Returning to the simpler times of the NES, Atari, and early 90’s gaming eras can be a blast. I purchased dozens of retro games in recent years, and still have several others from my early days as a gamer.
Chronicles of 2 Heroes: Amaterasu’s Wrath promptly places you cross-legged on the floor in front of your family tube TV while mixing newer, more polished mechanics and presentation. After a successful Kickstarter last year, the game has come to life across several platforms, and I’m happy to say it has lived up to its promise in several ways.
Chronicles of 2 Heroes: Amaterasu’s Wrath Features An Ancient Style & Story
The game wastes no time getting you into your adventure playing as Kensei and Ayame. A quick setup of ancient Japanese mythos and the evil Amaterasu, and you’re off to the platforming races! I appreciate when games cut to the chase, especially ones like Chronicles of 2 Heroes that also drip-feeds you some lush story as it progresses.
There isn’t a ton you haven’t seen or heard before in terms of storytelling, but it’s enough to get you and the protagonists motivated and on the move to save the day.
A Puzzle-Platforming Duo
Playing as the two heroes, the game is primarily structured around platforming and puzzles that involve switching between the two. Each screen and area is built around their abilities and weaknesses. For example, Kensei is a heavy-hitting samurai who can dash forward and deflect projectiles but cannot jump. Meantime, Ayame is a swift ninja with a double jump and throw projectiles of her own.
After a brief tutorial and a sense of how these areas were laid out early on, I found the groove of switching between the two to be very satisfying and easy to do. I played with a Xbox Series controller, and a simple press of Y and the switch happened instantaneously. Sometimes you can take your time planning out your next move; other times, it’s a mid-jump action that needs to be made with precision. Regardless of what was thrown my way, it was rewarding to get to the end of the dozens of sequences in the game, as they are all laid out exceptionally well and never feel repetitive.
Fights or battles are won and lost with timing mechanics with your weapons and, similarly to the traversal elements, swapping between the heroes. Each ability and scenario introduced into the gameplay provides more variety and helps create a deeper game than meets the eye. No matter what you’re doing, the dev team has nailed the flow and ease of transversal and the hero swap ability.
One big downside to the game for me, though, was the limited map. There are Metroidvania elements to Chronicles of 2 Heroes, but during most of my playthrough, I had difficulty executing any of them. Throughout the campaign, you can stop and spend in-game currency you collect on various items, including building out the details on the map. Now I can sort of understand why this mechanic was used, but it took far too long to populate these details. Furthermore, fast travel is convenient, but moving from point A to point F without a mostly-filled map won’t make any sense because the areas aren’t named. It’s a strange choice that felt like a forced in order to build out the need for coins in the game.
Mythic Pixels & Tunes
One element Chronicles of 2 Heroes captures to perfection is in its presentation, whether it be the beautifully created world of ancient culture and characters or the nostalgic music and sound design. Kensei and Ayame both pop with colour and personality no matter what environment or biome they’re in. Meantime, each region is populated with a wide variety of enemies and traps.
Every element of Chronicles of 2 Heroes’ style perfectly balances early 90’s nostalgia and modern-day presentation. One minute I found myself back in my friend’s basement playing NES, and the other, I was in front of my PC in my own home.
Verdict
Chronicles of 2 Heroes is a great way to take yourself back to the good old days of NES platforming while bringing in new and fresh mechanics that have been perfected over the last 30 years. It draws from successful ideas and franchises and moulds them into a new looking and feeling action-platformer that strikes an outstanding difficulty balance.
Despite what I felt were some questionable map and exploration mechanics, every other aspect of this title is worth your time.
[The publisher provided a copy of the game for review purposes.]
Reviewed on: PC
