Chronoscript: The Endless End Preview: A Basic But Beautiful Metroidvania

Shueisha is a company best-known for its comic books, as it's the publisher of Weekly Shōnen Jump, the magazine where Dragon Ball, Naruto, One Piece, Demon Slayer, and Jujutsu Kaisen can be found. It's fitting, then, that Shuiesha Games' upcoming title, Chronoscript: The Endless End, is heavily seeped in writing and artwork, with more of a focus on aesthetics than its gameplay.

The Chronscript: The Endless End demo starts with possibly the most bizarre prologue text in video game history. The protagonist is an editor who receives a message from a mysterious new author. They travel to the author's secluded mansion, where they're bitten by a mosquito. The editor wakes up in The Endless End, a manuscript that is still being panned by the lady vampire who owns the mansion.

Chronoscript Is Set in a World of Ink & Drawings

Chronscript: The Endless End is developed by DeskWorks, the same studio behind the excellent RPG Time: The Legend of Wright. In many ways, Chronoscript is a more adult version of the same concept. RPG Time was a story of a kid creating an RPG using school supplies, while Chronoscript is about an editor trapped in the work of another author, with a much darker aesthetic and tone.

After being stung by a mosquito, the protagonist of Chronoscript wakes up in The Endless End, a gorgeous looking world composed of books and artwork. It doesn't take long for the player to realize that they're looking down at a drawing, as large 3D models of inkwells and feathers appear above them, much like the game world in RPG Time. It's a 2D world within a 3D space.

Inside The Endless End, the protagonist has become a generic Shōnen hero decked in a red cape and wielding a sword. They immediately acquire the basic Metroidvania combat kit of sword attack and jump, and set off to find an escape route, all while the mysterious author speaks cryptically about their work.

The visuals of Chronoscript are gorgeous, with a ton of care put into its level and monster design. Simply exploring The Endless End is a joy, as it's filled with countless little details that pop as the player notices them. It's a shame the demo I played was short, clocking in at around ten minutes (not counting an optional boss fight), as I'm eager to see what other sights the game holds.

Chronoscript's Combat Will Be Instantly Recognizable to Metroidvania Fans

The combat in Chronoscript is straight out of the Hollow Knight and Dark Souls playbooks. The protagonist is an agile sword fighter who has two Estus Flask-style healing potions. If the player dies, they lose a chunk of their experience points, until they return to the area where they were slain to reclaim them. Experience points are gained from slaying enemies, and can be spent by resting on save points/chairs.

The first boss in the Chronoscript is the Obsessive Bookworm: a massive bloated insect that dashes or bounces across the room. This beast feels like it could have been pulled straight from Hollow Knight, and the only interesting thing about the fight is the arena dropping the screen as if falling from a shelf, giving it a few moments of awesome visuals.

The enemies in Chronoscript will occasionally flash red when attacking, suggesting some kind of parry mechanic is in the game. Unfortunately, this didn't appear in the demo, so it's impossible to say whether it will be a part of the combat, or if the enemies just give the player a chance to back off in the early stages.

Chronoscript Badly Needs a Gameplay Gimmick to Match Its Visuals

Upon defeating the Obsessive Bookworm, the player gains the ability to enter ink puddles on the ground, in an identical way to the Inklings in Splatoon. There's even a running jump that can be taken by sliding fast through the ink. This is used to ascend higher up the map, where the mysterious author is shown in full, giving the player access to a map feature. And then, the demo ends.

It's not hyperbole to say that the Chronoscript demo is all style and no substance, as it feels like countless other Metroidvanias on Steam. It's possible that the full game has some fresh gameplay mechanics, but what's here right now is just Hollow Knight with a different skin.

This isn't to say that every game needs to be some experimental trendsetter. It's fine to make a game based on an established formula and put it out into the world. The disappointing aspect with Chronoscript is that the visuals are so stunning that it feels like it's lacking something to make me actually want to play it, and not just watch it.

Chronoscript Risks Getting Lost In The Crowd

Throughout my short Chronoscript playthrough, I was waiting for the game to give me some kind of hook, a reason to keep playing. The optional boss fight against the Director of the Damned was visually stunning, but the gameplay was more of the same basic Metroidvania action. I'd have been happy even with something plundered from a different game, like stealing monster abilities, but there just wasn't anything here.

The Chronoscript demo isn't brutally challenging like, the only interesting thing about the story is how bizarre the prologue text is, and the gameplay loop feels copy/pasted from better titles. Right now, Chronoscript is relying solely on its graphics and design to get by, and in an era where countless gorgeous indie games are on the market, that's not enough.

As a huge fan of DeskWorks' previous game, I'm hoping that the Chronoscript demo was just a bad slice of action, or at least one that was too short. I did want to see more of its world, but I'm not willing to sit through mediocre gameplay to reach the mysterious author. It's strange to say that a title with such captivating visuals struggled to keep my attention, but this is a video game and not a cartoon.