Playing Chivalware was a delightful rush. Its rapid grid battling and tile matching made me want to play over and over. Let’s see how Regal Pigeon Games maintains that momentum as the game heads toward its full release.
Chumps Preview is a special kind of post where we unofficially preview games in Early Access, Beta, or are otherwise “unfinished.” This kind of preview is meant to be a first impression rather than a definitive review where we provide a rating to determine a game’s value. As such, we fully expect a game covered in a Chumps Preview to have room for improvement, some bugginess/incompleteness, and other features associated with similar games in the category.
As part of the Steam Next Fest, we got a brief (yes, 138 minutes!) glimpse of Chivalware, a roguelike grid battler from solo developer Regal Pigeon Games and publisher The Arcade Crew. I’m a huge fan of grid battlers like Mega Man Battle Network and Dualists of Eden, so I was excited to dive into a retro-themed grid battler with a roguelike spin. Chivalware is simple in its implementation: I control a Disk Knight on a grid with colored tiles on the left and blank tiles on the right. When I stand on a group of 3+ tiles of the same color, I power up a weapon of that color that I can use to slay enemies that move around the field. For instance, standing on a cluster of yellow tiles and absorbing them gives me enough power to use my yellow pistol three times. Standing on a group of blue tiles powers up my sword for a few swings. There’s a constant push and pull of absorbing a cluster of tiles, rushing to the enemy, exhausting my weapon, and returning to the colored tiled portion of the board that lends to a satisfying flow state.
Chivalware seems to be constructed around the idea of rapid-fire inputs, split-second decision-making, and speedrunning. It certainly has the vibe with its music that sounds straight out of Sub Focus’ DnB playbook. As my little Disk Knight zooms from grid to grid in the pixelated jungle, I’m constantly kept on my toes and tapping to the beat. This is all happening while I make short order of enemies. The only time things slow down are when I come across an event like the Memory Match game or a shop where I decide how to spend my limited gold. Outside of those moments, the adrenaline rush of completing levels in little time makes for a satisfying gameplay loop that bears replaying…even when the demo had only one biome.
There’s one quirk, though: The shield system feels unintuitive at first glance. Remember how the player character has three colored weapons (i.e., blue, yellow, and purple)? Some enemies can have a similarly colored shield. From playing other games, I expected that whatever weapon was in my blue slot would be key to killing the enemy. This was not the case in Chivalware – I was to use my purple or yellow weapons to kill the blue shielded enemy. After some thought, I realize now that it’s more fair for shieldbreaking to function this way because one can’t really “choose” a weapon color in the literal sense. Weapons have limited uses and the grid of colored tiles limits choices further. Having two possible options ultimately feels better than having one, especially when the colored tiles are randomly arranged. If I was forced to use a blue weapon and only yellow/purple tiles were spawning, it would feel pretty bad.
Since I only was able to play through this limited demo, I’m curious yet optimistic about where Regal Pigeon Games takes things for the game’s full release. I’m aware that there are more characters, biomes, bosses, weapons, and other retro PC elements galore, but I’d personally like to see some more events/modes sprinkled throughout. For instance, having more timed trials outside of the currently implemented Whack-a-mole event would be a nice touch. Additionally, making it so that players can see what they’re able to permanently unlock as they move up the “leaderboard” (that’s less of a traditional leaderboard and more of a progression track) would help give players something to look forward to, even if the “surprise” element is lost.
Playing Chivalware was a delightful rush. Its rapid grid battling and tile matching made me want to play over and over. Let’s see how Regal Pigeon Games maintains that momentum as the game heads toward its full release.
