As others have warned, the 1.0 release freezes randomly... and constantly, meaning you have to save every five minutes or so just to avoid doing the same things over and over again. This gets old reaaal quick, considering this has otherwise been a fun game so far.

I would expect for these freezes to be patched out in the near future, but I would NOT recommend spending money on this until then.

sheva

This remake pretty much only exists to have an excuse for charging $40 for a 10 year old game. (Which never goes on sale by the way.) I would only recommend buying this if you want to get all of the achievements.

Otherwise you'll have to spend several hundred dollars on a steam key from some russian dudes, or if you only care about playing the game for fun you'll know how to acquire it free of charge.

So, right off the bat, let me just say that I love this game. It offers a novel experience akin to some of the older PS1-era action rpgs, and is definitely worth ten bucks.

I originally played it quite a few years back, and I got just a little past the mid point before stopping for whatever reason. I recently found myself wanting to revisit a game I'd enjoyed, but never beaten, and let me just say, this did the trick. I clocked in about 7 hours in my playthrough, and beat it in one sitting. It wasn't quite as difficult as I remembered it being, but then again, I guess I've simply gotten better at video games in general since my early teens, which is when I first played it.

That being said, it is quite challenging, yet still fairly so, and the majority of my deaths were during bossfights and especially the final boss. (Minor spoilers ahead, but I promise not to go into a degree of specifications that would ruin it for a first-time player.)

All of the areas in the game are enjoyable to varying degrees. Some are a little tedious, but that doesn't really ruin the overall experience. The bosses are probably the most enjoyable aspect, as each has a decent pool of attacks to choose from, and requires a specific way to be defeated. Dying to a boss your first time facing it is expected, since they do a lot of damage and their attack's damage type isn't always obvious. (Physical damage vs magic damage.) There are also a few mini-bosses with cool attacks that you will encounter every now and then, and despite reusing the same base sprite, add a little extra challenge to the game.

The final boss is really well done, I'd have to say. Some parts were a little confusing at first, and enduced a little more rage than I'm proud to admit, but after you've delivered the final blow and you're watching the credits, you'll realize just how much it took out of you, and that's a good feeling. One of its forms has a crazy amount of attacks, which change slightly after damaging it enough, which definitely keeps you on your feet all throughout.

The game never makes you backtrack unless you really want to, either to farm gold and items or simply to see what all you missed your first time through, as each individual area has its own hidden treasure chest to uncover. Once you reach a point near the end, you can even do a mode that randomly picks areas and bosses to fight, as a sort of arcade-survival mode. See how far you can get and how fast you can advance.

The story isn't anything revolutionary, but does the trick. It doesn't force unskippable cutscenes down the player's throat, and that's a good thing. The characters are interesting enough to care about, even though there aren't too many.

The combat is truly where this game shines. Chantelise features a combination of fast-paced melee combat and an extensive mid-range magic system using gemstones that drop from enemies and some other objects like trees and barrels. As you advance the plot, you gain access to more equipment slots and stronger spells that can be cast using multiples of the same gem type. You even gain the ability to summon familiars to temporarily aid you, and they can really give you the edge in larger fights. The equipment system takes the place of any sort of experience points mechanic. You can equip up to 2 items with the same stat boost. For example, 2 gauntlets to boost your physical damage, or 2 shields to boost physical resistance. It's pretty bare-bones, but not in a bad way. It definitely makes a difference what equipment loadout you roll with in different situations, ESPECIALLY boss fights, where you may end up switching equipment mid-fight several times. (I'm looking at you, crab-boss!)

All in all, what else can I say? The 3D environments are fun to run around in, the sprite-work on the characters and enemies is very pleasing to the eyes, the combat is fast and allows plenty of strategy, and there's even a fishing minigame! Seriously, what adventure isn't complete without that?

I haven't done much of the post-game, since I'm a little burnt out after playing 7 hours straight, but I will definitely be revisiting this game in the future. Once again, it's a great buy for only $10, and it's one of the few indie games I actually like. My thanks goes to the developers for this game's existence.

P.S. - Theres a bug with controllers that makes the camera spin constantly. The way I fixed it was easy and never made controlling the camera too obnoxious. Simply map the camera spin (Left or right, I can't remember which.) to the spacebar and put something heavy enough to depress it on top of it. I did this for my whole play-session, and despite getting used to not being able to turn the camera left or right, and simply have to rely on the camera re-center button, had no real complaints with it.