Grand Chase Chronicles

Grand Chase: Chronicles, originally titled "Project Re:Tale" is an 3D character action-roleplaying game developed by Nightingale Labs in collaboration with Korean developer KoG (Kingdom of God) Studios and published by Sega worldwide and Level Up! Games in Brazil. It is meant to tie-in with the original Grand Chase adventures and retell it for a more modern audience. It will be released for Steam and Windows Store, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in November 2020; the 20th for Asian territories, the 21st for Brazil, and 22nd for worldwide releases (NA, PAL). The game is of a size of 58GB due to its long-length and the use of Dolby Atmos audio and Vision. For PC, the game is also optimized for Nvidia RTX cards to support ray-tracing. It'll also support "Play Anywhere" for Xbox which means when buying this game for the Xbox One, users will also cross-buy for the Windows Store version.
The main boxart of this game represents all 19 Grand Chase members (Uno excluded) ready for battle on a space background, with a shadow of Kaze'aze in the background. The boxart holds the record for having the most characters in a an story-driven video game that isn't a crossover or a fighting game. For the PC version, the icon used is the portrait of Arme, loosely based on Grand Chase's original PC icon. The logo has an Final Fantasy-style insignia where it shows Ernasis with Elesis's sword. The game has an ESRB rating of Teen (Violence, Suggestive Themes, Mild Language), a PEGI 12 (Non-realistic violence towards human characters, Mild bad language), and a CERO C (Violence).
==Plot==
===Intro===
The intro opens with Elscud Sieghart leading a crusade of Kanavan Trackers to the Gorgos cave, having already gotten notations of their target; Kaze'aze. However, upon arriving there, they face an unexpected battle with the Red Gorgos, but partway through the battle, an illusion of Kaze'aze appears, as an response the expedition tries to escape, but is trapped by Kaze'aze's magic. Elscud tries to fight Kaze'aze so they could get away, but Kaze'aze counters with a rift bomb, exploding with the screen fading to white.
===Chapter 1: Leaving Home===
News spread across Bermesiah about the disappearance of Elscud and the Kanavan Trackers, however Kaze'aze takes advantage of this and summons a attack to Serdin Kingdom. Queen Serdin calls three talented warriors; Elesis, Lire, and Arme to fight off this threat. Working together, they eventually defeat the threat and move on. Serdin proclaims the force to be known as the Grand Chase. 
Upon arriving at the Gorgos cave, where Sieghart first reportedly witnessed the disappearance of Elesis's father, Elscud, there was no sign of Kaze'aze anywhere. They continue on fighting off the monsters across the Bermesiah continent, eventually recruiting several new Chase members; Ryan the druid who had been corrupted by Kaze'aze's own powers, Lime, who was a Holy Knight from Great Roose who had been accidentally separated from her comrades and eventually got lost in the desert, and Ronan, who is Kanavan's Royal Guard who had been fighting off Gaikoz, one of the major forces possessed by Kaze'aze. After ridding Bermesiah of the monsters, they then continue on down to Silver Land, having gotten information that Kaze'aze's powers have also invaded Silver Land and find out possible whereabouts of Kaze'aze.
===Chapter 2: A Lost Kingdom===
The Chase heads down to the Silver Land to continue their journey. They learn about the Silver Knights with a friendly panda named Pan. Pan guides them through Silver Land, and eventually enter the ruins of the Silver Knights territory. There, a fighter named Jin, who then joins the Chase with similar motivations. They explore through various effects of Kaze'aze's dark powers inflicted into Silver Land; monsters being corrupted and even the land changing as well. After fighting through Silver Land and finding clues, they storm Victor's fortress and fight through the Black Knights, having gathered evidence about the entity that destroyed the Silver Knights.
Victor claims that the Black Knights had defeated the Silver Knights because he believed that there is no role to competition if they were unable to do anything useful, as if the Silver Knights were too weak to even be matched in the future. The Chase defeats Victor as revenge and then they continue onto Ellia with the ship that they acquired at Silver Land.
===Chapter 3: Battle for Bermesiah===
En route to Ellia, the Chase is interrupted when an illusion of Kaze'aze sinks their ship, dragging them underwater. Arme uses her water magic to ensure everyone else survives. They enter the Ellia continent and fight through, eventually coming across Elena, who was possessed by Kamiki, a pawn of Kaze'aze, and a friend of Arme as a Violet Mage. Continuing the conquest, they enter Kaze'aze's castle, eventually coming across one of Kaze'aze's possessions; Lass, who had been used to gain powers and upgrade her forces. Elesis demands to Kaze'aze for the whereabouts of Elscud before fighting, but to no luck, Kaze'aze is thought to be dying, but ends up getting away in a dimensional rift. Lass then joins the Chase afterward.
Using an old map that Ronan had, they enter the Kastulle Ruins to get to the other side of Ellia. While on the way to the surface, Elesis heard a mysterious voice calling for help, about a greater evil from a "land of the gods" that is aiming to invade the continents. They return to Bermesiah and fight off the monsters. The Chase take an airship from Kanavan to enter Xenia, the land of the Gods.
===Chapter 4: The Land of Gods===
The Grand Chase are on an airship to travel to Xenia. While arriving at Xenia, the only safe port lies at the borders, or through the gates of Violet and Red Forest. Eventually arriving at the Temple of Cuatal, or the location of the God of Cycles, Samsara, they are greeted by Vanessa, a servant of Samsara. They discover that the Ascendant God, Thanatos, was responsible for corrupting the other gods. Amy, who had been living in the Temple of Cuatal, joins the Chase.
While crossing Valstrath, they witness Ercnard Sieghart, or as people had called him Sieghart, Elesis tries to ask Sieghart where Elscud disappeared to, but Sieghart ran off after Lass starts a duel with him. However, shortly after while continuing on, a mysterious knight ambushes them and tries to kill them with a meteor shower before being interrupted by Vanessa. The knight reveals to be Ashtaroth, a entity who "claims" to be the guardian of Thanatos. In his last ditch effort to kill the Chase, Ashtaroth summons Mynos and runs off. 
Arriving at the Wyrm's Maw, or the location of the God of Hellfire, Starklin, they find Sieghart. Sieghart, having calmed down claims that Elscud was taken away in a dimensional rift, the same kind of rift that Kaze'aze used to get away. Elesis cries in response, but felt comforted as if she could not lose hope on her ultimate quest; finding Elscud once and for all. After defeating Starklin, he reveals to be losing his own control of his own powers, rendering himself weaker in order to save himself.
Continuing onto the Altar of Judgment, the location of the Goddess of Judgment, Yamini. They eventually catch her performing a ritual that would freeze the entire continent. After defeating her from the Ascendant God's spell, she apologizes and gives her the Orb of Judgment and directions to the God of Destruction. 
Climbing the Temple of Destruction, the location of the God of Destruction, Perseo, they continue on fighting through the monsters and eventually come across Mari, a mysterious girl who is capable of using machines. After a duel that started after Elesis insulted her, Mari decides to tag along. Perseo states that Lady Gaia, the Goddess of Life has fused herself with Rukkha as an attempt to ensure her own safety against Thanatos.
Heading down to the Forest of Life to kill Rukkha and release Gaia from him, they then find out that if they were too late to even kill him, they would've been fused forever, meaning that even if they kill Rukkha, they'd also ending up killing Gaia as well. The Grand Chase are given directions to the Ascendant God; the Fortress of Ascension.
Finally heading to the Fortress of Ascension with all of the other orbs, the Chase aim to finish off the battle against Thanatos. After defeating Thanatos, Ashtaroth returns only to take the Orb of Ascendancy away from him and gets away to a secret fortress; Archimedia, as revealed by Mari. They take the airship to Archimedia, only to be blasted by Ashtaroth's defenses into a mysterious desert...
===Chapter 5: Deserts of Illusion===
The Grand Chase crash land into somewhere in the deserts of Alcubra. While fighting their way, they encounter a wise goblin named Barakhufu, who is interested on finding a rare treasure nicknamed the Crown of Sands. They fight through their way to acquire all parts of the treasure, but as soon as getting all of the parts, Barakhufu snatches the parts and gets away. The Chase follows him to the Pyramid where he uses the treasure to render himself immortal, as shown by his own idea of getting revenge on those that took him alive. The Chase defeat him, but shortly after they defeat him, a horn sound is heard and the sound of a dragon's roar shoke the pyramid.
Sieghart warns of a raid going on somewhere in this place, and that the raid is known as Berkas Lair, where several of the Holy Knights came to investigate, but never came back out. Inside the cave, they find Rufus, a bounty hunter related to Lass through half-brothership. Having remembered a flashback back at the circus Lass was part off, Lass and Rufus end up in an unexpected duel, but Ley comes in and silences them. After some arguing, all of them decide to join forces and take down Berkas as Berkas himself took one of Rufus's arms, having to get a prosthetic replacement. Ley and Rufus join the chase, Mari decides to carve a route through the caves to Archimedia to get through Ashtaroth's defenses.
===Chapter 6: The Kingdom of Ascension===
The Chase arrives at Hammer's Reach through the secret passenge Mari carves out to avoid Ashtaroth's defenses. While there, they fight through dwarves and elves before being cornered by security forces partway through. Elesis wants to fight, but Ronan chooses to hold their weapons so they can make it to Thunder Hammer safely through their prison cells. When getting to the prison, Mari uses her magic to release the cell locks and leaving the prison. However, as soon as they reach the prison, a mysterious demon named Duel comes in and intervenes. While they repel Duel, another mysterious person armed with a heavy sword named Zero claims that he was chasing after Duel, Upon Duel leaving, Zero runs off. The Chase tries to have a word with the king of Thunder Hammer, Arawn, but are forced to fight due to his refusal to listen. After defeating him, scouts come in with a emergency message about the dwarven kingdom being under attack, Mari suspects it must be the work of Ashtaroth, so they leave and continue on.
Mari comes to a conclusion where Ashtaroth is putting together a weapon called a Soul Stone, which gives the user power that is strong enough to be a god. They arrive at ruins where demon tribes are invading through portals. While there, they witness an Asmodian named Dio trying to destroy the portals. Dio joins the Chase under vision of his butlers, Alfred and Sebastian.
While continuing on, a mysterious dimensional portal sucks the Chase in through random directions. They end up through their previous journeys, where every adventure is recaptured through the power of magic far superior than what Arme is capable of. After fighting their way to the end, they come across Kassias Grnadiel, an elven wizard who uses a copy of the Klara Libri, one of the most powerful spellbooks in Aernas history. After getting into a showdown with him, Grandiel concludes that he has been testing out the Chase to see if they are worthy enough of facing an immortal like his father Ashtaroth.
Somewhere unknown in Archimedia, Ashtaroth shows up before the Chase with the Soul Stone, and summons one of Ronan's friends, Harpe Noir, to test himself out with Ronan with his new powers. Harpe and Ronan get into a fight, but Harpe dies and Grandiel shows up in the nick of time to take the Chase to the Underworld via a dimensional rift in their desperate attempt to save Harpe. Inside the rift, they are taken through a underworld train which takes the deceased souls to the Underworld. They eventually learn one ultimate thing; if a soul from a person dies, there's no going back. After destroying the furnace after it goes berserk after beating the conductor, the Chase jumps out of the train and it explodes, only to be taken to a dark forest.
The Chase end up somewhere in a elven kingdom called Zeruel, but outside in the dark forest. While traveling through the forest, an elven captain named Dahlia shows up and fights them with Baldinar's mark, or Ashtaroth's true alias to Grandiel as proof that she supports Ashtaroth's plans to use the Soul Stone. Dahlia runs off and they follow her to Zeruel's tree city. While fighting through the city, Dahlia says to the Queen of Zeruel, Gilberta that she must allow Ashtaroth's plot to continue, but Gilberta turns that down, Dahlia however, isn't pleased with this and summons a dragon named Quoronnos to try and torture her. The Chase make it to Gilberta's throne just in time the dragon was going to kill her once and for all. Gilberta gives them permission to take an airship that would lead to where Ashtaroth's secret fortress is; the hidden city of Kounat.
The Chase finally arrive to Ashtaroth's last stand, the castle of Kounat where Ashtaroth is plotting to become immortal with the Soul Stone. Eventually, elves and dwarves fight their way to distract Ashtaroth's army of demons. They come across Dahlia, who fights them one last time before Ashtaroth kills her via slashing her with her sword, taking her soul. They come across souls of the Highlanders, which Sieghart is related to; he has a Highlander's soul to be able to live 700 years. Grandiel claims that from the underworld train incident, that souls cannot be returned. He then uses the souls to build enough energy with the Klara Libri, to shoot Ashtaroth's true form once and for all. Ashtaroth before dying, plans to bomb the Aernas Hammer, but Grandiel evacuates everyone just in time the place explodes. Duel comes back, takes the original Klara Libri from Castle Kounat and also Mari as well and teleports away before the explosion.
Having already accomplished greater feats via defeating Ashtaroth and destroying his plot to conquer Aernas, Elesis feels like she hasn't gotten to any progress to finding out where Kaze'aze escaped to or where Elscud was taken to. The Chase leave Archimedia via Zeruel's airship and get back to Bermesiah in hopes of some desired rest, but everything turns the tide after an unexpected distress call.
===Chapter 7: The Siege of Frost===
The Chase answers a distress call from a captain named Edel Frost, who had come to get help to join her on a quest to track down his brother, Adel, who had been conspirating with a mysterious villain in need, Elesis suspects that it could be Kaze'aze, so they decide to join out. After taking down all of the enemies at the Frost mansion in Frosland, they catch up to Adel, only to get away. The mysterious villain shows to be the phantom of Kaze'aze, who then fights the Chase and summons incarnations of previous enemies they fought; Gaikoz, Kamiki, and even Gardosen. 
The phantom Kaze'aze is soon discovered to have the replica of the piece of the Soul Stone, the previous weapon that Ashtaroth stole. Kaze'aze says that she had been manipulating people to do things for her in order to achieve immortality to get revenge on those. Taking things further, Kaze'aze invades Kanavan with her army of monsters once again. The Chase fights them off, Kaze'aze still refuses to disclose where Elscud is, but Elesis suspects that Elscud may be in another world or possibly inside Kaze'aze's control. Adel aids in Kaze'aze's assault against Kanavan. Edel, being unable to stand it, decides that the only thing to do is kill her brother Adel with the rapier. After repelling Kaze'aze's assault, it is discovered that Kaze'aze was originally a royal woman from Kanavan that grew hatred into humans via Ashtaroth manipulating her which caused her to go on a rampage, exiling her from Kanavan. The Chase aim to cleanup the damage and therefore take a break from chasing.
===Chapter 8: The Stranger===
One day, things change when reports of a "Blue Fox" spread throughout Bermesiah. Jin, decides to investigate for himself, only to find the competent fighter known as Asin, Asin claims that he wants to succeed Jin and that his existence is a harm to him, Jin and Asin get into a fight but is then eventually stopped into the Chase. After a bit of arguing, Asin points out that he in fact discovered rumors of a second dimensional rift opening up that could potentially find out where Mari is and potentially where Kaze'aze ran off to. He also points out that the Soul Stone wasn't just destroyed, it was shattered into several pieces, flying in various directions, but fragments of the Soul Stone are still enough to grant some power.
Discovering these rumors, the Chase goes to Agnesia Isle to investigate the situation. Here, they join Rin, the Phoenix from Gaon Village to witness the eclipse that covered Aernas in darkness. Upon the start of the eclipse, demonic creatures are summoned from a dimensional rift. The Chase, alongside Rin fights them off, but after the battle, Duel returns, and exclaims that he's teaming up with Mari to go back in time to save Edna, a friend of Ley from death. He also is discovered to be carrying a piece of the Soul Stone, which is enough to enhance his abilities. They follow Duel through the dimensional rift that he escapes to, fights Duel off after he uses Mari to go back to the past to save Edna from the past, but fails when Zero comes in and stops him. Duel runs off, but Zero takes the Soul Stone away from him and saves Mari, Zero joins the Chase at last. They return back home to Bermesiah only to find out about rumors regarding a Prophecy of the 12 Disciples...
===Chapter 9: The Prophecy===
The Prophecy of the 12 Disciples, as warned by Amy, talks about a prophecy where 12 people nicknamed Disciples are destinied to save Aernas, the world that they live in. Amy mentions a "Destroyer" which Amy refuses to disclose due to her not knowing who or what it is after all. It is at a moonlit night, where most people are off to sleep, including Serdin and Kanavan. Edel suspects that there is a traitor among the 12 Disciples, but none of them even know who it is. 
Over through investigating the Prophecy, they find out that the kingdoms of Serdin and Kanavan are turning on them because they believe that they know who the traitor is. The supposed traitor would lead the demons and work with the Destroyer to find its way into the world of Aernas. Amy is thought to be the traitor of the 12 Disciples, but it was later on discovered that Sieghart was responsible for commiting traitorous acts, even though he was also supporting the others as well; as shown by his fight with Dio, arguing about Duel, the Klara Libri, and whether or not saving the demons is an essential idea.
At the end of the battle, a mysterious force sends werewolves and several demons towards the Chase. After fighting them off, Duel shows up and then Veigas as a tag-team. Veigas revealed that he created the Prophecy in an attempt to unite the Chase to their final doom; the return of Kaze'aze's supremacy with the Tower of Disappearance. After fighting off Kaze'aze once again in the Tower of Disappearance through a rift portal, Duel saves the Chase from the collapsing rift portal and Elesis is unable to find Elscud. Veigas joins the Chase, saying that he'll do what he can to track down Kaze'aze once and for all after changing ways with him and Duel.
One day, Mari uses her Klara Libri copy to track down the Highlanders after being curious on Sieghart's origins and how Baldinar became a Highlander, only to find they came from a ruined place somewhere in a desert. They travel southwest, only to find an mysterious Highlander that's unlike Sieghart at all...
===Chapter 10: The Blood of Highlanders===
The Chase explore through what could be ruins of the past Highlanders, with the aid of the mysterious highlander named Uno. He wears a hood to hide his mysterious bloodlust. While exploring through the ruins, Sieghart recalls that this was the place where Sieghart had acquired the body of a Highlander which explains his age. However, while traversing the ruins to find out more about Uno's pasts, they come across ghosts of the Highlanders, but they fight them off, despite Sieghart's disapproval. They then stumble across ruins of a village and then somewhere a pool of mana, the blood of the Highlanders.
Sieghart discovers that Uno has been created with the power of a thousand souls of the Highlanders that Ashtaroth killed, and that Uno destroyed the village in the bloodlust. Sieghart then gets into a fight with Uno, Elesis tries to assist Sieghart in the fight, but is killed by a blood slash by Uno. Lime tries to heal Elesis, but her vision turns red and fades to black.
Elesis wakes up in what could be somewhere in heaven; the floor consisting of clouds, the sky above being a blue sky and her clothes being replaced with what could be an angel dress and no footwear whatsoever. Running endlessly, screaming for help, she eventually stumbles upon what she could make out to be Elscud. At first glance, Elscud was thought to be killed by Kaze'aze, but upon getting close enough, the Elscud exclaims demonizing notations about Elesis, Elesis and Elscud get into a fight, only to reveal that it was Lady Kaze'aze (in human form) posing as Elscud in disguise. Kaze'aze states that Elesis will never fulfill her dream of finding Elscud, because "he's already dead". Elesis says that Kaze'aze is only from Kanavan, and that she thinks Aernas should be destroyed because "we" treated her too cruelly. Kaze'aze openly admits that Elesis is correct. After a fight using an sword that resembles Ernasis's, the goddess of Elesis, Elesis destroys the illusion of Kaze'aze and gets back to the mortal world of Aernas using the soul of Ernasis.
Upon getting back to the mortal world, Uno joins the Grand Chase after a massive argument between him and Sieghart that was ongoing while Elesis was inside Kaze'aze's purgatory. However, the souls of the Highlanders transform into Heracles, a Highlander that also has the capabilities of Uno but with the combined power of the Highlanders. After defeating Heracles, Uno declares that they need to move, and the Chase leaves the ruins of Highlanders before anything bad could occur.
===Chapter 11: The War to End All Wars===
Having returned to Bermesiah, Veigas makes a discovery; Kaze'aze has escaped to the alternate dimension where she's planning on making Elscud work for her by corrupting his soul. Elesis is devastated, and with the help of Veigas, the Chase goes after Kaze'aze in the alternate dimension. After fighting against Kaze'aze in the alternate dimension, Kaze'aze gets away to her last stand; the Kingdom of Kanavan where she'll build her ultimate fortress.
The Chase climb their way up to the top of Citadel Kanavan, where they face off Kaze'aze, where she summons all of the previous evils that they've defeated; Ashtaroth, Thanatos, etc. They fight them off, but Kaze'aze escapes to the fields of Bermesiah, where she uses the fragments of the Soul Stone to unleash her limits and transform into a invincible demon and endless waves of enemies and monsters. The Chase are outnumbered, but not after Grandiel comes in and teleports all of the Chase's allies to the final battle. The Chase and all of the forces wage war against Kaze'aze's forces. Elesis, Lire, and Arme will go after Kaze'aze and save Elscud.
Elesis, Lire, and Arme climb their way to the top using the help of Grandiel's Klara Libri and the fragments of the Soul Stone. Using the fragments of the soulstones to use the souls and strength of the three deities of Aernas; Ernasis, Lisnar, and Armenias. All three of them use their strength to blow up Kaze'aze's demon form and after defeating her, Elscud falls out and Elesis rescues her, but Kaze'aze uses the last fragment to revive her one last battle and Elscud goes berserk from Kaze'aze's corruption. After weakening Kaze'aze enough, Elscud destroys her with his Kanavan Tracker sword and Elesis finishes her off, with Kaze'aze exploding in powers of magic.
After defeating Kaze'aze, all of the monsters are repelled and then the world of Aernas is restored to normal. The Soul Stone is taken away by Grandiel, and all of the Chase members leave, therefore representing the end of the Grand Chase.
3 weeks later, Elscud and Elesis are re-meeting back in Kanavan with the Sieghart family. Elesis then looks at the memorial monolith telling about the disbanding and honor of the Grand Chase, and wishes to those fellow Chasers "so long".
==Gameplay==
===Startup===
When first booting up the game, the title screen is the meadows of Bermesiah but with Elesis's sword on the ground. As noted, the panorama isn't drawn, but represented with actual 3D visuals. Then, after pressing L2+R2 as indicated, a sword brandishing sound is made and then you are greeted with the menu options. If booting up the game on PS4/Xbox One platforms, the opening CG is the landscape poster of the game with the logo on the bottom-right. On PS4, on the information page about the game, the Serdin Kingdom theme plays and the information CG used is a 3D screenshot of Elesis and Sieghart standing on desert ruins. (from the Ruins of Highlanders in Chapter 10)
Upon starting a new playthrough via booting up the game for the first time, the first cutscene is consisted of the developers' logos, and then the intro cutscene with Elscud and the Kanavan Trackers. After the intro, you immediately begin the first stage, and you only start with Elesis, Lire, and Arme as playable characters, with Elesis being the character the player controls, though the player is able to switch out during gameplay. After beating the first stage, you are then taken into a free-roam area which represents the Serdin kingdom, where the characters could explore around, look for secrets or talk to characters for side-quests. You can explore through the continent of Bermesiah but you're not allowed to go to locked areas unless you complete the designated stage. 
Via progressing through the game, the title screen changes;
*Prologue: Meadows of Bermesiah with Elesis's sword on the ground (based on Xenoblade Chronicles 1)
*Chapter 1 after completing the first stage: Elesis overlooking the Kingdom of Serdin.
*Chapter 2: Panorama of Silver Land.
*Chapter 3: The gates of Kaze'aze's castle.
*Chapter 4: Airship flying in the sky.
*Chapter 5: A view of the Sands of Illusion, the desert.
*Chapter 6: The interiors of Castle Kounat.
*Chapter 7: The gardens of Frosland.
*Chapter 8: Goliath Habitat, one of the areas of Elyos.
*Chapter 9: The 12 Disciples with a full moon in the background.
*Chapter 10: The Ruins of the Highlanders.
*Chapter 11: The Citadel Kanavan under Kaze'aze's control.
*After Beating the Game: Elesis, Lire, Arme, and Elscud viewing the panorama of Kanavan. (the logo insignia then becomes complete afterward showing Elscud in the illustration) 
After beating the game, you can freely change the main menu screens.
===Overall===
The gameplay is an hack-n-slash character action RPG in a similar fashion to Ys VIII and Granblue Fantasy Relink. The gameplay takes place in a hybrid between a open world and a linear stage structure and support up to 4 player co-op. Players can assemble parties up to 4 different characters, as there are a total of 20 different characters in the game. There are a total of 11 chapters and each of them have 7-10 stages that are 11-25 minutes each with the exception of Chapter 6, which has a total of 15 stages to fill in additional plot material from the Event Dungeons and Hero Dungeons from the original Grand Chase. There are a total of 93 storyline stages in the game, which if the player spends around 11-25 minutes to beat, it would take them roundly 28 hours to beat the game excluding cutscenes, transitions, and any sidequests the player comes across. There are around 11 hours of cutscenes in the game, which 1/3 have exposition, 1/3 have action, and 1/3 have character introductions. There are also a total of 15 elite stages that unlock after beating the game that aim to test the players skills with varying conditions. Before starting the stages, you are taken to an overview of your party of four, where you can make changes by putting party members in and out before starting the stage, because you cannot change party members while in an active stage. You can still change party members in the open world sections, but not in stages to prevent replacing dead party members, especially in Elite Stages.
Each stage takes place within a partition of the open world stages, except there are arcane domes and circles sealing and blocking off areas during fights. Each stage has an average of 4-5 battles consisting of 6-12 enemies each and then a boss battle in the end. At the end of each stage, players will face off against a boss, which will have much more higher HP than most of the enemies. For example, the Orc Warrior, the first boss, has 3200 HP when most of the enemies have averagely 250-400 HP with a damage input at around 40-50 at the beginning. To keep things from being repetitive, bosses have a mechanic called Over Drive which changes their moves and increases their speed. Some bosses have unique twists like secondary bosses jumping in the midst of the fight and some bosses will have multiple phases that happen at a certain partition of the health bar. 
As a common RPG element, there are status ailments/buffs/debuffs in the game;
*Poison: While in this debuff, your attack and defense is reduced by 20%.
*Shock: Damages entities over time slowly but stuns them. 
*Fire: Damages entities over time. 
*Freeze: Prevents movement and reduces defense by 30%.
*Blast: This debuff triggers an explosion after a few seconds which ignores guard. To counter this, perfect dodging is mandatory. 
*Curse: Causes basic attacks to inflict self-damage.
*Stun: Halves movement/attack speed.
*Stone: You are unable to do anything for the debuff, but you'll take 30% more damage.
*Lock: You are unable to use Arts/Hypers while this debuff is active.
*Attack Up/Down: Increases/decreases the damage a entity does.
*Defense Up/Down: Increases/decreases the damage a entity takes.
*Arts Up/Down: Increases/decreases the strength of Arts/SP skills.
*Recharge Boost: Increases the rate that Arts/SP skills are recharged.
*Lucky Blow: The next Art used will be maximized.
The HUD is consisted of the four players' HP bars (a smaller Hyper bar) on the top-left, a diamond which reveals the four SP skill icons if the L1 button is held on the bottom right, a second diamond on the bottom left that reveals consumable items or alternative fighting styles/abilities if the L1 button is held, and a mini-map on the top-right, all in a flat art-style similar in fashion to Warframe. Note that the left button only has the L1 icon if the character you're playing as has a L1+D-Pad ability. The SP-skill diamond is charged up by sides, where 25% of the SP gauge equals one side of the SP diamond fully charged via mana glows (with a line on each side in a fashion to Xenoblade Chronicles 2)  Buffs and debuffs are indicated underneath the player's HP bars.
The loading screens in the game comprise of the stage's briefing, location on the continent and description on the top left and on the bottom right four running chibi characters that represent who's in the party. For example, if a party of Elesis, Lire, Arme, and Ryan was in the party, then those four chibis running will be them in the order that they are placed in the party, where the 1st slot will go first and the 4th will go last. If you're loading back to the open world continents, you are instead told information about the continent itself, such as the two first founders of Serdin and Kanavan were Scarde Vi Serdin and Esnar Din Kanavan.
Unlike most action role-playing games, there are both light attacks and heavy attacks. Light attacks are faster but do less damage. Heavy attacks are slower but do more damage. The game makes it unique as each character has unique abilities that can only be done with either light attacks or heavy attacks, such as holding it down for secondary attacks or charged attacks. These two types of attacks are done by pressing the Square and Triangle buttons, or it can be alternated to the Triangle/Circle buttons via using the Devil May Cry/Bayonetta-style control scheme. Characters can also dodge by the R2 button, which is represented by either flips, slides, or dashes.
The framerate targetted in this game is a solid 60fps as this game is built with the Unity Engine and goes for an cel-shaded art-style similar in fashion of KoG's KurtzPel, Breath of the Wild, and Rime. The cutscenes are also run on the gameplay at 60fps, with seamless transitions between cutscenes and action without any pre-rendering to keep the size down. The game runs at 720p 60fps on the Nintendo Switch docked/undocked and 1080p for the Pro version, 1080p/60fps for both PS4/Xbox One, 1800p for PS4 Pro, and 2160p for Xbox One X. The font used in the game is the same font KoG used for Grand Chase's mobile sequel and KurtzPel. (Adobe Gothic)
There is a max level of 100 in the game and each character has a skill tree where they could unlock new moves, tactics, abilities, etc. The damage output starts at 50 and increases to 500 at level 100 and a maximum damage cap and player HP of 9999 with players starting with 500 HP at the beginning and an average of 5500-7500 HP at the end. Each characters' skill tree has a total of 52 skills and three paths each but each skill costs varying amount of points (1/2/3). When it comes to the skill trees, players can disable specific skills to try various experiments, but also note that some skills are required for another skill to activate. Each character can hold up to 4 skills which are performed by holding L1 and then pressing the designated face button. One unique mechanic is the Maximization system, which at a rare chance Arts will instead do maximum critical damage, maximizing its effects. Upon activating a maximized skill, a character cut-in will appear while using their Arts. Upon using skills, players can charge up a Hyper Gauge which if filled lets the character utilize a Hyper attack, with averagely 10-12 skills required to charge the gauge. If multiple characters use their Hypers, there will be a Chain Burst first signaled by a Chain Chance, which will result in increased damage to a maximum of 100% "Full Chain" if all 4 of them use Hypers. Character also have a utility move at L2 which ranges from guarding (Elesis, Ronan, Jin, Sieghart, Zero, Asin, and Edel) or various other abilities that can be unlocked via the Skill Tree system. Some characters have secondary abilities which are activated by holding down L1 and inputting with the D-Pad, such as switching elements, summoning entities, or various tactics. By fulfilling certain tasks, special Chain Bursts can be performed;
*Aftershock Chain Burst: Activated by having all party members at 25% HP or less. Results in all characters being able to aftershock their Hyper after the first Chain Burst.
*Ultimate Chain Burst: Activated by having all four Hypers maximized. Results in a rainbow aura that slows down the enemies and then explodes them. 
The game starts off with only the three first characters, Elesis, Lire, and Arme, but as the player progresses through the game, more characters join the cause and become playable. Each character has a total of 11 different SP skills which are charged up by doing basic attack damage towards enemies, similar in fashion to Xenoblade 2 and Granblue Fantasy Relink. However, unlike Xenoblade 2 and Relink (previously they used the Xenoblade 2 fashion which they now switched over to a hybrid of timer/basic attacks at the time according to the latest demo), SP skills share their own gauge, meaning if you use one skill you reduce the gauge on other skills as well. Players also have consumables which are used by the D-Pad. SP skills are unlocked through progressing through the skill tree and characters only start with 3. Every basic attack will regenerate 5-8 SP. While casting an SP skill, you will have Super Armor active which keeps you from being stunned while using an SP skill, but note that there are some enemy attacks that can cancel skills, but Hypers/Chain Bursts cannot be cancelled by enemy attacks. Some SP skills are done by aiming, where after you cast the SP skill, you aim it with the C-Stick and then confirm with the L1 button.Also note that dupes (Elesis twice for example) cannot be used in gameplay except for online co-op as they are recognized as seperate players unlike AI party members.
The multiplayer component is where separate players take place of their own designated character, with the host having the other characters played by AI. Note that in multiplayer, players can vote whether to skip cutscenes via the Start+A input. Other players can also take control of characters that the host hasn't yet unlocked. For example, a co-op game with the host only at Chapter 3 can also have players taking control of Asin and Edel even if the host had not yet unlocked those characters yet. The game also supports cross-play across consoles, so players playing on a PS4 will be indicated with a PS4 icon, and players playing on a Switch will be indicated with a Switch icon. An example of a online multiplayer game in action is this;
*Stage: Chapter 4: Fortress of Ascension
*Host: Level 28 Elesis (Switch)
*Player 2: Level 59 Rin (PS4)
*Player 3: Level 68 Zero (Xbox One)
*Player 4: Level 47 Rufus (Switch)
Before starting out into stages, players are put into a free-roam town where players could talk to NPCs for sidequests, information, or switch out their parties and switch out playable characters where the other 3 are played by an AI. There are also shops where players can buy consumable items such as healing items or Natal orbs (functions like the AED batteries in Astral Chain) When it comes to loot, players can equip a weapon augment, armor, and three accessories (necklace, anklet, ring) which give unique stats and boosts. There are also "elite" equips which give unique powers and mostly drop from bosses in dungeons at rare rates. For example, the elite necklace "Elena's Gift" gives the player a 10% chance of reducing the enemy's attack by 30% for 10 seconds while using basic attacks. Some equipment is obtained via sidequests or hunts and thus cannot be sold if its one-time acquiring. 
When it comes to the free-roam areas, some of the areas are reused for the main stages except with cutscenes taking place inside of the buildings. Unlike most Japanese RPGs, dialogue is mostly done in 3D cutscenes face to face. Some cutscenes transition seamlessly into the gameplay such as camera pans, boss introductions, etc. As an real example, the first stage, Outer Wall of Serdin, is just outside the free-roam area of Serdin Kingdom, with a cutscene inside the palace in the beginning using the same graphics as the free-roam area. Also, later on the game the story will reuse some of the free-roam areas to be actual stages in the game. The game is also set in an open world, so players can freely explore the continent but there will be signs indicating replayable stages and sometimes enemies as well for sidequests. Also, there will be mist blocking locked areas if you've not yet completed the designated stage yet. For example, Elven Forest and Kanavan cannot be explored unless Elven Forest (the stage) is already completed. In multiplayer, the host has the players vote to travel to another world or do a designated stage, even if its a stage that the players have not unlocked yet. Other examples of towns include Zeruel after completing the City Tree, where you could talk to elven NPCs for sidequests or have a flirt with Gilberta or even leave into the dark elven forest seamlessly, with signs indicating that you can replay the stages. Note that while you're in towns/cities in the open world section, you cannot fight at all. (You cannot unsheath Elesis's weapon while in Serdin/Kanavan) 
Some stages will utilize "guest" and "independent" forces. Guest forces (indicated in green) function as allies, while independent or 3rd party forces (indicated in yellow) are neither fighting for the player or the ally, they can be either a 3rd faction that can oppose either the player's faction or the enemy's faction or both.
Unlike most games in this genre, each continent has it's own supermap with portions of it used in the stages. For example, stages that take place in Bermesiah will have its own dedicated portion without the rest of Bermesiah being cut off. In Serdin Kingdom, you can see the other areas in Bermesiah being rendered even from distances away. 
The Player Menu is represented with an equipment menu stating what is being equipped, a skill tree menu, milestones, and intel from in-game. Intel items, unlike other parts is spread across all characters, and they usually tell about lore within the universe of Grand Chase, such as the biography of the characters, histories, etc. Biography about the characters is unlocked upon their first major appearance.
How death works is that when you die, you go into a "Danger" status where other players must save you from dying. You'll regenerate 10% health after getting out of Danger status. If the Danger gauge runs out, the player dies and is eliminated from the game. You only have 3 lives per stage and if those lives run out, its game over. Some consumables can also save you from Danger status, such as the Regeneration Potion. However, you only can be saved out of Danger status 3 times before it becomes instant death. Some attacks will bypass the Danger status and will instantly kill you. Reviving (saving from Danger Status does not count) will reset the Danger limit. 
Upon completing each stage, there is a fanfare and everyone strikes a victory pose and quote. As noted, experience points and gold are not gained by fighting monsters, it is gained by completing the stages and main quests with bonuses under stylish feats such as Master Dodger or Weapon Master. When a character levels up, there is a quote for when they level up. Also, when it comes to replaying stages, you can replay stages up to 5 times before they are reduced to 10%, so players can't just farm EXP by playing the same stages over and over. Also, when it comes to earning experience, each characters' level is shared so players don't have to grind other characters. After the results of each stage which mainly come from if the player completes the game, they fail the stage, or the stage is ended partway through, players can choose to either explore the continent or continue the story. Exploring option lets you get put into the free-roam areas, while continuing the story lets you immeditately move on to the next stage. Also, when it comes to replaying stages or playing them in multiplayer, the enemies do not change formation or gain any stronger in terms of stats, instead their AI becomes smarter the second time you fight them, such as knowing how to block/parry certain attacks, etc.
There are four voice options to use for the gameplay; English, Japanese, Korean, or Brazilian Portuguese. North American, European, and Australian versions get the English voice as the default, South American versions get the Portuguese voice as the default, Korean copies get the Korean voice as the default while all other non-English Asian copies get the Japanese voice as the default. Korean, Japanese, and Portuguese voices retain the same voice actors from the mobile sequel known as Dimensional Chaser.
The level cap that players will reach upon beating the game averages to level 70 and will have half of the skill tree completely unlocked. To compensate for the absurdly high level cap, there are additional changes and interludes after the endgame, such as a secret boss and various other adventures. Note that the endgame challenges only go up to level 90 so the max level of 100 is mostly only for bragging rights.
Controls
Input Name (Xbox/Switch) 	Description
Cross (A/B) 	Jump (only one jump)
Square (X/Y) 	Light Attack
Triangle (Y/X) 	Heavy Attack
Circle (B/A) 	Action (talk to NPC, operate switches, etc)
D-Pad (Left, Up, Down, Right) 	Item Use (Hold for 1.5 Seconds)
Options (Start) 	Player Menu
Select (Touchpad) + D-Pad (Left, Up, Right)	Switch Character
Select (Touchpad) + D-Pad (Down) 	Disengage/Engage Party Members
L1 	Skill Activation
L1+D-Pad 	Switch styles/Secondary Skills (if available)
L1+Face Buttons 	SP Skill Usage
L1+Select (Touchpad) 	Communication (via Signals)
R1 	Lock On
L2 	Utility Move
R2 	Dodge
L3 	Sprint
L3+R3 	Hyper Ability (Chain Chance)
====Characters====
Each character has their own fighting style, skill tree, and action skills. Note as stated above, the other 17 characters are locked and must be unlocked by playing through the story. Upon unlocking them after clearing a stage, there will be a message saying "New Chaser" alongside a fanfare with gameplay showing off the character's abilities. While playing through the story, the gameplay dialogue changes on who's in the party, though the storyline cutscenes stay the same. If you're playing in multiplayer, the fanfare is skipped. Although you can get characters later in the game and they have skill trees, most of the late-game characters will already have some pre-investment in their skill tree. It should be noting that before each stage, you choose your 4 Chasers to bring with you and then select which one to play as during the stage.
To read about the information regarding characters, movesets, and their skill trees, see here for now.
==Stages==
See here for now.
==Crests (Achievements)==
See here for now.
==Trivia==
*The Brazilian Portuguese versions changes some characters' names to be on pair with the other Grand Chase games. With the exception of Lime/Holy, these changes were also applied to some regions.
**Ley - Rey
**Rufus - Lupus/Luxus
**Rin - Lin
**Asin - Azin
**Lime - Holy
*A teaser boxart was released on June 2020 for E3 2020 but the final boxart wasn't revealed until Gamescom, where the final trailer was announced. The teaser boxart is Elesis, Lire, and Arme on the path to Kanavan. A previous teaser poster had the Grand Chase logo, but was called "Project Re:Tale" back then and was only a map of Aernas.
*Queens Serdin and Kanavan use the same appearance as they did for Grand Chase Dimensional Chaser and have the same voice actor. They chose the designs over the original PC version's because the latter was too basic.
**While the original Queen Kanavan appeared in Grand Chase mobile sequel, the original Queen Serdin is still yet to make an appearance.
*KurtzPel (which is related to Grand Chase to being a parallel timeline) was originally going to be KoG's first retail game, but switched over to a F2P early on in the concepts, making this KoG's first retail game and their first game for the home consoles.
*The game actually follows the established timeline that KoG had done for Grand Chase, as shown by the fact that Lime joins the Grand Chase at Bermesiah, not at Archimedia (according to a Event Dungeon) as the original PC game had implied, though the plot where they meet Asin and Rin had to be implemented originally because KoG never got to the point before the original game shut down in 2015.
**One difference is that the Prophecy had a two year gap between Archimedia and the Prophecy. In Chronicles, there is no 2 year gap.
**This game is known to be the third alternate universe of Grand Chase, where Elesis actually succeeds on saving Elscud, the first that lead up to the mobile sequel where Elscud turns on Elesis and Elesis chases after Kaze'aze via going through random worlds, and the second that leads up to KurtzPel, the parallel universe and reboot.
*Taunts were originally going to be in the game, and would retain the same lines from the original Grand Chase. However, they were cut as it felt more like a show-off than a useful ability. They would've been used on the Down button on the D-Pad.
*As stated above, the four-action skill gameplay mechanic weren't just used in the Ys games and Granblue Fantasy Relink. It was also used in TMNT: Mutants in Manhattan by Platinum, and Cyberdimension Neptunia: 4 Goddesses Online by Tamsoft, and for the Western side Darksiders and Warframe also used this as well.
*As seen in the Trailers sub-page, the game went through several changes before getting into the state that it was for the final version.
*The reason why a hybrid between open world and linear stage structure (linear missions) was chosen instead of just a full-on open world with the story quests in it is that a linear stage structure would keep the multiplayer balance stable while keeping the open world aspects, because if they made it full on open world it would've been too difficult to control and maintain in a multiplayer environment, especially in stages that you cannot explore freely such as Frosland.
*In the license section of the game, Wwise, Dolby Atmos/Vision, Simplygon, Criware, Blender, and DAZ Studio are also mentioned.
*In the credits, AVANT Inc, AnimationCafe INC. ModelingCafe INC, Sound Racer LTD, Level Up! Games and IMAGICA DIGITALSCAPE Co. Ltd are also mentioned as companies that did part-time work on the game in the Developmental Support section.
**The closing credits has KoG written with "Action Together" above it, as it was KoG's old slogan when booting up the original Grand Chase.
**Level Up! Games actually played a role as they handed over the orchestral soundtracks used for their 2015 closing concert to Nightingale Labs and KoG.
*A Google Stadia port was once planned, but it was cancelled due to the Stadia's poor reception in favor of a GeForce Now port.
*If choosing to leave the game from the main menu, instead of simply just closing the game, it shows a CG of Elesis, Lire, and Arme resting in Serdin Kingdom for a few seconds before closing the game. This is a reference to many 2000s desktop games (Big Fish, Alawar, WildTangent) as some games also did that.
==Subpages==
*Grand Chase Chronicles/Stages
*Grand Chase Chronicles/Items
*Grand Chase Chronicles/Codex
*Grand Chase Chronicles/Skills
*Grand Chase Chronicles/Transcript
*Grand Chase Chronicles/Missions
*Grand Chase Chronicles/Phonograph
*Grand Chase Chronicles/Extras
*Grand Chase Chronicles/Trailers
*Grand Chase Chronicles/Crests
*Grand Chase Chronicles/Museum
*Grand Chase Chronicles/Trials of Elyos
*Grand Chase Chronicles/Birth of Darkness
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