I never had the opportunity to play the original as a VR title. My first encounter with the world of this game is I think the same as most people, via Gunfire Games' other title Remnant: From The Ashes.
After a few hours of playing Chronos I was finding the overall clunkiness a little frustrating, but the thing I found most interesting was seeing this perceivable arc from this game to Remnant. It's palpable what the team at Gunfire learned with this game and what they took into Remnant to make that game as good a game as it is.
Chronos is largely a pretty rote action RPG that is similar to other Souls titles in that the world is largely interconnected and it gives you very little information on how to proceed. That's about it for the comparison though, as the progression system is mostly a basic EXP level up system. They also have an interesting age mechanic, which raises your characters age as you die. This has an impact on your leveling by changing the cost of individual stats based on your age. When you're young, strength and agility are cheap stats to buy with your skill points, but arcane is expensive. The opposite is true once you hit your forties (about 25ish deaths, give or take). This is a pretty interesting system and I did find myself engaging with it by actually thinking about when I wanted to put my points into agility, etc. Good system.
Beyond that, the game is pretty okay. The bosses aren't that great, and there are a few enemies that are pretty un-fun to fight against up until you realise you can extremely easily stun-lock them against a wall and they stop being a problem and the game becomes more fun.
I recommend giving it a go! I got access to it via PlayStation Plus Extra and that honestly feels like the best place to play it at the moment if you're worried about financial investment.
After a few hours of playing Chronos I was finding the overall clunkiness a little frustrating, but the thing I found most interesting was seeing this perceivable arc from this game to Remnant. It's palpable what the team at Gunfire learned with this game and what they took into Remnant to make that game as good a game as it is.
Chronos is largely a pretty rote action RPG that is similar to other Souls titles in that the world is largely interconnected and it gives you very little information on how to proceed. That's about it for the comparison though, as the progression system is mostly a basic EXP level up system. They also have an interesting age mechanic, which raises your characters age as you die. This has an impact on your leveling by changing the cost of individual stats based on your age. When you're young, strength and agility are cheap stats to buy with your skill points, but arcane is expensive. The opposite is true once you hit your forties (about 25ish deaths, give or take). This is a pretty interesting system and I did find myself engaging with it by actually thinking about when I wanted to put my points into agility, etc. Good system.
Beyond that, the game is pretty okay. The bosses aren't that great, and there are a few enemies that are pretty un-fun to fight against up until you realise you can extremely easily stun-lock them against a wall and they stop being a problem and the game becomes more fun.
I recommend giving it a go! I got access to it via PlayStation Plus Extra and that honestly feels like the best place to play it at the moment if you're worried about financial investment.