Playing A Game Chroma Squad PC

Chroma Squad is a bit of a paradox. A good one, though.

The game is unabashedly "indie," with its zoomed-in sprite art, unpolished grammar, overlong pre-battle animations, and spotty or absent tutorials. But, it takes itself un-seriously enough that these rough edges actually feel charming -- especially when the game's cast pokes fun at their own narrator. More often than not, Chroma Squad comes across as "in" on the joke - the joke that is the real history of Power Rangers - instead of falling into a parody trap.

It's filled with mechanics, like, definitely too many mechanics: not just strategy RPG tactics and character progression and TV studio management, but also item crafting! and mecha battles! and a branching narrative!? The scope of Chroma Squad is so sprawling that of course a lot of it doesn't pan out, and it's hardly surprising that, for example, the crafting UI can't indicate whether an item is an upgrade or a downgrade. But, the critical path - increasing fanpower, generating income, buying new weapons and armor - works well enough that the rest is, well, easy to ignore.

Its narrative is pretty silly, gleefully blurring the lines between a Super Sentai fantasy and a TV production about that fantasy. At face value, Chroma Squad's plot is unremarkable, and its "characters" are just farcical props. But, the fun that they have with sending up genre tropes and with a Deadpool-esque disregard for the fourth wall is surprisingly compelling.

There's a lot going on in Chroma Squad, and even ignoring the parts it doesn't explain, much of it doesn't work very well. To that point: my biggest obstacle in the final boss battle wasn't the boss, and wasn't his minions, but was stairs. I don't think any previous encounter had stairs, so their effects on movement and targeting were an unwelcome surprise.

Chroma Squad is an ambitious game, and far from perfect.

But, it nails - or gets close enough to nailing - a core loop of fighting, upgrading, and lampooning that it works. There are opportunities to improve for sure (which the developers sadly seem to be uninterested in), but even in this unrefined form, the concept is proven: managing a fake Super Sentai team is pretty fun.

Better than: Massive Chalice, Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director's Cut, SteamWorld Heist
Not as good as: Shadowrun Returns, South Park: The Fractured But Whole
And it helps: that the soundtrack is damn catchy.

Progress: Finished a campaign on "Interesting" difficulty.

Rating: Good