The Chronicles of Nyanya

Enough with the fucking cats

A fairly decent indie RPG with a lot of cliches, both played straight and flipped on their heads, and a fairly difficult battle system but still easy to exploit with more party members. It's also quite short while not entirely overstaying its welcome.

I'd say I give it a 7/10, it's got its moments but there's better RPGs out there. At least worth giving a look if you come across it.

A meowtastic game that got way too little attention. Seriously, an underrated gem!

Imagine a situation in which worlds of Harry Potter, Lord of The Rings, Star Wars, Assassin's Creed, The Witcher, Naruto, Disney and many other pop cultures clashed into one. Then replace everything in the said fused world with cats! Now stop fantasizing and go play this game because it's exactly what you have just been imagining!

Brace yourself for:

• KITTIES!
  
• Adorable rolls! (If anybody's questioning that, cats have pastry as their pets. Ever heard of a Rollicorn? Because this is the only game where growing one is possible!)
  
• More KITTIES!
  
• Friendship (unless you're emo. Nothing removes emo.)
  
• Meowphetamine
  
• War (but with KITTIES!)
  
• Nazi furniture (yep, you read it right)
  
• Dialogues that are a chef's kiss
  
• KITTIES, KITTIES, KITTIES!
  
• Memes
  
• A hearty dose of laughter (if it hasn't been obvious up to this point)
  
• Making own choices in dialogues and actions which actually have an influence on how things will turn out in the end. Given how many factors affect your playthrough, there are plenty of ways to complete the story. At the end of the day, replayability is what all players love!
  
[*]Did I mention KITTIES?

Nevertheless, the unworldly humour must be what sparkles the brightest. It's essentially icing on the cake. I haven't been rolling up laughing so hard in any other game for a long time. It's evident at first glance that this is a Polish sense of humour, especially visible in exaggerated twisting and toying with words every step of the way. As a Pole myself, I find the gags hit the spot. But regardless if you are my fellow countryman or not, laughter will not be a stranger to you. The whole game lives mostly on jokes and winks at the player and, moreover, in this abnormal cat dimension, they are everyday language.

To the same extent as the jokes, the game hurls titbits at the player. Easter eggs here aren't, well, easter eggs but the second foundation Nyanya has been built on. From the title itself to the very end, it is an utter mine of kibble and puns. You don't have to look far to meet such catebrities as Furry Catter, Master Nyoda or Dan de Lion, yield legendary weapons like Meownir or visit such places as Furajevo or Meowdur's Gate. Cats also live in cardboard boxes, are addicted to knocking flower pots in a graceful manner and have their own religion of several cat deities. It's pretty much impossible to count all the references appearing there.

One thing I have my slice of criticism about – crafting. It's considerably limited, with few recipes that are all unlocked throughout the main story anyway. You can literally forge only one weapon and one armour. And while this is forgivable by taking into consideration the short length of the game, the same cannot be said about the areas which could be more abundant in ingredients for crafting items useful in battles e.g. arrows. Though I was trying to be frugal, I ran out of them after some time and had no way to make more. And what is an archer without their arrows, am I right?

The Chronicles of Nyanya is the title made with whole heart and soul. Gags and puns are meowsterpieces to die for, and the multitude of possible outcomes of your actions is overwhelming for such a seemingly small indie game. I'm going to revisit it sometime in the future to take a different path and purrhaps get all the remaining achievements. Maybe I will be more of a devil kitty next try? That being said, I advise you to go on your own adventour too, in this feline-dominated world of absurdity and epicness. For a cat lover, this is already a must!

very funny. could be considered offensive by some. was very worth the time and money. looking forward to a part 2.

I refunded this game not because it's horrible, but mostly because it's not my cup of tea. Anyway, here's my short though of this game,

The good:
+ Lots of cats
+ Cute artstyle
+ Gameplay mechanics seems great
+ Decent amount of choice

The bad: -

The ugly:
* Lots of text/reading, i doubt i can bear it for 8 - 20 hours (according to another review)
* Blend of casual and serious topic feels awkward to me
* The humor/comedy is mixed bag

I doubt you'll like this game if you're not fan of RPGMaker and reading wall of text. But if you do, check other reviews before deciding to buy this game.

Note: I played the game in Polish and found no way to switch to English, so my translations of in-game names may be wrong. Despite this, given that most reviews for this game are written in Polish, I still wanted to provide one in English.

The Chronicles of Nyanya is a game project led by Ilona Myszkowska, Polish webcomic artist, founder of Chata Wuja Freda (Uncle Fred’s House). It’s her first and so far only video game. I’m writing this intro not just for the sake of trivia, but because this is integral to the game experience. Her sarcastic, down-to-Earth and quirky sense of humor is instantly recognizable on the Polish interwebs, and it’s the key driving element of this here RPG – as are her simple, but highly expressive illustrations.

Let’s start with the writing first. The game is really short, but somehow manages to introduce a total of 7 on-and-off party members (not counting the super-short prologue and optional pet), who are all fun and recognizable characters. The female lead, Catair (yeah, there’s game parodies here left and right), goes by really gray morality, which is tied to the Friendship system. The cool part is that unlike most karmic systems in RPGs, this has nothing to do with being good or bad. You can be a thieving, killing bastard and still finish the game as an “angelic kitty” simply because you were nice to your teammates… especially the cleric, self-proclaimed party leader and an absolute son of a feline. He’s actually so much of a terrible (cat)person that it’s one of the few games where I really enjoyed going down the “dark” path, because it mostly meant getting to talk back to him. A LOT. Other party members include two wizards who treat adventuring as a boring-but-stable form of employment – which it apparently IS in the game’s world, what with a boy-scout-esque adventuring stamp book, tons of regulations ranging from “yeah, that’s pretty fair” to “bureaucracy hell;” an absolutely hilarious warrior who I honestly can’t say a single more word about without spoiling the fun; a disgustingly nice high school archer girl, who, together with another character makes it clear that friendship is a sort of mystical power in the game; and your token bad guy with good intentions who never was that bad to begin with (even if his face says otherwise >:3). There’s plenty other characters in the game who are really fun to interact with, and the world-building is impressive for a game that’s mostly meant to be a parody. I was impressed that the “cats have 9 lives” mythos was actually implemented into the game’s world as a fact of life that makes the characters behave in interesting ways (for example, most cats are quite prone to fighting and are rather careless unless they really got it bad). Overall, it’s safe to say that writing is a really strong, actually the strongest attribute of this game. I laughed out loud a good couple of times and replaying Nyanya was worth it just for the dialogues alone.

What unfortunately suffers because of this is that when you stay on the rails, the experience is great. Stray off a bit, though, and… you’ll realize how painfully linear it is. If you’re familiar with the cult classic Mother 3, then you’ll remember the silly reasons for not being able to go to future areas like “there’s ants in your way.” The Chronicles of Nyanya does this constantly, except it’s not really that quirky but mostly simply infuriating. Sometimes you’ll walk just a few blocks off the beaten path and get reprimanded for going where you’re not supposed to. You’ll be lucky if you can walk a whole screen’s worth into a forest and get a chest for it. There’s also absolutely no backtracking. You finish your main quest in an area, and it’s goodbye forever. If you thought you’ll get to visit the main town area of Catur’s Gate after the flea epidemic is over, then you’re in for a disappointment. I’m the type of player who likes to explore every nook and cranny of a game and I just felt like I’m not the target audience… Perhaps speedrunners are, since by ignoring all the sidequests and not searching for free loot you could probably finish the game in under 2 hours.

Oh, and you will need that free loot if you want a fair fight, because the economy is very much like in a traditional tabletop RPG sessions. Enemy encounters aren’t random, they don’t respawn and don’t drop anything – not even gold – so there’s always a set amount of max cash you can get in a playthrough. Knowing Ilona’s works, I bet it’s intentional, poking fun at real world economy (there’s more jokes about free market in here than you could ask for), but in a game it’s simply tedious. You’ll be forced to make some really tough decisions on what you’re going to buy, and be riddled with numerous regrets since you can’t revisit old shops. You’d think that actually a cool thing, forcing you to make smart choices and only pick the gear that suits your playstyle… but you can still get every piece of gear. All you need is to beat the game at least once and then remember when you get scripted free healing (a necessary gameplay element, I guess, when there’s no inns or other type of regeneration spots). With that, you can greatly save up on potions.

Not much to say about battles. Standard RPG maker stuff. You get either mana characters or rage building characters, plus one of them does both. Assassin, tank, warrior, bard, mage, yadda-yadda-yadda. If you want to conserve potions as described earlier, you’ll need to spend a moment to learn what works best for every character and enemy, but there’s not a lot to consider with the amount of possible attacks and unique enemies, so in a short while you’ll be just clicking through battles mindlessly. I’m not that big on jRPGs in general, so I might be biased, but in my opinion, combat is the weakest part of the game – and that’s kind of a big thing, since if combat is forgettable, then this RPG becomes pretty much a visual novel on steroids. However, there’s a section near the end where a strategy game element is involved and it’s actually pretty cool, so bonus points for that. I mean, you can also trial and error through it to beat it without much work, but it’s an impressive attempt at making the best of the RPG Maker engine nonetheless.

Speaking of which, perhaps the creators tried a bit too hard to make use of every possible RPG Maker gimmick. Crafting items might be a fun thing, but in a game this short and with an economy this tight, you’ll barely get to craft more than two of the same item. Few ingredients overlap, and when they do, there won’t be much to ponder upon anyway. In the end, all the crafting system does is just add more menu-clicking. Raising your pet (an adorable bun – by the way, did I mention that all domesticated animals in this game are bread? Because that’s wonderful) is a great idea and seems fun at first, but then you realize you barely get many chances to influence its growth, and then once it matures, you get ONE location when you can put its abilities to test, then it becomes just an NPC. A shame, really.

And that’s actually a good moment to summarize. While I do give a thumbs-up because I had fun with Nyanya because of its genuinely funny story and cute character graphics, I have to admit, with a heavy heart, that it’s painfully mediocre, and plagued with the creators trying to bite off more than they could chew. Perhaps if they didn’t include so many gameplay elements, more care could be put into the game map so that it could be passed lo-and-fro, or into the battle system to give it some actual replay value. I still think that out of two cat-themed RPGs that I played on Steam, this is the better one (and a lot of people will agree that Cat Quest is a good game), but I do hope that in future, the world of Nyanya may reveal its entire potential.

Koty!!! Humor!!! To chyba najzabawniejsza gra w jaką grałem.

Wykonanie jak na grę w RPG Makerze - bardzo dobre! Muzyka, efekty dźwiękowe, a przede wszystkim grafika. Ilość obrazków postaci i to jak są zrobione - super.

Gra wcale nie jest krótka - wiele godzin zajmuje przejście, a do tego w żadnym momencie się nie nudzi.

I'm gonna be honest. I thought for sure this game was boring. But hey, I got addicted to it. The story is so funny and the cats.. they are so cuuuute <3 My heart-- <3

Sadly I've had to spend a while afked while trying to play this game, but this really is a MUST HAVE for anyone that likes the maker games and . . .well cats obviously! Even though I've not made it very far in I adore it so so very much! They combat can be semi challenging, the dialogue/ facial expressions/ character names are hilarious. Very much looking forward to exploring every little pixel of this game! 10/10 /ᐠ｡ퟑ｡ᐟ\ 

LOVELY GAME....but.....

I Never played a game quite like this where I constantly felt like I was about to get WHOOPED, in every battle.

Seriously, it felt like I just FINESSED each battle, I felt good about winning, but I never felt comfortable with my combat ability...And there is no power leveling, so you kinda are just expected to deal with it.

This stuff is actually kinda hard! I'm just saying!

If you play the game, you'll probably see what I'm talking about.

I really liked this game. Even the start on the first screens promise a real fresh and different RPG game. Also I loved the humour in this game and some characters were really adorable. :-)
For me the game didn't crashed once and everything went pretty smooth.
Definitely recommended when the game is on sale (otherwise the price is a bit too high)

Spend many hours in game and really love it! Good job!

It is a rare occasion that I will spend this much on an RPGMaker game. To be honest, I only bought this game to entertain my child who thought it would be hilarious.

That being said..........turns out it was worth every penny! The story is adorable, the mechanics of fights require some actual thought, and the easter eggs are magical. I'm on NewGame+ now.

Uratowałem dziką bułkę przed relatywizmem, 10/10.

Completed the game in two exciting days. Had a lot of fun: nice story for cat lovers full of humour in well-designed classical jrpg style. Liked the heroes and the plotted universe.

Warning! The game crashes from time to time. Regular saving is very recommended.

It's just a simple positive review this game deserves.
Keep scrolling.
Ouh... And buy it already!

Played a little bit today - having a really good time with Nyanya, great dialogues and character graphics, the overworld graphics a bit simplistic, but hey the combat is 'purrfect'. As a fan of jRPGs - recommend! ;)

this gonna be goooood

I've changed my mind pretty quickly. Standard RPG Maker VM game, nothing new, story is boring, mechanics are default and even assets are most of the time default. Not worth its price. Thanks steam for refund.

Let me say one thing at the beginning... I immediately fall in love with the chronicles of nyanya.

I don't know where to start... Normally I am not the person who writes reviews but this game is definitley worth it.

Let me start with pros and cons.

Pros :

•It's filled with cats (wow! I bet you would never have guessed that!)
•The battle system is a typical RPG battle system and works perfectly fine.
•Filled with tons of funny puns.
•Cutenesslevel is over 9000!
•Story seems to be interesting as far as I could say that (remember, I only played it for a short time at the moment)
•The artwork is really well done, I love it.
•A bunch of A LOT references to other games, animes and movies.
•Different ways to solve quests.
•So many lovely written side stories and details.
•Great and catchy music (CATchy...get it? hehe)

Cons :

Hmmm... *insert sound of crickets here* ...
No really, I can't find any cons. No crashes, or problems at all. Nothing that botheres me.

If I find anything worthy to add then I will add it in the future but for now thats all.

I would highly recommend this game to everyone who likes RPG's, especially to cat loving RPG fans.