I finished Chrono Gear: Warden of Time and its a really good game.
Even if you dont know much of... (actually googling it) Hololive, the game is still very enjoyable.
Characters are very well written and all feel different from each other. You can understand their motives and roles really quickly through just a few lines of text and paying attention to reactions of the ones around them. (Like Kobo has a gun and everyone is scared because she hasn't shot anyone YET)
The story is also well written with some very well set-up twists that doesnt hit you out of nowhere and also gives you time to digest them while ALSO setting up new plot threads and mysteries.
It also just, explains everything. There isnt really any mystery left because the main story covers all of it, which I think is good for this game because it left me feeling satisfied that I have experienced the full story.
And it's surprisingly tragic but also hopeful. I wasn't expecting that when the main character flirts with herself in the mirror. It's not a sad or depressing story, but there is definitely tragedy in it.
Gameplay movement feels very floaty, at least it did for me at first, but its easy to understand while also having depth to it. I cant imagine how good a speedrun will look, you can do a lot with min-maxing slowing or speeding up time. Overall, the gameplay is extremely fun to the point where I want to replay the game just to get better at it.
And the music? Of course! The music is SO good. It never misses. Just fantastic.
Pixel art is charming, really well made, and the anime moments are short but well done.
Some of the voice acting feels a bit awkward, because they'll say their greeting but then keep talking with silent text, and for some characters the silent text noise pitch doesn't match their voice acting? Its only noticable in a few moments but it feels a bit off. In other cases where characters speak back and forth, or laugh, or chuckle, or non-word voice acting, its good. And some voices matches the pitch of their text sound so its not jarring.
The gameplay and story absolutely hooked me and I binged it. My mission time was around 5 hours but there's a lot of stuff to do in the Hub worlds (and also I was afk for periods of time) so my total playtime was 9 hours or so.
Its short but very well crafted, doesnt feel rushed, and doesnt feel like it drags on either. I feel its worth the 17$ I spent, even if the price bothers me because its not at 15$ or 20$. I dont know why, the fact its not on a 5 (or basically a 5. 14.99$ is 15$) is bothering me.
