Massive Chalice: Repetition at One's Ease

Time to Beat: 14 hours

Perhaps my previous article was an exciting glimpse into Massive Chalice, like reading The Silmarillion. Or it maybe it was as dull as studying Le Morte d'Arthur. Ones opinion depends on whether one finds a catalog of heroes and their achievements enthralling or tiresome. This basic capacity, to appreciate a tale of battles and heroic deeds is a requirement for the repetitive play of Double Fine's strategic, tactical, semi-RPG about the invasion of a medieval nation by a monstrous enemy known as the Cadence.

For three hundred years, the player cultivates royal lineages to breed ode-worthy heroes. And every ten years, five heroes battle a tactical map, a la XCOM or Fire Emblem. But while the developers write an epic like the Iliad, they characters lack the wrath of Achilles or the distinctness of Eliwood, Lyn and Hector. Though I endeavored to distinguish between champions in my Massive Chalice Records, they are too similar to make them worth of distinction. Yet, since the pleasure of Massive Chalice requires uniqueness, the develops tried to distinguish between heroes in five characteristics; classes, abilities, stats, traits, and personalities.

The class system is unusual. There are three main classes; Hunters use crossbows from stealth and distance, Caberjacks, enclosed in dense armor, hit enemies with giant logs, and Alchemists toss Molotov cocktails like concoctions for area of effect explosions. These are the three “pure” classes, and each has two modified versions. During the course of the game, the player will arrainge a marriage between two heroes, and place them in a Keep. Of these two one is labeled Regent while the other is titled, Spouse. The Regent determines the core class, and the Spouse, the subclass. A Hunter regent married to a Hunter spouse will create a Hunter. But a Hunter married to an Alchemist will create a Trickshot (a subset of hunter, with alchemial influence). Of the three hunter classes; Hunter, Trickshot and Enforcer, they retain the same basic profile (combat with bow) but have different abilities.

At level one, each hero unlocks the class's basic ability. Then at levels 2, 4, 6, and 8 a hero picks between two new abilities. A Hunter at level 2 chooses between the ability to see further into fog of war, or increase damage against already wounded enemies. At level ten, a hero acquires a final ability, determined by their class.

Since the Massive Chalice is like an RPG, each hero is a collection of stats. Stats are the orthodox classifications; strength, intelligence, dexterity, and so one, which determine how a character performs at different actions. There are ten categories in total. They each have a number and these are based on a heroes class, level, traits, and personalities.

Traits and personalities are the core of Massive Chalice's attempt to characterize heroes. Traits are genetic qualifiers, passed down through parents to their children. There are twenty-two pairs of dual traits. Dual traits are like ying and yang, a character can have one or the other (or neither), but not both. A character can be nimble or clumsy (or neither). There are also five solo traits, like asthmatic. In total therefore, there are forty-nine unique traits (but a hero couldn't have forty-nine, at most twenty-seven). Each trait effects the hero in some way. Nimble characters have increased dexterity, while clumsy characters have less dexterity.

Personalities are randomly determined at birth. Most heroes recieve three from the seventy one possible personalities. Again there are some dual traits, such as Oblivious and Insightful. The game includes twenty-five pairs. There are twenty-one solo personalities, such as Bloodthirsty. Personalities have similar effects as Traits. They are no different except how they are received (by parents vs. random chance).

While Massive Chalice tries to institute personalities and traits to construct three dimensional characters, it only succeeded in differentiating between ineffective heroes and sufficient ones. Never did I experience a character who was above average. When choosing heroes to marry, I did try to avoid poor characteristics, but none are debilitating as to disqualify a hero from service, and this is because the game is very easy.

On normal difficulty there were thirty battles, plus the final battle. Fifty-nine unique heroes served in battles. And only four died in these battles, and none after the seventh battle. Before even a third of the game was completed, I reached a plateau, able to coast to the ending. The lack of difficulty comes from a few factors:

Heroes are all reasonably competent. Anyone can serve with success.

The enemy is incredibly ineffective. Each tactical battle has a few dozen Cadence. But they wander about on the map until they find the heroes (or the heroes find them). Tactically, the player can attack small groups of Cadence one at a time, destroying them before they can react. Group by small group the player can move about the map, and never encounter danger.

The enemy is feeble (and unimaginative!). The game introduces increasingly strong enemies over time. The basic Cadence is the Seed, a melee unit with few hits, no armor, and minimal damage. They have the ability to gain in health, the damage the deal. But since they inflict so little, and are often slain in one hit by heroes, this ability is pointless.

There are seven basic enemies, and only one incorporates an innovative ability: the Wrinkler. Each hit a Wrinkler connects on a hero ages the hero by five years. It's interesting strategically, but insignificant tactically (except that Wrinklers need to be eliminated first!). Once the game has exhausted its catalog of basic heroes with tedious abilities, it goes right back and tries to reintroduce them. Each basic Cadence has an upgraded version, simply labeled “Advanced Seed” and so on. The advanced versions wear more armor, deal more damage, and survive more hits, but demonstrate no new abilities. By the time a player encounters advanced enemies, they should have heroes who outclass these new, yet tired threats.

Even the final battle is effortless. Five heroes entered (and though I wrote differently in last Monday's article) all five survived. There was nothing unique about the final battle, except that instead of hunting Cadence in the fog of war, the foe charged heedless at the Chalice, which my heroes defended with ease.

The best part of Massive Chalice was the first third of the game. The challenge was the result of two factors:

With only level one heroes, and the introduction of the Cadence, shepherding heroes through battles successfully was a tense experience.

And each was more valuable than their weight in gold. The player starts with a small pool of heroes, and though they are sufficient in combat, their true value is strategic. The kingdom is divided into ten empty locations (plus the Capital). The player must construct keeps where he can marry two individuals. Each keep requires more time to build than the previous, and there are also Crucibles (to train heroes) and Sagewright Guilds (to increase research) to build. In total a player can only have ten buildings. Yet, as the game progresses the Cadence destroys some of these locations. But early in the game, the player has few heroes and many needs. One needs regents, sages, trainers, and warriors. Once a hero becomes a regent, sage, or trainer she can no longer fight in battle.

One research project the player can undertake is the discovery of babies to adopt into their keeps. I almost realized this too late, but I believe I implemented a massive adoption project around one quarter of the way through the game, and this abundance propelled me successfully into the mid-game. Once I had six keeps split between three families there was never a drought of bodies. By the end of the game, the two successful families (Terrodyne and Dauphin) completed nine generations, averaging six children per couple. Though I don't have an accurate record, I presume my nation birthed between one hundred fifty and two hundred heroes.

The Strategic element of Massive Chalice was the most satisfactory, but after the early game, it too became a chore as each new Regent felt the same as the last. And really, there isn't that much to do strategically.

Ultimately the first third of the game was fun, but it became a bit of a bore after that. If one is interested in genealogies, catalogs of heroes, and repetitive tactical battles, this game might offer some enjoyment.