Go Go Chroma Rangers! If you’re of a certain age then you might already be humming that familiar theme tune, or even mentally strumming that familiar refrain in your mind. But wait, there’s something wrong here. Yes! Chroma Squad is in fact a tactical RPG wrapped as a respectful tribute to Power Rangers.
Simply put, you control 5 stuntmen for an unnamed (but basically it’s the Power Rangers) TV show. You’re upset at your treatment from the cast and director and so strike out on your own to make your own super, awesome TV show, with Black-jack and hookers!
Now, without any investors or any form of cash flow you start off small, wearing cardboard helmets and hand-painted hoodies. Your goal is to run a successful TV show, to not only be successful but be happy and valued too.
Each episode consists of a few fights, starting off as one or two enemies and scaling up as you progress. Combat plays out on a grid system with each of your five characters, and the various enemies, positioned around it based on the scenario. Each of the units have their own basic stats: speed, damage, health, et cetera, which are [Errr, do you level them up outside of combat?] and influence how the character acts in combat.
Combat turns play out on a two-action system; you can either move and attack, move twice, or move then activate your ‘teamwork’ ability. Teamwork abilities are a critical feature in the game, giving you several tactical options: another teammate can use you to travel greater distances with a super-awesome-totally-sick™ backflip; you can also use it whilst flanking an enemy which will cause you to do a super attack, this stacks, meaning that if 4 of your squad members are surrounding an enemy (and also using the teamwork ability) then squaddie number 5 can attack to do a ‘final attack’ which is a deadly attack best suited to defeat final bosses.
While you can fight with your karate skills in your normal outfits, you can also chromatise “Lights, Camera, Chromatise!” which switches characters to their super-powered form- where you get into your cool super suits, and can use your special equipment and skills that you’ve bought and built between the episodes.
When recording an episode, you have several optional requests from the director to make the best episode possible. These can vary from just ensuring none of your characters ends up with less than 50 percent of their health through finishing the boss with a ‘final attack’, or even just making sure you use the teamwork’ ability 5 times. You have free reign over accomplishing these suggestions, but the more you do the better the episode. How well the episode does is represented in real time by an ‘audience retention’ dial at the top, so if need be you can do some more super awesome attacks to get a quick dose of awesomeness and rekindle their interest. At the end of the episode, your audience retention is converted into how much money you made, and how many fans have been gained.
Another teammate can use you to travel greater distances with a super-awesome-totally-sick (TM) back flip.
Most of your money is going to go into buying more props for your characters and upgrading your studio. This is where the core of the RPG shines; purchasing a new condenser microphone for your set, buying some new catchphrases, or finally upgrading to a bigger set as to shoot even bigger episodes!
In true indie fashion, most -if not all- of your stuff is homemade. Whenever you beat an ‘enemy’ they have a chance to drop a material ranging from duct tape, cotton, through play-doh. These can all be crafted into better gear for your actors: like comfy suits that give your character some more health, or some better gloves for a better reversal chance. As with every decision in Chroma Squad, it just fits so well, giving so much character and depth to the game. The characters themselves are also all super cool; In keeping with the weirdness of the rest of the game, I have a Bruce Lee knock off, a dude in a panda suit, a beaver, and a robot in my squad. (bear in mind though, my review copy included some of the kickstarter upgrades so don’t expect to have a cooler team than I)
Just like in that other show with rangers that are powerful all the villains have ridiculous costumes and even more stupid names. Fighting against cardboard boxes is all well and good, but I draw the line against fighting a traffic-light wielding, traffic-cone wearing villain … All the little sprites are really detailed, making the most of a pseudo 16 bit art style. Chroma Squad draws so much from those games, the music, the graphics, the super slow text crawls during dialogue — though they feature a handy little ‘hold space to speed through’ option, if for some reason you don’t want to read the amazing dialogue.
At the start of each episode, and sometimes in the middle, the actors take a bit of time out to correct something, or check what they are doing. Forgetting that this is a TV show, it’s really weird to have a character say they need to leave early for a dentist’s appointment, or a boss to appear early after misreading the shot list, and to quickly run off set. I don’t know what the term is for a fourth wall break, whilst keeping firmly within the 3 walls, but it’s hilarious, Closest to my heart is the sudden switch from preparing to shoot an episode featuring a hostage, to then having a discussion on the media’s portrayal of women and if it sexist or not to replicate the real world, or to try and do better.
All in all, Chroma Squad is an all round hilarious and enjoyable retro RPG but beautifully married with modern ideas and elements. With sweet graphics and a wicked sense of humour, it is a great game that I would recommend to anyone, especially if they are a fan of management turn based fighting game.
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