Chaos Rings (video game)


Chaos Rings is a role-playing video game developed by Media.Vision and published by Square Enix. It was released worldwide on April 20, 2010 as an exclusive title for iOS, but it was later ported to the Android and Windows Phone 7 platforms. Effective May 31, 2016, Square Enix ended distribution of this title, and it is no longer available for download or purchase. Produced by Takehiro Ando, characters were designed by Yusuke Naora, the art director of Final Fantasy VII, VIII, and X among other successful titles.
The game takes place in a mysterious place known as Ark Arena, where participants face enemies in both dungeons and tournament-play to avoid death and gain immortality. Chaos Rings features four scenarios. Each scenario is played by two different story characters and across several worlds, ending with a boss battle. A prequel, Chaos Rings Omega, was released on May 19, 2011, and two sequels, Chaos Rings II, released on March 15, 2012, and Chaos Rings III, released on October 16, 2014.

Gameplay

Chaos Rings begins as a dungeon crawl where navigation and battles are done as a two-person party that is chosen prior to gameplay. Navigation takes place in a third-person perspective. Combat is controlled via a system of menus in a turn-based routine. During a player's turn, there is the option of attempting an escape from the battle, or to fight solo or as a pair. If solo mode is chosen, the player has the ability to choose an individual attack for each member of the party, while pair mode effectively makes the couple a single unit, capable of using each other's moves and having the best attributes of both. However, when in pair mode, both members of the party are open to a hit by a single enemy. In addition to attack, the player also has the ability to perform varied forms of magic known as "genes", to use items, or to simply defend against an enemy's attack.
A special feature in combat is the 'break' feature. Attacks made by the couple will decrease the break gauge if it is red, and will increase their own if the attack kills a foe. When the break gauge favors one side, their attacks are more powerful, and the foe's are likewise weakened. Critical hits and abilities like Trompe L'oell have twice the influence of a regular attack on the break gauge.
After a successful battle, the duo receives experience points and Ohnz. Ohnz are the currency in Ark Arena, and can be used to purchase items, weapons, armor, and jewels to be used in combat.

Plot

Setting

Chaos Rings takes place in a mysterious fictional location known as the Ark Arena that holds many dungeons. Characters begin the game by being automatically transported to the arena with no clear idea of how or why they have arrived there. Dungeons of the Ark Arena consist of mixed indoor and outdoor environments with mid-dungeon and ending boss battles. Characters have the ability to enter and leave dungeons as they please. When not in dungeon-play, characters return to a "home" area, where health points and magic points are instantly recovered.
The Ark Arena is described as an attempt to destroy a being known as the Qualia before it destroys every single time space that the Ark Arena has created by travelling back and forth through time, now for the 2003rd time. It is a place to train chosen couples from different parallel time spaces, eventually joining forces in order to defeat the Qualia. The Ark is designed to return to 10,000 years in the past when a couple is chosen as worthy, to germinate a new, genetically superior race. This process then repeats periodically, theoretically making contestants stronger at each Ark Arena contest, in the hopes to be powerful enough to face the Qualia itself in battle. It is also possible for the Ark to send a couple to the meeting point of the Qualia in another time space, thus making possible the meeting of couples from different time spaces.

Characters

The game features eight playable characters that were designed by Yusuke Naora. The game originally did not feature voice acting, but a later update added voice acting to key scenes in the game. The characters consist of five couples: Garrick and Alto, Escher and Musiea, Olgar and Vahti, Eluca and Zhamo, and Ayuta and Mana. Garrick and Alto are not playable, as Garrick dies in the beginning and Alto is killed shortly after. Each couple has a unique story.
;Escher
;Musiea / Aida
;Eluca
;Zhamo
;Ayuta
;Shea / Mana
;Olgar
;Vahti

Story

In Chaos Rings four couples compete in the ominously named Ark Arena. In the beginning, Garrick attempts to attack the Agent, the apparent director of the Arena's events. The Agent states that those who do not follow the rules shall be killed, and a grim reaper-like monster comes and his body dissipates in a cloud of purple mist. The Agent also says that immortality and eternal youth await the champions of the Ark Arena. He then allows the remaining couples to enter a door, and find the first ring, the Warrior's ring required to fight in the Ark Arena. When the couples come back, they are sent out once again to gather the other required ring, the Companion's Ring. When the first round of battles begins, the couple the player is playing as will always have to win. Once the couple wins, they are sent to find proof of why they have been selected to fight in the Ark together, after which they must fight other humans once again. After the final battle is won, the couple will have to call the Agent to speak to him. He says that the couple must fight him to become immortal. After he is defeated, he says something to 'the Almighty' regarding their incredible power.
The couple will appear back in the main room where the dungeon door now has an option named 'Original Door'. If Original Door is chosen, the player will see a cutscene where the characters appear on Earth 10,000 years ago. They have been chosen because of their superior DNA to start a new human race strong enough to defeat a monstrous being called the Qualia. They are granted immortality and eternal youth. It is also shown that the Ark Arena is a floating ship that travels through time.
If the player saves after the credits and reloads the game, the dungeon door will have a new option named 'Bereshith Road' where a whole new story unwinds. The grim reaper-like creature is revealed to be the Executioner, and his purpose is to remove insubordinate or defeated competitors in the Ark Arena. He must be fought and killed. Next, the players enter a room where documents explaining the Ark Arena, the Agent, and the Executioner are held. It is learned that both the Executioner and the Agent are artificial organisms that are programmed to ensure the smooth running of the Ark Arena. Soon afterwards, they stumble upon the terrible Arena itself. Later, they find the Agent, who is to test them once more. This time he is called the 'True Agent' and is much more powerful, attacking twice per turn, one of the few foes who can. Once he is defeated, the couple learns of a 'Final Door' that leads to the Qualia. They go up another level, to find yet another powerful being, the Almighty. The Almighty is the creator of the Ark Arena and the operator of it. It is a woman's body that extends from the floor, appearing to be part of the Ark itself. If she is defeated, then the couple arrives at the top floor, and a glowing red vortex awaits their arrival.
As they enter it, the chosen couple comes across with the other three couples they thought had been defeated in the past arena battles. It is later then explained by Ayuta, who has recovered his original memories, that each of their story is true, since the people they were forced to kill were of different timespaces. They then encounter the Qualia, which envelops the Earth almost immediately. They are staggered by its sheer power, but then regain their strength and composure and go on to defeat the Qualia.
The Qualia is defeated, but more Qualia emerge from the parallel timespaces that they have destroyed. With their limited strength, the four couples once again lose hope, until Theia tells them to see the miracle they created for their resistance to destruction. With a burst of light, hundreds of starships, supposedly manned by the parallel timespace's denizens, appears and completely annihilate the Qualia.
With Theia's last strength, she sends the couples back to the dimensional time and space of their choice. The couples choose to return to the period before they were summoned to the Ark. Finally, Theia issues the command to shut down the ancient Ark, finally terminating the endless timespace-generating spiral.

Music

, of the musical group Elements Garden, composed all the music to Chaos Rings.
Following the release of the game, Square Enix released the Chaos Rings Original Soundtrack for digital download on June 23, 2010 via the iTunes Store. According to one of the game's assistant producers, Hiroaki Iwano, the soundtrack was released primarily due to popular demand.

Reception

Sequel and prequel

Square Enix has published two more games in the Chaos Rings series to date. A trailer of the prequel entitled Chaos Rings Omega, has since been released. Chaos Rings Omega was released on May 19, 2011 in North America and the next day in Japan.
Omega has many similarities to the first game. The gameplay and navigation are still the same, while the setting is slightly changed on its layout. The game stars a mostly new set of characters, though the first game's Olgar, Vahti, and Ayuta are all playable as well. The storyline features twists not seen in the first game, said twists sending the plot off in a completely different direction than before.
On May 20, 2011, a teaser trailer for Chaos Rings II was released.