As far as I’m concerned, there’s nothing quite like a good turn-based role-playing game. There’s just something about knowing that you outsmarted your opponent, rather than just using your reflexes in an action game, that feels so darn good. I fell in love with the genre as a child, and it’s been disappointing to see so many high-profile RPGs opt towards active or MMO-like battle-systems. One game that’s looking to bring back the greatness of turn-based RPGs is Airship Syndicate’s Battle Chasers: Nightwar.
Based off the short-lived comic book series of the same name, Battle Chasers stars a a ragtag group of adventurers that include a young orphan that wields magical gauntlets, a caring war golem, an old wizard, a talented swordsman, and bewitching bounty hunter that rarely holds an allegiance for long. All of their personalities are quickly demonstrated in a great animated opening movie, and I was looking forward to learning more about each of them. As mentioned before, Nightwar features classic turn-based combat. I had control of three party members at a time (as luck would have it, the team gets split up early on, and I only had three characters to choose from), and I got to choose from a number of instant attacks and special abilities that cast mana. While there’s a lot that’ll be familiar to role-playing veterans, there’s one great twist that really made me fall in love with the battle system. By using regular ...