Omg…OMG yes. The day has come. Ok sorry allow me a moment to regain my composure and explain why I almost lost control of my bodily functions a few days ago. Battle Chasers is back… as a videogame. A VIDEOGAME and a roleplaying game and not only that the comic series will continue after more than a ten year hiatus… OMG
Brief history and story of Battle Chasers
If my memory does history justice, comic book sales were on a decline for years on end and in the mist of that decline came the promised child: Battle Chasers. Battle Chasers is the title of a comic book series from the late 1990’s.
Since we all know how to google I’ll summarize very briefly what Battle Chasers is and why I am so ecstatic about the Kickstarter campaign(mild spoilers for the first few pages of the comic). When widely respected warrior Aramus goes MIA on the battlefield he leaves his daughter Gully, a young wide eyed gentle girl, a target since his enemies believe she might know the location of a very powerful weapon that belonged to Aramus.
Hunted down by a pack of two faced lycans Gully sets out on a personal mission to find her father. Along the way she meets and befriends all sorts of interesting characters. Such as the equally gentle as destructive war golem Calibretto, Garrison a swordsman with a troubled past and Knolan master mage worried about the decline in magic source.
The story of Battle Chasers is set in a world best described as a fantastical medieval place filled with magic, monsters technological progress which all get the spotlight equally. But it is the artwork of Joe Madureira (Aka Joe Mad! better known in the game industry for his work on Darksiders) that makes Battle Chasers so special. His signature style is very detailed and brings and elevates the franchise to greater heights.
Battle Chasers Nightwar: Kickstarter with PS4 and Xbox One stretch goal
More of a side mission to the orignal story Battle Chasers: Nightwar is a RPG very much in the tradition of the great JRPGs like Chrono Trigger Final Fantasy etc. With traditional 2D animated cutscenes, a turn based battle system, traversable world map , crafting and dungeons. A dungeon can be beaten with the use of the unique and diverse party member’s skills and upon completion a cleared dungeon will be unlocked for replay on higher difficulties with bigger rewards as a result. But with the promise of great loot comes great danger, especially so since the game seems to offer some roguelite fun:
Return to a dungeon after successfully surviving once, and the option to change the difficulty is unlocked. This increases the difficulty as well as the reward… and the chance for rare artifacts and NPCs to appear. Beating each dungeon on the highest difficulty setting is the only way to truly see everything Nightwar has to offer.
Death means losing everything not equipped on your characters.. Gasp
Conclusion of the Battle Chasers story
Collecting the Battle Chasers comic book series ended on a sour note for me, sadly the issues didn’t release on a regular schedule and de series ended on a cliffhanger which left me and most others wanting. More than ten years after the release the Kickstarter for Battle Chasers: Nightwar will put me at ease.
You thought it would never happen. So did we. Alongside the release of Battle Chasers: Nightwar, new issues of the classic comic series will continue where the story left off.
Written and drawn by original series creator Joe Madureira, these new books mark his long-anticipated return to the most cherished and iconic work of his career.
With more than 40% funded in under a day since the Kickstarter has gone live Nightwar is everything but a sure thing. So RPG/comic/anime/me fans, please, help me revisit Battle Chasers and think of backing or sharing this article. Hit me up on Twitter @italkgame or speak your mind in te comments