Chroma Squad turns the making of a Power Rangers-style show into a tactical RPG, and it is a better idea than most games built on a gimmick. Behold Studios, a Brazilian team, funded the project on Kickstarter and shipped it on April 30, 2015, for PC, Mac and Linux. It later reached PlayStation 4, Xbox One and mobile in early 2017, then Nintendo Switch on Aug 1, 2019.
Trailer, via Behold Studios.
Five stunt actors quit their jobs
The premise is the whole pitch. Five stunt actors quit their jobs and start their own tokusatsu company, guided by a mysterious artifact they find called “Cerebro.” You cast the actors, buy equipment and upgrades for the studio, and craft weapons and giant Mechas out of cardboard and duct tape.
Each actor has special traits, and you assign them to roles and suit colors. As the show goes on you can rename the team, the robot and the catchphrases. That flexibility is the game’s best trick: the show is yours, down to what the heroes shout.
Every stage is an episode. The heroes fight a group of villains, sometimes followed by a mecha-versus-enlarged-monster battle. How you perform feeds directly into the show’s ratings, and high ratings grow the fanbase and revenue.
Revenue buys studio improvements and better equipment and mecha. Episodes are grouped into seasons, and missing the sponsors’ goals at the end of a season means game over. That structure gives the tactics a second job: you are not just winning fights, you are protecting a budget.
Teamwork raises the ratings
Battles start with the heroes in their normal selves. Later they gain the ability to transform, which recovers HP and opens special abilities. The “teamwork” function lets heroes help each other — covering longer distances, hitting harder together, or combining powers into a special attack that raises ratings when it finishes the monster of the week.
That last mechanic is where Chroma Squad is sharpest. The ratings system makes showmanship a resource. A flashy finisher is not just flavor; it is money and survival. Few tactical RPGs tie their combat choices to a business this tightly, and fewer still make the tie feel like the point rather than a bolt-on.
The turn-based battles themselves are the weaker half. The isometric, bird’s-eye view and the five-color squad read clearly, but the tactics are conventional next to the studio layer. You have seen these grids before. What you have not seen is a grid where the fight is also an episode of television, and where a bad season can end the run.
Where the gimmick earns its keep
The game’s influences are not hidden. It draws on tokusatsu shows, particularly Super Sentai and Power Rangers, and it wears that debt as comedy rather than homage. The themes are action, fantasy and comedy, and the comedy lands because the game takes the production seriously — casting, upgrades, sponsors, catchphrases.
The mishmash of genres — RPG, simulator, strategy, turn-based strategy, adventure, indie — sounds like a store page problem, but it describes the game honestly. You are running a studio and fighting a monster, and the two halves share one wallet.
A planned PlayStation Vita version was cancelled. That is the one loose thread in an otherwise complete run across platforms.
Chroma Squad is not a great tactical RPG. Its battles would not carry a game on their own, and the season goals can turn a fun episode into a chore. But the studio layer is the reason to play, and it holds up. Crafting a mecha out of cardboard and duct tape and then watching it save your ratings is a specific pleasure no other game in this genre offers.
At 7.2 of 10, Chroma Squad is a smart, funny, slightly uneven game whose best idea is bigger than its combat. Play it for the show, not the grid.
The numbers behind the show
- Score: 7.2 of 10 (aggregate of 7 outlets)
- Developer: Behold Studios
- Publishers: Bandai Namco Entertainment, Plug In Digital
- Initial release: April 30, 2015 (PC, Mac, Linux)
- Later releases: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, iOS, Android in early 2017; Nintendo Switch on Aug 1, 2019
- Platforms: PlayStation 4, Linux, PC, Mac, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
- Modes: Single player
- Funding: Kickstarter
- Cancelled: PlayStation Vita version
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