to the awful combat balance.

Greatest Strength/Weaknesses

The narrative does have potential in my opinion even if Ashe suffering from amnesia is painfully cliché. On the other hand the decision to include a bunch of branching paths is probably not the best idea. This isn't because it isn't interesting, but because it creates far more work for the developer and increases the likelihood this project will never be completed just due to how much work is involved with it. And considering this is clearly meant to be a rather lengthy RPG if a demo build is said to contain over fours hours worth of content. Then I'm guessing the final version of this game was probably meant to be over ten hours long.

Gameplay

"Chains of Fate" features an active battle system that has been set to passive mode. As a result the game functions more like the conditional turn-based combat system found in "Final Fantasy X". Albeit skills in this game due take a bit of time to process like using magic in "Growlanser II". The game also includes a skill learning system, but most of the skills you can learn are of debatable value. This is because several of the skills you can learn in this game are based on party support, but you'll spend the bulk of your first hour in this game by yourself. As a result those skills are utterly useless since you won't have anyone to meaningfully support.

Though what kills the game in my opinion is that enemies are assigned random levels. Though if this is based on your level or a set range based on your current location is unknown to me. At any rate this means you can be wandering around the forest looking for the princess and suddenly find yourself at the mercy of four level ten tarantulas while your only level six. And while I suppose most would consider this a reason for why the flee command exists. As far as I'm aware the flee command doesn't work. At least I've never managed to successfully run away from a battle the dozen or so times I've used it. So if it does function it's rather rarely. As such the only advice I can really give you for dealing with enemies in this game is to spam your best skills and hope you have access to healing of some kind to restore your spent MP. After all, there aren't any shops in the castle where you can stock up on MP potions.

This also means if you want to explore the forest you'll either have to save scum in order to deal with the random encounters or spend a lot of time grinding out levels in safer areas of the forest and just hope enemy levels are tied to the area and not your level. Either way getting past this area was too annoying for me since I'd regularly run into enemies that were more powerful than me. And I really don't want to spend a lot of time on grinding in order to beat a demo.

Graphics and Sound

As far as I'm aware the game relies entirely on the RTP for these aspects of the game. Which probably shouldn't be that much of a surprise considering that's pretty typical for most of Subzero_Dragon's projects. At any rate I really don't have anything particularly positive or negative to say about the game's visuals or sounds that hasn't been said before.

Conclusion

Who knows when Subzero_Dragon will next pop up. After all, she disappeared for about six years last time. So she may strike again at some point in the future, but even if she does pop up the current build for this game is so unstable she'd probably have to start over. So the likelihood this game will see any more updates in the future is pretty slim. As such this game will probably be forever stuck in the demo phase and as such I really can't recommend it. Add in the fact combat in this game is apparently balanced with the player being in a party while constantly subjecting the player to a solo experience makes the demos for this game more frustrating than enjoyable.