Chaos Galaxy from eastasiasoft, 2P Games, and Han Zhiyu brings us a sci-fi-themed turn-based tactical RPG on Nintendo Switch. Learn more in our Chaos Galaxy review!
Chaos Galaxy from eastasiasoft, 2P Games, and Han Zhiyu brings us a sci-fi-themed turn-based tactical RPG on Nintendo Switch. The great Galactic Empire, which had ruled the galaxy for one thousand years, collapsed under the sudden impact of alien contact and fell into civil war, leading to chaos. There are three thousand worlds in the galaxy, and for one or another reason, the many factions you can play as have set out on this galactic quest. And while all of this is going on, an even greater threat is lurking in the shadows.
It was all started by the great beast named Pale Dragon by the Imperial Observatory, an entity that led millions of alien beasts that attacked across the galaxy. The Emperor commanded 100,000 warships of the great fleet to fight against the hordes, and even though the Pale Dragon was defeated and drawn back into the void, the Emperor did not manage to survive, and the fleet lost more than half of its elite forces.
There are 14 factions for you to choose from, and each one will be led by a unique hero that will command an army with some unique units to consider. Each faction will have different values for prestige, gold, supply, and planets. Each faction will also have a set difficulty for you to keep in mind. There’s the Northsky Fleet, led by Li Chengsong; the Eastocan Fleet, led by Hongyang; the Southeaven Fleet, led by Tigerhill; the Westwastes Fleet, led by Geshu Beidou; the Southsea Guild, led by Zheng Yiguan; the Eastgalaxy Corp. led by Kleven; the Emishi Pirates led by Bontenmaru; the Kurushima Pirates led by Magoichi; the Pella Corps led by Alcibiades; the Lycurgus Corps led by Agis; the Aerie Assassins led by Old Master; the Black Khalif Jihad led by Black Khalif; the Mozi Order led by Qin De; and the Omnic Apocalypse led by Deepwhite.
Along with having unique heroes to lead them and unique units to command, each faction will also have a different background story, armaments, and faction policy tree – more on that in a bit. All things considered, there are over 100 types of mecha and warships, several weapons, plenty of special skills, and 60 commanders, so there’s a ton of content for you to choose from during your time with Chaos Galaxy.
And to allow gamers of different skill levels to enjoy the game, there’s the option of playing in Standard Mode or enabling Beginner Mode. As expected, Standard Mode offers the regular experience, balanced just like the developers wanted Chaos Galaxy to be. Beginner Mode still offers a good challenge, but it will allow gamers new to the genre to have an easier time by greatly increasing gold and supply to help you plan your strategy.
The game can be played either with the Nintendo Switch Joy-Con or by using the console’s touchscreen if playing in Tabletop or Portable Mode. You can also decide if you want to take on the game’s tutorial or if you want to jump straight into the action. Due to all of the stuff that you’ll have to learn, even if you do have experience with the turn-based tactical RPG genre, I would advise that you play through the tutorial. Oh, and if you play through the tutorial missions, you’ll be rewarded for your efforts.
What will be the goal for your run? You’ll have to try to reach one of four potential endings. You can try to unify the galaxy by force by eliminating all other factions. Diplomatic unification is also an option, for which you will need to control more than 50 planets while all other factions are your vassals or allies. The vassal ending requires that you are a vassal and that your suzerain or you own more than 50 planets, while all other factions are vassals or allies of your suzerain. The last option is the cosmos will ending, for which the Black Khalif Jihad must complete a special mission.
For your faction to recruit units, you’ll have to spend gold and supply, as well as the lead points of the fleet. You’ll need to consider the different stats for each unit so that you can revise your production pipeline based on what is needed you’re your short, middle, and long-term plans. Each unit will have different values for power, energy, agility, movement, lead, and upkeep cost, as well as a disband value in case you want to remove it from play.
During your turn, each of the heroes in your control can issue one of the different commands at their disposal. These include attacking another unit, training units by spending some supply to increase the experience of the troops, transferring troops between fleets, trying to capture an enemy planet, reviewing the fleet data, setting a unit to sleep, or having it rest for the turn to end that hero’s actions.
Each faction will have different policies that will allow them to obtain new unit blueprints, boost the effects of military and diplomacy, increase the income for gold and supply, and more. Diplomacy will allow you to try and create alliances with other factions to make it possible for you to complete your goals. For this, you can decide to offer gold or supply, ask for gold or supply, offer a planet, propose war, or talk about independence.
You will also need to manage the planets of your faction by appointing the governor and developing each planet. Under the personnel staff, you can appoint a commander as the Counselor or Marshal, or you can banish a commander if you consider that is the best option. The bigger your plans for the galaxy and the bigger your presence, the more nuanced your choices will need to be.
Chaos Galaxy is a sci-fi-themed, turn-based tactical RPG that’s actually a lot of fun… if you know what you’re doing. The game can feel a bit daunting for newcomers to the genre since there are tons of factions acting at the same time while aiming for the same general goal, and if you don’t manage your resources just right and make every single turn count, you could find yourself in quite the predicament! I did want to mention an issue that happens very often for games that make the jump from PC to consoles is that text ends up feeling too tiny when playing on consoles. That is also the case for Chaos Galaxy, which does end up hurting the experience, given all the information that you’ll need to absorb. Chaos Galaxy is out on Nintendo Switch with a $19.99 price tag.
Disclaimer
This Chaos Galaxy review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by eastasiasoft.
