Aedis Eclipse: Generation of Chaos is a great comeback for the series. The first entry, which appeared on the PSP last year, was a slow, clumsy and confusing experience. Taking the criticism to heart, Idea Factory went back and retooled the gameplay, promoting a terrible experience to a good one.

Visually, Aedis Eclipse looks a lot like Generation of Chaos which, truth be told, was the best thing about last year's game. Both use the same art style that has a nice anime feel while managing to not look too generic or over-the-top. Compared to the first game, the visuals are much cleaner and sharper. The three-tiered world also adds a lot of variety to your environments.

Sound is good, though it is nothing to get overly excited about.

The game's world is split between three realms, each with their own structure and style. The lower world is modeled after modern society, but with a bit of steam-punk flair. Magic exists, but only in an extremely limited capacity. Instead, most of the world is built around crude, steam-powered technology. The middle world takes on more of a fantasy-flavor where magic and knights rule the day. The final, upper world is filled with demons and angels. Each world features its own story that eventually ties in with the other two.

In the lower world, you play as three military cadets who are pulled into a bloody war. In the middle world, you are a knight and his companions as they work to overthrow a leader and the royal army. Finally, the divine world features a radical group of angels who assassinate the leader of the demons. Playing as a team of angels and demons, you try to stop war from breaking out.

Gameplay is similar to the first game, but much less confusing and a little more flexible. You control a commander while he controls the rest of the army. Most of your time is spent giving orders to the commander, which are relayed to the army. Unlike last year's game, army composition is a little more open-ended. You are no longer limited to one troop type, and can instead mix and match armies and commanders that compliment each other. Your commanders can also use special abilities that can turn the tide of battle when used correctly.

The over world map is perhaps the more interesting of Aedis Eclipse: Generation of Chaos's offerings. The map is set up like a game board with various paths set up on a grid. This path is dotted by small structures that you can take control of such as strongholds, caves and forts. Although ownership of some structures is locked into place, some can trade hands several times since you can attack and overtake them at any time. Some spaces are left undeveloped. Once you capture these spaces, you can build new structures to support your war effort.

Each panel also has an elemental alignment, as do commanders. During a battle, alignments can have either a positive or negative effect depending on if they line up with the commander's elemental status. The elemental status of each space isn't set in stone and, for a price, can be terraformed into a new element.

Each of Aedis Eclipse: Generation of Chaos's three worlds features a separate difficulty level. The lower, modern world is considered the beginning world while the upper world is hard. While it is tempting to jump into one of the two higher-tiered worlds at the start, it is better to start at the bottom since it is where most of the tutorials are found. Although the tutorials will give you a basic idea of what to do, they come up incredibly short on explanation, leading to a lot of confusion.

Although Aedis Eclipse goes a long way in fixing Generation of Chaos' mistakes, it still retains a few of that game's more bothersome features. In addition to sometimes feeling like a spectator to battles, the Menu screens are hard to read and poorly organized. Combined with the lack of explanation found in the tutorial, things that should be easy are difficult.

The biggest change to Aedis Eclipse: Generation of Chaos over Generation of Chaos is the battle system. Although it is still a bit chaotic, the chaos is organized - at least partially. As previously mentioned, you are given more flexibility when it comes to creating your armies. Each commander can have up to two troop types assigned to them, one for the front line and another for the back line. This provides better troop organization and makes them more useful in battle since they can be put in positions that better fit their usefulness.

During battle, each army basically lines up on opposing sides of the field and run toward each other before entering into a massive clump of a battle in the middle of the field. Although you don't have direct control over the army, you can order a set of simple commands like Attack, Wait and Run. Your level of interaction with what is going on in battle is minimal. In fact, you can sometimes just let the A.I. duke it out and still win.

Another new battle feature is the ability to team up commanders, with one playing the role of second-in-command under the other. Similar to the two battle lines and reworked army layouts, having two commanders opens up a few more tactics.

Aedis Eclipse: Generation of Chaos is a much-improved game when compared to its predecessor. At the same time, it still faces a few minor problems that end up holding the game back.