Holy Shit what an amazing game this is. Honestly for 40 hours straight this hit me like crack directly being pumped into my veins. I haven’t being hooked on a game like this in such a long time. Its all I wanted to for the time it took me to get the platinum trophy nothing else was remotely good enough. So I can imagine you’ll already know what my overall review score will be for this indie game.
I was aware of what this game was before getting it but I wasn’t fully aware which I am so glad for. Its a real mean blend of a brick breaker game with roguelike runs that change every time you play it. But each level ends in a bullet hell style boss battle and in- between you are invited to have a light sim city base builder.
Everything in the base building is fully designed to help you on your runs through the 8 main levels, each come with their own sort of theme or biome and enemies. Which is where you get blueprints for new buildings. These buildings unlock new playable characters and stat boosts buildings like a barracks or schoolhouse. Each character starts with their own varying stats and ability but as you rinse through hordes of enemies before you, you collect exp orbs which level you up and allow for new balls to be added to your arsenal. Each of these buildings aid in stat increases per their own level and your characters boost they receive in battle.
You harvest three resources in your little city, wheat, wood and stone, these resources can be upgraded to yield more per turn you send your characters bouncing around during the harvest time. You get one free harvest per turn but you can pay gold for more turns, as gold can be mined but each new building to be built or upgraded has to hit the scaffolding the required amount of time. And once you unlock the infinitely upgradeable versions they start taking 1000s to upgrade. With the standard building capping out at level 5 at most. The more characters you unlock the more workers you have for the harvest. They also come with their own boosts, like more harvest time on the harvest clock, double wheat or ignore stone and drill straight through it rather then bounce off it.
Unfortunately as previously said there is only 8 main stages, but there is 23 playable characters now I believe with the last free content update dropping recently. So there is a whole heap of replayable content to be had plus new game plus which allows you to just endlessly play each stage and worryingly for me I would. Its a small package with a shit tonne of reason to keep returning. If you are in a rush each run initially take about 15-20 mins and eventually once our loaded with boosts all over the place it become snug 10 mins. So you can pack a good chunk in if you only have like an hour of free time or just waiting to pass a little bit of time. It’s perfect for it.
If you think that the game isn’t already giving enough at the end of completing the stage for the first time you are awarding with a trophy that also gives you passives stat boosts and for each character you complete the stage with that boost ups as well. Plus the characters house also comes with abilities better harvest if close to the wheat fields, better exp for characters if used, more harvest time, more gold coins. These aid in all of the other helpful buildings you get where you can set a worker to have a designated route for harvesting, auto harvest, start with more passive or special abilities, start at level 2 or 3 versions of these. Everything and I mean everything is perfectly designed to make each run as optimum as it can be.
Now the main meat of this game is the combat. At its core it so simple but its so fucking goof. Your character will start with one ball, this could be a burn ball, a ghost ball, a bleed ball or an earthquake etc. Plus an ability that affects gameplay in some way like the balls are lobbed or start from the top of the screen. Quick side note I’d fully recommend whacking on auto fire as well saves yours trigger finger. Back to it, you then kill waves and waves of enemies and you hit 2 mini bosses who also widen the playing field for more enemies to appear. As you cut down hundreds of these fuckers, you are awarded with exp orbs with each level you get to pick another ball type from 4 options or a passive ball again of 4 options. You can also choose to pick one you already have to level it up to a maximum if level 3. Each level improves its stats from outright damage, to passive extra damage from burn damage or ball shooting speed, more baby balls so you shoot more each go. As you go along you can pick up fusion, this is where the depth comes in. You fuse two level 3’s together and they become both ball types with both lots of abilities plus a new ability. But it doesn’t stop there you can do it again with another to and then merge them together and if your lucky anf done two fusion routes correctly you then fuse them bad boys together. You end up with pure fucking carnage. You even can make special fusions like a nuclear bomb, a top tier option which I fully recommend to do as often as you can. Plus the Vampire route for Nosferatu or Satan as why not. But this also applies to some of the passive balls its oddly super engrossing and if you have your initial 4 slots filled you get annoyed you missed a better yielding fusion combo. This can be upgraded via the right buildings to 5 slots this is where the fun really kicks in for the later stages.
Overall I’d rate this a solid 10/10 it’s real Fuckin’ Tasty. I can’t justifiably rate it anything lower.
This isn’t a masterpiece of gaming but it is an unreal piece of gaming. It’s one of the most fun games I have ever played and its utterly fantatsic. And at this point in my life I have legitimately played hundreds and not many have ever had me so engrossed in about an hour of play time. It’s so simple in every area whilst also being perfectly designed and balanced to make everything you do feel worthwhile. Each run is rewarding if you fail you never feel annoyed or overwhelmed. You just go back to your town do a few harvest and upgrade a few buildings. And if you need more harvest but are out of funds you can pick up another character and do an earlier stage gain some extra passive boosts from another stage completion. Its a lovely looking game for what is and everything is distinct in its own right. I have only two complaints, the first one I’d love a much more in-depth sim building aspect of the game because I fucking love me a sim management game. And number 2 there just isn’t enough of the game for as much as I have replayed it since completing it id love for more stages or eventually a sequel. The synergy in all aspects of the gameplay are only outshined by the synergy of the ball fusions themselves. This is a game I feel everyone should experince once just for the thrill it gives you if nothing else.
Released 15th October on Sony Playstation PS5
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