With all of the faux RPG mechanics in That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, converting it into an RPG was a pretty safe choice. It might not be a game with a lot of bite to it, but That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime ISEKAI Chronicles is a title that definitely holds lots of appeal to both isekai newcomers and to longtime fans of the series. For starters, you don't have to worry about never having experience the Slime isekai in any capacity; the game does a great job of making sure you're caught up to speed with a minimum of wasted time. While much of the story that you cover is briskly covered, it lets you get to the meat of the game without too much time: Rimuru Tempest the Slime has his village of Rimuru, inhabited by goblins, direwolves and some kijin—and he has party members consisting of his buddies Gobta, Ragna, Shion, and others. In no time at all, you're given requests by friends in your village to go out into the wilderness and gather materials in order to make life better for them.

So, about that civil infrastructure: while Isekai Chronicles is far from an Actraiser or a Dark Cloud, there are still some options with regards to how you construct Rimuru (the town). Players will have a number of vacant lots in town that can be filled in with various types of buildings. For the most part, buildings offer stat bonuses to your characters through "Tempest Resonance", and you can even access a building for a minor stat buff before setting out on quests. Some buildings also perform a secondary passive function, like granting benched party members passive skill points every so often or generating resources. But it's nothing terribly involved; the types of buildings you can construct are gated by your progress in the story, and you can't exactly reposition them or assemble them to your liking. About the only options you have are what you build and where, with certain story-important buildings like the farm being locked to certain parts of the town. It's an interesting-enough mechanic to add a few wrinkles, but shallow enough to make you wish you could do more.

Thankfully, combat is a bit more involved. Dungeons in ISEKAI CHRONICLE are two-dimensional affairs, with hallways in the foreground and background taking you to other planes. Every so often, you'll encounter treasure chests with items in them (there's a nifty swing meter determining what you'll get from the drops) or a gang of monsters. Combat also takes place on a 2D plane, with each character having five attacks mapped to the "X" button and your directional inputs (think Valkyrie Profile with a Tales of...-style battle system). The system is simple enough for a newcomer to appreciate, but still has enough bite to challenge players. There's also incentive to do well during battles, as higher combo and damage rankings earn you more item drops (which in turn you'll need for your village). Battles are also kept interesting with the appearance of random challenges every so often, which grant bonus rewards by performing acts like dealing so-many attacks from behind or using a certain number of support skills.

With that said, character development certainly feels shallow. Each character has their own moveset and even their own gimmicks (Ranga's attacks change properties at certain ranges, Shion can charge her attacks to deal more damage, etc). But in practice, there's not much you can do to differentiate them. Characters all earn skill points from battles, which can be used to purchase upgrades from a skill tree--the same skill tree, for each character.

The upside is that if you are familiar with Reincarnated as a Slime story, the game holds some surprises for you. First is the rival nation of the Heavenly Nation of Angelus, which has plenty of intrigue up its sleeve. The other is the character of Kataki, a goblin who refuses to let generations of bloodshed between goblins and direwolves go. Kataki represents an interesting narrative antagonist, being a character who simply refuses to engage in Rimuru's peace seeking while also being a threat he can't just demolish with Predator (he's got his own super-busted skill in the form of his "Revenge" skill). Similarly, the nation of Angelus presents a foil for Rimuru's quaint village, where people are fine living at peace and only expanding when the needs of the village become too great. It's all perfectly functional stuff that allows Rimuru and friends to face a unique threat while not having to bore players who've already read the light novels cover-to-cover or watched all of the anime.

The visuals are also likely to charm both fans and newcomers alike. Rimuru's little blobby slime form is appropriately adorable, and the entire cast is charmingly depicted in 3D models in-game... albeit with Live 2D pictures during conversations (think Tales of... skits). I'm not sure why they didn't just depend on the 3D models for cutscenes more often, but at least cutscenes are also supplemented with animated sequences and cut-ins. There are a few wonky bits (the proportions on Rimuru's human form seem a little too young), but charming enough to work.

And I think that's the best way to define That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime ISEKAI CHRONICLES. Like Rimuru himself, the game pulls from a ton of other sources to combine them together in search of a greater goal. Unlike Rimuru, the parts don't always mesh together all that well. The upside is, for all of the inspirations that went into ISEKAI CHRONICLES, I never quite reached the point where I wished I was playing something else. Even as a relative newcomer to the series, I found myself engaged with the characters, charmed by the setting—and most importantly, rooting for Rimuru. Longtime fans might want to check out That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime ISEKAI CHRONICLES for its original story bits but even newcomers will find a totally-competent RPG waiting for them at their leisure. And hey, at least it's not an arena fighter!