I’ve tried my fair share of gacha games, and even gotten hooked on a few — I’m still salty to this day that I’ve never pulled a Kitasan Black card in Umamusume: Pretty Derby. While it is technically in the genre, Chaos Zero Nightmare feels distinctly different in how it utilizes its gacha mechanics.
Though they exist in the game, I’ve never felt even the slightest pressure to use them. CZN offers players a lot of ways to enhance the characters they do have, rather than punishing them for not spending until they get a five-star pull. It’s not perfectly innocent, as free-to-play games do have to turn a profit, but it feels much less aggressive than many games in the gacha family.
CZN is a deckbuilder RPG that many people online describe as a gacha Slay the Spire, and they aren’t wrong in the comparison, though I’d say it’s more like bits of StS, Darkest Dungeon, and Chrono Ark all jumbled together. Much of the game is spent exploring the Chaos — dark pockets of the world filled with horrifying Lovecraftian monsters — using customizable decks with a team of fighters across maps with different node choices.
A lot of the fun of CZN comes from experimenting with different combatant and partner synergies. Each fighter has their own deck that develops over the course of a run, and players can even have a character start a new run with components of a previous deck using a mechanic called save data.
Combatants are split into six classes, like the hard-hitting Striker and enhancement-centric Psionic, and each has one of five main attributes, like Passion and Instinct, which are essentially attack types, with enemies having different attribute weaknesses.
Players assume the role of a Protos, an artificially-made entity designed to withstand the mental effects of the Chaos by being largely emotionless (That’s what I’ve gathered so far from my time with the story, anyway). This Protos in particular is captain of the SS Nightmare, and has to not only deal with the dangers of the Chaos, but bureaucratic duties like diplomatic relations and policy approval, which is perhaps even worse.
While there are a lot of very cool combatants with unique decks in the game, I have never felt like I need to run through new character gacha pulls to make my team viable. The only real reason to pull for me currently would be to get fighters with different attributes to tackle enemy weaknesses, but that attribute exploitation isn’t the only thing that makes or breaks a fight.
I can always strive to improve my characters’ save data in Chaos runs, work on leveling them up and building affinity, or raising their Potential, which applies permanent boons to cards and runs. I’ve used a few freebies given to me by the game, but never found myself doing in-game currency math to see when I’ll be able to roll again.
In many gacha games, a lack of the best pulls can severely hold players back from progressing or performing as they need to. I even felt more tempted to spend money with Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp than I have with Chaos Zero Nightmare — my team will be fine regardless, but the aesthetic vision of my camp really needed certain fortune cookie furniture to come together.
That’s not to say that CZN is completely devoid of gacha elements, of course. Some of the aforementioned progression routes do take a fair amount of grinding to collect the right materials, but honestly, that grinding is done through combat I thoroughly enjoy, so I don’t really care that much.
I’ve been having so much fun discovering the card sets of each of my combatants and how they work together. One of my current favorite teams pairs Mika, a healing-centric character, with Tressa, a Psionic who stacks a damaging effect called Agony on enemies. This is best stacked with zero-cost Shadow Dagger cards (Slay the Spire shiv build reincarnated?), which are created when a character heals; together, they’re an endless loop of healing and Agony.
The game also has a Darkest Dungeon-style sanity mechanic, wherein players must manage the mental health of their team while within the Chaos to stop them from having a breakdown mid-fight. Enemies have a form of this, too, a Tenacity bar that is broken down by damage. Essentially, players can demoralize an enemy so much they suffer a Break, which restores AP and reduces combatant stress.
The story itself is nothing groundbreaking, but it also has a very clear vision, especially in its worldbuilding. The characters feel distinct and there’s a sense of humor to the game, even though it also contains very dark elements — there was one moment in particular during a side mission that made me inadvertently shout, “Oh my god!” while alone in my home.
I know it’s already the nature of PvE gacha games to feel less like you need to spend when compared to PvP games, but something about Chaos Zero Nightmare just feels different. It manages to be simultaneously easily digestible and full of depth, and combat continues to surprise and delight me. Though I’m only three chapters through the story, I can’t wait to see where the Chaos takes me next, all without spending a dime.
Chaos Zerio Nightmare is available now for Android, iOS, and Microsoft PC.
