Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: Chaos Legion

Written by Matt Partington on March 19, 2003

First Impressions: Watch your back Dante, there's a new kid in town.

Nobody supplies true hardcore action in videogames better than Capcom. With releases such as Devil May Cry and Onimusha, they once aim high with their new action-RPG title, Chaos Legion. Scheduled for a March release in Japan, Chaos Legion is an intriguing addition to the upcoming Capcom lineup.

Based on a series of Japanese novels, Chaos Legion follows the story of Sieg Wahrheit. Sieg is quite the dark character, but he's a man on a mission Ц an important mission. Victor Delacroix, once regarded as a saint by the people, has gained possession of mysterious and evil power in the world that puts everyones' life at risk. It's up to Sieg to track Victor, but it's not that easy. On your quest you'll encounter gobs and gobs of foes, so much so that it puts games like Devil May Cry to shame. It's also been said that on your quest you'll team up with Arcia Rinslet, a tricky dame sporting duel pistols.

Sieg has all the typical fighting maneuvers: slash, gash, dive, roll, whatever. Where the combat really shines in uniqueness is the ability to summon Уlegions.Ф Legions may vary from spirits to monsters and beasts. There are seven different legions in the game, they include:

Х Lognagaiser - a powerful monster boasting a massive sword
Х Archanus - a creature with the ability to fly above enemies for aerial attacks
Х Zeodagda - a legion sporting duel blades
Х Jenon - a creature with poisoning abilities
Х Balor - a group of flying insects
Х Ogma - a high-speed canine
Х Badbh - a very large legion who easily deals out incredibly lethal blows
Х Malise - a gang of skeleton archers
Х Guilt - a phantom legion that appears in a group

Summoning these legions doesn't come without a price though. Sieg will become less agile, and you have a limited amount of power to call for them. Legions will act differently depending on how Sieg does in battle. He has a certain spells he can cast on enemies such as one that causes them to attack more ferociously. On the contrary, you can set the legions on offensive or defensive modes. You could also assume that different legions will be used against different types of enemies to assist you in different ways.

From a visual standpoint, Chaos Legion looks gorgeous. The game has been dubbed as a Уgothic opera,Ф and that claim shines through pretty well when you look at the trailer and screenshots. Chaos Legion has a very dark, moody overtone to it that we see in similar titles of this nature. There doesn't seem to be any specific setting to the game, but the art design and rendered backgrounds do accomplish a true fantasy ambiance with a medieval touch. Much of the story will be told via CG movies. Not only that, but Capcom has said that the transition from cinemas to gameplay will be seamless. From what we've seen the character and enemy design is stellar, although the architecture could use some work. The game will also run at a flawless 60 frames per second, meaning there will be no slowdowns when even the largest magnitude of enemies are on screen.

Capcom has hired famous Japanese actors to do the voicing in Chaos Legion, so we can only hope they will do the same for the U.S. rendition.