E.T.E Chronicle sees players take on the role of the Nexecutor, guiding Syncers in a war for dwindling resources. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying

E.T.E Chronicle Review Overview

What is E.T.E Chronicle?

E.T.E Chronicle is a mobile action role-playing game that debuted in Japan and China before its global release on March 13, 2025. Set in a near-future world plagued by conflicts driven by human desires, E.T.E. Chronicle presents a scenario where the corporation Noah Technologies has developed advanced tactical exoskeletons known as E.T.Es. This development led to the construction of a massive orbital base, Sky Ring, equipped with super weapons, resulting in widespread destruction and desolation on Earth.

In response, various factions form the Human Alliance and develop new combat weapons called E.T.E. to counter Noah’s dominance. Players assume the role of Nexecutors, guiding female pilots of these humanoid combat weapons in a struggle for survival and resistance against the looming apocalypse.

There are three primary combat types in E.T.E: ground, naval, and aerial battles. The game launches with 30 playable characters, each possessing unique abilities and combat styles, but the game boasts a collection of more than 70 different mecha units, inspired by real-life military equipment and tailored to adapt to various combat environments.

E.T.E Chronicle features:
　⚫︎　A Mecha Musume Game
　⚫︎　Ground, Naval, and Aerial Battles
　⚫︎　Numerous Playable Characters and Mecha Units

For more gameplay details, read everything we know about E.T.E Chronicle’s gameplay and story.

Steam
Price			Free-to-Play Wishlist Only
Google Play				App Store
Price			Free-to-Play

E.T.E Chronicle Pros & Cons

Pros	Cons
Well-Designed Characters and Mechs Genuinely Good Music and Voice Work Auto-Battle Removes Tedium	Character Designs Feel Out of Place in the Setting Bland Gameplay Inconsistent Visual Presentation

E.T.E Chronicle Overall Score - 70/100

I really wanted to enjoy E.T.E Chronicle; I had high hopes for it. I wanted to add it to my daily rotation of gacha games solely for its mecha designs alone, but sadly, it falls short of making a lasting impression. It’s a decent game, yes. But it lacks enough unique features to stand out in a crowded genre. Players may enjoy it initially, but this novelty will likely fade as the game struggles to maintain long-term interest.

E.T.E Chronicle Story - 6/10

E.T.E Chronicle’s story may not break any new ground, but its characters bring some much-needed charm—though their sexualization remains hard to overlook. The game leans heavily on clichéd tropes that makes its narrative feel tedious and unsatisfying at times. Still, the moments where the characters are allowed to breathe and develop a personality provide a welcome break from the predictable plot.

E.T.E Chronicle Gameplay - 5/10

E.T.E Chronicle’s combat system is solid but fails to leave a lasting impression. While there’s a hint of strategy beneath its surface, fans of real-time action games won’t find much to sink their teeth into here, as it lacks the visual flair of something like Punishing Gray Raven. Though the boss fights offer some spectacle, they ultimately fall flat as mediocre encounters.

E.T.E Chronicle Visuals - 6/10

The game's visuals are nice, especially the cutscenes. However, those are rare. Most of the time, the game uses static character portraits to tell its story. The character designs are appealing, and the Syncers and their mechs stand out, but I had hoped the game would tell its story better than with these character portraits, which lack the emotions the story is trying to convey.

E.T.E Chronicle Audio - 9/10

I don’t know how such a mediocre game could have such good music, especially the main theme. I often catch myself unconsciously tapping my foot and nodding my head to its rhythm. Add to this a star-studded voice cast that boasts heavyweight talent, such as Hanazawa Kana (Mitsuri Kanroji from Demon Slayer; Marian in Goddess of Victory: NIKKE) and Saito Chiwa (Elaine Auclair in Trails Through Daybreak; Changli in Wuthering Waves), and it’s easy to see how one can connect with these virtual characters. It’s a shame that there aren’t many voiced lines in the game’s story mode.

E.T.E Chronicle Value for Money - 9/10

Judging a free-to-play game’s value can be tricky, but E.T.E Chronicle is generous with resources at the start of the game, often showering you with things you don’t even know you’ll need. However, as with most gacha games, the game’s generosity likely diminishes as players level up and resources become scarcer. If you’re tempted to purchase something, the shop offers reasonably priced items, but it’s crucial to exercise self-control. The game can still be enjoyed without spending a dime.

E.T.E Chronicle Review: Enjoyable… To an Extent

The gacha game scene is overcrowded at the moment, and standing out in it is no easy feat. Every week, a new contender seems to emerge, waving their flashy character designs and promising a hundred pulls as they beg you to play their game, only to get lost in the shuffle once the initial hype dies down. Substance and a reason to stick around once the honeymoon phase ends are what these games try to achieve, and that’s the challenge E.T.E Chronicle, a mecha-themed gacha game that recently made its global debut, is facing.

E.T.E Chronicle was first launched in Japan and China during late 2023. Back then, players complained that its gameplay lacked teeth. There may be hints of improvement with its worldwide release, but unfortunately, the game’s still got some noticeable gaps in its smile.

A World in Ruins

E.T.E Chronicle thrusts players into a world where survival hangs by a thread. The planet’s natural resources have been depleted by years of conflict, and Noah Technologies has seized control of whatever resources are left through the E.T.Es—highly adaptable mechs designed for warfare. To solidify its dominance, Noah Technologies constructed the Sky Ring, an orbital ring armed with superweapons capable of crushing any opposition from above.

Factions united to push back against Noah’s grip, but the war that followed left Earth’s surface scarred beyond recognition, with ecosystems destroyed and cities reduced to rubble. In the aftermath, the surviving factions formed the Human Alliance and began developing their own E.T.E mechs.

You are a Nexecutor, someone with the ability to access the Consciousness Realm to connect with people’s memories and minds. Your mission as leader is to lead Syncers—the female E.T.E pilots—through the chaos of the battlefield.

Mechas, Musumes, and the War In-Between

To be quite honest, E.T.E Chronicle’s overarching narrative didn’t really grab me—and that’s fine, really. At its core, it’s a mecha musume game where the "musume" rides on top of mechas, and sometimes that’s all you really need. The story leans heavily on familiar anime tropes for my liking, but at least it’s self aware enough to poke fun at itself. Early on, Louise, one of your Syncer squadmates, points out how an enemy is "one of those mid-level villains with a tragic backstory who wants to give up on humanity." It’s such a painfully cliché setup, but its self-awareness goes a long way when you’re swimming in a pool of well-worn story beats.

That’s not to say that the game’s plot lacks merit. While the overarching war narrative is mediocre at best, it’s the small moments that shine. In a world ravaged by war and a cataclysmic event that has left Earth in ruins, these brief interludes are refreshing contrasts.

It’s easy to forget that these characters, like Louise and Cold-Flame, have had their childhoods stripped away by war. Them trying to understand the simpleness of a time before it and the complexities of human emotions that they have been deprived of as soldiers give the game fleeting moments of normalcy, where they can indulge in simple pleasures and reminisce about a time before their lives were defined by bloodshed. Jarring they may be, as these characters often go on comedic tangent at the worst possible times, it’s these moments that make the characters more relatable and human, and they remind us that the war, while a central conflict, is not the only defining element of their existence.

To Date a Syncer

As much as E.T.E Chronicle sets up a dramatic war-torn world, the true allure of this venus flytrap for many players might lie in its not-so-subtle harem-esque dynamics. As the Nexecutor, you’re surrounded by a squad of all-female mecha pilots who, through various interactions, gradually take a liking to you in ways that feel straight out of a harem anime. I mean, you can even go on dates with them!

You get three chances to go on dates with your chosen Syncers, and these chances refresh daily. The dates themselves are fairly simple, with limited character interaction. All you need to do is pick from three options during the date, and then watch as your date’s heartbeat meter fills up to 100%. If you succeed, you deepen your bond and boost their Intimacy Level. This, in turn, unlocks bonus attributes that give you an edge in combat. It’s a straightforward system, and it also serves as a window into the game’s "fanservice" elements.

As your intimacy levels rise, you can propose to some of your squadmates in the dormitory. What follows is… well, let’s just say that the game takes some liberties with angles and situations that could be described as "vaguely questionable."

Oversexualization Feels Out of Place

Forming bonds with your squadmates adds some connection between the player and the game, sure, but it’s hard to ignore how oversexualized the female characters are—sometimes just by the act of existing. One step equals one chest bounce, and the slightest breeze makes their chests jiggle as though they were made of jelly. For some players, this might be a major selling point. But for me, it seems unnecessary and, at times, just downright annoying.

Of course, sexualizing characters is nothing new, especially in gacha games. But for many other gacha games, they're usually a little more subtle about it; maybe a personality that follows a popular trope, outfits that hug the body tightly, voice lines that remind you of how lonely you are in real life. E.T.E, however, throws subtlety out the window and takes things to an egregious level. Characters will walk around in string bikinis in the comfort of their own room, start stretching for no reason, and then have the camera zoom in on every part that legally needs to be covered before it's considered a +18 game. These moments are so blatantly out of place and ill-timed that I often found myself sighing and thinking that it detracted from the whole experience.

I'm not necessarily clutching my pearls in horror to the fact that E.T.E does this, but it feels creatively shallow. Gacha games can succeed without relying on this kind of oversexualization. Arknights, for example, was widely praised for its art direction, and part of that was how its characters were tastefully designed, often fully armored to fit the setting of a war-torn dystopia. In fact, games that fully lean into the ecchi and forget about the other aspects of what makes a game often quickly fail because it offers nothing beyond that.

E.T.E Chronicle could've taken its character design or setting a little more seriously and limited it to just having a cast that are cute or attractive. Yet here the characters are, piloting mechs in skin-tight suits, bikinis, and armor that exposes more skin than it protects, removing any sense of logic.

And the irony of this being released especially during Woman's History Month, is not lost on me.

Of course, different people have different tastes. Some players might enjoy the fanservice, and that’s fair. You do you. But when the setting is a bleak post-apocalyptic world, the contrast between the heavy narrative stakes and the over-the-top designs makes the whole thing feel tonally off. It’s hard to take a life-or-death situation seriously when the characters look like they’re heading to a beach party.

Another Gacha, Another Grind

The gameplay, at least, delivers a sense of spectacle—on the surface, anyway. You’ll face off against towering mechs and bosses that seem larger than life, with battles unfolding across land, sea, and air. At least, that’s what the game claims. Sadly, in over 10 hours of playtime, I found no meaningful difference between the three terrains. Whether you’re fighting on solid ground, skimming across the ocean, or soaring through the skies, the core mechanics remain unchanged: You control a squad of four characters, using skills and ultimate attacks to tear through waves of enemies while dodging incoming fire. There’s an option to "Modify" your Syncers’ E.T.Es to adapt to different battle environments, but this doesn’t really do much to change up the gameplay.

That sameness extends to the combat itself. In a real-time action game, I want responsive, fluid combat where well-timed combos and skill chains dictate victory. Honkai Impact 3rd does this well, and Punishing Gray Raven arguably perfects it. But E.T.E Chronicle feels shallow by comparison. The combat often feels like it lacks complexity and the satisfying control you get from executing combos in quick succession. Plus, when you hear "aerial combat," you expect vertical movement. Instead, you’re locked to the same horizontal plane, which makes the action feel flat—especially when games like Mecha BREAK have already shown how exhilarating mecha battles can be.

The gameplay loop is also familiar territory for gacha veterans. Complete your dailies, gather resources from missions, level up your characters and weapons, and grind for better chips or equipment through randomized drops. It’s routine, yes, but I’ll give the game credit for its auto-battle feature.

For players juggling multiple gacha games (myself included), this is a feature sent by god to us mortals, to the point that I hope other real-time action gacha games at least give us the choice between actually playing the game and letting the AI do all the work. The auto-battle AI is surprisingly competent, capable of clearing missions even when my squad’s Combat Power (CP) is well below the recommended threshold. Some may see this feature as a sign of shallow gameplay (probably true), but I see it as a convenient way to manage my time without feeling like I’m missing out.

I only fear that the game will succumb to the common gacha pitfalls—artificially inflated difficulty through excessive enemy stats and restrictive time limits—rather than providing a genuinely skill-intensive challenge.

Cutscenes? Where Are My Cutscenes?

When it comes to its presentation, the game is decent at best. The cutscenes, if they even appear, look polished and impressive—but that’s a big "if." Most of the time, you’re staring at static images and character portraits. When out of combat, the characters are presented through these portraits, which are admittedly well-drawn. As much as I’ve ranted about the game’s oversexualization of its female characters, I can’t deny that the art direction here is strong. Backgrounds are neat, the Syncers look appealing, and their mechs are distinct and well-designed, with each sporting a unique aesthetic that helps them stand out from one another.

Progression follows the familiar gacha format of ranking up characters from A to S to SS to SSS and, ultimately, UR. Each rank-up grants stat bonuses and passive skills, with the UR rank unlocking Hyper Forms. These give stat boosts and visually upgrade the E.T.E mechs into bigger, flashier designs that genuinely look impressive. It’s a satisfying reward for the grind, even if the core gameplay remains unchanged.

However, the game’s presentation could use more emotional depth. The character portraits are visually appealing, sure. But they are often too static. Take an early dialogue with Stikka, one of your Syncer companions. In one conversation, she’s supposed to be blushing at the thought of sharing a consciousness link with you during an attack—but her portraits remain frozen in the same neutral pose.

Similarly, combat animations are also rough around the edges, but I’ll give the game credit for its technical optimization. Even on my relatively weak phone, the game runs at Ultra settings with smooth performance and fast load times.

Decent Gacha Rates for a Decent Gacha Game

(Disclaimer: E.T.E Chronicle is a free-to-play game. Players are not required to make in-game purchases to fully enjoy the experience. Any purchases made are at the player's discretion.)

So, how does one get these characters? Well, E.T.E Chronicle’s gacha rates are surprisingly generous. The banner character has a 1.5% drop rate—not exactly groundbreaking, but not awful either. Of course, there’s still that cruel 50% chance of pulling a different S-Rank character instead, but the Soft Pity kicks in early at 50 pulls, with a guaranteed banner character at 70 pulls. For context, one pull costs 100 Purogems, meaning a 10-pull sets you back 1,000 Purogems. Compared to games like Genshin Impact, which charges 160 Primogems per pull with Soft PIty at 75 and a guaranteed pull at 90, E.T.E Chronicle is reasonably priced.

Maybe it’s dumb luck (yes, I’m flexing), but I managed to pull an off-banner S-Rank character, Schmelzfeuer: Ruler, on my first 10-pull on the event banner. I was hoping for Drakonex, but hey, beggars can’t be choosers. Now that I’m out of Purogems, though, you can bet I won’t rest until Drakonex is mine!

You don’t even need to pull on the event banner for your first S-Rank, however. The game hands you 10 pulls on a Beginner Banner, where you’re guaranteed to get an S-Rank character. The best part? You don’t have to suffer through endless account creation for rerolls—E.T.E Chronicle lets you redo your beginner pulls until you land on the A-Rank and S-Rank characters you actually want.

My first Beginner Banner pull gave me… Schmelzfeuer: Ruler. Again. Thankfully, the reroll options saved me from this déjà vu. I reset and walked away with Kaspian Mk. III: Icicle instead—a much-needed win. It’s rare for a gacha game to be this forgiving with beginner pulls, so that’s a plus for me.

If you’re willing to cough up money for it, there are also character costumes and gacha currency for sale in the game’s shop. The most expensive skin at the moment will set you back $24.99—a steep price for cosmetics that don’t boost stats or offer gameplay advantages. But hey, if you want to see Icicle, Cat-Eye, or Long-ang rocking swimsuits, that’s between you and your wallet.

Is E.T.E Chronicle Worth It?

Needs More Improvement, Honestly

E.T.E Chronicle struggles to stand out in an already crowded gacha space. Its harem dynamic is nothing new—many other gacha games have leaned harder into that trope. The real-time action combat, while serviceable, lacks the depth and flair that would captivate action fans. And the story, while showing occasional sparks of promise, is so predictable and boilerplate that I found myself hammering the skip button when faced with walls of text—especially when the lack of consistent voice acting made emotional moments fall flat.

I do commend the developers for managing to launch the game globally after its rocky debut in Japan and China back in 2023. That’s no small feat. The game is decent, but the reality is that it needs to go beyond this if it hopes to compete with the heavyweights in the genre.

The game is undeniably generous with early rewards. You’re showered with characters and resources right from the start, which makes the early hours feel rewarding. But that generosity may not be enough to keep players engaged once the honeymoon phase ends.

Maybe this game just isn’t for me. Or maybe E.T.E Chronicle simply doesn’t have enough substance. Either way, I’m willing to give it another shot in the coming days. The foundation is there—solid production, attractive character designs, decent gacha rates—but it’s going to need more than that to keep me invested. I genuinely hope my opinion shifts with future updates, because beneath the surface, I see a game with potential trying to break through very, very, very thick walls.

Steam
Price			Free-to-Play Wishlist Only
Google Play				App Store
Price			Free-to-Play

E.T.E Chronicle FAQ

When does E.T.E Chronicle Release on PC?

According to its Steam page, E.T.E Chronicle releases this April 15, 2025 on PC.

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E.T.E Chronicle Product Information

Title	E.T.E CHRONICLE
Release Date	March 13, 2025 (Mobile) April 15, 2025 (PC)
Developer	E.T.E Team
Publisher	Exotech Game
Supported Platforms	PC (via Steam) Mobile (iOS and Android)
Genre	Gacha, Action, RPG
Number of Players	1+ (Single Player with Online PvP)
ESRB Rating	TBA
Official Website	Official Website for E.T.E Chronicle

L A R Opalec

Lloyd grew up bonding with his big brother over video games. While RPGs like Disco Elysium and Final Fantasy IX hold a special place in his heart, he's always up to try new genres.