tekhedd

Don't think because I rated it 7/10 I don't like it. Like everybody says, the story and meta-ness of the game work and everything about the game is a fresh change from the sameness of other RPGs. Except... the grind! I like a good dungeon crawl, but eventually I bored with cooking to make better healing items, and it's clear this is just padding--just one of the many games from this era ruined by the use of crafting to stretch a game out as long as possible. If you are unaware of your own mortality this may not be as much of an issue for you, in which case I think the game's an 8. I have promised myself I will finish the game one day, but actually I really doubt it. Worth playing, but be prepared for a long grind if you want to see the end of the story.

It's OK if you didn't remember to bring any other cartriges with you. You'd think a card-based fighting game with a collection of other minigames would be the ultimate way to entertain yourself, with a variety of fun things to do. And you would be wrong, because mostly what you'll do is grind your way through minigames you dislike to get the cards you need to play the part of the game you really wish you were playing. If this game were made new today, you'd just be prompted to make a $129 microtransaction to unlock all of the cards and skip the minigames altogether. The popup fight card game is fun, with just enough strategy to be interesting, just enough time to make decisions, and just enough randomness that you don't feel overwhelmed. Unfortunately, to get good cards, you need to play minigames. And the minigames are, well, not fun. How many different variations on whack-a-mole can you imagine? What if you also mix in some hidden-item-search and puzzles? It's every boring minigame you've ever said "no thanks" to, lovingly animated with extremely cute chocobo graphics. Yeah the art is great. Saying "well they're for children" does not excuse boring games. Any kid who can play this fairly complex card game and enjoy it is going to be just as annoyed as I was with these stupid minigames. There I said it. Sorry. It's just not that great.

I just lost my copy of TrionCube, and immediately bought a replacement copy. I'm surprised to see such low critic reviews, but then technically they're correct. The story mode is easily beaten, and the gameplay is generally simple, not much to interest the hardcore tetris enthusiast. But the endless mode provides an evil ramping challenge that I just don't seem to get tired of. It's really a different vibe than tetris: the goal is to keep the chain going until the whole screen is filled. While on the surface it seems like there's no pressure to go fast, in endless mode you have to bank timer to get past the "cruel drop" zones, so really you go full-speed nonstop. Yes it's all the same thing, but in a "mindless trance" kind of way that's perfect for air travel. I somehow reached zone 70 in endless mode on a 12 hour plane trip, and have been unable to get much past 53 since. I consider TrionCube to be a must-have game, and it saddens me that a poor critic reviews on release seem to have made it disappear without fanfare.