Elven Chronicles

As you can probably tell by the name, Elven Chronicles is all medieval with swords and dragons and spells and all that. It’s an RPG, and if you’re a big enough nerd to automatically know that an RPG is a role-playing game then this is may be something you could sink your teeth into. People who have already compared it to Zelda and Final Fantasy are right on in some respects… it’s a little like old school Zelda (but better!) in the graphics department and similar to Final Fantasy in that it features turn-based battles, but whether or not you go ga-ga for this game will depend on what kind of RPG’er you are and that’s something I’ll get into later.

Every RPG is set against a storyline backdrop, and in this one you play the role of Rogan, a young stud who wakes up after being ambushed by bad guys. Apparently it’s your lucky day because you’re being cared for by a hot elf girl named Jada and, if it were me, I’d probably sit around drinking ale all day and let the world go to hell. Luckily for mankind, though, Rogan is waaaaay more noble than I am so he and the lady elf immediately go off and start completing quests handed to them by the locals. Obtain these items, defeat that monster, become a Level (x) badass, that kind of thing.

Like most RPGs, the general flow of the game goes something like this:

• Talk to people you find in the towns you visit
• Go out and fight a lot of monsters which gradually increases your character’s level and badassery
• Return to whoever gave you the quest to collect your reward
• Continue on to new lands, people, and quests as they’re unlocked

Not every sword & sorcerer role-playing game in the world follows this exact formula, but it’s usually pretty close and Big Blue Bubble has done a pretty good job of equipping you to carry out your tasks. Movement around the 2D environments is done with a tap that will send you a few paces in your chosen direction, and to move continuously takes regular tapping but, thankfully, it can be done at a reasonable pace.

Bad guys are represented by tornadoes of various colors that reveal themselves in an up-close battlefield when you make contact with them. Just like you’d expect, monsters have different vulnerabilities that you can exploit with all the nifty magic tricks you’ll pick up as your character gains levels. Water-based monsters are vulnerable to lightning, fire monsters are vulnerable to ice, earth monsters (like giant earthworms) actually gain hit points when you cast an earth spell on them… you get the idea.

The battle system is pretty simple: Rogan and Jada each have default attacks that don’t require magic points, and if you want to cast some magic or use an item like potion or “magic water” (restores magic points like Ether in Final Fantasy) you just need to hit the right icon. Once the battle is over, hit points and magic points will gradually regenerate as you walk around, so if you’re near death try not to greet another tornado until you’ve fully recovered.

Battles in Elven Chronicles, just like the rest of the game, are very nice to look at. Each type of attack produces a different mini-animation and sound effect and it feels solid, but to be honest it gets kind of tedious after a while! Even when I was playing Ultima III on my Nintendo 20 years ago the battles were engaging because there was some kind of strategy involved, but in Elven’s battles there’s not much to do except tap-tap-tap and, unless you’re fighting some monsters that are way out of your league, you’re gonna win. It does help to pick the right kind of attack depending on the monsters you’re trying to wack, but beyond that it’s fairly bland.

Once you get past the battles, there’s really not a whole lot more going on in this game. You can equip your characters with upgraded weapons and armor and magical thingies that make them invulnerable to this and that, but other kinds of customization aren’t available and even though there’s some semblance of a story it’s not really enough to call this a “saga” by any means… and that brings us back to whether or not you’ll go ga-ga for Elven Chronicles.

In my mind, there are three main reasons to play an RPG:

1. To play out a story, as in actual “role-playing”
2. To master the strategy & problem-solving aspect that a lot of RPGs involve
3. To develop your character into a super-powerful force of destruction

I can’t really say that #1 and #2 apply to Elven Chronicles because, like I said, there isn’t much story or strategy. When you’re given a new objective in this game it may take a while to complete it, but you pretty much just need to walk around long enough and fight enough monsters to get it done.

You can, however, accomplish #3 and turn Rogan and Jada into ass-kicking forces of destruction if you fight a whole lotta monsters and level them way past the pitiful Level 18 that I’ve achieved. For some people this could be a lot of fun, but for me it’s just not that engaging.

Everything else about the game and the production values is great, especially since Big Blue Bubble’s latest update which added iPod playability and an autosave feature. The only question is how much do you enjoy hunting monsters and leveling up? If you live for it, then you’ll probably get the 20+ hours of gameplay that BBB promises, but if not then Elven Chronicles may not be what you’re looking for.

iTunes Link – Elven Chronicles
Version 1.1
Reviewed on iPhone 3G OS3.1.2