When comparing Mercenaries Saga Chronicles vs The Escapists 2, the Slant community recommends The Escapists 2 for most people. In the question“What are the best indie games for the Nintendo Switch?” The Escapists 2 is ranked 19th while Mercenaries Saga Chronicles is ranked 24th. The most important reason people chose The Escapists 2 is:
There is no right or wrong way to do anything, and it's entirely a risk vs reward scenario for anything you want to try. You are only limited by your creativity in escaping, as each prison has almost endless possibilities and encourages the player to make the best use of their inventory and be creative in handling every situation. Bed sheets can be used to cover cell windows from the prying eyes of guards, desks can be moved to reach out of reach vents, crafted tools can be used for various purposes such as breaking through walls or doors, and shovels can be used to dig holes. You can try to sneak around guards, or opt to hide in vents until they're out of sight. If you're feeling especially brave, you can even attempt to fight the guards and take their keys allowing easier access around the prison.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Easy to jump into thanks to simple and easy to understand mechanics
The mechanics are easy to grasp within the first few minutes of gameplay. There's nothing convoluted or over complicated, and the game doesn't attempt to be anything it's not. Skills and abilities do what they say they do without a lot of fluff. For example "Throw Stone" does exactly that. Each ability also tells you exactly how much damage it's going to do before you use it.
Combat takes place on a grid based system, taking turns with the enemy as you move your units around, attack, cast spells, and heal. The distance in which you can move or attack is marked with highlighted tiles so you'll never have to guess how far each unit can move or what the range of their attacks are. It's all spelled out for you in visual format.
As in most typical RPGs, between battles, you can buy weapons, armor, and items with the gold you earned, as well as level up your characters with your experience points in a clean and simple UI.
Pro Lots of different ways to build each character
All the characters in the game initially start as one of the basic fantasy classes (fighter, thief, or caster) with a limited skill set. As you level up, you get to choose specializations at certain milestones. At level 10 you get to choose an intermediate class, followed by choosing an advanced class at level 20. Each of these class specializations have their own unique set of skills to use on the battlefield.
For example, you may start as a fighter. At level 10, you have the choice to become a mercenary or a knight. Once you hit level 20, your mercenary can now evolve into a sword master or battle master; if you chose the knight tree, you can now evolve into a paladin or general. As you progress, you keep all your skills from any classes previously chosen in the tree resulting in characters that genuinely feel more powerful and dynamic as they grow.
This end result is an exciting class system loaded with fun class advancement choices that can be used to create a bunch of different and unique combinations for each and every character on your roster.
Pro Thieves are especially fun to play due to some of their non-combat abilities
Thieves add a really fun element to play that isn't battle focused, and allows for some interesting choices where you have to choose whether or not going for the treasure chest on the edge of the map is worth more than using your thief to attack enemies. Not only can thieves unlock and disarm traps on treasure chests, they can also steal items off enemies. That means even if you go into battle low on items, strategically using your thief to pickpocket and plunder may still give you the upper hand by acquiring more during the battle itself.
Pro Starting battles with zero mana leads to more rewarding and satisfying spell casting
Unlike most tactical rpg games, Chronicles opts to start each character with zero mana at the beginning of each battle. This means you'll need to play strategically with your wizards by positioning them properly so your other characters can defend them while their mana charges. If you want to wind up that big fireball, you'll have to work towards it instead of just unleashing it right off the bat. When you finally do get that big spell off, it's much more rewarding to watch the enemy fall knowing that you set it up through skill rather than brute force openers.
Pro Good port
A lot of care went into porting the games from mobile and Nintendo 3DS. The graphics for all three games were redesigned and well optimized for the Switch.
Additionally, some of the newer gameplay features from Saga 3 such as aggro and minion summoning skills were retroactively implemented into the earlier titles, meaning even if you've played them before, you can play them again with these new features added.
Pro A chance to play Mercenary Saga 1 in English for the first time
Prior to Chronicles, the first game in the series was only available in Japanese. It's been fully translated into English for this special release, making it accessible to a wider range of players.
Pro Getting 3 games for the price of 1 is a great value
Chronicles is 3 different games released as one title. All three games are accessible from the main menu which includes Mercenaries Saga: Will Of The White Lions, Mercenaries Saga 2: Order Of The Silver Eagle, and Mercenaries Saga 3: Gray Wolves Of War.
Pro Encourages experimentation and creativity
There is no right or wrong way to do anything, and it's entirely a risk vs reward scenario for anything you want to try. You are only limited by your creativity in escaping, as each prison has almost endless possibilities and encourages the player to make the best use of their inventory and be creative in handling every situation.
Bed sheets can be used to cover cell windows from the prying eyes of guards, desks can be moved to reach out of reach vents, crafted tools can be used for various purposes such as breaking through walls or doors, and shovels can be used to dig holes. You can try to sneak around guards, or opt to hide in vents until they're out of sight. If you're feeling especially brave, you can even attempt to fight the guards and take their keys allowing easier access around the prison.
Pro Good balance of game systems make for a rewarding simulation
Taking action in the game uses up your stamina, so you'll still have to make time for things like eating and sleeping if you want to have energy for things like digging through walls, fighting other inmates, or cutting through vents and gates.
Items such as shovels and cutters have limited durability, so they can't be used endlessly. Raw materials can be found around the prison to craft items, or you can buy items from fences using money earned by running fetch quests for other inmates. No matter how you acquire them, crafting materials and finished goods are limited so you'll have to use your items wisely.
Time is an important factor that has to be managed too, with certain activities having to be done at certain times. This limits the amount of time you have to roam the prison, since you have to show up for meal times and roll calls. Free time can be used to craft, roam the prison to determine the guard patterns, or finally put your ultimate escape plan into action.
Juggling each and every one of the various aspects of the game results in a very deep and rewarding simulation experience.
Pro Solid progression of difficulty
The difficulty increases as you progress, with each prison becoming just a little more intricate and more challenging to escape from than the previous. The prisons themselves get more complex with more obstacles to overcome such as tougher guards which results in more ways things can go wrong. The progress feels good and natural, as you're always building on what you learned in previous prisons to escape from the newest one.
Pro Great pixel art style for retro fans
If you enjoy a more retro style, then this game is pure eye candy. Simple but charming, the pixel art is colorful, with the sprites having a nice variety in animations when they're shoveling, searching, running around, fighting, or partaking in any kind of activity that would require movement. The tile sets for the game world are nicely detailed, colored and shaded. You won't get tired of looking at the same tiles over and over due to the sheer amount and variety of the art assets created for the game.
Pro Lots of replayability
No two games will play out alike. Each prison is an open sandbox, so it's definitely not a linear experience with a defined escape blueprint. Prisons can be replayed over and over to beat your previous time, measured in how many in-game days it took you to escape, which leaves plenty of room for trying new things on each successive playthrough.
Pro Co-Op multiplayer mode adds a new depth to gameplay
Working together creates a whole new experience with loads of possibilities. In co-op mode, you play with up to 3 teammates either online or locally as you work towards escaping the prison together. This adds a whole new dynamic to gameplay as working together creates experiences that just aren't possible when playing solo. Someone could distract the guards, while another searches rooms for crafting materials. One player could run around collecting items, while another scopes out the guard's patrol patterns. Some can complete quests to collect money while others are working on digging tunnels.
Pro A couple of alternative prisons add a change of scenery
Tired of bricks, cold floors, and cement cells? For those who want a change of scenery, there is a prison set in the wild west, and even a futuristic space prison. This adds a little bit of variety to the look of the game while keeping the same gameplay mechanics. It's a nice touch and gives your eyes a break from staring at the same tilesets over and over.
Cons
Con Difficulty spikes between battles means you'll be grinding a lot
The difficulty spikes from battle to battle are sometimes way too steep. You'll often have to grind side battles called "Free Battles" to level up your characters before you can progress the main campaign. These battles happen on the same maps you've already done, so it tends to get very boring and repetitive after a while.
Con You'll be stuck with the same perspective of each battle for the entire game
Each map battle is displayed with a 3/4th overhead view, but the camera is unable to be rotated around for various views of the board. You're out of luck if you want to view the action from a different angle.
Con The color of gear quality in the weapon shop is confusing
When you go to upgrade weapons or armor in the shop, red colored gear is an upgrade and blue colored gear is a downgrade. This is the exact opposite of most similar games, which can be confusing at times and cause you to make costly mistakes when purchasing gear if you're not paying close attention to the stats.
Con The stories are extremely generic and can be skipped without missing much
Each game in Chronicles features a different kingdom under attack, with the characters all wondering how they are going to bring peace to the land by defeating the big evil bad guys. The writing doesn't do much to leave this familiar fantasy territory that we've all seen a thousand times before, making all of it generic and able to be skipped.
Con Each game in the series is the exact same gameplay with a different story tacked on
The only difference between each game is the characters, dialogue, and the story. The battle mechanics, menu style, skills, and gameplay of each game in Chronicles is the exact same. It may start to feel repetitive if you plan on playing the 3 games back to back.
Con Getting caught by guards can be overly punishing
It's frustrating when you spend several hours grinding quests for other inmates, collecting items, crafting, and carefully planning your escape, only to get caught by guards and lose all your items or killed. This effectively means you have to start over, wasting hours of your own time and days of in-game time.
Con Can feel grindy at times
Running around doing fetch quests for other inmates, or searching for crafting materials for hours on end can get stale after a while.
Con Tutorial doesn't cover much
The tutorial will only walk you through the barest of basics, resulting in the player having to learn the game's various mechanics on their own.