Give us more of the same. Almost exactly more of the same.

At first, I really liked Chaos Rings Ω for iPad. The opening sequence was nice; the new title track put lyrics to the first game’s familiar tune; even the first level / boss battle, which has the main character of the game fighting his way up a massive steam ship to take out an artillery gun, was great. It all seemed to be evidence that Square Enix was ready to take the Chaos Rings setup and begin to play with it. Then the sky went all black …

What follows these intriguing opening sequences is Chaos Rings. Like, almost exactly. Sure, there’s a new cast of characters and sure, their storyline is a little more interesting than the original; but in terms of setting, gameplay, level progression, and graphics, this is Chaos Rings. You’re back in the Arc Arena. You’re given instructions from the Agent. You have to progress through the same world levels (more or less in the same order) to get rings, to fight battles, to win your freedom, to ultimately start uncovering the truth behind the Arc Arena.

As in the original, the game play and interface are well designed, with the same floating joystick, “!” interaction trigger, and nested combat menus. I didn’t detect a single refinement to the system.It all plays as well as it did last year.

This isn’t surprising, as the combat settings themselves are recycled from the original, as are many of the monsters. Oh, look! It’s the giant orangutangs with the coconuts again! And there’s the shaggy slug, and wolf, and the flying four-winged manta, etc. They look exactly as they did in the original. And that’s the problem here.

There’s some new content, primarily in the realm of the bosses. I liked a lot of the new boss designs, and I always loved the boss battles best, as they’re the only battles that really require you to use the powers and items you’ve accumulated (all the rest go down best from a brutal axe or sword to face, regardless of their powers or types). The boss battles are truly the things to look forward to in Omega. The late game material also differentiates, and if you grind your way to it, it offers the same kind of freshness the opening sequences did. But the middle is like warmed up leftovers.

There’s also a promised schedule of updates, all of which could conceivably improve the originality and playability of the title.  These include level cap hikes and “secret bosses.” Is Square Enix finally embracing the iOS mode? It seems so.

For fans who played through all the different plotlines in Chaos Rings, there’s some good story to be had here, too. I really enjoyed this group of heroes, and this plot sequence, more than I did the original.  But to get there requires so much repetitive game play — in a prequel to a game that already suffered from the problem of repetitive game play to complete — that I think some players, even fans of the original, will be turned off.

So, I’m torn. I liked CHAOS RINGS Ω for iPad, and honestly, if it had been the original instead of a prequel, its more interesting plot and characters would have earned it a higher score than the one I gave Chaos Rings. But I can’t fully forgive the recycled sequel-making. So, it’s a push. Better story, retreaded play experience, means that Chaos Rings Omega earns the same 4 stars.

Chaos Rings Ω for iPad Review: Second Verse, Same as the First is a post by App Chronicles

It sounds like Square Enix is adding more to Chaos Rings on both ends—in the form of both a sequel and a prequel. The first title to be mentioned is Chaos Rings Omega, which is said to take place before the original game, and feature many of the same characters. While the names and perspectives will be fresh, the same type of gameplay is expected, and the same can be said for Chaos Rings II—the sequel that is also said to be on the way.

This news is currently hitting the web only in the form of some simple advertisements, so we’ll have to hold off till Square Enix makes an official announcement to bring you more details (including a launch date estimate). Hopefully these games will keep pace with the original, and if so, RPG gamers will have a lot to look forward to in the App Store.

Chaos Rings Prequel and Sequel on the way from Square Enix. [New Video Footage] is a post by App Chronicles

*** This contest has ended.  Congratulations to @kzwen and @rustyspyky for each winning a copy of Chaos Rings in our Special Chaos Rings Twitter Contest!***

As Promised We are giving App Chronicles readers another chance to win Square-Enix’s epic RPG, Chaos Rings. Please read the directions carefully. This is a Twitter only contest, so the contest rules are different.

This is a special Twitter Contest in association with TweetsWin. Win a free Chaos Rings from the makers of Final Fantasy series. We will have 2 winners for this contest. Chaos Rings for the iPhone and iPod Touch is probably as close as to a full version console RPG as you can get in the App Store.

Prize:

Chaos Rings

How many winners: 2

Contest End Time and Date: 12/14/2010 11:45 PM Pacific Time

From our 4-Star Review:
Is Chaos Rings the best RPG on the iPhone? That depends. It’s certainly the best that I’ve played in it’s class …but then again, right now, Chaos Rings is really in a class by itself. Of all the games I have played on the iPhone, it comes the closest to recreating a modern console game experience.

How To Win:

To Join our Premium App Twitter GiveAway Contest

For Twitter users, you’ll need to complete all 3 steps!

1. Follow @AppChronicles on twitter, (click here for our twitter page)
2. Follow @tweetswin on Twitter (click here for Tweetswin’s twitter page)
3. Simply click this icon  and tweet!

For more information, please visit TweetsWin’s contest page

You will have to follow both App Chronicles and Twitter.  Winners are automatically picked by Tweetswin.  If you don’t follow tweetswin, tweetswin will not add you to the possible winner’s list.

This contest is for those with an US iTunes account only!  We will give you an app redeemable code or email that allows you to download the app. But this code is valid for the U.S. App Store only. Please only enter if you have an US iTunes account.

We have a separate app giveaway contest that ends daily with different rules to participate. Please don’t confuse that with this special contest which we are working in together with TweetsWin.

Special Chaos Rings Twitter GiveAway Contest is a post by App Chronicles

We know it is coming. Chaos Rings for the iPhone brought console-like epic role playing experience to the iPhone. Its graphics, deep character development and customization, and turn-based fighting action are all up there with Square-Enix’s flagship Final Fantasy series. Now, Chaos Rings is available on your iPad. With bigger screen and 1024X768 px HD resolutions, it looks better than ever!

We’ve reviewed Chaos Rings for the iPhone when it first came out and gave it a 4-stars rating.  It is the best RPG in its class.  RPG fans should definitely be impressed with this title.

With the iPad release of Chaos Rings, those who missed it on the smaller iPhone and iPod screen may want to check it out.  The $16 price tag may seem a little high.  But when compared to console RPG’s which start at $59.99, $16 is a great deal.  If you love the Final Fantasy series, Chaos Rings is definitely a title you should add to your RPG collection.

Chaos Rings for the iPad is $15.99 in the App Store.

Incidentally all of Square-Enix’s games are also on sale.  You can catch all of their sale items on . Song Summoner, $9.99->$4.99, is a great title at this sale price.

Chaos Rings HD for the iPad Arrives in the App Store is a post by App Chronicles

Last month, Zenonia 2 delivered the definitive classic role-playing game experience to the iPhone. Now, Square Enix, makers of the Final Fantasy series, are aiming to deliver the definitive iPhone RPG experience, period, with Chaos Rings. They very nearly succeed, for Chaos Rings is a spectacularly designed and extremely playable foray into the realm of RPGs.

The plot of Chaos Rings isn’t much to speak of.  You choose one of two pairings to play through the game. Each pairing has a backstory, and neither pair likes each other much. Your pair, along with four others, has been kidnapped from their home worlds and taken to a strange sub- dimension, the Arc Arena. There, you are informed that you have been chosen to fight for the amusement of unseen overlords. The winner of the competition wins not only their freedom, but also eternal life. The losers, of course, die–like all good battles for eternal life, in the end there can be only one.

I won’t give Chaos Rings too many points for originality here. The band of strangers kidnapped and brought together to fight for their freedom is a cliché of fantasy and science fiction. Chaos Rings doesn’t execute it poorly, however, and it serves to give the game a satisfying dramatic arc without having to develop an entire game world. In fact, it’s easy to imagine that the characters were all plucked from various incarnations of the Final Fantasy games, and that serves the plot well enough.

The plot serves mainly as a vehicle for the game play. It’s at this level that Chaos Rings excels the most. It’s a turn-based combat system based entirely around dungeon crawling, and it functions as well as any solid Final Fantasy title. Most combats are fairly quick hack-n-slash affairs; bosses, however, require you to dig deeper into your arsenal of items and abilities.

The pair you choose at the beginning of the game will determine how you tackle the bosses and other battles. One pair is more balanced in abilities, while the other features a combat-heavy and a support-heavy build. One thing Chaos Rings gets right is the way these teams work differently to deliver two different play experiences.

The more balanced team, Eluca and Zhano, would seem to favor the casual player. They automatically heal some damage each turn and losing one character doesn’t spell automatic defeat for the other. They’re easy to hack-n-slash with.

The less balanced team, Escher and Musiea, would be the best choice for dedicated RPGers. The team requires more use of the game’s combat intricacies–Musiea doesn’t do much in straight combat, working far better with her special abilities to enhance the combat-oriented Escher; and if Escher goes down, you’ve likely lost the fight. Escher and Musiea also have the more complex story arc, something dedicated players will appreciate.

In a lot of ways, Square Enix really paid attention to their target audience here. iPhone games are, by the very nature of the platform, simpler and more casual affairs then console games. The developers have really been able to squeeze a lot of great RPG play into a streamlined package, one that rewards intensive play while still being accessible in pocket-sized chunks. Might the level grind get a tad repetitive, or the story a little thin, if you play the game for hours on end? Perhaps. But as an iPhone game, it’s just the right level of plot and game play. It also allows the player to choose their level of difficulty before entering each dungeon, so that those more casual players never get overwhelmed with higher-tier enemies.

I also love the control scheme. Various iPhone games have tried a multitude of control schemes for their interfaces—everything from static direction pads to adjustable sizes to pad-less swiping. For Chaos Rings, all you need to do is touch a blank part of the screen and the control stick will appear beneath it; and instead of relying on separate directional buttons (like Zenonia 2 did), it’s a 360-degree control.  This works out really well, especially for we fellows with big thumbs. Combat buttons and menu selections are also larger for the iPhone screen, making them easy to see, read, and hit (another thing Zenonia 2 lacked).

The game also looks good. I mean, incredibly good. It’s one of the best graphical efforts I’ve seen on the iPhone screen. In fact, it looks so good that I have been playing it on my iPad. Even at x2, the game looks nice–a little pixelated, but nice, and the rendered graphics look great on the larger screen.

This isn’t to say that Chaos Rings is flawless. Its required level grinding can get repetitious, for example, and that repetition is made poorer for the lack of dungeon and encounter variety. Rather than introduce completely new levels, Chaos Rings recycles its limited levels with difficulty levels, which means you’re playing the same boards multiple times. Even within the boards, you’ll face the same pre-rendered dungeon corridors over and over, just with the entrance and exit points moved around. This sameness can get annoying and occasionally confusing.

The monsters are limited as well. There are only some 10 or 12 monster types, each corresponding to “genes” you collect (equipping genes gives you special combat powers and other advantages). The programmers devoted just one model to each type, and varied them by changing their colors and manifested abilities. Like the recycled dungeon corridors, this gets annoying and occasionally confusing—is the Slug type that’s slightly greenish the one that’s Gale type or Aqua they? Well, best just to cut it down with my sword anyway.

Perhaps these were choices made because Chaos Rings is an iPhone game. Maybe the developers recognized that the game would be played at a more casual pace and didn’t feel the need to invest more time in that aspect of development, instead fine-tuning the touch controls, menu design, and other crucial iPhone issues. Or perhaps they just wanted to avoid making the file bigger—the app file is one of the biggest in my iPod at 253 MB (most of the rest weigh in at under 100 MB, and many under 50 MB). Whatever their reasons, the result is a game that doesn’t reward dedicated or prolonged play the way a console RPG would.

So, is Chaos Rings the best RPG on the iPhone? That depends. It’s certainly the best that I’ve played in it’s class …but then again, right now, Chaos Rings is really in a class by itself. Of all the games I have played on the iPhone, it comes the closest to recreating a modern console game experience. It’s steep price will certainly turn some people off, which is a shame, and its repetitious design may annoy hard-core players. But for those willing to foot the bill and overlook these flaws, Chaos Rings will certainly impress.

Our score: 4 out of 5.

Chaos Rings is currently available in the App Store.

Chaos Rings for the iPad is available in the App Store.

For a glimpse into Chaos Rings in action, check out the Chaos Rings Video below.

Chaos Rings Review: Square Enix Delivers the Goods is a post by App Chronicles

On Tuesday, Square Enix’s new iPhone-exclusive RPG adventure, Chaos Rings, hit the App Store. Two days later, the game has topped the App Store’s “Highest Grossing” category and garnered early praise across the Internet. It has been so successful, in fact, that one of the game’s chief producers, Takehiro Ando, has announced plans to bring the game to the iPad.

Takehiro dropped the news on Square Enix’s Facebook page. The post began as a thank you for the quick success of Chaos Rings. “First of all, let me thank you!!” he wrote. “I want to have a party with everyone!

Takehiro Ando apparently playing Chaos Rings HD on the iPad. (Originally posted to Facebook.)

“I was moved to try CHAOS RINGS HD on iPad,” he continued. “It was so exciting and impressive, especially battle scenes! Of course it needs many revising and adjustments, but now I seriously think CHAOS RINGS HD is quite a good idea, if CHAOS RINGS is appreciated.”

Clearly this is far from an official announcement of the game’s imminent release, but it’s a sure sign that Square Enix is entertaining the idea.

One could hardly blame them. Even at $12.99–one of the highest app prices in the App Store–Chaos Rings appears to have drawn a lot of attention and acclaim. My own first impressions of the game have been positive; and, in fact, even the iPhone version of Chaos Rings looks pretty good on the iPad’s higher resolution screen. A version of the game that takes advantage of the iPad’s improved graphics and larger screen space sounds like a mighty fine idea.

Chaos Rings for the iPhone and iPod Touch is currently available in the App Store (App Store Link)

This is an Chaos Rings HD gaming news on App Chronicles

Chaos Rings HD Coming to iPad? is a post by App Chronicles

Previously, Square Enix has released a number of titles for iPhone, including ports of the first two Final Fantasy games and the music-themed Song Summoner.  But this is the biggest, most robust iPhone release yet from the famed RPG maker. It is also the closest in production style to the company’s more recent offerings in the Final Fantasy console series.

In Chaos Rings, you take on the role of a pair of heroes who have been kidnapped from your home world. Trapped in an unknown land, you are being forced to compete against four other heroic pairings for not only your lives and your freedom, but also for the promise of eternal life. As you fight your way through monster-filled dungeons, you gain in experience and even take on the very aspects of the creatures you fight. All the while the mysterious Agent watches your progress, waiting for the time when you are strong enough to fight for your freedom.

First impressions of it are very positive. The game feels like a modern RPG, truly akin to the sorts of play experiences one would find on a console.  Square Enix seems to have put a lot of development effort into this, with everything from the art to the music reflecting quality. Particularly neat is the choice they made for the control stick—allowing it to appear at anyplace under your thumb as opposed to locking it into a static position on screen.

So far, game play is pretty straightforward dungeon-crawling, and the turn-based combat system will be familiar to genre fans. It will be interesting if the game holds its appeal through to the end, or if the slick production values get lost in the leveling grind.

Zenonia 2 (See Zenonia 2 Review) was recently the best classic RPG experience the iPhone had ever seen. Chaos Rings wants to be the best RPG experience the iPhone has seen, period. Did they succeed? Take a look at our full review for Chaos Rings.  If you’re leery about that steep $12.99 price tag, then be sure to consider our judgment before making your decision.

In addition to releasing Chaos Rings, Square Enix also put many of their other iPhone releases, including the aforementioned Final Fantasy ports, on sale for a limited time. You can find those games on Square Enix’s section of the App Store.

Gaming News by App Chronicles

Chaos Rings Arrives in App Store is a post by App Chronicles