Chronicles: Fate of a Princess

Chronicles: Fate of a Princess is a short-form RPG about a princess whose life gets upended by an insurrection that overthrows the royal family. It plays out in a mostly realistic way and is very focused in its design, but sometimes it feels like its brevity is holding it back.

Let’s Talk About Graphics!

Unless I’m mistaken, these are all RTP. It has that RM MV trademark blockiness to it, but it’s been used well enough. The visual style is consistent throughout, so at least it has that going for it. A few of the battle animations seem like odd choices for how they were used, but apart from that, I had no real problems with anything.

Let’s Talk About Audio!

Same story here, I’m not sure anything custom has been added. The music is unremarkable, but suits the style and tone, as do sound effects for their own purposes.

Let’s Talk About Story!

For as short as it is, this is one aspect of the game I really liked. The premise is as I described earlier. A general of the kingdom’s army, Lord Pentas, turned against the royals and usurped the throne for himself. The princess (whom you name and play as) escaped and must stay on the run to avoid being assassinated. Accompanied by a rogue from the castle kitchen and a paladin from the local church, their adventure to overthrow Pentas gets rolling quickly.

The political side of it is particularly interesting for being generally realistic. The princess aligns herself with a rebel group who is opposed to Pentas, but they didn’t like the royals either, so she can’t be open about her identity at first since she’s still surrounded by would-be enemies. The plot develops in ways that make sense for everyone involved, but there are also times where it feels too convenient for the sake of staying short. For example, there’s a time where the rebels form an alliance with another local army to stand up to Pentas’s forces, only for the rebels to hold back their support so the other army takes most of the casualties. Such a tactic should easily have broken ties between the two, but the army’s leader is a bit quick to extend his trust again because the plot needs them to stay united. There are other such instances, but I think they’re negligible enough that they don’t hurt the story overall. It only feels like a tale that was squished into fewer pages than it needed.

Despite its length, the game has quite a few characters who are all pretty interesting in their own way. Most of the major ones become party members and the game has a wide cast. You’re allowed to name the recruits as you encounter them, but they each have their own personality, including the princess herself. Their thoughts and opinions shape the plot as much as the bigger events, so it’s almost character-driven in that way.

All that said, the finale is a bit of a letdown. You don’t actually get to square off with the big bad, and the real final battle kinda comes out of nowhere. The conclusion isn’t dissatisfying, I just didn’t get everything I wanted out of it.

Let’s Talk About Gameplay!

As a more focused RPG, the game is designed with tactics in mind. The level limit is 10 and there’s no real need to grind. The party fully heals between combat, so you can take every fight as an individual challenge, although they can drain your healing resources. There are eight hero classes and you get one party member of each, but you also get to choose the princess’s class at the start. This adds a little replay value as you can put the princess in different classes and see how it affects your strategy. She can’t be removed from the party, so you’re basically choosing which class will always be present and she learns her skills faster than the rest.

However, it isn’t as substantial as it seems because there’s a party change mechanic that lets you swap members on the fly, even during battle. It was a bit overwhelming to play an RPG where every recruit counts and should be ready to fight at all times. Since you aren’t stuck with whomever you entered battle with, you aren’t really forced to explore different strategies so much as find what works best between everyone. Personally, I think it’s worth it since this kind of thing is rare in RPGs and there are lots of creative things you can do when your party can be almost whatever you want each turn. The only real limit is knockouts as unconscious characters can’t be swapped, but you also don’t have access to the full party for most of the game.

While the random encounters have their own small challenges, the boss fights are where the gloves come off. Since the RPG is so compact, it can get away with fights that are challenging and balanced for narrower possibilities. Heroes get new skills with each of their level-ups, so you get more versatile every time, but you’ll often need everything at your disposal to face bosses. This is especially true in the end game with the bonus boss who is designed for a party that’s fully prepared. The game definitely has teeth, but with some clever solutions, I’d say the difficulty is still a bit above medium.

Let’s Wrap This Up…

This seems like a game that had a clear idea of what it wanted to be and tailored itself to be exactly that and no more. The scope of both the story and gameplay are reflective of this focus. In a way, it feels like a proof of concept for something that could’ve been grander, and I think some of the pacing issues and plot conveniences could’ve been rectified in a longer game. Even so, it has a solid core and what has been put into it is worthwhile. For that, I give it a...

4/5


This scallywag is more progressive than most progressives...