Developed By: ZOC Co.,Ltd.

Published By: Bandai Namco Entertainment

Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5

Reviewed On: PC

Review Code Provided By: Bandai Namco Entertainment

If the title doesn’t give it away, then I would reiterate that shelling out fifty bucks for this mid-game just doesn’t come close to the quality needed to enjoy this anime franchise fully – it fulfills more of a side content that uses famous anime troupes that focuses more on base building.

If I were to be hit by a white truck to be Isekaied embarking into this game, I would rather get hit by the truck again to escape from this game world because that’s how boringly repetitive it is.

For context purposes, the anime is about a regular Japanese Joe who gets killed in the real world, only to respawn in a fictional world as a slime with world-conquering ambitions and abilities. It’s a premise with potential, a form of a blank canvas to reboot and present a grand adventure, only to squander it with a fully skipped narrative at the starting point.

While the main core of the anime is about a slime devouring enemies to gain powers/stats/abilities – a cornerstone of the original story – the game feels like a non-existent afterthought here. Turning it from serving a steak dinner and only giving you the barebone that the devour skill is merely damaging enemies just for the sake of it.

Simply put, it’s a mobile game that prides/prices itself on a triple-A title, and the result is a comical mismatch from 3D full-bodied at one scene to another with mini-stylized character design later.

To be honest, SLIME – ISEKAI Memories mobile game has much better gameplay and graphics than this game – so there’s that.

For easier reference, this game will be referred to ISEKAI Chronicles from now on.

Storytelling – Skippable

Unlike the anime, ISEKAI Chronicles takes bizarre skips in skipping through the rich tapestry of the original story. Where instead of immersing us in the world of Rimuru and his origins sip by sip, we’re fast-forwarded to the politics of base-building simulator and members gathering.

Skipping through the important parts turned into a few lines akin to instead of watching a captivating movie that is directly skipping to the boring documentary instead.

Turning the main story into a shallow puddle of side content is like building a house without laying down proper foundations first. Moreover, most of the anime scenes are like watching a static slideshow directly taken from the anime scenes with a few tidbits of full animations in combat and main end-of-chapter boss fights that felt too few or far in between.

It’s akin to replaying Naruto but on the filler mediocrity episodes instead. Things do pick up at the end of the game nearly twenty hours in but with a more tanky angelic boss fight rather than an interesting one.

While it could be a commendable side offer to die-hard fans, ISEKAI Chronicles just fails to create a meaningful connection between these side stories and the main narrative. Like adding extra chapters to a book that doesn’t enrich the plot.

Gameplay – A Slimy Experience

Like a broken record, ISEKAI Chronicles presents an unending gameplay loop akin to working in Japan – trapped in a hamster wheel of gathering, building, and grinding. With only two monotonous activities: top-view base building and 2D dungeon crawling.

The base building is shown as visually appealing from its top-down perspective and chibi-stylized characters are just surface-level sims where NPC’s are just hanging around rather than being interacted with. The Npc’s will greet you but will never talk to you to bond unless it’s a side quest event.

Gathering resources in dungeons and forests plays like a never-ending slog with little to no satisfaction found in expanding your little digital homestead. That just merely acts as triggering side contents and gains a certain percentage of stats if you use the said building per day/dungeon visit.

Unlike its mobile game counterpart, there will be no added features such as talking to NPCs on the street or adding new populations to add new features to the game – hence the base building is left high and dry just mostly for viewing purposes.

The dungeon crawling, which initially looks promising with its 2D sidescrolling arena-style combat, will descend into a repetitive yawn-fest as it tends to borrow elements from classic action RPGs such as the Tales series pummeling through enemies in 2D without the depth or variety in weapons, gears, and items to use.

Where every enemy is just the same type of enemy under different skins with similar slow attacks and slightly tweaked versions of the last, and the boss fights are just bigger extended versions of the enemies of the same monotonous encounters.

To add salt to injury, the game’s progression system is as shallow as a town building as leveling up your characters is the same stat boosts such as thirty percent (30%) Attack/ dodge/defense that doesn’t differ from one character to another that doesn’t even offer new abilities or skills to try.

The stat boosts are so insignificant to the point that they might as well not exist like this game.

And don’t even get me started on the lack of equipment or skill variety, akin to playing a game on easy mode but without any rewards other than building more buildings that don’t serve any purposes.

Even to the point of the main characters’ predator/devour abilities is a missed opportunity. Turning it from a gourmet meal of exceptional ability-taking skill to a mere side dish of just dishing out large damage on a large scale is missing the point of the whole genre which is a huge bummer.

Graphics And Design- Inconsistent And Repetitive

It is imperative to adjust the graphics to a higher resolution because the default UI and in-game cinematics look heavily pixelated and in bad jagged-quality lines at first which gave me a bad early impression of the game at default settings.

While the animation and cinematics look decent, ISEKAI Chronicles as a whole is a visual hodgepodge that is trying to assemble itself as a jigsaw puzzle with multiple animation and artstyles combined. The animation styles jump from 3D characters in some scenes, full-sized 3D models in others, and then there are those awkward static animations that look as well as portrait conversation style with odd lip and eye movements separating itself from hair animations – akin to AI-based generations.

Like watching a movie where the actors keep switching between live-action and animation, but without the consistent foundational charm to streamline the whole thing.

That being said, the enemy’s designs are a generic bland bunch – reskinned on every different dungeon – straight out of a basic fantasy bestiary, with little to no unique features and attack patterns to distinguish between them. The same ol’ army of skeletons, lizards, and bats, but with slightly different color schemes or bigger in size.

Don’t even get me started on the combat. The enemies’ attack patterns are as predictable as the walking, making dodging their attacks as easy as walking on a sidewalk. An auto easy mode throughout but with a lot less fun.

Voice And Music – Mostly Generic in Tune

While the voice acting in ISEKAI Chronicles does a decent job of maintaining the essence and the vibe of the original anime. unlike the mobile game ironically, the ISEKAI Chronicles music on the other hand will hit you right in the face with its generic mobile-like game soundtrack. With just blandness and lack of originality, you’d expect that just seems like a forgettable background noise.

Lacking the emotional depth and energy that the anime’s soundtrack so effectively conveys. Streaming through peaceful, with lackluster instrumentation and repetitive themes that turn the music into a monotonous soundtrack even during combat.

What I Liked About That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime ISEKAI Chronicles

Designs – Some parts of animation and 3D animation are decent to look at.

Sounds – Consistent Voice Acting

Side Quest – Fleshed out sidequests to know every aspect of other characters in the game including new characters not found in the anime.

What I Wished Was Better

Storyline – The pacing is too quick, skipping meaty parts of the story in the main anime.

Design – 3D animation is much better in consistency and uniqueness

Combat – 2D combat gets dry and repetitively boring quickly. Predator skill is pointless.

Building – Does not input new features and skills upon completing a building

Level-up mechanics – Like its building mechanics, offers the same damage/luck/def boost which is the same for all characters.

Overall – Mobile Free To Play Game Is Better

This isn’t just a misstep; it’s a full-on faceplant into the abyss of generic mobile gaming. To put it bluntly, this game plays like a cheap cash grab, riding on the coattails of a beloved anime.

Compared to the free-to-play SLIME – ISEKAI Memories, this game is a total flop as the mobile free-to-play is a much better game in terms of fun, quality, animations, and value. ISEKAI Chronicles was rushed to market, with half-baked gameplay mechanics, combat, and a lack of polish.

This only caters to those who are really big fans of the series and want to see some more extra characters and interactions via side quest. It doesn’t incentivize the fun factor needed for gamers new or casual to the series like myself.

This offers little value to anyone else, focusing more on nostalgia than quality and gameplay which is a total miss.

Score: 4/10