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Forge Your Story And Train Your Perfect Army!

As the hero of the story, you are the lone commander who must protect the world of Yggdra from the hordes of the invading Black Army in this first-ever “line defense role-playing game”!

So gather your ‘Volunteer Army’ of Knights, Wizards, Clerics, Archers and Soldiers in this addictive mix of tower defense and real-time strategy RPG.

A 46-minute OVA was released in April 2015, while a full-length series premiered in January 2017. There's also a 3 volume manga adaptation titled Chain Chronicle Crimson which follows a young, bratty wizard named Kas who joins the Volunteer Army. A anime film trilogy titled Chain Chronicle: The Light of Haecceitas was released in theaters on December 3, 2016, January 14, 2017 and February 11, 2017 which was later turned into 12 episode anime for the winter 2017 anime season by Telecom Animation Film and Graphinica. The anime tells an original story where the Volunteer Army fails to defeat the Black King in the final battle of Book 1. A thief named Aram joins the Volunteer Army as they reorganize and prepares for another attack against the Black Army.

While the Japanese version is still going strong, the Global Version announced its closure on January 18, 2016, with the servers going offline at February 29, 2016.

A successor to Chain Chronicle titled Sin Chronicle was announced at Tokyo Game Show 2021. The game was released on March 23, 2023 and was shut down on May 31, 2023.


This game provides examples of:

  • A Day in the Limelight: Some side quests stars other side characters, and Chain Stories provides a whole arc of this. It also provides secondary character developments for the characters drawn by the same artist as the key character for one Chain Story.
  • Aerith and Bob: Given the large amount of characters in the game, it's inevitable.
  • The Alliance: The Round Table Conference, formed at the climax of books 8 and 9. It's composed of forces from all the areas visited during the course of the main plot, finally united against the Black Army.
  • Alliterative Title: Chain Chronicle
  • Animal-Eared Headband: Lindsey, who hides her humanlike ears from the other forest sprites using them.
  • Arbitrary Headcount Limit: In various forms.
    • You can have 4 of your own characters in your main party (who start on the battle field) and 2 in the sub-party (who replace characters who retired). A friend or ally are required for most battles and they who join your characters on the battle field, bringing the number of characters on the battle up to 5.
    • In the Japanese version of the game, there exists an event known as Total War, which expands the battle field. To help with this expanded field, the sub-party characters join the main party and friend/ally on the battle field, bringing the limit of characters on the battle field up to 7.
    • You are also only allowed to have a certain numbers of Arcana in total, which includes characters, enhancers and weapons. This limit begins at 50, but can be increased using Prysma to a max of 500.
  • Bag of Spilling: Several Characters have basic and advanced versions, with the implication being that as the character has become more experienced in battle they have increased stats. Based on this trope is either played Straight, Inverted or Averted depending on the character.
    • The trope is either averted or inverted for Hero, Kain, Marina, Michidia and Patricia. The advanced versions' level 1 stats are the same as their basic versions' max level stats, averting this trope. If the characters are below the max level, this trope is inverted as they gain stats in their advanced Arcana.
    • Played straight for other units that gain advanced forms. This includes Haruaki and Toka, who lose their boosted stats if they are more than level 20.
    • Played straight for weapons, no matter who it is. The advanced versions will start with basic non-enhanced weapons regardless of what they were originally equipped with.
  • Bilingual Bonus: Almost all Forest Sprites' names are Spanish words.
    • And the Seawalkers, on the other hand, are Portuguese words. Doubles as a Genius Bonus because Portugal was seafaring in the past and Spain had to make a treaty so they may enter the sea through Portugal.
  • "Blind Idiot" Translation: The Global version occasionally suffers from this, from some characters saying lines that others were supposed to say, to gender pronouns being swapped. Eirenus, whose in-game art shows as female, is a bad example of this, as Pirika keeps on referring to her as a "he".
  • Bling of War: Knuckle, who walks around in shining gold armor. The OVA hilariously exaggerates this, by making him glow like the sun despite doing nothing but sit around in a darkly-lit tavern. The manga Chain Chronicle Crimson has him taking advantage of this to lure other monsters...too bad that they ignored him. He actually succeeded in that purpose when he was retrieving Fatima's stolen cookies...too bad that he apparently died in the process...except NOT!
  • Blood Bath: Betsy's story is based on the myths surrounding Elizabeth Bathory.
  • Blood Knight: You'll find fight-happy knuckleheads throughout the setting, but a character seems to have a higher chance of being this if they're from Soul Island (specifically the Thousand Rivers tribe) or the Nine Territories.
    • Deconstructed in Jedah's Chain Story, where the tendency of the Thousand Rivers tribe and Nine Territories warriors to pick fights against each other for the smallest of reasons eventually almost resulted in an all-out war, disturbing the lives of the common people such as the farmers, who got their fields ruined and causing frustration in Haruka. Worse, the local lords (Rafalgar, Shuza, and Yoshitsugu) are too caught up in the fighting to care. By the end of the Chain Story, Haruka forces the three of them to cultivate the fields as a punishment, but it still doesn't stop Rafalgar to provoke Shuza into a little competition.
  • Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: Taken literally, Ibtisam and Basma of the Lake of Sand perform this routine in front of audiences. Basma uses something else instead of a paper fan, though.
  • Bowdlerisation: Chiyome had the shape of her mammaries' shapes shown in the Japanese version in the game, but it was removed in the Global version.
  • Bribing Your Way to Victory: In the form of Prysma, which you buy with real money, and are used for things such as recharging your gameplay energy, acquiring rare recruits and instantly reviving all your fallen summons in the middle of battle. Needless to say, players who can afford to pay for Prysma enjoy a great advantage over those who can't. It is possible to acquire Prysma for free in-game, but they come very few and far between.
  • Brick Joke: Phoena's pet puppy, Myorun. He is only heard of in the last part of the first story, and is not mentioned again until a much further point in time where he actually becomes a full-fledged playable character.
  • Brother–Sister Team: Haruaki and Toka become this after their quest chain is completed.
  • Butt-Monkey: In-universe, the Hero and Kain (especially Kain) usually suffers from various forms of comical harm, like being frozen solid or eating Phoena's dish. Out-universe, there's Garrett and his low utility in-game, which lots of players love to make fun of.
  • Cat Girl: An entire tribe of Cat-people in Beastoria.
  • Chick Magnet: The hero (that's you) has a ridiculous amount of girls fall for him to the point much of his army is his harem, depending on your responses you can approve or not.
  • Christmas Episode: The Global version will receive a Christmas-themed Demon Raid, Save The Holy Night. Complete with two previously-released Global exclusive receiving a new card each with Sexy Santa Dress treatment, another one will gain a cute Santa treatment...and one of them became a demon (not officially; Hannya herself notes the ridiculousness of the situation). Still with the santa treatment.
    • The Japanese version has Nicole, who is supposed to be managing the Holy Night Festivities and is only recruitable during Christmas' week. The year after, she was rereleased along with another manager called Carol.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: Phoena.
  • Common Character Classes: The game has five main archetypes that most of its characters fall under.
    • The Soldier: The basic Warrior-type, who have good attack power and have the ability to punch through the defense shield-using enemies. The Hero is a starter example of this class.
    • The Knight: Another Warrior-type, though focused more on defense, gaining a shield that can block ranged attacks in exchange for a slightly lower melee proficiency. The only known character to break the mold is Elza, who doesn't have a shield, but whose final unlocked skill gives her minor HP-drain instead. Kain is the starter example for this class.
    • The Wizard: A ranged class, they represent the magic-users of the setting.
    • The Cleric: The Support and Healer type of the game, they have no ranged attacks, and will only engage in melee when attacked directly by another melee opponent. Marina is the starter for this class.
    • The Archer: Another ranged class, they represent the rangers, rogues, and other bow-users of the setting. Michidia is the starter for this class type.
    • And finally, as a sub-group to all of these are the Bards and Dancers, who may be of any of the other classes — Lyla for example is a Cleric, while Malayka is a Soldier — but whose specials are instead long-lasting party-wide buffs that root them in place for the duration of the song or dance.
    • There are also Rune Fencers that are classified either as a Soldier (Sonya for example) or a Wizard (Yuni for example). While Sonya is in-name only (the lore says she lost her magic in an accident) and cannot act like a Wizard-class, others like Febrya and Yuni can launch magic from afar and deal full damage at melee range.
  • Compressed Adaptation: The OVA, which breezes through 10 chapters and 20+ hours of game time in less than 50 minutes, and what's more ends on a blatant Sequel Hook for Book 2 of the game.
  • The Corruption: The Blackening, a malaise gained from prolonged exposure to the Black Army's forces. While initially it just heightens the negative emotions of whoever it infects, it eventually turns any person it infects into madmen beholden to the orders of the Black King. Prior to the convening of the Round Table Alliance, many prominent leaders of the Alliance reveal that they've been already infected, but have been holding the infection at bay by Heroic Willpower.
  • Costume Porn: Several, two illustrators who employ this often are Nishiki Takeshiro (Lucrezia, Symphonia, Rula...) and Kana Takanashi (Verolla, Dulce, Barracuda...).
  • Covert Pervert: The hero straddles in-and-out of this trope, but your non-combatant sprite Pirika plays it straighter than an arrow, especially for her fondness of busty women (something the hero also shares on occasion).
  • Crapsaccharine World: Yggdra is a world full of zany adventures, colorful characters, and the occasional harem for the Hero. Monsters attacks, bandit raids, and Black Army raids are also a common occurrence, causing death, destruction, and sorrow for a startlingly huge number of people, including the main and supporting casts. Even when the Black Army isn't the main threat, various infighting also gave various communities a sense of insecurity, with Vice Capital being the worst offender due to constant riots and coup d'etat efforts by the shadier members of the Assassin's Guild.
    • One other continent consists of only adorable children. However, their lifespans only reach up to 10 years before they perish.
  • Crossover: Several in the Japanese version of the game, including Log Horizon and BlazBlue.
    • Also with Brave Frontier in both versions. The characters involved are different for both regions, though.
  • Crutch Character: Most of the players thought of Fortune Ring characters as this, especially with the inclusion of the Challenge Recruit. These 5-star Arcanas can be gained by collecting Fortune Rings from daily missions, quests, or selling Rare Arcana and above. With the Challenge Recruit, a new player can even recruit one very early, giving themselves significant early to mid-game leverage and certainly gives more leverage to non-spending players. However, if you didn't manage to fully Limit Break them, their usefulness wanes in the late-game, since these characters only has the stats of a 4-star Arcana despite having skills and abilities worthy of 5-star, making you think twice before you equipped a powerful weapon on them.
    • However, clever usage of their abilities would still make them just as viable as an 'actual' 5-star Arcana. For example, Trystan has excellent yet relatively cheap crowd-control skill and excellent survivability (especially when he equips Lexida), Mireille is an excellent tank and a popular choice in the Coloseum, and Scherazard is a weird yet decent tanky Soldier-class.
    • Starting from V2, there are also quests with fixed guest characters that can pretty much defend themselves just as well as anyone in your party.
  • Cutscene Power to the Max: Very guilty of this. Can you honestly say that the base version of the Hero could stand up to a boss like the Black Knight in a one-on-one fight?
  • Cut Short: The Global version of the game, closing just a few months after starting the second continent.
  • Darker and Edgier: Unlike the game, the anime pulls zero punches in regards to the war against the Black Army.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Depending on your conversation choices, your Hero can be this. And during some character quests, everyone in his party, including Pirika and Phoena. Showcased spectacularly whenever the party has to interact with Melchior the Sage.
  • Depending on the Artist: The horn of Nine Territories ogres. Some characters has long, jutting horns on their forehead (Toka and Haruaki for example), some ogres has small stubs in their forehead resembling a horn (Bokuden and other orge Non Player Characters), and some of them has two horns on the sides on their head (like Yoshino). Sometimes, the same artist gave different type of horns to multiple characters, with one of the better examples being Haruaki's and Inuchiyo's horn, and both of them were drawn by the same artist.
  • Depending on the Writer: Kain might either just have some unfortunate incidents or becomes a full-on Cosmic Plaything, which is very jarring when starting the second main story, where both Marina and Michidia spend a lot of time verbally abusing him despite not showing any indication of that in the first.
  • Disc-One Nuke: It can be easy to breeze through the early stages of the game by playing with other people with powerful or rare characters since they join you in battles. Like many other games of its type, it's also possible to get a 4 or 5-star character after the tutorial, making you a powerhouse at the beginning of the game.
  • Distressed Damsel: Getting taken hostage is a particularly bad habit of Phoena, at least in the first book.
  • Dying as Yourself: The fate of the Black King after the party defeats him.
  • Elemental Powers: Only two, Ice and Fire. They deal bonus damage to each other, but otherwise have no other effect in the game.
  • Emotionless Girl: Nina, she was raised without emotions at all, but she develops them after the final quest in her quest chain.
  • Enclosed Space: Book 2 revealed that Yggdra is a massive, continents version of this trope due to heavy storms and monsters preventing both easy entry or exit, although some people can get stranded in or out, like Baltro and Ernest.
  • Family Theme Naming: The Boisterous Sisters are a combination of this and Bilingual Bonus. Their names are Diez, Xien (Cien), and Mille (Mil), which are Spanish for ten, hundred, and thousand respectively.
    • Rafaga (Rafalgar) means gust and Vienta means wind.
  • Fantastic Science: In-universe the Wizards of the Sage Towers stand in as magical versions of real world research scientists, with a dash of Mad Scientist thrown in. Over the course of the main story, some of them have come up with, in no particular order, a magical device to make one's voice louder (a microphone), a device to remotely draw magic from the surrounding atmosphere to power the utilities in the Towers (a generator), and what can only be described as a nuclear-powered cannon that shoots shells across continents.
  • Five-Man Band: Or rather, six in this case: The Hero, Phoena and Pirika, and with Kain, Michilda, and Marina to round of the group. Regardless of your choices for your team, the plot of the game assumes that this is the core group you complete most missions with.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: The plot assumes that the starter group accompanies the Hero and Phoena up to the finale. In practice though? Unless you've paid attention to break the character limits of Kain, Michilda, and Marina (their base maximum level is 20), their usefulness tapers off before you arrive at Soul Island. Even if you did use the Level Break mechanism to double their max level to 40, they find themselves woefully outmatched from Soul Island onward, as their low stats and lack of secondary skills make them struggle from the regular mobs in those areas.
  • Golem: One of the many types of enemies in the game.
    • Two recruitable Arcana, Islem and Thrax, both of whom gained free will.
  • Gratuitous Ninja: Chiyome and Fuuko from the Nine Territories.
  • Green Aesop: Shaly's first character quest includes commentary about energy usage and the inevitable energy crisis, with 'mana' as substitute for non-renewable energy.
  • Guest-Star Party Member: In each battle, you are allowed to pick one reinforcement either from your friends or a complete stranger to have a total of 6 characters in your attacking party.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Raid event bosses join your side after they're defeated during their events.
  • Honor Before Reason: The ogres of the Nine Territories of Fire thrive on this.
  • I Am Who?: Why yes Pirika, you are the fragment of the Will of the World.
  • Innocent Fanservice Girl: Tigre, to the point where she has a fanbase within the army due to how skimpy her clothing is. However, she says that she wears it because it lets her move faster.
    • Male Examples are Kain and Tubalao, who decide to play strip poker, much to Marina and Michidia's chagrin.
  • Knight in Shining Armor: The Holy Capital provides both male and female examples of this.
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: Phoena's amnesia kicks off the story.
  • Lethal Chef: Phoena is said to be one. In the valentine event, her cooking comes alive as a monster due to her using a magically-enhanced chocolate.
  • Level-Up at Intimacy 5: Each recruitable character has their own personal quest, which gives each character more background and unlocks their abilities or gives you bonus Prysma. Some of these quests can only be unlocked by leveling up characters.
  • Little Bit Beastly: There's an entire tavern dedicated to characters like this in the Japanese version.
  • MacGuffin: The eponymous Chain Chronicle that Phoena carries with her. And later on, the chronicles carried by the Black Knight and the Black King.
  • Masochist's Meal: Pirika gets Hati, who doesn't know what wasabi is, to eat a spoonful of wasabi.
  • The Medic: The Cleric class as a whole.
  • Miko: Aoi.
  • Musical Assassin: The Lake of Sand's recruits specialize in this, using it to power-up their allies.
  • My Nayme Is: Played for Drama with Alvert in his Chain Story, the similarly-named Albert uses it to his advantage so he can scare villains away despite the fact that it's Alvert who's famous.
  • No Senseof Direction: Envy.
  • Oblivious to Love: Hero can be played this way to much of his harem.
  • One-Winged Angel: The Black King transforms into a HUGE black dragon for the final battle.
  • Our Dwarves Are All the Same: Well, mostly. They're called Earth Sprites here, and are still a martial and somewhat serious species who live in the mountains and mine its depths for precious minerals and gems, plus knack for mechanical engineering. While the males look like your typical Tolkein dwarf (beards and all), the women of the race have more obvious feminine traits (and most importantly, no beards) and pointy ears. All of them also have an ability to sense or communicate with earth spirits, though the level varies between members of the race, and have a sort of symbiotic relationship with their neighbors the Flame Sprites.
  • Our Elves Are Different: While they're still long-lived pointy-eared humanoids, in Yggdra its elves (called Forest Sprites) are instead a jungle-living tribal people who're not very friendly to outsiders. Oh, and they regularly pick fights with the Ogres of the Nine Territories.
  • Peninsula of Power Leveling: The playerbase agrees that the best spots to grind rank and experience for your team are through the Spark of Battle and Fruits of Research quests, while the Flame Shrine is another good spot for those players further along the story.
  • Permanently Missable Content: The Demon Raid bosses are so far unavailable outside of the events they were introduced in. If you weren't able to play through to the level 60 raid (which usually gives their Arcana as a reward), then you're out of luck.
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy: The Ogres of the Nine Territories are these for the setting. It's essentially Sengoku Period-Japan, except every one of its inhabitants have horns.
    • The Thousand Rivers tribe of Forest Sprites count as well, relying on battles for diplomatic purposes as well as challenging anyone they can find.
  • Put on a Bus: Pirika was for 98% of the anime, while Kain was too for a shorter period.
  • Regional Bonus: The Global version of the game offers various exclusive characters (Thrax, Goryou, and Robyn as an example) and features, like the Blacksmith and the Colosseum.
    • The Hong Kong version has over 40 regional exclusives.
    • The Japanese version has crossovers with various different anime as its regional bonus, as well as being the most advanced of all regions' versions.
  • Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Humanoid Lizards are the main enemy in the Lake of Sand region.
  • Revenge Before Reason: Nazuna wants revenge on the one who killed her husband, and Aurora wants to slay the monster that took one of her eyes.
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: Juliana, Ashrina, Tsuru, Shuza, and Yoshitsugu. And it turns out, Phoena, who's the daughter of the Black King, and has been trying to oppose him this entire time.
  • Running Gag: A man named Marcy gives exposition on both Blossum and Meivia's quests, Pirika keeps asking him who he is but is always ignored. His constant appearances are lampshaded in Meivia's second quest.
    Pirika: Oh, it's you!
    Phoena: The play-by-play guy!
    • There's also one with Phoena's cooking. It will always turned out bad, with anyone who tasted it feeling rather nauseous. Not even The Black King (albeit his past self as Phoena's father} is safe.
  • Schizo Tech: The world has magical mirrors used as long-distance communicator (used widely at the start of Book 2) and a nuclear reactor to power a long-range artillery courtesy of the Sage Tower. Yet until V2, no characters mainly use gunpowder-based weapons.
  • Sequel Hook: Book one ends with the defeat of the Black King, and the Black Army leaderless. However the Black Chronicle that corrupted the king flies off, and is now heading back to Phoena's home continent...
  • Sequence Breaking: While it's not possible to do this during the main story, it's very possible to do this to the various character side-stories that get unlocked after you gain new recruits, depending on how far you are in the main plot. This leads to situations where, for example, you can have Phoena with you enjoying the School Festival activities at the Sage Tower despite her supposedly being kidnapped by ogres from the Nine Territories...
  • Sidequest: Each town that the party visits has a mission not directly related to the main plot, where one can grind for levels, rewards, recruits, or experience (see Peninsula of Power Leveling for more details on the latter).
    • There are also long-running quests called "Side-Stories", that are almost complete campaigns on their own. Unlocked when one clears a specific Chapter in the main plot, in general they have higher party level requirements and overall difficulty compared to the area they're set in.
  • Stupidity Is the Only Option: Occasionally, you're given dialog options as the Hero that both lead to the same bad result.
  • Supporting Leader: Einslotte, for the armies of the Round Table Conference, who stage a head-on attack on the Royal Capital to allow the Hero and his squad a chance to sneak into the palace and deal with the Black King directly.
  • Tag Team Twins: Palna and Pulna.
    • Currently only available in Japan, Rijiji and Rejiji count as well.
  • Took a Level in Badass: The Hero finally gets a 5-star card version with book 2, while Kain, Marina, and Michidia gain Ultra-Rare 4-star versions, reflecting their increased confidence and experience they gained during the first campaign against the Black King.
    • Several other characters gain an upgraded version in book 2. For example, Toka, Haruaki, Faceless, and Patricia. Most notable is Knuckle, who is originally a 1-star, gains a 5-star version.
  • Translate The Loan Words Too: Some names, mainly from the Vice Capital and Holy Capital, are based on English names. There are cases where the translations were iffy, such as "Lolleta" instead of "Loretta."
  • Walking Shirtless Scene: Fee Gleah, Jafarr, Luke, Tortuga, Trystan, and Ren.
  • Weapon-Based Characterization: Every character has a weapon that can be upgraded with other weapon cards. Due to the way weapons are classified however, you can have a Samurai-type character like Toka wielding Deathtail because both katana and scythe are classified as Blade-type weapons.
    • Blade type weapons includes broadswords, katanas, scythes, and so on. Soldiers are the primary users of this type of weapon, although some Knights also use blades in tandem with a shield. Some Rune Fencers also use this type of weapon.
    • Spear type weapons includes...well, spears and lances. Curiously, rapiers are classified as this type. The recent Halloween update also features Sinister Parasol, a Parasol of Pain as a quest reward, classified as a spear. Mainly used by Knights, but there's also a few Soldiers and Wizards of the Rune Fencers sub-class who use it.
    • Club type weapons include clubs, hammers, and axes. Usually wielded by Soldiers, users of this weapon tend to be Mighty Glaciers. Curiously, actual clubs in this type are few, mostly dominated by hammers and axe. There's also a Frying Pan of Doom for the Sapras demon raid called Big Bang.
    • Bow type weapons are, of course, solely consists of various type of bows used by the Archer class.
    • Magic type weapons consists of magic rods, a spell book called the Spell Tome, and shovels; there are characters in the lore that use shovels and classified as the Wizard-class, like Cardea. These weapons are used by the Wizard class, and are different from the one used by Clerics.
    • Holy type weapons are healing staves exclusively used by Clerics. While they can still deal melee damage with it, it's not very effective. In the hands of Phoena however, it works as a makeshift Magic-type for her skill due to its offensive nature.
    • Fist are Power Fist by way of gauntlets, cestus, and spiked knuckles.
    • Finally, there are Guns and Rifles, probably for use by Archer class of certain types. While there are no gun-users until Book 2.
  • We ARE Struggling Together: Despite all the races and kingdoms facing the threat of the Black Army, many are fighting themselves over petty reasons rather than unite against a common enemy. During the game, the Assassin Guild spread chaos in the Vice Capital by causing refugee riots and assassinating leaders while the Clergy launches a coup to take over the Holy Kingdom's military. Meanwhile the Dwarves refuses outside help to deal with the Black Army and the Orges are too busy fighting themselves rather than working together against the Black Army.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Black Knight just wants to save his world. He has no qualms about throwing his lot with the Black Army, killing countless people, and emotionally torturing Phoena if he needs to.
  • Wise Beyond Their Years: Played for Drama. There is an entire continent of children whose wisdom are greater than most famous magicians. However, they can only live up to the age of 10.
  • Wham Episode:
    • Chapter 10-10: World of Black. The Black Knight is revealed to be the Hero, from a timeline where he failed to save Phoena and Pirika from being killed by the Black King.
  • When Trees Attack: The main enemies in the Soul Island region are trees.

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