Reincarnated As a Slime ISEKAI Chronicles Review | Almost Isekai'd From the Price｜Game8 (2024)

ISEKAI Chronicles is an action RPG adaptation of Fuse’s wildly popular Tensura series. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.

That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime ISEKAI Chronicles Review Overview

What is That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime ISEKAI Chronicles?

That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime ISEKAI Chronicles is a side-scrolling action RPG with tons of very flashy and action-packed combat! Control Rimuru and perform combos against your foes and learn all sorts of new special attacks from melee to magical. You’ll also be able to summon various friends and characters from your journey! Max your friendship with them enough, and you’ll learn a special move tied to that character!

That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime ISEKAI Chronicles features:
　⚫︎　Fast-paced real-time combat
　⚫︎　Original story starting with the Empowerment arc
　⚫︎　New characters
　⚫︎　City-building features
　⚫︎　Returning familiar faces from the series
　⚫︎　Voiced dialogue

For more gameplay details, read everything we know about That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime ISEKAI Chronicles's gameplay and story.

Digital Storefronts
Steam		PlayStation		Xbox		Switch
$49.99

That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime ISEKAI Chronicles Pros & Cons

That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime ISEKAI Chronicles Overall Score - 62/100

That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime ISEKAI Chronicles could have been a surprisingly great game adaptation of the wildly popular Tensei sh*tara Slime Datta Ken series. Its combat is pretty darn good, almost everything is entirely voiced, and it has decent models to deliver its thematically faithful narrative. However, not only is it plagued by utterly terrible storytelling and boring quests, it also comes with a price tag that’s unreasonable for its overall quality.

That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime ISEKAI Chronicles Story - 5/10

The thing is, Tensei sh*tara Slime Datta Ken (hereby referred to as Tensura) never actually had an excellent story. The best arc in the series (arguably the Empire arc) could even be considered "decent" at most. It does, however, have great character development across multiple factions, even if they tend to go in the same direction. The same cannot be said about the game, though, as it suffers from an incredibly terrible pace, general lack of content, and a grossly underutilized set of characters.

That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime ISEKAI Chronicles Gameplay - 6/10

It’s weird playing an action game that’s so basic and intricate at the same time. Combat is a matter of simply pressing buttons near the enemy to build up damage, but you can take it up a few notches with long combos and setups. Controls are also quite responsive, which makes it hard to blame the game for any hits taken. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for much of the game’s main objectives, as they are all just a bunch of basic chores. Progress feels extremely unrewarding, especially considering how everybody's progression feels exactly the same. Plus, the gameplay can easily feel repetitive due to a lack of support from its mainline quests.

That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime ISEKAI Chronicles Visuals - 7/10

The game uses a mix of visuals from the anime and original ones created exclusively for it. But just like its visual style, the result is a mixed bag. That’s because, for some reason, they decided to take extremely sparse resources from the anime, making it feel incomplete and lacking in budget. The exclusive level designs, meanwhile, feel empty and copy-pasted. Fortunately, the experience leans towards the positive, as the sprites themselves are quite well-done (even if the cutscenes run at like negative frames per second) and the combat visuals are full of flair.

That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime ISEKAI Chronicles Audio - 8/10

Nearly everything in the game is voice-acted. That’s quite a feat, especially for these types of games where the developers always seem like they want to cut corners. Licensing costs are quite big, etc. The background music and sound effects are also pretty good. At the very least, they’re done well enough to personify the series well.

That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime ISEKAI Chronicles Value for Money - 5/10

For such an overall average game like this, a price tag of $49.99 is quite overkill. If it was half that price, then it would have been worth every cent. However, the game is quite beefy in terms of content (repetitive that may be) and it does cater to a very specific and established fandom. So there’s no doubt that it’ll at least make a sizable number of people happy.

That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime ISEKAI Chronicles Review: Almost Isekai'd From the Price

As an avid consumer of every media related to the Tensura series, including the webnovels, I was understandably excited about That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime ISEKAI Chronicles (hereby referred to as ISEKAI Chronicles). The series’ mobile game, ISEKAI Memories, was a pretty darn good release, all things considered. So I was expecting more from a much higher-budget game.

Unfortunately, though, the game didn’t even take a few minutes before disappointing me. The opening cutscene, which was probably meant to just kick things off with context, simply brushed off two of the most important events in the series with regards to Rimuru’s (the protagonist) early life. Namely, his meeting with Veldora and Shizu.

While I would have understood if they continued with that until the game inevitably branched out into its original storyline, they didn’t. Instead, they gave an inordinate amount of time on the arguably less important development of the Goblin and Direwolf settlement.

Was this due to the developers not understanding the significance of the aforementioned events? Are they not true fans of Tensura? Perhaps.

At the very least, I found the combat quite fun. Though it doesn’t take away from the sin of giving Shizu’s scenes a mere 5-second mention, it was at least enough to drive my impressions away from the game simply taking advantage of the series’ popularity.

Just a bit.

ISEKAI Chronicles’ combat, at first glance, is as simple as you can get without being a mere button-masher title. It allows for basic combos, skills, support abilities, and ultimates. Two of your companions are even present on the field at all times while controlled by an AI. Mileage varies, though, as the AI piloting your teammates doesn’t really like attacking.

However, its combat mechanics also allow for more advanced gameplay. For example, it has OTG (off the ground) moves that can pick enemies up from their fallen states. There are also skills with delayed activation, allowing you to set up moves in advance as the enemy recovers or punish them for moving to certain locations.

Perfect dodges even have pretty strict activation windows, despite their incredibly high amount of invulnerability frames.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t justify its $49.99 price tag. Perhaps if it was 10 or 20 bucks cheaper, then the asking price would have been justified. It’s simply too mediocre overall to warrant that kind of value.

Yes, even with a darned city-builder feature.

Pros of That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime ISEKAI Chronicles

Decently Engaging Combat

At first glance, ISEKAI Chronicles’ combat looks barebones as heck. All it involves is mashing attacks and skills at a proper distance from the enemy, essentially. However, beyond its simplicity, actively creative players can make wildly different combos using the various tools the game has to offer.

Firstly, the game actually allows you to pick up downed enemies until a certain point. This means that you can extend your combos for quite a while, provided that you can maintain a steady stream of hits. Certain characters also have skills that activate after a delay or under specific conditions, opening up setup opportunities and the like.

You can even make use of character switching to take advantage of each of their unique skill properties to deal more damage or extend your combos.

Cool Original Animations

Sure, ISEKAI Chronicles takes a lot of images (screenshots, really) from the anime, but they also have a lot of original animations as well. Even though the cutscenes feel like they play at, like, five frames per second, the model and animation quality, with respect to the sprite’s style, and its accompanying visual effects does look pretty good.

I’m not saying that it’s better than the anime, though. But it’s not terrible to look at, either. It can at least deliver the game’s original storyline and action scenes well enough to be a good accompaniment to the overall experience. Plus, the sprites and models are pretty cute.

Cons of That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime ISEKAI Chronicles

Not Entry-Friendly At All

ISEKAI Chronicles’ story relies on its readers’ previous knowledge of the series’ inner workings and insider knowledge. The narrative likes to throw around buzzwords and references without providing any context. Unfortunately, these are often quintessential to understanding the plot, as many of the cast’s actions are determined by these elements.

Fortunately, binge-watching the anime series on Netflix doesn’t take much time…

Unforgivably Bad Storytelling

Speaking of its story, the series’ light novel, manga, anime, and to a certain extent, web novel, didn’t exactly have a good plot. Sure, there were strong scenes here and there such as the conclusion of A Demon Lord’s Awakening arc. But the typical behavior of the series’ story is linear, starting with inordinate amounts of slice and life before a conflict arises. Then, Rimuru and friends just Deus Ex Machina their way through it using their unbelievably overpowered stats and abilities.

Exceptions exist, of course, such as the entire Rosso Family arc. But those are not the norm. Thankfully, the four aforementioned media do have one positive thing in common: they fulfill the very specific power fantasy niche in such a way that feels cohesive and almost methodical

The same thing cannot be said for the game, however. The narrative is so rushed that each conclusion feels contrived and nonsensical. Everything else crumbles in much the same way, such as character development being near non-existent, which is a shame since the new characters have a lot of potential.

Again, you really are better off just watching the series on Netflix at this point.

Fetch Quests Everywhere

Normally, the most boring quest objectives in any RPG are fetch quests. Not only is it an utter snoozefest, it also comes with the nagging thought of wanting to snap back at the NPC with "why don’t you do it yourself?"

However, ISEKAI Chronicles manages to somehow one-up that with the occasional "Build this facility" quest. Why is it worse than simple fetch quests, you ask? Because the quest itself is just an unrewarding version of it. Or, at the very least, the rewards are so minute that you won’t notice any real growth until very late in the game.

Oh, and don’t worry. There are actual fetch quests in the game. But that’s not all. There’s also character-specific fetch quests (yes, more of them) where you’re required to bring a certain character into a certain area just so the drops spawn. Well, what if you don’t like the character? You don’t have a choice in the matter, unfortunately.

At least the last one is limited to optional side stories.

Nigh Non-Existent Difficulty

There are two difficulties you can freely toggle between: Normal and Story. Normal difficulty provides the vanilla experience, while Story is for those who just want to get on with the main scenario with the help of a 50% damage nerf to enemies.

In my opinion, though, neither difficulties particularly matter. Enemy attacks are extremely easy to dodge because they snap onto a direction the moment an incoming attack indicator appears… which is telegraphed for what feels like nine hours before the enemy actually starts the animation. In other words, the moment an exclamation mark appears over their heads, you have until the heat death of the universe to scoot yourself to their backside or away and never worry about getting hit.

Perhaps you can just add an artificial layer of difficulty to the game by trying to play it on a Dance Dance Revolution Dance Pad.

Is That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime ISEKAI Chronicles Worth It?

No.

Despite its looks, ISEKAI Chronicles is very story-heavy. So it’s a difficult game to recommend for anybody who hasn’t read the novels or manga, or haven’t watched the anime series. The characters, particularly the Great Sage/Raphael, tend to throw buzzwords around that are only explained in other media. The game’s story, which is ironically one of the series’ strongest points, at least in terms of character development, is also terrible.

Avoid it as much as possible, regardless if you're a fan or at least familiar with the series.

Digital Storefronts
Steam		PlayStation		Xbox		Switch
$49.99

That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime ISEKAI Chronicles FAQ

Does That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime ISEKAI Chronicles pursue a different story?

It adds another story to the already-established canon of Tensura.

Is That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime ISEKAI Chronicles’s story canon?

It will likely be treated as a spinoff, just like The Ways of the Monster Nation manga, due to the events in the game never being referenced in the novels, mangas, or anime.

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That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime ISEKAI Chronicles Product Information

Title	THAT TIME I GOT REINCARNATED AS A SLIME ISEKAI CHRONICLES
Release Date	August 8, 2024
Developer	ZOC, MONKEYCRAFT
Publisher	Bandai Namco Entertainment
Supported Platforms	PC(Steam), PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Genre	Action, RPG
Number of Players	1
ESRB Rating	Teen
Official Website	That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime ISEKAI Chronicles Website