iPod Touch Review: CHAOS RINGS II

From the creators that brought you the famous (legendary?) series Final Fantasy comes a new RPG adventure in the form of CHAOS RINGS II for the iPod Touch. Exciting, mystical, and dangerous, Square Enix continues to impress with its mind for creativity and amazing graphics.

In CHAOS RINGS II, you play as reluctant hero Darwin, who has been forced to kill best friend Orlando, ironically no fault of his own as you would’ve played as Orlando but as fate would have it, he saves Darwin at the price of his own life. Present to your ‘cold murder’ of Orlando are the other four people that Orlando is close to: half-sister Marie, martial arts expert (and perhaps love interest of Orlando?) Li Hua, reckless warrior Araki (who reminds me of Zanpaki from Bleach) and scared little kid Connor (who was guarded by Orlando and Darwin a year prior to these events happening). Darwin and these four characters are known as the Nominator and Candidates, the latter four whom must be sacrificed as Pillars to keep the world from falling into darkness and destruction, thanks to the Destroyer. Ah, lovely. That sounds like so much fun, especially when not one of you has a clue as to what is going on and you all journey together (in pairs at times) to discover how to safe the world and whether to trust one another or not. Because really, Darwin must kill the Candidates in order for the world to survive and given that he feels so much guilt towards Orlando’s death (though he really was controlled), no wonder he’s so whiny about the entire thing. I’d be too because killing family and friends isn’t what I signed up for.

Truth be told, I never grew up playing any of the Final Fantasy games (ok, I may have played just a teeeeeeeeeeny bit of Final Fantasy XII), but I did keep myself somewhat updated about the latest and greatest of the FF series. (I suppose that listening to the music counts a little bit, right?) But Square Enix is probably one of the best game creators there ever was. You know the graphics? Amazing. HD. Beautiful. Though I’m sure playing this game on a Gameboy or PS3 or Xbox360 would be so much better. Square Enix continues to impress with how much effort and time they spend on the graphics and it’s always a bonus when you play games with good storylines and amazing graphics. After all, it just makes the playing experience that much better.

Another thing that I enjoyed was that the characters would speak in Japanese. I’m pretty sure that there is an option where you listen to the characters in English (I haven’t bothered looking), but when there are subtitles when the characters speak in Japanese? No need for English audio. Oh and I hate just about anything dubbed because I can never stand dubbed games/anime. So +1 to you, Square Enix, for using Japanese audio. It makes everything just more authentic (and you can feel the emotions in their voices whenever they’re frustrated or depressed - it’s a little amusing, especially the accompanying graphics). Forgot to mention: there is an in-game tutorial that is extremely helpful and teaches you all you need to know about the game. You can also find it in the menu if you news to refer back to the game. But I rather much have a physical game manual, you know?

While I enjoyed the storyline and graphics (and the occasional frustration because my characters were weak and couldn’t withstand attacks - but having them recover HP after every battle was awesome), there are two things that irk me just a bit. Just a little. First is that floating joystick. I understand that, you know, it’s a touchscreen, so I won’t be able to use a physical joystick. But at least make it a little easier to use. I expect to be able to move wherever I want, you know, without flailing around and hurting my thumb in the process (ok, I’m just exaggerating a little but that joystick isn’t the kindest thing in the world). Second, that price tag of $17.99. Square Enix, I may love you and all, but $17.99? Really? And games are never on sale. Boo. Not that I know of. It’s a hefty game tag, but with the amazing graphics and good history of Square Enix, you know you will be getting much bang for your buck.

If you love RPGs and don’t mind forking over $17.99, go get CHAOS RINGS II. You don’t need to know its predecessors (CHAOS OMEGA and CHAOS RINGS) in order to play.

Interested in wanting to know more or to purchase the game? Click here.