Chantelise - A Tale of Two Sisters (2006)

Chantelise: A Tale of Two Sisters is a 3rd person action/fighting game from 2006. Don't be turned off by the cute anime appearance: this game is actually similar to Dark Souls except you play as a pair of cute sisters. Odd, no? The sisters are named Chante & Elise (hence the game's title). As the game starts, Chante has been turned into a fairy by an evil witch, so both sisters (who were originally human) are searching across this medieval-fantasy setting to try to locate this witch and return Chante to normal. This configuration of sisters is woven into the game mechanics; Chante is a spell-caster and Elise uses a sword. So in playing the game you are always using a combination of ranged attacks (spells) and melee (from Elise's sword).

(No medieval-fantasy game is complete without a tutorial dungeon filled with slimes)

The fighting mechanics are the core of this game and that's what appeals most, so I'll give some more details. The game works well with a controller and feels a bit like a Souls game. Elise has a bunch of sword-slash moves, plus a dodge-roll for avoiding enemy attacks. You must observe enemies carefully and time dodges according to their animations/movement. When you kill enemies they drop crystals of various colours. You collect these crystals and they are used as mana to cast spells. Different crystals and crystal combinations will allow you to fire off different spells. There are many spells, and they include defensive magic, healing, as well as buffs and ranged attacks. This magic system is actually really ingenious and allows for some great gameplay, full of surprises as your tactics evolve depending on which crystals the enemies drop.

The game world consists of a couple safe hub areas (like Firelink Shrine! ;) where NPCs are gathered. You visit these areas between quests to trade in your treasure, restock items and play the story elements. The story is told in a brief visual novel style, though the narrative is surprisingly solid. The story is both engaging and comical and the characters genuinely made me laugh. This worked really well, as it feels necessary to hear some clever comic relief between the very difficult gameplay sections.

You don't level up like an RPG, instead you can find items in the world or buy them from merchants. Items will change your stats and give you certain buffs. In this way you can equip items to buff your spells, melee, or different defences. This gives you more flexibility and also allows you to change your build on the fly depending on which enemy you're facing.

Aside from the hub areas, the world is split into around eight main regions; each region has a story arc and consists of around 7 or 8 levels/areas, making for a pretty large game overall. At the end of each region you'll encounter a boss; once the boss is defeated you'll unfold a new part of the story and the next region will be unlocked.

The combat in the game is really well-designed, as I've said, and it's fun to play, especially in the mob-infested levels. You get to explore everything from caves, jungles, ancient temples, cities and so on. These are filled with all manner of bizarre enemies which (though difficult) also fit the cute appearance of the game (like little Pokemon dudes). But the game is notorious for its boss fights, and that's when things get a bit wild.

I've read many reviews which say the boss fights in this game are too difficult. Given the cute/innocent appearance of this title and the silly story, I can totally understand how the bosses might have taken people by surprise. I heard about this "cute anime weeb dark souls" and I wanted to tackle it for that very reason: these impossible boss fights. And I wasn't disappointed; Chantelise's boss fights are hardcore. Each boss requires careful planning, the use of certain strategies and often light puzzle elements. The bosses are also endurance challenges with huge pools of HP, meanwhile they can often kill you in one or two hits.

I found the bosses tough but fair and I really enjoyed the game: except for the final boss. Personally I felt that the final boss was unfair and not particularly fun. I was only able to chip away around 2% of its HP bar, and I later read that this was just the first "easy phase" and that two phases remained after.. so I threw in the towel. Reading more about the game, apparently the only way to beat the boss is to go back through the game and unlock every secret and play a bunch of fishing mini-games for hours to unlock all the best secret gear.. and then you might have a tiny chance of winning.

(Subtle Bloodborne reference?)

Personally, I don't have the patience for this final boss, and honestly given how well the rest of the game is designed, it doesn't bother me. I think it's supposed to be borderline impossible. I think this game has taught me that it's ok to lose: sometimes you're the windshield and sometimes you're the bug. Today I'm the bug and this cute and harmless-looking weeb game has reduced me to tears and robbed me of my manhood. Perhaps some rainy day I'll come back and make another attempt, but for now Chantelise remains undefeated.