renkotsuban

Renkon

@renkotsuban

Tally ho!

tally ho!

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renkotsuban
@renkotsuban
ArcadianRhythm
@ArcadianRhythm
gosokkyu
@gosokkyu

I've heard rumblings that this release was salvaged from a planned arcade game that had been shelved multiple times due to simply not being much fun, and I don't find that at all hard to believe.

It did give us a new modern chiptune soundtrack from Kenichi Arakawa, if nothing else—he's worked on a string of under-the-radar games dating back to the mid-'90s, with my personal highlights being the Castlevania-esque PC98 action game Rusty and the DS retro dungeon crawler The Dark Spire, and it had been a while since he'd really gone all-in on a new game soundtrack:

Success followed this up with one more original indie game: a falling-block puzzle game called KASIORI, which did end up coming to arcades via APM3. Arakawa did the music for that game, too, and because it was released in Cotton's 30th anniversary year, they included Cotton as a playable character. Game's okay.

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in reply to @thegaygamer's post:

renkotsuban
@renkotsuban

I think I would also be frustrated with the mechanic as you described (having to get VERY close to enemies to kiss them but taking damage instead if you get too close) but other than that this looks so silly and fun. I gotta check my Nintendo balance, might pick this up later today, thank you for the write-up!

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thegaygamer
@thegaygamer

Actually, renkotsuban, it's worse than you think. You DIE if you touch an enemy rather than kiss it. I wish you only took some damage. That said, I get a kick out of the game even if it frustrates from time to time. The kissing mechanic is interesting, as is the stunning/tossing mechanic, I think. I feel like there's more to the latter than I'm making use of at the moment, and that impresses me. Given that, if you find the premise intriguing and the game's still on sale, I don't think it could hurt you to buy it. If it's back to full price, though, you might want to wait for another sale.

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thegaygamer
@thegaygamer

Yeah, it's an important distinction. Not a complete deal-breaker for me, but I'm sure it would be for most folks. I really think the devs want you to use the stun/toss mechanic as much as possible, to help avoid the issues with botched kisses that lead to death, but that's only a guess on my part. Once I get a new JoyCon (one is on the way), I'm going to return to the game and see if my idea pans out. Hopefully I'll eventually be able to write and share a full review that gives everyone a better idea of what the game offers.

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in reply to @gosokkyu's post:

gosokkyu
@gosokkyu

yeah, I've been watching some of the recent investigations... I bought it at launch but barely touched it until recently tbh, it launched with such terrible lag & ridiculous inputs (everything was negative edge) that I didn't go back even after they'd patched it a few times, but I got intrigued by seeing people digging in recently

ofc a few days later, someone snapped one of the joycon rails clean off my Switch, so issue #1 of [as-yet-unnamed Switch zine], which so happens to be vs. PZL-focused, will also be a "help me replace this shit" fundraising drive

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Zircean
@Zircean

everything was negative edge? what the hell, how do you even do that. like it has to be intentional but nobody would intentionally do that lmao

but yeah the vs mode also seems kind of janky at least at first. it took me a fairly long time to understand the game enough to reliably 1cc story mode but it can be learned

i think its pretty neat overall even if it took more effort than i expected to work out why things go poorly or work out well

im curious what other games are in the aforementioned zine if its vs puzzle focused... i assume the soldam remake? maybe other stuff thats not exclusive like puyo/petal crash/ACA games? does like... puchitto cluster count?

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gosokkyu
@gosokkyu

I don't wanna be too specific because a lot of the content is contingent on certain people getting back to me but yeah, Petal Crash, Crossniq+, Puchitto Cluster and a bunch of other stuff, including arcade-style games with no vs. element and specifically not dwelling on the obvious Tetris, Puyo, etc.

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thegaygamer
@thegaygamer

I wouldn't be at all surprised if this was originally planned for arcade release. It certainly feels like an arcade game.

Also, to be frank, the game isn't much fun, or at least it isn't at first. I do feel like it approaches something like fun, or maybe a masochistic kind of fun, once you come to terms with its controls and structure, but that's not exactly "pure fun," is it?

At any rate, you're right about Kenichi Arakawa's soundtrack here. It's great. Bright/poppy/synthy/chippy. Really helps you ignore just how often you're dying and/or gives you the energy you need to keep going.

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