Grand Chase – 2020 First Impressions and Thoughts

I never got to play Grand Chase when it was still alive but I do know it was published by KOG in 2008 and shut down after almost 8 years in 2015.
Unfortunately I created the MMOByte Youtube channel at the end of 2016, and as such, missed my opportunity to play the game. However, I recently learned that the game actually launched onto mobile devices as well, and you know what? We’re taking a look at that today!

So, Grand Chase starts us off with an introductory cutscene, elaborating on the history behind the game. Then we’re thrown into some story scenes where we see several of the protagonists engaging the antagonists in battle, fast forward, learn it was actually a bedtime story we were being told and boom. We’re in-game!
We’re given some brief tutorials, but for the most part you’re capable of skipping through them as the game is honestly pretty self-explanatory.
Unlike the PC Grand Chase, which was a side-scrolling brawler much like MapleStory or Dungeon Fighter Online, the mobile iteration of Grand Chase provides players quite a bit of freedom as they navigate the smaller, still fairly linear zones.
But just because they’re small and linear, doesn’t mean they’re not fun to run around and explore. I prefer when RPGs like this provide us this option to roam around and physically control our characters.
I get that games are easier when they’re just a single encounter where you let your characters auto-attack but this is a very different experience when you can do it on your own. And let me tell you, man is this game difficult. By Chapter 2 I’m struggling like you wouldn’t believe. Especially on auto-play.

I tried letting the game completely auto-play at the end of Chapter 2, and this happened.. not only was I completely overrun by enemies and absolutely wrecked, but even when I tried controlling everyone myself I found it immensely difficult.
And I love that – this game continued to impress me the more I played through it.
The combat actually required I be actively engaged in what I was doing as opposed to letting it auto-play everything for me, something I wish more mobile games would do.
In combat your characters auto-attack the monsters around them, and while you can auto-use abilities, it’s safer to do it yourself since you can time when things should be used better than the AI in-game can.
The graphical style is cute, the character models both in-game and in cutscenes look great, the abilities look solid, everything looks and feels incredibly smooth. Honestly, I can’t really see anything wrong with Grand Chase – it’s actually a really decent game.
Or at least at its core it’s a decent game. I know this is a KOG game and they’re notorious for pay-to-win, so I can foresee that being an issue here as well.

Ultimately, running through the first couple chapters and seeing how the game played was a lotta fun. This isn’t a bad game at all and honestly, if I wasn’t already leveling through a couple other mobile games I might stick with this for a little longer.