Dariusburst Chronicle Saviours Review: Taito brings Darius to its series termination.
by Omar (@siegarettes)
- Dariusburst Chronicle Saviours
- Developer - Taito
- Publisher - Degica
- PC (Steam), PS4, PSVita
Dariusburst Chronicle Saviors is a game so wrapped up in the history of the series, that it’s impossible to start comprehending what it even is before taking in some of that history. The finale to the long running Darius shoot-em-up series, Chronicle Saviors is the fourth revision of the PSP entry Dariusburst. Dariusburst returns with it’s series trademarks of giant robot fish and an absolutely MASSIVE soundtrack by Taito house band ZUNTATA. Although coming off the dramatic changes introduced in Darius Gaiden and G-Darius, I was underwhelmed. Particularly missed were the opportunities to turn mid level bosses to your side, or capture enemies to use as weapons.
With that in mind, Chronicle Saviors operates as a dramatic remix of the original Dariusburst. Or rather, if the first revision was a remix, this one is a multi-disc set of remixes that has you reevaluating the original Dariusburst and puts it in line with the history of the series.
While the original Dariusburst felt intimate and a bit unsure of itself, Chronicle Saviors marches in with self assurance. It pulls back from the original to reveal its place in events of a massive scale, happening all around it. Nowhere is this more apparent than in, “Another Chronicle” mode, a self titled port of the arcade game. Another Chronicle throws back to the original Darius games, which use three monitors to create a wide play area, and presents an ultrawide playfield. Single screens will see the playfield cropped to preserve the aspect ratio of the arcade machine, though PC players can experience it across either ultrawide or dual monitor setups. That’s the way you want to play if possible, as it makes an experience that feels cramped on single screens, into something that feels right in line with Chronicle Saviors’ thematic ambitions of scale.
Those ambitions are also reflected in Another Chronicle’s, Chronicle mode. Here the series’ traditional branching paths, are avoided for a map of thousands of stages that mix up enemy formations, bosses, and play conditions. Each of these is linked to a global tracking system that will mark a stage as cleared if any player worldwide completes it. It creates a sense cooperation, as other pilots take on missions simultaneously. This plays into the fiction’s thematic framing, setting up a story where a newly restored communication network allows schematics for the Silver Hawks (the star fighters of the series) to be propagated, resulting in a powerful fleet. It’s an interesting tidbit that gives service to themes of scale, as well as explaining why they don’t send more than a few ships to destroy an entire alien force.
To bolster that sense of cooperation, Another Chronicle also supports up to four players. Another Chronicle deals in absurd amounts of enemies, and while you can manage its swarms by intelligently angling laser pods to block off bullets and formations, you’ll definitely want the extra firepower. Particularly when you can combine your lasers into larger more devastating beams.
Unfortunately a lot of these mechanics aren’t really communicated to you. Another Chronicle is a quick port from the arcade, so in game help images at the start are still in Japanese, and there isn’t a digital manual included. I had to visit an external site in order to understand how to take advantage of the combined moves, how to engage in laser duels with bosses, and even basic operation of the laser pods. The same can be said of the different ships, whose differences become obscured in flavor text. It turns exploring the different play styles into a bit of a bother. (To their credit, it is listed on the store description, even if it is a bit tucked away).
For those who do want to explore those playstyles, the titular “Chronicle Saviors” mode, is likely a better option to get acquainted with those different ships. It’s also a better choice for those playing alone, or on a single screen. It’s a further remix of everything in Another Chronicle, using changing rule sets similar to those in Chronicle Mode, additionally restricting which ship you use by default. It also contains a new ship as well as new bosses, and is formatted for the regular widescreen aspect ratio. It’s placed on a timeline that vaguely steps through the events of the series history. There’s more flavor text on certain levels, but for the most part it serves as a gauntlet of challenges than a narrative driver.
To go along with the exploration of the series’ history, Chronicle Saviors mode also brings back several music tracks from previous games, giving it the most thorough catalog of music seen in the series. There’s a wide range of musical styles, from synthpop jams, guitar and bass riffs that feel straight off a Steve Howe album, to melancholy soundscapes that feel like cosmic Chinese operas. While the visual presentation of the game often underwhelms (outside the fantastic boss designs), the soundtrack never suffers the same fate.
The mileage you get out of Dariusburst CS will vary by your own desire to master and complete the game. The absolute scale of the game makes it easy to return to. During its high points, Dariusburst CS definitely carries a sense of magnificence that justifies that scale. However at it’s lowest, there's an overwhelming grind. This is particularly true in Another Chronicle, where a lack of other players turns into a war of attrition, where your continual feeding continues to make up for the inability to properly control the space. It’s not quite the ending I’d like to have seen, but if nothing else it’s a dramatic one.