Calamity Angels: Special Delivery Review
Like Herding Cats
Wacky premises continue to find their way into more RPGs. The creative minds at Compile Heart took a hard look at the frantic culture surrounding delivery couriers and decided that it would work for full-length turn-based RPG Calamity Angels: Special Delivery . The couriers are not just driven; they have a wacky set of personalities to showcase. Unfortunately, this wackiness does not extend into comedic, heartwarming, or charming, as the game's taking of every conceivable opportunity to showcase its quirks actively starts to affect gameplay as it moves through arbitrarily longer combat sessions. There are enjoyable moments of character humour, but they are definitely fleeting in the face of the constant mean-spirited quirkiness that never leaves the forefront.
Yuri is a passionate courier who desperately wants to join a delivery team to execute their dreams of seeing the world and bringing packages to their destination. Teams brave the dangers found outside the main city in the Orkotris region, with monsters and mysterious shadows called Omoikurai drawn to the Omoi power generated by the artifacts and deliveries the couriers are in custody of. Couriers are in high demand to escort the artifacts excavated from ruins, which are able to draw technological power that benefits the cities. The Guild organizes assignments to best match the level of difficulty to minimize the risk, but soon after Yuri gains their own team, a bandit group calling themselves Murtamars begins to attack couriers to steal their deliveries for their own purposes. The reliance on couriers for everything is definitely a plot contrivance that stretches suspension of belief, but most of the story and characters focus on quirky absurdity, so it comes across more charming and silly overall.
Every party member who joins Yuri on this journey has a personality aspect contrary to their main combat role. Suliya is a treasure-obsessed dark arts magic dealer who masquerades as a full-time healer, Ivris is a talented magician obsessed with proving physical strength by punching increasingly tough opponents, and Somnia is a battle-hardened swordswoman who is constantly falling asleep. They are soon joined by Numero, an alchemy-obsessed mad scientist; Luminious, an archer with idol singer aspirations; and Selma, the perpetually terrified heavily armoured knight. This quirky team bonds over a shared love of deliveries and the feeling of being outcasts. Unfortunately, there's little opportunity for growth in other ways, as the silly situational-based humour revolves entirely around these one-note quirks.
[caption id="attachment_184959" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Ivris’ vibe just carries the entire party's dynamics.[/caption]
Each delivery in Calamity Angels: Special Delivery starts at a point on a large board game-style map, with the purpose to make it to another point designated by a yellow envelope to complete the delivery. Dotted along the way are tiles that can give money, buffs, debuffs, healing, or combat, as well as ones that stop movement with treasure, shop, and boss tiles. At the start of the delivery, there is a turn limit, which awards double experience, additional quests, currency, and a consumable item if the limit is met. If players focus on completing the delivery, the time limit is simple to meet, but straying from the path to collect treasure chests makes it more difficult. Luckily, the player can freely explore after deliveries are completed, though having to walk back to town as a result, rather than being able to return automatically, is a pain.
When Yuri comes into contact with a monster or boss tile, everything shifts to a traditional turn-based RPG. Three members of the party enter combat with the skills they can try using based on their rank at the guild, with each main quest typically unlocking a higher rank. At the end of each turn, Yuri gets the chance to use healing consumables from the team's carrying bag, which has limited room, with space also taken up by the delivery package itself as well as any items players bring to manipulate movement on the game board. This restriction gives players some strategy to consider in the early going, though later expansions to the bag make it less of a concern. Upon defeating every Omaikurai in the battle, Yuri bursts onto the scene to finish them all off with a relic weapon that combines a stamp and a sword to put a seal on them, which is amusingly absurd every time it happens.
Calamity Angels: Special Delivery 's skills have their bits of absurd comedy, but the real treat is in the finishing moves. These come from a list of character-chosen possibilities that arise after an unseen amount of Tension is built. Tension can come from using certain abilities, but also characters can just decide to make a finishing move on their own accord. Most of these are powerful attacks, but a few can be detrimental to the team as well. The only thing they have in common is that they are zany and fun; even when the worst possibilities arise, they still bring a smile. A few examples include Somnia dreaming up a stampede of sheep; Suliya paying off a bunch of angels to try lifting the enemies off the battlefield with a chance that the weight limit is exceeded, causing them to plummet back to the ground for less damage; or Ivris turning into a beast form, which actually makes her obedient and take on a cute cat-like facial appearance.
[caption id="attachment_184961" align="aligncenter" width="640"] No one escapes this relic weapon's sealing blaze of fury![/caption]
Speaking of obedience, everything mentioned about the combat's strengths and enjoyable aspects is heavily coloured by the character's willingness to listen. Basically, any attempt to get the characters to do anything runs the risk that they'll just disregard it to do what they want instead. If players are lucky, the character will swap to another attack, free of SP use, but sometimes, they'll just do nothing. This happens frequently; in fact, using stronger skills only heightens the chances that it will result in them not listening, causing even the simplest of battles to be prolonged to the point of the player pleading with the team to just listen for once. These antics can be amusing at first, but the way they make fights longer and take additional resources, even causing defeats, is annoying. After a while, it feels like the game is laughing at the player for following a plan when random quirky hijinks are clearly the preferred route, leading to a mean-spirited chaos that is just exhausting.
Outside of the delightful finishing moves, presentation is a mixed bag. Character designs fit their quirky behaviour well, and some weapons that the party wields are really fun, like Yuri’s Relic weapon, Selma’s swordshield that starts out long and thin like a sword and ends in a giant tiger-headed shield, and Suliya’s abacus-topped staff, but in turn, the enemy designs are plain. The game boards and character interactions have a vibrant colour palette, but cycle through routine variations of elemental zones. The soundtrack consists of a few upbeat songs that work okay, but will stop partway through a progression to loop. The opening theme song is very catchy and a delight to watch on every title screen. Voice acting in English is capable but cuts out at the oddest times, with many story scenes, including climactic moments, left unvoiced. The option to swap audio is available anytime during story scenes, so listening to the complete and also capable Japanese voice acting can be workable if players don't mind interrupting the moment to make the swap.
[caption id="attachment_184960" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Thus the disregard for commands begins.[/caption]
This capable voice acting cannot save the other major headache of Calamity Angels: Special Delivery . The characters never shut up. Moving on the game board from the spinner to view anything in a menu gains a new voiced line for every selection. In combat, cycling through the options to select an ability will yield the same result. The start of combat, end of the fight, or simply sitting idle for a second? That all seemingly warrants someone piping up. With loudly mewing characters that ignore commands saying they won’t do it, only to further yammer no matter what happens, it gives the game a motif of herding cats. This makes the blissful silence of the results screen one of the happiest sights the game offers, simply for the break between all the noisy insubordination of the yappy characters.
Calamity Angels: Special Delivery is an ambitious title that took one-note jokes way too far. A title about deliveries at its epicentre has promise, and the character designs are very enjoyable. Combat has moments where the absurdity all connects, and a wonderful finishing move is shown on screen that always brings a smile, but that smile quickly becomes a twitchy bunch of frustrated nerves when the party will not listen to commands. The constant chatter and disdain from the party is easily annoying, and while the game is only twenty hours, it still feels painful herding them to complete the most basic survival instinct-related things. This constant source of manufactured tension sadly overshadows most of the good on offer here. This courier is anything but dull, but the chaotic frustrations will cause many prospective clients to look elsewhere.
Disclosure: This article is based on a build of the game provided by the publisher.
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