Atlus.
Red.
Aruze.
Idea Factory.

Not the biggest names in JRPG-dom, but decent players in their own right. From Growlanser to Shadow Hearts, they each have an array of game series and characters to call their own. Since these games have done well on their own, it would make sense to throw them together in some sort of Namco X Capcom style mashup, right? Well that's just what's happened in Chaos Wars, a Tactical RPG for the PS2. Does it take everything awesome about each company and stir it together into a delicious dessert, or does it all end up like something green that vaguely resembles flan?

The Good
If you're a fan at all of the games that the characters in Chaos Wars came from, you'll probably enjoy seeing them in action once again. They've all been given the chibi-SRPG style makeover, so you'll get you see old favorites like Hillo from Spectral Souls 2, and Yuri and Karin of Shadow Hearts fame from a new perspective. The game also uses the free-movement style combat that was used in Phantom Brave and Makai Kingdom, where instead of moving on a fixed grid, characters are able to move within their movement range, and attacks hit within a certain range as well. Personally, I was a big fan of the gridless combat, but I know that some people may not like it.

Chaos Wars also tries to shake things up a little with what they call "Brief Damage". Normal attacks will do HP damage, but they will leave a portion of the bar that they drained filled in with red instead of emptying it out completely. If the character doesn't keep taking damage, the red portion of the bar will refill as they wait for their turn to come around again. It can be frustrating when you have an enemy that recovers his HP like this, but the same effect applies for your party as well, so at least it is balanced. (And actually, it leans in favor of the player, since the CPU often isn't smart enough to focus-fire on a single character.)

Some of the characters special quirks make it over to the game as well. The Shadow Hearts Judgment Ring makes an appearance for those who used it before, with nearly the same effect as it had before. Hit the Hit and Critical Areas of the ring to strengthen the attack. Certain characters can dodge and counter, and everyone is able to call upon at least one of their special abilities from their own game as a special attack.

The Bad
Of course, with anything good there are always faults, and boy does Chaos Wars have its faults.
If you're not a fan of any of the games represented in Chaos Wars, you'll probably have a much harder time enjoying it. The gameplay is slow, with attack animations taking much longer than they need to due to pauses before they execute. When you have a chain of characters all attacking the same enemy, it can take a while before the attack is finished. Not a really big deal, but it contributes to the game dragging on for longer than it should.
Another major problem with Chaos Wars is the quality - or lack thereof - of the localization. O-3 Entertainment handled the publishing duties for North America, and although it isn't quite as bad as a total ALL YOUR BASE showing, it's clear that there was little to no budget for quality control. Much of the tutorial text that pops up during the game is slightly Engrish-y, and the voice acting is utterly abysmal. I could try to explain it myself, but something this horrible definitely needs to be experienced for yourself:



Thankfully, there is an option to set Voice volume down to 0. There are also many small translation issues, such as character names being translated differently. Hillo has become Hiro, and Yuri for some strange reason is now called Uru. When a game uses characters whose names have already been translated into English once before, it simply reeks of shoddy work when the names are suddenly changed by someone else.

Finally, the storyline isn't really that great. The main characters are a bunch of schoolkids who get pulled into another world while exploring a cave, and they haven't really been all too likeable so far. And of course, the bad dialogue and horrible voice acting only serve to make the story scenes even more unbearable.

The TL;DR
Good for those who have a vested interest in the characters portrayed or have completely run out of other SRPGs to play while waiting for Disgaea 3 to appear later this summer. Slow gameplay, shoddy localization and a storyline that doesn't really offer much aside from cliche after cliche make it a bit of a chore to go through unless you REALLY want to.