Chrono Ark
Chrono Ark is a singleplayer roguelike that combines elements from deckbuilders and party-based RPGs. Recruit, train, and build a team of unique Investigators to restore the Twisted World!
Chrono Ark is a roguelike deckbuilder, anime and rpg game
developed and published by Al Fine.
Released on May 02nd 2024 is available only on Windows
in 5 languages: English, Korean, Japanese, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese.
It has received 11,493 reviews of which 10,312 were positive and 1,181 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.7 out of 10. š
The game is currently priced at 18.37ā¬ on Steam and has a 25% discount.
The Steam community has classified Chrono Ark into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
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Requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- OS *: Windows 7 or later
- Processor: Intel Core i3
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: 1gb VRAM, OpenGL 3.0 support
- Storage: 5 GB available space
Reviews
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
For those who wonder what is the recent drama of this game: The recent game updates have broken a large amount of mods. One of the devs argued with mod creators in Chinese community, continued ignoring their opinions, and finally muted the mod creators (one of them is also the founder of the Workshop support of this game, as acknowledged in the contribution list of the game). As a result, a few mod creators left the community and deleted their mods. You can see the devs' apology message in the most recent news in the steam page. If you are a player who just wants to play the game and doesn't care about dramas, this game is truly one of the best deckbuilding rougelite games. If you only play the vanilla game, nothing will be affected and you can just enjoy the game. If you would like to add a few mods, there are still hundreds of mods and some of the deleted mods are brought back by others, so you can still enjoy the QOL additions, new characters, and new enemies from the mods. Although the development of some new mods may be delayed because of the incident.
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Genuinely one of the best roguelike deckbuilders. If you can embrace the anime theme, the story is good, the characters amazing, the cards unique and fantastic. The min-maxing strong, the bosses crazy. The final boss fights will make you take several days to recover from. Recent negative reviews are because of a controversy regarding the way a developer interacted with a modder. It has nothing to do with the game itself. The dev was in the wrong and has been punished, so the correct steps were taken. The game itself still stands as an incredible example of a roguelike deckbuilder.
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ā ļø Beware of some reviews! DO NOT FALL INTO THE TRAP! The game is VERY GOOD but it is not for everyone! Chrono Ark vs. Slay the Spire Many people will tell you that Chrono Ark is way better than Slay the Spireā¦ The truth is, IT DEPENDS: Slay the Spire (A20) is easy to learn. The cards are simple, and you will quickly understand what to do. You know the enemiesā intentions and you can easily counter them. Plus, you can finish your runs in under 20 minutes, and the game autosaves during the run. Chrono Ark, on the other hand, is hard to learn. Most skills are complex with a bunch of synergies , so you will need to invest TIME AND PATIENCE to know what is going on. You will have to learn how to fight each enemy, as there are no clues about their actions, and each enemy has different mechanics. The biggest downside, in my opinion, is that the runs in Chrono Ark are longer : my fastest run, rushing like madman, took 55 minutes. Most runs will take over an hour to finish, and you have to manually save. So, if you want quick runs with friendly mechanics , Slay the Spire is better. If you want a complex and challenging game with waifus/husbandos, deep strategy, a story and longer runs, Chrono Ark is the choice. About Chrono Ark I initially hated this game. [url=https://steamcommunity.com/app/1188930/discussions/0/4354495576380388478/]I even opened a thread on the official forums to understand how to read the f*****g skills. But once I managed to understand the game, I loved it. You can choose from 20 characters and form a party of 4 . Each character has unique card sets (skills), roles and passives. At the start of a run (and depending on the mode), you can only choose 2 characters from the pool to form your team. You will recruit the rest randomly during the run. You will also get each characterās skills randomly, thatās the deckbuilding part. Likewise, you can equip each character with 2 pieces of gear (some with special perks) that you will obtain randomly from events or shops. In those events/shops, you can also get Relics. Relics passively enhance the party. Unlike in Slay the Spire, Relics must be placed on a Stand to take effect, and there are limited slots! Also everything happens in a randomly generated map full of secrets! So yeah, it is quite likely that each run will be unique. Combat You will not always face the same enemies or bosses. There are many, and each has their own mechanics. Often, you will not win by brute force; if you ignore the mechanics, you will wipe and cry. All of this comes with a wonderful combat soundtrack! Generally, the combat is like a JRPG: turn-based. Although this is not entirely true, because depending on the skills, passives, and enemies, EVERYTHING CAN VARY A LOT. Most combats might seem unfair at first and even completely unbalanced. And that is true. But the game usually gives you enough resources to compensate it, you just need knowledge. Although letās be honest , if you have had bad luck, some battles are impossible to win, lol There are also multiple game modes and challenges to raise the difficulty, and if you get bored, you can always install mods with new characters, enemies, difficulties and a lot of stuff! Story The game has a story, and it is okay. However, there is a lot of textā¦ Most of the stuff that takes over 30 minutes of reading can be summarized in 5 linesā¦ You will gradually discover what is happening as you play naturally. You will also unlock some CDs that, when you watch them at home, will complement the story details quite well. While the story is not a masterpiece , it is quite interesting. However, as I have mentioned, it can feel quite overwhelming because it doesnāt know how to summarize the information (just like this review, lol). Anyway, if you don't like to read, you can skip it. Conclusion I recommend buying this game if you meet most of these points: [*] You are a waifu lover [*] You enjoy playing complex games [*] You love JRPGs [*] You like deckbuilders [*] You have fun reading a lot of text I donāt recommend this game if: [*] It is not on sale [*] You hate fanservice [*] You are looking for a simple game [*] You cry when an enemy unfairly wipes your entire party [*] You donāt have enough time to play (you want fast runs)
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Chrono Ark is a phenomenal game and deserves far more recognition. I got the game just a month ago, and was instantly hooked by the unique gameplay mechanics as a deckbuilder, the constantly evolving story ā yes, an actual start-to-finish story ā and the large cast of characters. Gameplay You're buying a deckbuilder. There's lots of them, and gameplay is king in this genre, so you're probably asking "Why play this over Slay the Spire or Monster Train or Balatro?" The story, but we'll get back to thatā¦ The gameplay is a mix of an RPG and deckbuilder. You control the main character, Lucy, and up to four allies from a roster of 20. Each character has their own unique set of 12 cards to choose from, and each characterās cards combine to form your full deck. Each character feels unique with their own mechanics and keywords, and covers a lot of build space with each character usually offering two similar themes. A lot of the fun is finding new synergies between characters. Lucy, as the party leader, also has her own set of cards, providing support such as extra mana, mana efficiency and card draw. Gameplay takes place on a hex grid with points of interest and combat encounters that block the way, ending with a boss arena on the right-side of the map. You can obtain relics that modify gameplay (just like Slay the Spire relics), and each character can also equip items that improve their own stats, or level up and learn new skills. In a word, the deckbuilding part really comes down to choice . Every single point of interest and every chest gives you something to choose between; you might choose to discover a blood donation clinic that pays with keys, or an alchemist's hut for extra potions. Of course, they might not always be good choices, but you will never have an option that is worse than nothing where āskipping rewards" becomes the best play, unlike other games. Unwanted items may have a use with the right building, and even curses can be lifted. Deck thinning is not a concern in the game either; if a character learns a new skill, they can freely forget a different skill if they have more than 6, letting you focus on incremental improvements instead. Though you can still manipulate deck size by adding and playing āOnceā cards, similar to Exhaust. In combat, there are almost too many mechanics to cover in a single review, but there is an excellent tutorial that covers the general ones. Combat is turn-based but with a twist: Enemies have an 'action timer' instead. As you play cards, the timer ticks down, and will perform their action when their timer reaches 0. This makes turns less of a back-and-forth and you have to respect when enemies act. Some enemies and cards also directly play with the action timer too, such as applying short term buffs, or dealing counter attacks. Other mechanics include managing mana costs between characters with overload, which increases costs of cards played by the same character per turn. The health system also has surprising depth with healing gauge and ādeath's doorā, and several characters encourage you to play around with it such as the crazed swordsman Hein. The flexibility and choice in the overworld is also present in combat too; you can exchange a card for a new one each turn, and each party member can also select one card to be a 'fixed ability' that can always be played no matter what cards you drew. And the game features a wide range of difficulty modes such as Expert, Blood Mist, a harder side dungeon, as well as Workshop support with the popular Expert+ mode which has further modifiers of its own such as Despair Mode, if you have A20 down. And there is also an easier Hope Mode if you just want to see more of the story... Story Roguelikes aren't known for their story; playing repeated runs is a tricky template to work with narratively and is usually brushed aside or contained in small lore snippets. Chrono Ark is an unparalleled exception to this rule. The story is a deep visual novel told both during runs and backstory from records you can find and play between runs that give hints about the history of the Ark. It has a lot of mystery and emotional moments throughout and could keep you thinking for hours, finding connections in dialogue with the current story and background records. It is indeed 'best played blind', though you need something more than that... The story starts with the world suffering a Great Catastrophe. A thick black fog rolled across the whole world leaving monsters in its wake. Scientists rushed to construct a floating Ark as a safe haven from the fog. However, the scientists inexplicably disappeared, and could only get a final message out to the world: "Activate the Clock Tower to restore the world". To turn back time to before the Catastrophe. The girl in the title card, Lucy, is found to be the Girl of Prophecy that the inhabitants of the Ark have been hoping for, for only she has the power to locate the 'Time Shades' that are needed to power the Clock Tower. She is then tasked to lead the Investigation Team into the unknowable Twisted Land outside the safety of the Ark for the Time Shades, and hopefully, activate the Clock Tower. However, not all is as it seems . As you explore the Twisted Land, you might experience things that seem out of place, and come across lore notes that tell fragments of the history of the Ark and its inhabitants. From the very start, questions arise: What was that vision, a dream? And why is the loop counter at 499? There are many characters in the story, each with their own complex motivations. Outside of the main story, each of the investigators can also be given gifts during a run, and will have conversations with Lucy while at camp between stages. Some characters have more involvement in the main story than others, but all have their own story arc to tell. They will also have banter and comments on one another's combat style. Other elements and closing The OST is fantastic, especially during boss fights. The character and card art is great. The sound effects are more standard fare but do the job well, and there's a few standouts like Silversteinās Mosin ping . The gameplay UI is also clean and well presented. This is a very unassuming game at first, but this is a masterpiece of a game that is well worth the price even if you aren't a fan of the deckbuilder genre. The story itself is enough to carry the game; the innovative gameplay and character design seals it. There's even a phoenix that throws bread. Yes, bread.
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won the game on the first try and the fucking tutorial bird said "damn you weren't supposed to do that" and killed me 10/10
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Last Updates
| Steam data | 21 November 2024 00:20 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 23 December 2024 01:02 |
| Steam price | 23 December 2024 12:50 |
| Steam reviews | 23 December 2024 18:01 |
Online players
701
Developer
Al Fine
Publisher
Al Fine
Release
02 May 2024
Platforms