Chrono Gear: Warden of Time Review
(A review 10 months in the making, hopefully it was worth the wait.)
Intro
(It begins.)
What's this? A review of an indie game hardly anyone has heard of? While I admit this review comes a bit out of left field, as I previously mentioned in my 2025 in Gaming retrospective, Chrono Gear: Warden of Time was easily one of my favorite gaming experiences of last year. I mostly only learned about this game as I was already familiar with its developers, and bought it on a whim after being impressed by the trailer and screenshots on Steam. While I went in without much in the way of expectations, I ended up thoroughly impressed by everything this game had to offer. This is a bit on the longer side, so I've broken my thoughts down into 6 main touchpoints. As always, just remember these are my own opinions and anyone is free to disagree.
The Characters
Chrono Gear: Warden of Time primarily follows the actions of a group known as The Council, a... well, council, of godlike entities given human form, who each represent a core element of the universe. You play as Ouro Kronii, the titular Warden of Time. Supporting Kronii and filling out the rest of the Council are Tsukumo Sana, Speaker of Space, Ceres Fauna, Keeper of Nature, Nanashi Mumei, Guardian of Civilization, Hakos Baelz, Chaos Encarnate, and Irys, Bringer of Hope. Opposing the Council and serving as the game's main antagonists are the Secret Society HoloX, a gang of powerful supervillains consisting of Executive Officer Takane Lui, researcher and mad scientist Hakui Koyori, samurai bodyguard Kazama Iroha, and cleaner Sakamata Chloe. Together they work to fulfill the goals of their leader, the apparent physical manifestation of Laplace's demon, Laplus Darkness. Each member of the Council has dominion over a 'world' that reflects the portion of the universe they represent, and the player as Kronii must travel to these worlds to help fend off a member of HoloX wreaking havoc.
(Our heroes, the Council.)
As I made my way through the game, I was actually pleasantly surprised by how well fleshed out the members of the Council and HoloX were. Going into the game, I was admittedly mostly expecting fairly run-of-the mill cutsey anime girl stereotypes, and while there are definitely shades of that here and there, it doesn't take away from the otherwise very good characterization both groups are given. Kronii and Laplus do understandably get the majority of the focus, so the individual introductions to the other members of the Council and HoloX can sometimes feel a bit too quick. However, as the game progresses you do get to learn more about the history of both the Council and HoloX, learn the motivations of their members, some of their history both individually and as a group, and the reasons they choose to stick together and help one another both before and throughout the events of the game. Additionally, while the Council are definitively the heroes and HoloX the villains, the relationships between the groups and their members is not perfectly black and white. There's a surprising amount of grey morality on both sides, with members of the Council, including Kronii herself, willing to consider or commit some questionable or outright heinous actions in order to fulfill their goals. Similarly, the members of HoloX are not as overtly evil as they might initially appear. It all provides a fun dynamic with more depth than I was expecting going in.
Alongside the heroes of the Council and the villains of Secret Society HoloX, Chrono Gear is packed with a colorful array of supporting characters to help flesh out the game world. Most of the game's levels and hub zones introduce at least one additional character, who typically serve to either provide exposition that ties the level into the game's story, or explain a new puzzle or gameplay mechanic within the level itself. THe majority of these characters are usually thematically suited to the area they're encountered; such as meeting a wood elf in a forest or a jpop idol in a concert hall, but a handful of these characters did feel a bit more randomly placed. While I never disliked any of these side characters, I would say my biggest issue with most of them was how the game rarely gave any of them a proper introduction. Most side characters show up with little fanfare and begin chatting with the main cast as if they're someone the player should recognize. It almost felt like I was playing a sequel to a different game, comic or anime without realizing it, and it eventually became consistent enough that I just kind of stopped thinking about it whenever a random new anime girl turned up. Fortunately, most of these side characters didn't have much involvement in the story, and there was usually enough exposition that I was at least able to grasp the gist of who they are and why they were there. There is also an in-game codex that provides additional details on some of the characters which does help, but even that doesn't so much explain things in the moment as it does just clear things up in retrospect if you think to look into it. Ultimately none of this negatively impacted my experience overall, but it was definitely one of the few notable barriers to entry in the game, and one of my few qualms with its writing.
The Story
Much like with the characters, I can't say I was expecting anything particularly remarkable from Chrono Gear's story going into it blind. 2D platformers in general are not traditionally known for being the best written or most narratively dense video games, and the obvious SNES/Genesis influence on the game's design only further had me expecting the writing to be nothing special. At first I thought my intuitions were right, but as the game went on I actually found myself pleasantly surprised by how serious the story was gradually becoming, and by how well written it was throughout.
(A pretty solid opening, if may say so.)
The basic framework of the story is explained right from the opening cutscene; Kronii, growing increasingly vain due to time's influence over humanity, steps away from the Council to focus on the creation of an artifact known as the chrono gear, which would greatly increase her power and control over the timeline. However, shortly after the chrono gear was completed, an alternate version of HoloX's Laplus Darkness appeared from a parallel timeline and attempted to claim its power for herself. Kronii and the rest of the Council fought off Laplus, and in the middle of the fighting the chrono gear was shattered. The shattering brought ruin to the entire space-time continuum, separating the Council and scattering the chrono gear's constituent golden gears across the remains of the universe. From here the player takes over, controlling Kronii as she travels across the universe and into the domains of her fellow Council members, attempting to reclaim the scattered golden gears and reforge her chrono gear while preventing Laplus and HoloX from trying to do the same.
In spite of this seemingly urgent, apocalypse-level threat, things do slow down quite a bit once you get into the actual game. While collecting golden gears and stopping HoloX are always the driving force behind everything you're doing, most of the individual levels generally focus less on the overarching story and more on Kronii's relationship with her friends and the characters you meet along the way. Even in many of the early occasions where you meet and spar with members of HoloX, they don't really come off as much of a threat, particularly compared to how their leader is initially portrayed. Because of this, much of the early game can feel like a fairly run-of-the-mill "cutesy anime girls going on silly adventures and fighting evil with the power of friendship" type story; yet even in the early game there are still a few moments that do take themselves more seriously, and paint a picture that something much more serious is happening in the background. These more serious moments were peppered throughout the game just frequently enough to keep me interested, and it eventually felt almost like a puzzle trying to work out what was really going on behind the scenes in the story.
While I obviously don't want to spoil anything for anyone who may want to play this game in the future, suffice to say the story by no means left me hanging. These darker and more serious plot threads gradually become more frequent, and eventually the story reaches its climax and all the pieces fall into place. The truth behind the story is honestly quite a bit darker and angstier than I anticipated, and while the darkness does eventually clear up somewhat, once you reach the climax it's almost like a switch is flipped that changes the whole vibe of the experience. It might seem like a sudden shift from lighthearted and silly to dark and angsty wouldn't really work well, but there's still plenty of lighthearted moments throughout the later parts of the game to keep things balanced, and the change is gradual enough and choreographed well enough that it actually doesn't feel at all out of place. It also helps that the themes the game digs into, including the meaning and value of friendship and loss, I found very engaging and well written. All the twists and hooks kept me invested and made me want to keep pushing forward not just because I was enjoying the gameplay, but because I genuinely wanted to find out what they were leading up to, and it was genuinely satisfying to see the various hints finally come together. I do still believe that the early game could have stuck with the plot a bit closer, but in the end I never expected a game like Chrono Gear to pull me into its story the way it did, and I commend it for that.
The Gameplay
While an unexpectedly engrossing story will benefit any game, solid gameplay is obviously what matters most, especially for a 2D platformer. Fortunately, I would genuinely say Chrono Gear: Warden of Time has some of the best gameplay of any 2D platformer I've played in recent years. The controls are simple and tight, and the basic moveset is fairly simple to understand but has a high enough skill ceiling that you can really break things once you know what you're doing. The difficulty is also very balanced, offering plenty of challenge without getting overwhelming. Like most modern platformers, Chrono Gear does not feature any form of extra lives, and you're free to 'rewind' to your most recent checkpoint at any time. There's also an optional tutorial which explains all the ins and outs of the game's controls, and the in-game codex features entries on all of your abilities which can be reviewed at any time.
As Kronii, your basic moveset is fairly standard for an action platformer; you can sprint, attack by swinging your swords or performing a 'drill dash', and you also have a double jump that additionally slows your descent by spinning your swords like a helicopter (or Kroniicopter, as the game calls it). Additionally, befitting a Warden of Time, you also have two special abilities that effect the flow of time around you in different ways. "Haste" speeds up time, increasing Kronii's movement and attack speed dramatically, while "stasis" slows time down, reducing how fast enemies and obstacles move and creating a protective barrier that temporarily absorbs damage. Kronii can only use one of these abilities at a time, and using them drains a meter that prevents them from being reactivated until it fully regenerates. Learning how and when to use these two time powers is probably the biggest learning curve for Chrono Gear's gameplay, but once you start figuring it out they become incredibly satisfying to just go crazy with, and you can eventually find yourself easily speedrunning stages while tearing through everything in your path.
Chrono Gear's developers, the indie studio Galaxy Trail, are most well known for their previous work on the Freedom Planet games, a series of heavily Sonic-inspired action platformers. While I wouldn't say Chrono Gear feels like a Sonic game, you can definitely feel some of that lineage within the game's design. While not nearly as fast as Sonic, speed and momentum still play a major part in Chrono Gear's gameplay, with many levels featuring long open stretches that are clearly meant to be sped through, usually with indicators suggesting to activate haste to increase the speed even further. Uniquely, Chrono Gear is one of the few games I can think of where the majority of enemies are intangible and do not deal contact damage, so it's entirely viable to simply run straight through most enemies and avoid engaging with them entirely rather than stopping to fight them. The stage design and obstacles placed in your path can also feel rather reminiscent of Sonic, with some levels clearly having been directly inspired by stages from across the Sonic series as well.
(A chaotic, topsy-turvy highway at night, full of pulleys, grind rails and boost rings? That's pretty radical, but why does it seem so familiar?)
That's not to say Sonic the Hedgehog was the only inspiration; while the speedy, momentum-based gameplay does resemble a classic Sonic title, the stage design and more action-oriented combat sections can almost feel like something out of Mega Man, with the developers specifically acknowledging the Mega Man Zero and ZX games as further inspiration. There's also individual moments that could be compared to any number of platformers, including Castlevania, Ghosts and Goblins, or even Kirby. Suffice to say, Chrono Gear: Warden of Time is not just some amalgam of existing platformer games, but is instead very much its own thing, even if it's not afraid to pay homage to the games that came before it and defined the genre in the past.
The Graphics
Much like Galaxy Trail's previous games, Chrono Gear is a sprite-based game using pixel art heavily inspired by 16-bit game consoles such as the SNES and Sega Genesis. While the game by no means pushes the boundaries of what's possible with this visual style, it's still a very good looking game. Everything is bright and colorful, the sprites are very clear and detailed, and the environments are equally detailed and dynamic without ever becoming overwhelming or distracting. Additionally, while the majority of the game is presented with fairly simple 16 bit sprites, certain cutscenes switch to a rotoscoped pixel art style which helps to further emphasize some important characters and details. Also, befitting the 90's aesthetic, there's also a handful of important cutscenes presented as fully animated, anime-style FMVs, complete with voice acting.
(This cup of tea is very important, trust me.)
Probably the most unique aspect of Chrono Gear's visual identity is its screen size. Regardless of your actual screen resolution, the game is exclusively displayed in 4:3 to further emphasize the retro Genesis/SNES feel. The developers did of course account for the fact that basically no one would actually be playing on a 4:3 display, so to fill in the screen borders the player is given a selection of artwork based on the game's characters and locations. You only get a handful of artwork options to start with, but more can be unlocked as you play the game and they can be swapped out at any time. All of the art comes from a variety of different artists, so there's a number of different styles to choose from. All of the border art is very well done, but this does seem to be where much of the "anime fanservice" ended up. Fortunately there's no shortage of more innocent material as well, and the border art can even be disabled entirely if you so choose.
The Music
I've always been a sucker for good video game music, and I genuinely think Chrono Gear: Warden of Time may have had one of the best soundtracks of 2025. While Chrono Gear's visuals mostly try to stick to what was possible on 16-bit game consoles, the soundtrack doesn't even attempt to limit itself in the same way. The game features a wide variety of different composers, each producing music in an array of different genres and styles. As you play through the game you'll hear everything from chiptunes, to symphonies, to outright rock and metal ballads, and a handful of tracks even feature vocals. Yet in spite of how distinct each track is and how many different composers worked on it, nothing ever sounds bad or out of place. Every level theme, character theme and jingle suits when and where it plays, and the whole soundtrack is well woven together using a variety of leitmotifs that start to become more obvious the more you play.
Chrono Gear also has one of my all-time favorite features in gaming; an in-game music player. As you explore the game's levels you can find hidden CDs, which once picked up will unlock music from the game's soundtrack that you can then listen to in the jukebox at any time. It may seem like a fairly minor thing, but this is genuinely a feature I wish was standard practice in the gaming industry. Some of my favorite music comes from game sountracks, and an in-game music player means I can listen to my favorite tracks whenever I want without needing to worry about in-game interruptions or finding good quality rips online.
(Just look at all that beautiful music.)
Of course, if you'd prefer to listen to Chrono Gear's soundtrack without needing to pull up the game every time, the developers have thought of that too. Each of the game's composers have uploaded their tracks to YouTube, which the developers have compiled into an official playlist. Just to highlight some of my personal favorite tracks and really show the variety the game has to offer, I'd recommend checking out the heavily Genesis-inspired Ducky God Arcade, the heavenly, jpop-esque Galaxy Gourmet, and particularly the epic metal ballad Daydreaming in Darkness. Just be wary of spoilers if you do decide to check out more of the soundtrack before playing the game.
The Elephant in the Room
So, anyone reading this who is familiar with the game or its characters will probably realize by now that I've been dancing around a fairly important aspect of the game's design, and realistically I can only avoid talking about it for so long. Throughout this review I've pretty consistently referred to Chrono Gear as an "anime game", and while not entirely inaccurate, that isn't exactly the whole truth either. In truth, Chrono Gear: Warden of Time is not so much an anime game, but rather a vtuber game, or more specifically a Hololive game. The game's publisher, Holo Indie, is a subsidiary of Hololive's parent company Cover Corp, and was founded specifically to give indie devs the opportunity to develop licensed fangames based on their vtuber IPs. As such, all of the characters in the game, from every member of the Council and HoloX to all of the random NPCs encountered throughout every level, are directly based on the vtubers produced by Hololive, with their personalities and behaviors being directly inspired by their respective streamer's on-stream persona.
(Hololive's Ouro Kronii, playing as herself on-stream.)
Now I'm by no means a Hololive fan, I have nothing against it but it's never really been something I've watched much of or ever really cared to look too deeply into. Prior to playing Chrono Gear: Warden of Time, the extent of my Hololive knowledge just came from what little I could glean from having previously played fellow fangame HoloCure, and a broad awareness of some of their members thanks to memes and general cultural osmosis. With that in mind, I feel like this lack of care for or familiarity with the source material is a further reflection on just how good this game actually is. I was still able to have an incredible time playing through the game, in spite of being practically as far from its target audience as you can get. That said, now that the truth is out there are some aspects of this review that I should address again.
In my 'characters' section of this review, one of my main criticisms of the game was the fact that it frequently introduced new characters while acting as if the player should already be familiar with them, and I even specifically said that it felt like I had missed a prequel or tie-in story. As you may have now figured out, this "prequel story" would be the livestreams, music videos and general lore of the Hololive members the characters were based on. Anyone going into Chrono Gear who is already an established fan of Hololive and its affiliated streamers would likely have no issue recognizing the NPCs encountered throughout the game's levels, or understanding their relationships with one another. That said, I still stand by this critique, as more detailed introductions to these characters would improve the general experience for players who aren't already intimately familiar with the women they're based on. Even within the Hololive fandom, I'm sure there are plenty of fans who aren't 100% aware of every single vtuber affiliated with the agency.
It may have also seemed unusual that, while I spent a good amount of time discussing both the game's characters and graphics, I never actually reviewed or even commented on the character designs. This is largely because I don't think it would be particularly fair to judge a game on its character designs, when the developers had no actual input into the designs themselves. That said, I don't really have much to say about the designs of Hololive's vtubers anyways. From what I've seen between Chrono Gear and HoloCure, most of their designs are relatively modest and not overly fan service-y, and Galaxy Trail did do a good job making these character designs work as 16-bit sprites, while also putting them in locations that suit their general vibes. The only design that really stuck out to me as overly "eye candy" was actually Ouro Kronii herself, and even that was only really noticeable during the handful of FMV cutscenes, as her standard sprites seem to intentionally adjust her proportions and cover her up more.
Predictably, the game's music is also heavily inspired by original music produced by Hololive as well. This can range from just simple leitmotifs peppered into otherwise original compositions, to full remixes of Hololive-original songs. Going back to my previous examples; compare "Ducky God Arcade" to Doggy God's Street by Inugami Korone, "Galaxy Gourmet" to Astrogirl by Tsukumo Sana, or "Daydreaming in Darkness" to Daydream by Ouro Kronii herself. From what I've seen, some of the game's composers have even previously worked with Hololive on their original songs. I would actually highly recommend checking out some of the original songs that inspired Chrono Gear's soundtrack, even if you're not otherwise a fan of vtubers or interested in their streams. There are some genuinely extremely talented singers in Hololive, and it's thanks to Chrono Gear that I discovered some of what they have to offer.
While I'll admit I did try to obscure the connection between Chrono Gear and Hololive up until now, this is very much not the case for the game itself. The game is very upfront about its source material, particularly if you explore the in-game codex. Nearly all of the codex entries for the game's enemies, NPCs and factions explain their design origins and who or what from Hololive they're based on or associated with. The jukebox is similar, with all unlocked music tracks displaying both the title of the song they're based on along with the name of the talent who performed them. I can also only assume that the game is packed to the brim with in-jokes and references that completely went over my head. The only aspect of this game that does seem to be largely original is the story, and I'm sure even that takes plenty of cues from Hololive's in-universe lore. It's very clear that this game was a major passion project by Hololive fans, for Hololive fans.
The Verdict
(This picture has nothing to do with the review, I just think it's cool.)
I'm sure just learning that the game is in any way associated with Hololive or vtubers in general made a lot of people immediately lose any interest in it. I won't deny the fact that vtubers seem to carry a stigma that many people want nothing to do with, and clearly Chrono Gear is very open and proud about its inspirations. Yet in spite of this, I still stand by the opinion that Chrono Gear: Warden of Time is an excellent game entirely on its own merits. While the unfamiliarity of the characters and mild, yet still present use of anime-esque camp and fanservice do create something of a barrier of entry for those not already familiar with Hololive, the well written story, incredible music, slick controls and overall excellent presentation do more than enough to make up for it. Even as a game clearly made by Hololive fans for Hololive fans, Galaxy Trail's 2D platforming pedigree clearly shines through. Chrono Gear is undeniably a truly excellent platformer in its own right, and one I highly recommend to anyone with an itch for a new take on the fast-paced platforming of Sonic, or the combat-focused action of Mega Man.
Whether you're a long-time fan of Hololive looking for new content about your favorite vtuber, or you're a retro platformer fanatic who couldn't care less about vtubers and are just looking for a new game to sink your teeth into, Chrono Gear: Warden of Time will surely be an excellent experience either way.