Generation of Chaos
Only the truly hardcore need apply.
Published: March 24, 2006
It's never a good thing when a publisher has to release a near-80 page guide to help explain a game, and it's even crazier that it's a PSP game at that. But then Generation of Chaos is not your typical strategy RPG. In point of fact, it's probably the most hardcore SRPG I've ever seen. Sadly, it's the most inaccessible, too.
For most, this will be the first introduction to the GoC series, but it's technically a port from the PS2 of the fourth game in the series. As such, it's set up with the assumption that you've probably played the games in the past. Except of course I haven't, and the PSP screen isn't the best fit for some of the more minute details that the game heaps on the player.
It wouldn't be so difficult if the game and storyline were geared more towards explaining things, but you're thrust right into the game without so much as an in-game tutorial and menus littered with abbreviated options. You're literally dumped right into a battle about three minutes after starting the game and given literally zero explanation of what you're even supposed to do.
If you can stick it out for a couple of hours (no, that's not an exaggeration), you'll slowly start to get a sense of the storyline, and it is interesting in that familiar warring kingdoms style experience (there are two kingdoms that you play as, but the default is set up for beginners, even though the other one is labeled as such). Developer Idea Factory took the time to try to pluck out some main characters to focus on despite the fact that there are literally dozens of generals that are leading battles that you'll never really learn more about.
Because generals are the only ones that can gain experience from battles, there's a bit of a schism between the people you're invested in and the ones that are just there as battle fodder. The battles themselves are an odd beast. Most of your time spent in clashes is done with slowly moving little guys firing objects back and forth while damage numbers are tallied above their heads.
Since you control the general (and the formation of the soldiers, though even later on, I never really saw a discernable difference in things unless the armies were vastly outmatched), you can issue basic commands to the troops or unleash area effect attacks around the enemy general. Actually kicking these off slows the game down even more, so that swirling vortex tends to look like it's swirling underwater, and it actually starts to feel a little tedious.
Tedium is something you're probably going to be experiencing a lot of at first anyway, since there are tons of actions you can take before you ever start moving troops around the frankly fugly grid map. Restocking troops, shopping for items (the goods of which are actually determined by the size of the building they're in, and you can spend money to upgrade buildings for better goods), attack enemy spots on the map, reshape the landscape and generally just take in the map before you end your turn.
I know I'm harping on the game's almost pretentious assumption that you should know how to play it, but there is fun to be had here, you're just going to have to shut off that instant gratification ADD mode and be willing to make some serious mistakes -- possibly even starting over (I did it twice before I finally felt like I even had a basic grasp of things) -- while you basically bumble through things in trial-and-error fashion.
That said, if you can shelve the need for instant (or, uh, prolonged) gratification, you'll find a game with some decent ideas. Having the level of control that you do over every single facet of a battle can be, at times, intoxicating -- especially when you can anticipate upcoming moves and counter them in a turn or two. The flipside to this, though, is that there are times when it's all overwhelming and there can be a sense of the battle going on around you without you having any control of the sway.
Granted, this may be the closest thing one could get to actually playing a real general without handholding, but it's not something you can just plop down into and play for short stints at a time, which is essentially what the PSP is for. This is a game where you can blow through an entire battery and not feel like you've progressed the storyline all that much. You have been warned.
It's also fair to warn you that this is not a game that uses the PSPs muscle for aesthetics. Generation of Chaos does sport some cute sprites, nice hand-drawn portraits during cutscenes, and a cohesive -- if simplistic -- art design. All of this tends to fall apart on the main map, which is a blurry, stretched mess of low-res textures. You certainly get used to it, but it's not a pretty sight after any length of time. This goes double for the font and smallish text that is used throughout the game, which can range from fairly legible to downright squint-worthy.
Aurally, things are more even. Cute music and plucky menu chimes and confirmation tones both keep things sounding pleasant, but it's hard to pin down anything especially memorable. I don't think I've ever spent so little time talking about a game's audio before, but there simply isn't anything amazing or horrid about it. It's not bad, but it's not good enough that you'll be humming songs or recalling quotes later a few minutes after you shut off your PSP.
What we're left, then is a strategy RPG that hasn't really let go of the console roots in the transition to a handheld. So much of the game feels like a quick and dirty port, and while that means we finally have access to the first RPG on the genre-starved PSP, it's not really the kind of first effort one would hope for. It's detailed and lengthy enough, sure, but as a product that delivers something unique to Sony's handheld, it falls way, way too short.
For most, this will be the first introduction to the GoC series, but it's technically a port from the PS2 of the fourth game in the series. As such, it's set up with the assumption that you've probably played the games in the past. Except of course I haven't, and the PSP screen isn't the best fit for some of the more minute details that the game heaps on the player.
It wouldn't be so difficult if the game and storyline were geared more towards explaining things, but you're thrust right into the game without so much as an in-game tutorial and menus littered with abbreviated options. You're literally dumped right into a battle about three minutes after starting the game and given literally zero explanation of what you're even supposed to do.
If you can stick it out for a couple of hours (no, that's not an exaggeration), you'll slowly start to get a sense of the storyline, and it is interesting in that familiar warring kingdoms style experience (there are two kingdoms that you play as, but the default is set up for beginners, even though the other one is labeled as such). Developer Idea Factory took the time to try to pluck out some main characters to focus on despite the fact that there are literally dozens of generals that are leading battles that you'll never really learn more about.
Because generals are the only ones that can gain experience from battles, there's a bit of a schism between the people you're invested in and the ones that are just there as battle fodder. The battles themselves are an odd beast. Most of your time spent in clashes is done with slowly moving little guys firing objects back and forth while damage numbers are tallied above their heads.
Since you control the general (and the formation of the soldiers, though even later on, I never really saw a discernable difference in things unless the armies were vastly outmatched), you can issue basic commands to the troops or unleash area effect attacks around the enemy general. Actually kicking these off slows the game down even more, so that swirling vortex tends to look like it's swirling underwater, and it actually starts to feel a little tedious.
Tedium is something you're probably going to be experiencing a lot of at first anyway, since there are tons of actions you can take before you ever start moving troops around the frankly fugly grid map. Restocking troops, shopping for items (the goods of which are actually determined by the size of the building they're in, and you can spend money to upgrade buildings for better goods), attack enemy spots on the map, reshape the landscape and generally just take in the map before you end your turn.
I know I'm harping on the game's almost pretentious assumption that you should know how to play it, but there is fun to be had here, you're just going to have to shut off that instant gratification ADD mode and be willing to make some serious mistakes -- possibly even starting over (I did it twice before I finally felt like I even had a basic grasp of things) -- while you basically bumble through things in trial-and-error fashion.
That said, if you can shelve the need for instant (or, uh, prolonged) gratification, you'll find a game with some decent ideas. Having the level of control that you do over every single facet of a battle can be, at times, intoxicating -- especially when you can anticipate upcoming moves and counter them in a turn or two. The flipside to this, though, is that there are times when it's all overwhelming and there can be a sense of the battle going on around you without you having any control of the sway.
Granted, this may be the closest thing one could get to actually playing a real general without handholding, but it's not something you can just plop down into and play for short stints at a time, which is essentially what the PSP is for. This is a game where you can blow through an entire battery and not feel like you've progressed the storyline all that much. You have been warned.
It's also fair to warn you that this is not a game that uses the PSPs muscle for aesthetics. Generation of Chaos does sport some cute sprites, nice hand-drawn portraits during cutscenes, and a cohesive -- if simplistic -- art design. All of this tends to fall apart on the main map, which is a blurry, stretched mess of low-res textures. You certainly get used to it, but it's not a pretty sight after any length of time. This goes double for the font and smallish text that is used throughout the game, which can range from fairly legible to downright squint-worthy.
Aurally, things are more even. Cute music and plucky menu chimes and confirmation tones both keep things sounding pleasant, but it's hard to pin down anything especially memorable. I don't think I've ever spent so little time talking about a game's audio before, but there simply isn't anything amazing or horrid about it. It's not bad, but it's not good enough that you'll be humming songs or recalling quotes later a few minutes after you shut off your PSP.
What we're left, then is a strategy RPG that hasn't really let go of the console roots in the transition to a handheld. So much of the game feels like a quick and dirty port, and while that means we finally have access to the first RPG on the genre-starved PSP, it's not really the kind of first effort one would hope for. It's detailed and lengthy enough, sure, but as a product that delivers something unique to Sony's handheld, it falls way, way too short.
