Chantelise ~A Tale of Two Sisters~ is the second game of EasyGameStations that Carpe Fulgur LLC has publisher; the first being Reccetear ~An Item Shop’sTale~ which was well recieved selling over 100,000 copies. As you could have guessed from the title, the story follows the adventures of two sisters, Chante and Elise. One night the moon turns red and the sisters are drawn outside, after being told several times not to, where they are msyteriously transported somewhere. Upon arrival they see a silhouette of a witch infront of the moon who turns Chante into a fairy before being transported back. This spars the two to go on an adventure to find this witch and have her turn Chante back to normal. A while after this incident we come to the point where the story begins. Chante and Elise have been travelling for awhile, building up some combat experience, and they arrive in a new town after saving the local storekeeper, Aria. She gives them a place to stay and a clue to finding the witch they are after…
Your adventures take you across five dungeons, with a further two being unlocked upon game completion, in a hack’n’slash style combat. Instead of being a repetitive button masher, combat stays interesting with it’s interesting magic system. Hitting monsters, or parts of the scenery, will sometimes drop magic gems which can be combined to create bigger and more devastating spells before Chante unleashes them on your foes. To also make the levels more interesting there is a hidden treasure on each stage which requires you to fulfil a certain requirement such as killing a special monster or hitting a certain object. These items help greatly in combat situations and some such as the wings boots are a must to get as they are needed to get some of the other treasures. To finish off each dungeon there is ofcoarse a boss monster. These boss monsters are certainly challenging but once you have figured out their weakness you are sure to kill them.
Most will probably think that the graphics, mainly for the characters, are a little outdated but they have their charm; If you didn’t like them at the start of the game I’m sure you’ll come to like them before the end. Music for the game was very fitting and sound effects really added to the action. Important parts of the game and the magic spells were also dubbed over with Japanese voices which is a lovely addition to the funny if not generic storyline the game has. The game is more than worth its price of £6.49 from either Steam or GamersGate and will offer you a solid 10-20 hours of game play. This isn’t as much game play as you would get for purchasing EasyGameStations other game Recettear but Chantelise was actually made before. It’s nice to see that EGS are improving and I’m very much looking forward to another of their games being published overseas.
Gameplay
Interesting hack’n’sash combat with challenging boss battles. There is even a fishing mini-game where you use Chante in a rubber ring as the bait. Once you’ve done everything though you don’t really have a reason to stay.
Graphics
A little outdated but they have their charms.
Sound
Fitting background music and even the original Japanese voices were kept.
Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
