Generation of Chaos

For years kingdoms of power-hungry rulers have been in a centuries-old battle to be the true dominant ruler of the country and for years the peaceful kingdoms have fought them back. Imagine you are the commanding officer of the military force that your kingdom depends on to fight back the enemy forces. How will you prepare your forces and ultimately govern your own kingdom in times of war? This is the situation you’ll encounter in Generation of Chaos, a strategy/RPG for the Sony PSP. Before you start cheering the fact that you’ll finally be sinking your teeth into a good strategy game with an RPG twist on your handheld system, be warned that this is by far the slowest and most confusing game in the genre.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a strategy game fan at heart that deeply enjoyed games like Disgaea as well as Phantom Brave. Even more so I’m a deeply devoted fan of the role-playing game so the two genres combined are gaming bliss. Generation of Chaos does bring these two genres together and does so with all the right elements in place. A large chess board-like map … check. Colorful cast of anime-styled characters and a decent story … double check. Massive real-time combat with a large number of men on the field at once … check. The problem with Generation of Chaos is that even with all the right essentials in place these things don’t mean a thing if they’re not put to use effectively. Yet we will get into all of this in a minute.

The story revolves around the country of Lost Grounds that is left in complete chaos after a long revolt, called the Dravanian Revolution, has come to a bitter end. Tension begins to grow between kingdoms and Minister Zeo, a man who manages to climb the political ladder to the very top, transforms the country into a military force to be reckoned with. Of course, Lost Grounds has its share of warmongers, rulers of other kingdoms that wish to take advantage of the country’s weak state in order to overthrow Minister Zeo. We see through the eyes of Gena, the leader of the 8^th Dravanian Knight Unit and Allen, the peace-loving ruler of Zodia. Later we meet an immortal named Orochimaru and the youngest Queen of a kingdom in the Far East called Suzu Uo. These characters make up but a small portion of a large cast of characters.

Through its Japanese anime-styled storytelling we come to understand the situations that arise in the game but, for the most part, Chaos is a strategy game at heart. You are presented with the game’s map immediately and without much instruction despite the fact that a cheery creature offers you a quick run-through. The segmented map is composed of icons representing the land as well as castles, towers, caves, cities and towns. Depending on the campaign you choose (for example, the Zodia Campaign is directly related to Allen while the Dravania Campaign centers on Gena), you must take your army’s commander (pick from a list of professions like samurai, warrior, mage, etc.) and put him or her in charge of various tasks. As a commander you must not only be in charge of your unit but your duties also include making monetary investments (conquer bases and invest in castles or the city market) as well as recruit more commanders (either by opening a recruitment office or persuading a captured enemy commander to join your army).

Taking command of every aspect of your kingdom’s wheeling and dealing isn’t easy. You’ll be in charge of stocking as much supplies but even then you’ll find that things can get stolen and even the weather can play a role in which your troops perform when it comes time to go up against enemy forces. When battle does occur, either by defending your terrain or invading your enemy’s fort, you’ll be treated to the sight of your army clashing against your enemy forces. With 60 soldiers clashing on the field, you’ll be in the middle of a massive confrontation. The real-time battles have your soldiers slashing back at the enemy while your commander has the option to use magic to help even the odds when things look bad. Oftentimes battles end with the commanders of both opposing sides going up against each another. Defeating the enemy commander leaves you the option to either capture or execute your enemy.

The problem, and it’s a major one, is that the menus to perform each task is both confusing and the choices so hard to read because the commands are printed so tiny you’ll need a magnifying glass to read them. Even if can see each option, making heads or tails of them is another story. Really, even the instruction manual won’t be able to help you decipher the complex options. The second problem is that the game moves at an extra slow pace. Moving around in the map is so sluggishly slow that in the game months will pass before you can invade other kingdoms. Battle can also be delayed by your enemy calculating each move, leaving the more impatient gamers wishing the game had the option to fast forward up to the point that the enemy finally makes a move. It is these problems that not only becomes too frustrating to want to see the game through to the end but also turns off gamers new to the genre.

Chaos displays some rather dated visuals that bring to mind Final Fantasy Tactics when it comes to displaying the characters on the playing map as well as the environments. Now this isn’t a bad thing but the PSP is perfectly capable of better than this. The cut scenes also use beautifully rendered anime artwork when it comes to the main characters during the dialogue. On the map, the tiny icons representing places and the positions of other characters look pretty good.

The game’s sound isn’t a major improvement over the game’s visuals. The game’s score is repetitive to the point that you’ll want to lower the volume and even the game’s sound effects seem to have that old-school RPG ring to them. As far as the voice acting is concerned, it’s actually not bad at all despite the classic translation problems most Japanese-to-English dialogue suffers through. All in all, though, it could have been a lot worse.

Generation of Chaos is an acquired taste that should appeal to the hardcore strategy game fan that’s looking for an interesting strategy/RPG to play on their PSP. Yet because it’s an acquired taste and because it’s plagued by some serious faults (the overly confusing menus, for instance) the more casual and less patient strategy fan might just want to skip this and opt for a strategy game with a quicker pace and gameplay elements that are actually understandable.

Gameplay: 6.0
The game could have excelled in the strategy department if it weren’t for the confusing menu screens and the lack of understanding of how to manage your forces. The battles look massive but they play out way too slow even for a game of this genre.

Graphics: 7.2
While they’re pretty dated, the visuals do justice to the 30-on-30 battles as well as displaying some great anime-styled characters during cutscene dialogue. The playing map looks good even from afar.

Sound: 7.0
The game’s score isn’t bad at all, including the opening song in Japanese that plays during the main menu. There are some repetitive sound effects but at least the voice acting is handled well enough.

Difficulty: Medium/Hard
The long and drawn out battles are more a result of making heads or tails of the menu screen as well as waiting for the AI opponent to actually make a move. Think of it as playing a friendly game of chess with a kid that is way smarter than you and is determined to beat you by carefully thinking his or her every move and you get an idea of what it’s like playing against the computer-controlled opponents.

Concept: 7.0
Developing and strengthening your kingdom and defending if from enemy kingdoms is a solid idea and the fact that you have several choices that determine various different story outlines and endings is a treat any RPG and strategy game fan can appreciate. A multiplayer mode that can accommodate up to two-players would have been great.

Overall: 6.5
For those gamers willing enough to immerse themselves in a slow strategy/RPG with confusing menus and stretched out battles, Generation of Chaos might just be worth a good look. Sadly enough, the game has all the right elements but it’s too hard to ignore flaws do a great job of overshadowing the good stuff. This is not a bad game, just a poorly designed one.