Chaos Rings

     Chaos Rings is an iPhone RPG. That, by itself, is not particularly amazing. What is amazing, though, is that it's an iPhone RPG made by Square Enix. After playing an hour or two of it, I thought I'd share my thoughts on it so far.

-Graphics-

     Right off the bat, you can see that Chaos Rings has some very nice graphics. I'd go as far as saying that they're close to that of a DS game. It's clear that a lot of effor was put into them. Though, like a DS game, the graphics do have some issues with the edges of objects looking bad, which is probably due to graphical limitations.

-Battle System-

     The battle system is fairly normal for an RPG. You can choose to attack, use an ability or item, or defend. There's an option to escape as well, though I've only used it once so far and I'm not sure exactly how it rates your chance of success (I ran away without a problem). HP is restored at the end of the battle, though MP is not, and you are not told your enemy's HP except for a small HP bar that is shown when choosing your target. There are some interesting deviations to this, though.

     The first is the option that you're presented before you begin each turn: Solo or Pair. Your party is always made up of 2 people, and each turn you either have the choice of attacking individually, giving you two moves as usual, or attack as a pair, which gives you only one move that's boosted in strength. However, choosing Pair also allows enemies to hit both of you when they attack. It's actually an interesting system when you combine it with some other aspects of the combat, and I'll give an example later on.

     The second deviation is the use of Genes. Basically, to get abilities, you can equip up to 3 Gene Plates. Each plate gives you the abilities of the enemy it represents as long as it's equipped. The abilities are unlocked one by one through chance as you defeat those enemies, though I'm not sure if you only get the plate once you've unlocked all the abilities. Because I'm only an hour or two in, I don't have many plates and most of the ones I have overlap abilities, but I can definitely see how choosing plates will become important later on, especially since you have access to both character's abilities while using the Pair option. All abilities use up MP, as you'd usually expect.
     There's also a fairly simple element system. By simple, I mean there's only three elements: Blaze, which beats Gale, which beats Aqua, which in turn beats Blaze. Your characters, as well as most of the enemies I've seen so far, are neutral to begin with. However, there are abilities that are basically "Assign _", which allows you to give any enemy/character an element. Apparently, using an ability with an element sets you to that element as well, though I'm not certain if that lasts for the rest of the battle like the Assign skills do.
In addition, there's a system in place to keep track of who has the advantage in the battle, as shown in a small ring in the top left corner. I haven't actually seen it filled yet, though, so I'm not sure exactly what would happen.
     To give an idea of how this ties together, I'll just give a summary of how my battle with the first dungeon's boss went. On my first turn, I chose Single, and made on character use Analyze, and the other to use a basic attack. Analyze is an ability that gives me information on a single enemy- in this case, I learn that the boss is already assigned to Blaze and has a little over 3000 HP remaining (and no one has attacked at this point). I then select Solo the next turn, using Assign Aqua on both of my characters. Then I go on the offensive, using Pair along with Cocytus, an Aqua magic spell. Because the boss is weak to Aqua, he gets hit for a good 1000+ damage each time I use it. For the last turn, I have to switch due to the characters' HP dipping too low, because the boss has been attacking the entire time. One character heals, the other attacks (and because he's still tied to the Aqua element, does more damage), and the boss falls.
The only other odd thing I've noticed in relation to the battle system was that after a certain point, I noticed I could turn off random encounters. I'm not sure if it was because I hit a certain level or got to a certain area, though. I was only level 6 at the time, and the Dungeon is apparently for levels 1-10, but the boss was only level 7, so it could be anything.

-Music-

     The music is actually pretty good for an iPhone game. It's not amazing when compared to the soundtracks of many other RPGs, but it gets the job done, and there's even been a latin chant or two in the tracks I've heard so far.
     Surprisingly enough, if you go into a game with a music track already playing, it will allow you to listen to that instead, and it will continue through the rest of the playlist/album as normal. I didn't expect that, because although this is a common feature for an iPhone game, I didn't expect it in a game like this.
Additionally, there is an option to change the game into Japanese, but as I haven't actually heard any voice acting so far, it seems to only change the text back into Japanese.

-Story-

     The story, as far as I've seen, has been rather simple. 10 people are transported somewhere to do battle for eternal life, and then are split into pairs. The only other pair that's told me who they actually are has said that they know each other, and the pair I'm playing as, Escher and Musica, have met before as well. And by met, I mean Escher killed all the adults, save for her, at the orphanage she lived at. I was surprised to find out that the character I was playing was a villain, though it's certainly made me more interested in finding out more about him.
     You are expected to play through the story as four of the pairs (with the reason for one of the pairs being unplayable shown within the first few minutes of gameplay), but only two are available at the start. I assume that the other two will be unlocked as I beat these two, either with one more being made available after I beat each pair, or both being made available after I beat the initial two.

-Final Thoughts-

     Is Chaos Rings worth the $13 it costs? Considering that it's a very good iPhone game that could easily be ported and sold as a decent $30 (or more, considering the usual "Square Enix tax") DS game, I'd say yes, it's probably worth it. Though, again, I'm only an hour or two in, so my opinion could very well change as I play more. Right now, I'm definitely pleased with it.