Chrono Gear: Warden of Time combines two of my favourite issues: motion platformers and hololive. As implied by its title, the sport facilities across the sardonic and leggy Ouro Kronii from the English 2nd era, Promise. Her official backstory positions her as an overseer of time itself, and her function in Chrono Gear sees her recovering the stolen items of a temporal gadget of her personal making by means of sword slashes, time manipulation, and different methods.
Whereas utilizing the favored VTuber firm as a foundation doesn’t assure high quality, I discovered Chrono Gear immensely satisfying to play. The fundamental controls will be type of clunky at first, however it doesn’t take lengthy for Kronii to regulate easily and comfortably in a number of eventualities and gameplay modes. And in contrast to a variety of platformers that mainly demand precision from its gamers, Chrono Gear is honest and lenient even within the hardest problem with out feeling like handholding. The levels are artistic and meant to have a number of paths with out being targeted on exploration, just like 2D Sonic the Hedgehog video games. And as a fan of fine boss fights, I’m joyful this one has them in spades. It doesn’t harm that La+ and the women of holoX are amongst them.
I’m by no means a fan of video games that make you employ all 4 shoulder buttons, however I do know that’s simply frequent lately.
Very like the bullet heaven recreation HoloCure, Chrono Gear doesn’t waste its use of well-liked supply materials. It’s clearly made by followers who love hololive, they usually incorporate its lore and historical past in artistic ways in which typically add to the gameplay as a substitute of simply being there for taste and fanservice. Different hololive members (notably the remainder of the total hololive Promise roster) make appearances—and whether or not they’re buddy or foe, their personalities come by means of in dialogue, animations, and actions. Certainly one of my favourite examples is how the time-traveling Amelia Watson (a mere human amongst supernatural beings and cosmic deities) has 4 smaller well being bars as a substitute of a single massive one. There’s only a nice fusion of assorted parts with a variety of care put into the entire bundle.
The funniest factor about this recreation is that it’s mainly an especially intricate and interactive piece of TimeRyS fanfiction, pairing Kronii together with her genmate IRyS in not-so-subtle methods. However even when you don’t care about this ship or delivery basically, there’s greater than sufficient to make taking part in Chrono Gear a worthwhile expertise. It doesn’t demand your consideration, but it’s straightforward to sink in increasingly more hours—to beat the sport, relive your favourite components, enhance your stage occasions/scores, and even simply take pleasure in its stunning world.
