Chaos Legion

General

Chaos Legion is a Gothic third-person action game that was released in 2003 by Capcom who both developed and published it. It could easily be attributed to Devil May Cry that was released just two years prior, in 2001. The gameplay and style is similar though Chaos Legion certainly seemed to have its own genre at the time it was released. The game is based on the novel by Tow Ubukata that has the same title. The concept of a gun-slinging, sword-swinging male hero in a world that combines the planes of demons and humans was still fairly new.

As a fair warning, if you play this game you need to have an open mind. I can guarantee it isn’t anything like what you have seen since 2003. In fact, it may not even be as good. I’m writing on it because this gamer in particular enjoyed it very much.

Design and Environment

The genre “gothic” in this sense is not the conventional “gothic” that has been taken way out of context with the last few generations. What I mean by gothic is the fact a lot of the game is in its medieval structures, environment, and clothing. It isn’t bloody and gruesome with black randomly splattered about and it does not have to be. The buildings are more like castles. They rise up high and almost look prison-like. There are also open fields and forests which give the player a breather from the concrete.

The boss fights are admittedly the most thinking you need to do in Chaos Legion. Like in just about every action game both new and old, each one has a certain strategy that is based on how advanced you are considering abilities and skills. The creatures come in hordes and in order to progress you need to take them out round by round. This does get repetitive but it would be a lot worse if it weren’t for the “Legions” the lead character Seig Wahrheit possesses. They are fallen souls who the “Chaos Legion” allows the bearer of the gauntlet to use to do his bidding. There are 7 legions each of which have different abilities that can be advantages to a certain situation. Legions can be summoned as a group which impairs Seig’s movement, or as an extension of an attack which does not but is weaker. Both take from Seig’s soul gauge which comes back exponentially.

Story and Characters

The story seems to be a mesh of things that have been done before, but it works to create a surprisingly engaging story. The character personalities are extremely typical, however, with the soft-spoken, kind, dead, love interest and the spunky, quirky girl the main character meets later on with the same goals. The background of the story and all of the characters runs rather deep despite all of this including references from angelic lore and the like.

The Ending Theme Song

I thought this was worth a section all on its own. “Fly”, by the band LIV with Manabu Oshio as the vocalist is one of my favorite songs of all time. This song has stuck with me since I beat the game in 2007 because of how memorable and beautiful it is. Sure it’s in “Engrish” (English spoken or sung by someone who hardly knows or doesn’t know English) and even a little hard to understand sometimes, but one can get the idea and really pull from it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONLGIMIeghI[/youtube]

Wrap Up

-Chaos Legion is a decent game that a fan of the Devil May Cry series could get into.
-It’s old, keep that in mind. The graphics are not stellar and if you expect them to be stop playing video games and find another hobby.
-The concept of the “Legions” is great and quite engaging. I became attached to demonic and pained critters.
-The Gameplay and story have been done plenty of times but it’s worth a shot.
-The environment is pleasant though it has a dark twist to it.

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