'Chaos Rings' – Square Enix's iPhone Exclusive RPG
posted by Jared Nelson on April 19th, 2010 11:02 PM UTC in $12.99, Reviews, iPhone games, iPod touch games
Last month news broke that video game giant Square Enix was bringing a brand new RPG exclusively to the iPhone, and that it was being developed by a team whose combined resumé consisted of work in both the Wild Arms and Final Fantasy series. Needless to say, expectations skyrocketed with such an announcement, and to top it off this ambitious project is based on an entirely new, unproven IP. Now that Chaos Rings [App Store] is finally available, does it actually deliver? After putting the game through its paces, I can safely say it stands to not only meet any high expectations but exceed them in remarkable fashion. With stunning visuals and captivating gameplay that is tailored specifically for Apple's device, Chaos Rings defines what an RPG experience should be like on a mobile platform.
The story revolves around a dark tournament in a mysterious place known as the Arka Arena. Take control of one of four two-person teams as you advance through the arena's enemy-laden dungeons, ultimately preparing to square off against the opposing teams themselves in a fight to the death. The last ones standing are promised eternal youth and immortality. The reason each combatant has been summoned to this tournament and exactly why they have been paired with their particular partner slowly unfold via text cutscenes as the game progresses. Each team has their own storyline to play through, and they all intertwine with one another in intriguing ways. It's all very well written and remains interesting while still being suitable for on-the-go play, avoiding the problem of an overly convoluted story that is hard to follow in short bursts.
The bulk of the game is spent traversing through the Arka Arena's four distinct dungeon locations. Here you'll engage enemies randomly in a combination of indoor and outdoor settings, and each dungeon has a mid-level and end-level boss encounter. The random fighting is broken up with an occasional logic puzzle that must be beaten to advance in the game by granting an item or access to a new area. The style of the puzzles varies based on which dungeon you're in and what team you're playing with. They're a fun distraction, and force you to think hard while delivering a breather from the constant enemy confrontations.
The battle system is turn-based and has you controlling both characters in your party with an easy to use touch menu interface. The two members of your team can either attack individually or pair-up for a combined strike. This collaborative effort can deliver a more devastating blow, but leaves your combatants vulnerable to being counter-attacked in tandem. There's also a number of upgradeable magic abilities and weapons in the game that are obtained from defeated enemies, treasure chests, or the in-game shop. Control outside of battle is handled simply with an analog stick that appears anywhere the screen is touched, and one multi-use action button in the corner.
The structure of Chaos Rings is intelligently designed, and caters to a broad variety of players. Before entering a dungeon, you can choose the difficulty level of the enemies you face within. The higher the level you play on, the more treasure and rare items you will come across. A more casual gamer can choose to fight the easiest tier of enemies as they make their way through the story. In addition, you can toggle random enemy encounters on or off at any time for a more streamlined play experience. On the other hand, you can spend as much time on character leveling as you want. Any of the dungeons can be replayed at any time, so feel free to go back and endlessly grind your way to more powerful weapons and spells. It's a smart, flexible system that allows you to choose how to tackle the different aspects of the game. It took about 8 hours to beat the game with my first team, and once finished you can start a new game using the same characters and retaining much of your equipment and experience from the previous playthrough. Coupled with three additional teams to play as, there is a mountain of content here that should last most players a long time.
Graphically Chaos Rings really impresses. Beautifully illustrated 2D backgrounds make up the environments, while characters and monsters consist of detailed 3D models. It has a look that's evocative of classic Playstation-era RPGs. The battle sequences are fully rendered in 3D and really showcase the gorgeous enemy designs and fluid animations. The huge bosses in particular are downright intimidating as they fill your touch screen with their presence. A dramatic soundtrack accompanies the action and provides a unique sound for each of the locations in the game.
App Store Link: Chaos Rings, $12.99
Kingdom Hearts for iPhone/iPad?
No this is not Kingdom Hearts this is a Turn Based Game
Not even remotely like it.
Well, I agree that the game is cool, think Hero of Sparta…but I am concerned about the price rise, because now every two-bit developer will be charging over 10 bucks for crap games. Granted they go down quickly, but once one breaks the psychological barrier, soon things will go to 14.99 and up, relying solely on brand name (Song Summoner, anyone?).
That being said…the graphics are excellent but the game is pretty short and very light on story. The iPod has 8, 16, 32, and 64 GB of memory…and FFVII, etc, those games are measured in MB, and the technology is about 16 years old, so 12.99 is a bit much, because the iPod can hold a game deeper and better than this. It will push things to the next level, true, but that's because the capabilities are there, it's just that no one pushed them up until Hero of Sparta, and now this Final Fantasy.
Compared to what's out there in the app store, though, this game is definitely a 5 star game. Definitely. Let's just hope that FFVII comes out next, I would pay $20 for that one in a heartbeat.
You don't have to buy what they are asking
Holy crap that looks awesome.
Price in iTunes is listed as $12.99
I'll be buying an iPad in a few weeks. Would the graphics of Chaos Rings hold up on that huge screen? Or would it suck if zoomed?
Every iPhone/Touch RPG I've played so far on iPad in 2X mode looks great. If you didn't see the normal iPad res, you'd think that most of the older games were made for iPad.
Sounds good. May I ask what RPG's specifically you've tried on the iPad on 2x? Cause Chaos Rings is very much 3D.
I think he means 2X as in the zoom setting being used in the IPAD to make the game bigger on the screen. He wasn't speaking of 2D or 3D.
Ya i fully understood what I meant. But there are certain games IMO particularly 3D games that wouldn't look good on 2x zoom on the iPad. That's why I was simply curious as to which RPG's he's tried on 2x zoom. If these were 3D RPG's (although I can't think of any), then I'll be more confident.
If there's a reader out there who has definitely tried Chaos Rings on the iPad, please give me feedback on the graphics. Thanks.
correction: Ya i fully understood what HE meant.
Too pricy.
That is being completely selfish… If this was on PSP, it would be $30+. This is an iPhone EXCLUSIVE. This was made specifically for the iDevices and sets a new standard for developers. You speak as if you don't want AAA games on the iDevices. Nothing against small devs, but the Appstore really needs more stuff like this.
I completely agree. Hell, $12.99 is probably too little for a game of this caliber.
And that is why no one buys psp games anymore. Stop with the old same arguments every time.
Too pricy? Stop being so ridiculous. A Square-Enix RPG on the DS or PSP costs $40+.
That's cause you can play it more than 2hrs at a time before having to recharge.
Too Pricy? Guess that's why your name is Broke…
Meh, I take issue w that.. most people on here have spent a bunch of money on the iPhone games, but Square just went and broke the 9.99 mark… remember not many people here have iPads yet….
It's just a psychological barrier…
Needless to say, if they release the first half hour in a free DL, there will only be like 20 million DL's… The interest level for this game is sky high…. regardless of the price
concept sounds dumb, to me.
price is beyond stupid, to me.
Good thing we're all not like you, eh?
I'm just afraid that he might be the majority when it comes to the (psychological) issue with price
most definitely a good thing
i get to reap the benefits of all the early adopters overpaying 
Wow… Cool timing… For the last 15 minutes, I've been searching the net for a good iPhone rpg with sharp graphics. I know everyone loves Zenonia, but I just can't get used to the "retro" SNES graphics. This game looks amazing! If the story is as good as the graphics, I'll buy it.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
If you want to see more AAA titles developed from the ground up for the iDevices, then buy this. I want to see more games of this caliber on my iPhone and I don't want to see developers turn away with everyone only wanting games under 5 bucks. It's time to start rethinking our current fixation with saying how expensive a 6 dollar app is.
I agree. If this was on Nintendo DS, we'd be paying $35-40. I'm not a HUGE JRPG fan, but I really want to support developers who bring this caliber of game to the app store.
Holy crap, it's out???! Darn it, expensive but it looks like it's worth it.
I agree with this review completely.
I have been playing this game now for about 3 hours, and it is AMAZING.
The music is slick and epic at the same time. The graphics set a new standard and have me staring at my Ipod in a totally different light. The DS could NEVER do a game like this. The PSP could definitely do it from a technical perspective. But, then there is that carrying the big ass machine around thing to just play one game. Whereas, my pod does everything AND this game! Best $13 spent ever on a game. Thank You Square!
Due to the unfortunate reality of studying for finals, I won't be able to play this beautiful game for about 4 weeks
But you can be damn certain that as soon as this article came up stating that the game was released I purchased it without a second thought. The simple fact of the matter is folks that if you want the iPhone/iTouch to be taken seriously as a gaming platform, you need to support games of this caliber. Now if you don't enjoy JRPG's, well then it's fair if you avoid it. But please, I beg of you all, if there is ever a genre that tickles your fancy and has a release this monumental in quality-and yes even price-please for the love of God pick it up.
These developers simply deserve the money for the amount of work they put into their games.
Instant buy as soon as I got home tonight. Downloading now………Can't wait.
I'm tiered of these types of games I've played final fantasy iv it was addicting I have to admit but after you beat the game the point of playing gone and I really hate the turn base stuff I like RPGs and puzzles. I v played quite a few Zelda titles the final fantasy iv and other games they were awesome because you weren't limited to the turn based system, if you were relly battling do you think a behemoth is going to say"is it your turn or mine?" and for somereason I don't like 2d RPGs like zeonia ect…….
What I really think is every thing is totally awesome the graphics are really cool but just because it is turn based I m not getting it,，if it was free style battling I would or it with out regret.
This isn't 3G or 3GS-only, is it? I hate how it seems every week there's one of those, now…
How does it perform on 3G?
Yes, I'd also like to know how it performs on a 3G. Anyone played it on that model yet? Thanks!
Runs real smooth on 3G. The only minor slowdown I've experienced was during boss battles where the menus were a bit slower to respond than usual, but that's it, no comparison to the jerkiness of some 3D games on the 3G.
Not sure how it compares, but I'm running on a 2G Touch. Perfectly smooth.
Square has come a long way since their half-hearted port of Crystal Defenders
It's nice seeing big name publishers/developers taking the iphone platform seriously 
Hey Guys, I can happily report this works SUPRISINGLY Great on an 1st Generation Ipod Touch. Obviously it works better on the 2nd Gen, but its really GREAT on the the first gen. I'm shocked to be honest.
Thank you for the info, not a lot of games run smoothly on the first generation iPod touch (weakest of all the "iPhone-type" devices).
Holy crap…. this game is awesome. Very well done was worth every penny also it works great on the 3g :}
Hahaha you work for Square-Enix man?
What, you've… never come across a rabid SE RPG fan?
You must be new…
That preview does not want make me want to get this. And I wanted to before I saw that.
I guess the question I'm left to ask when I see this game is, "Can it really be three times as good as Across Age?" I agree that a game could well be worth this price – heck, Space Miner probably is – but keep in mind that the competition is there. Perhaps if they released a lite version I might see enough of the game to decide it was worth getting at that price?
Really now. Across Age's quality aside, I see how you're trying to evaluate price vs worth, in a manner most typical of iDevice gamers, by which I mean to say that iDevice games are a lot which complains incessantly about the cost of games. This strikes me as amusing when compared to the price of the iDevices themselves.
On one hand I'm happy that iDevice games have been competitively run into the ground price-wise, but considering that this is a fully 3D title made by an industry giant, I'd go so far as to say the following:
If you balk at the 13 dollars asked of this game, which is the result of a team of highly skilled and trained people behind it, yet see fit to pay 3 dollars for a glorified flash port (ie. Canabalt), you might need to review your standards.
Er – I'm generally unwilling to pour money into rubbish flash conversions; in fact, I've paid very little for games since buying my iPod touch. I've spent most of my time playing Eliminate and Space Miner, but I'd really like to play a decent RPG. I don't think I want to buy every one that might be good, so I'm likely to just pick one that I like. If you were in my situation, do you honestly think that you wouldn't be concerned with the fact that one of them costs 2.5x as much as the other? And that one lets you try it beforehand and the other doesn't?
I'm not saying this isn't a great game or that it isn't well worth the money, I just think that with the competition I might be unlikely to buy it for now, especially with no lite version.
Oh looks like the JRPGs I played on Playstation 1 in the early 90's. Kinda got bored back then.
Considering that the Playstation came out in 1994 and visually the game Chaos RIngs most resembles is FF VIII (which came out in 1999), my guess is, no, this is nothing like the games you were playing on your non-existent PS1 of the early 90's.
LoL, PWN't
necessary?
PWN't!
Just the icon is TOTALLY random,
which is pity, since this game is having an awesome logo.
Looks freakin' awesome.
Well why am I not surprised that the best that Square can muster up on the iPhone is 15 year old technology. Still the best game right now looks like it could be played on the PS1, Pocket Legends.
Nah, it's too simple and needs soooo many things changed, added or fixed. This game is pretty, fun and by square enix, so it has roughly an 80% chance of not having a crap story.
This is the RPG I've been waiting for. No, not this specific title, but a really good really high quality turn based RPG. I've been playing it for hours now and its been great.
I'd get it, if I used my iPhone as a games machine. Already own a slew of consoles, handhelds or not, so the iPhone gets some play only during long queues or delays in commuting. The portable scene is not short on games like this in general, but as many others have pointed out, this is one of the first (if not the first) decently-budgeted exclusive game on the iDevices.
Games like this need to find an audience, otherwise it's back to quick flash ports, experimental cheapies (which I love, don't get me wrong), and hamstrung conversions like Puzzle Quest and Street Fighter, which are still two of the best games available on the App Store, despite their shortcomings. I find that rather telling.
Could have been a great game, but then they decided to throw in puzzles. I HATE puzzles. Just closed the game when the first showed up and uninstalled it. Too bad.
Seriously?? That's too bad. Almost all RPG's intergrate puzzles in the game. You're probably not an RPG fan, and shouldn't have bought it in the first place.
Hahah @ puzzles…..you must be young.
Yeah, right? You have to think, how awful
Puzzles? These things they include in the game are not puzzles. They are jokes. Seriously.
This game is suprisingly kind to your battery. Chaos Rings and GTA:CTW are both very efficient in not draining your battery. Warp Gate, on the other hand, will chew the living hell out of your battery and in a hurry.
As far as the price goes, a lot of iPod touch owners are kids and cannot afford it. A lot of iPhone owners are casual gamers at best, many of whi v treat their iPhone like a phone, not a gaming device. And a decent percentage of adult idevice owners are cheap/stubborn/entitled. In other words, good luck to SE if they believe they can actually get away with selling this game at this price, because they're gonna need.
I've put my money where my mouth is though. I purchases this game full price, even though I'm a casual idevice gamer with hundreds of games and probably won't play Chaos Rings for more than a few hours before moving on to something else. I don't think too many people will be following my lead on this one though
Heh "following your lead." sorry to break it to you but you didn't invent the more-money-than-time-let-alone-attention syndrome.
$13 only seems high because we've been spoiled by cheap games. I agree with others saying this would be $40 on DS or PSP and a price drop won't come for a long time.
the "kids" argument: if your parents can afford to buy you an iphone and pay the monthly contract fees i'm pretty sure you're getting enough pocket money or whatever your source of "income" is to spend $13 on a game.
the "casual gamer" argument: i thought it was pretty clear from the start that this is geared towards the hardcore crowd. the kind of people whose iphone gaming consists of a session of doodlejump on the bus once in a while probably wouldn't care for chaos rings no matter the price. this game isn't "competing" with every lame flash port on the appstore.
Awesome!! This is a must buy!!! Forget the price, this is the real deal!
I'll wait for the price drop.
i played it for half an hour. I really like the story,lol.
This does look pretty wicked, but the price is too much for me…but ONLY because we (as some of you have said) have been spoiled by iTunes pricing. We are used to paying more for DS/PSP games, but I can still not wrap my head around spending this much for an iPhone game. That said, I would pay AT LEAST that much for the LucasArts classic adventures and some other of my favorite games of yore.
Bought it and played it for an hour so far. Easily the best RPG on the iphone and well worth the money, forget Zenonia and Inonia, whatever those shitty sprite games are called.
Damn.. those are some strong words
in all seriousness though, shove your cheap korean grindfests where the sun don't shine. chaos rings has completely destroyed these games with a single well-aimed blow.
LOL!
Wow, I can't believe a company finally released a game that might actually be worth $13 on the App store. Looks awesome. Buying.
$12.99 raises the price barriers, idiots! Leaves a precedent for all developers to follow and raise their games prices. Who cares if it is worth it or not since you all are already paying $70+ for your data plans. Fools.
Not everyone has an iPhone here… think before you type.
Ah…. you're the idiots who have itouchs and are subsidized by folks paying $70+ a month.
Wait, you're calling us idiots for not paying $70 a month ???
Mark – since you're so cheap already, why aren't you complaining about the price tag?
Anyone playing this on an iPad? Thoughts?
I love this sentiment, "Twelve dollar!!! They should pays me to play teh gamez!!"
Video games are a luxury. Pay up or get the hell out. We don't care if you leave angry, just leave quietly.
Is this one the Palm Pre Plus? I rather it be on that so I don't have to carry both my phone and Itouch. Palm Pre Plus multitasking > Iphone multitasking.
True.
Agreed. Palm Pre definitely is superior compared to iPhone.
As far as the game is concerned, its not available on palm pre yet, but will be ported over really soon. Read the link below to for latest details on when it'll launch for pre
http://bit.ly/aDtPfQ
PWN't
Is anyone else here tired of the same old price arguments? How about posting on the quality of the game and leave the decision to purchase up to the individual. I could care less if you are "Broke" and don't want to buy this game because it costs $xx.xx
God the Internets are filled with annoying whiners.
……and grammatical errors it seems;
*I couldn't care less*
ammendment: the Internets are also filled with really annoying wankers that feel the need to point out grammatical and spelling errors.
I agree with Chad, many people who frequent this site have a lot of double standards – they don't want to pay for a AAA title but at the same time when a great game by a not so famous developer offers the fruit of their labor for next to nothing (Free for a day or limited Sales) its, "Oh I'd pay for that!"/ "I was JUST going to purchase this!" Why don't you all put your money where your mouth is, if you want more titles of this caliber…PAY FOR IT, show some support for crying out loud!
Maybe you'd see more titles like this for less than the asking price because developers would know that people are going to purchase it instead of wading through bloatware until something great comes along.
Dude… you're stating the obvious. The price is correlated to the quality, fun factor, — all that ties into whether a game is worth buying or not. Furthermore, hollistically speaking you're talking about a shift in paradigm. The reason why the games are low"er" priced than the ds and psp, is because of the pricy data plan. I know cats who have expensive Iphones who have 0 apps cause they can't afford to buy games. If software houses keep on raising the prices, everyone here is impacted, not just the "broke" ones.
"Dude" you are conveniently forgetting the fact that there are millions of Touch owners out there that don't pay data plans.
Again, I don't want to hear about your purchase decision. Vote with your wallet, not your mouth.
..its BIG'n'FAT must have ..downloading now
cheers
Any word if there will be an HD iPad version coming.
Man, and I just purchased Zenonia 2 and so far, im 40 hours in the game…
Why did this appeared soo soon? It leaves me no time to finish things…
well played, Square Enix, well played.
btw… price isnt high when it comes to game industry, but its high when it comes to istore market. It is psychological fact. My first thought was "Damn, 13 dollars?" since I never payed so much for single app. But it is worth it.
But someone mentioned here that it can affect market in 2 ways:
a) big game industries start to produce iphone only games with high quality.
b) prices will rise and youll be paying more and more for farting boobs-like apps. For example, I can imagine paying 30+ for new game from EA next year, but with content equals to 5 dollar game.
Since Iphone is very young platform, game developers are still just trying how high they are allowed to go. Well, we will see.
@jc Really? I figured people who have a PSP still buy PSP games. They seem to be still making them and selling them for $30-$40 and people still buy them.
Yes there are no disks and no physical media, but you get the advantage of putting this game on to as many devices that you want that are tied to your account. This was obviously not put together by a 1-2 man shop like many iPhone games, and those people have to get paid in some way.
If people want higher quality games on their iPhone the development teams will have to be larger, thus increasing prices because you have to pay more people to create more content.
8 hours of gameplay?? bad enough i have to deal with an initial 30+ hours of excruciatingly linear ff13. i think i'm done with square.
You …don't… want a lot of game play for your money? Eight hours seems to be a pretty nice middle ground between absurdly long and feeling too short for the price paid. You could stretch that out nicely over a couple sessions playing, or a little bit at a time over the course of a few weeks.
As for the price issue, I bought it right away. Square-Enix rarely ever permanently drop the prices on their titles, and this game looks to be worth it. I was pretty blown away at how amazing the backdrops in the game look. The characters are a little on the jagged side running around on the world map, but I suspect that may be to keep the frame rate up on the older devices. Anti-aliasing isn't cheap on the CPU/GPU. All in all, very impressed on first couple minutes playing, and looking forward to working my way through it.
I think I will wait to see if there is an iPad version forthcoming.
sorry not for this price!!! it's not an iPad game to set such hifh price. 5 bucks would be ok.
Everyone who is complaining about the price needs to chill. $12.99 is a friggin deal for this game. I would have probably paid $20 for it!
If you pay thirteen bucks to buy Doodle Jump thirteen times, it's still just Doodle Jump. But if you pay thirteen bucks for Chaos Rings just once, then no, it's not Doodle Jump.
Understand??
It's just like purchasing the wallet that already belongs to you with the cash still inside.
Think about it.
It doesn't make sense, does it?
Well, I'm not TRYING to make sense.
My enix is round! Deal with it!
The game is great, but why doesn’t Square get the word out about this game. They should have been previewing it on all the game sites (not just iphone gaming sites), and they should be making a big deal about a big budget Square game coming out for the iphone/ipod touch. How is it going to sell well with so little publicity. I want to see more AAA games on the iphone, but how are they going to sell the big numbers needed without putting any effort into advertising. Hardly any of my gaming friends even seem to know this game exists. The only way I know is because I go to iphone gaming sites like this one.
As for the price. You are not going to get any more high production value games on the iphone/ipod touch if you are not willing to part with more money. If you want all your games to look like free flash browser games then sure less than five bucks is fine. People would pay $35 for this game on a DS or PSP, so I think 13 is move than fair.
I worry that if this game does not sell well it will signal the end of big developers putting out high quality games on the iphone. We will be left with low production value games (some good) like Doodle Jump, micro-transaction heavy games like We Rule, and games full of adds. Like it or not developers have to be able to make a good profit or they wont bother. If you want cheap shovel ware, there is already plenty of that in the app store.
I really hope this game sells well. I want to see less quantity, and more quality.
I'm curious as to how the Top Grossing chart on the App Store actually works, because much like Plants vs. Zombies before it, Chaos Rings has skyrocketed to the #1 position basically overnight. Is there a time frame around which sales are ranked (i.e. the last 6 weeks or months?) or is that chart actually accurate from whatever day it was started, and SquareEnix has made that much money already. Either way, it looks to be gaining popularity quick, as it's already #18 on the Top Paid list with over 100 glowing reviews. Hopefully SE thinks this was a success and will pursue more titles.
It's based on the last 24 hours worth of sales.
I second guessed this game because of the price but I figured, what the hell…guys, it's UNBELIEVABLE!! Superb high quality (we expect no less, Square) and worth the $13. What are you waiting for?? GO…NOW!!
Heh. You Americans and your damn cheap apps.
It's "pricey" because it was made by a Japanese company.
You guys are so lucky over there. Here in japan $6 apps IS the standard.
Hell, even $24 apps sells like cake here.
Yes, because "US" American's are the only one's complaining. Idiot…
;
No, no. You missed my point.
I wasn't telling anybody to stop complaining, *I* am complaining up there.
They should bring the US app store pricing logic to Japan. That way, Japanese companies will charge less.
I don’t get the map
.
buying * N O W*
BUYING RIGHT NOW!!!
AMAZING APP!!! I've finished playing the first couple. Will try the other one soon…~ Best app IMO…better than Avatar….~ OMG U guys better get it~
Heh all the people complaining about the price, I assume most of them are 14 or 15 year olds? LMAO!
Can I get a dollar? Does anyone hear $0.99? Sold!
I'm happy with my purchase. What was insane was the 8$ asked for the Final Fantasy port. It's like "Thank you nostalgia, but I already have an emulator, so…". It's pricey, but I guess I can afford it since I don't spend money on random apps (fart&beer anyone?) and go for games with high production value relative whether it's an solo game dev, an indie team or a big company. If you're a compulsive app buyer, if you value quantity over quality or either nor versatile nor hardcore gamer , just wait to see if the game is right for you, bcuz you know square ain't gonna drop dem price ;P 13$