Controls
o Z = Attack
o X = Jump
o Z + X = Dash
o C = Lock on enemy
o A/S = Rotate Camera/Rotate Lock on
o V = Cast Magic
o W/Escape = Menu
Overview
NOTE: To run this game, right click the exe once unzipped, go to properties. Now choose Compatability, and make it run in Windows 98.
Chantelise is a great looking RPG, mixing 2D with 3D. The game is very in depth, and the world is pretty huge. Due to not being able to read Japanese, I can't exactly tell you what the whole point of the story is. If you know, or for that matter have figured anything else out about this game, please add it to the Chantelise Wiki Page. Definetly one of the nicest looking Dojin Soft games yet though.
Screenshots
Characters
Chante
With her brash attitude, selfishness and small size, it's hard to believe she's the older of the two sisters. Granted, her diminutive stature is due to her being transformed. As a fairy, Chante gains the ability to harness the power inside elemental gems and cast spells. She can absorb more and more gems into her spells as the game progresses.
Elise
The calm and well mannered younger sister of Chante. She's a highly competent sword fighter and the main character you'll be controlling. Her basic hack and slash plays a lot like Adol from the 3D incarnations of the Ys series. She's capable of doing combo attacks and jump attacks, as well as some elementally enhanced extra attacks by equipping certain items.
Aria
A gentle woman who runs an item shop. You rescue her in the first stage you play through. After hearing Chante and Elise's story, she lets them live with her while they aren't adventuring in the ruins.
Chantelise differentiates itself from the similar Ys games by using an over-the-shoulder camera angle instead of Ys' overhead viewpoint. The combat is mostly straight forward hack and slash. Elise can jump around and there are some hidden jumping puzzles required to reveal secret treasures, but there's no hardcore platforming required to beat the game. Players can rotate the camera around Elise, or have the camera lock onto a target. Chante's magic will also home onto any target that the camera is locked onto, but Elise's sword strikes will not.
Elise doesn't gain levels - instead, upgrading her stats comes through finding or buying better equipment. Her hit points are increased through purchasing (or occasionally finding) bottles of a drink called "Fuerumin." Gauntlets raise her attack, shields raise her defense, magic charms give Elise stronger magic resistances and wands raise Chante's spell power. There are a myriad of other upgrades from speed boots to wing boots (which are a must have to get all the secrets in the game) to crystals which let Elise charge up to unleash devastating attacks.
One aspect that's very frustrating at first is the fact that you can't carry any healing items. Enemies periodically drop food which Elise can eat to refill her health. Chante eventually gets a healing spell, plus there's the Dark Crystal that gives Elise an HP stealing charge attack. This does make the game feel really difficult at first. I know I went through certain areas on practice mode a number of times to scrape up enough cash to buy another bottle of Fuerumin.
Chante needs magic gems in order to cast spells. Gems are hidden in containers or dropped by monsters. Slashing grass or hitting trees with a sword can get gems to appear as well. Be careful about the order that you pick up these gems, for Chante will absorb them in the order collected. Grab an earth gem and Chante summons steel balls that swirl around Elise, damaging enemies and protecting her at the same time. Start with the earth base then absorb a fire to increase the damage the balls do. If you use a water gem instead of the fire, the balls cause paralysis when they hit an enemy. Mix in a green wind gem instead and you'll get some extra balls swirling around. There are lots of different combinations that can be uncovered.
Advancing through this game can be a bit tricky. When you first enter a dungeon, you have two choices. One is go through in Capture Mode, and the other is just to play through individual sub areas in Practice Mode. There are five main dungeons in the game (one for each of the four elements and the last dungeon,) broken up into series of sub areas ending with a boss arena. You can travel between sub areas up until the boss arena in Capture Mode. You cannot change your equipment in Practice mode. However, you can in Capture mode.
Each of these areas, boss arena included, has a secret treasure that can be obtained by doing a specific action. Some of the things you have to do to get the secret treasures to appear are pretty intense! If you find all of the secret treasures in a dungeon, you unlock a special room you can access only in Practice Mode. That special area too, has a secret treasure. Obtaining absolutely every one of the secret treasures in the game opens up the Survival Dungeon, sixty floors of non-stop action. The bosses you'll face are large, multi-segmented polygonal monstrosities that take a lot of wit and skill to defeat. They're tough, strong and while they do have their weak points, they aren't entirely easy to exploit. Sure, the giant Jellyfish is weak to fire magic, but to get its truly vulnerable spot to open up is another story.
The music is again done by group called M-box, which EGS has worked with in the past. The soundtrack feels like a tribute to a lot of the synth and orchestral blended older RPG tunes many mature gamers grew up with. The game boasts a total of twenty four tracks, including an ending vocal sung by Chante and Elise's voice actresses. There are a lot of voice overs in this game. Most of the key story sequences are fully voiced. Chante has a lot of different samples she says as she casts her spells.
Chantelise has a lot going to keep you playing. Once you obtain the fishing rod, you can go fishing in any dungeon that has pools of liquid (even lava!). To catch fish, you play a quick, timing-based mini game. Any fish you collect you can trade with the Fishing Master to get some powerful items. You can trade for the same thing repeatedly to further enhance certain stats.
I don't know of any plans out there to do an English patch for this game. Even if you don't have any knowledge of Japanese, this game's structure is very straight forward so non-Japanese speakers shouldn't have much of a problem getting through the game after clearing the Tutorial and talking with everyone a few times to open up the first dungeon.
For fans of action adventure games, I can't recommend Chantelise enough. The maps are well done, there's an insane number of secrets to discover, and the graphics are consistently charming throughout the game.
Download link:
http://www.doujinstyle.com/doujinsoft/chantelise.php
