I have been playing this game off and on over the course of 2+ years, and I've finally reached the point where, with a heavy heart, I'm giving up. I wanted to give every single non-Pokemon Game Freak title a fair shot, but I have reached my limit on this one.
Giga Wrecker is a puzzle-platformer with an emphasis on physics and debris. Your character, Reika Rekkeiji, can pull painted debris towards her, and hold it as a giant mass. You can use the debris for combat, breaking stuff, weighing down switches, and even eventually transform your debris into useful tools. Control over Reika feels unfortunately very floaty and imprecise. This also ties into the fact that the physics in this game are inconsistent, full stop. You can do several puzzles in this game the way they were intended to be solved, and it will usually still take multiple tries to get that way to actually work. I would be lying if I said I didn't find some of that jank charming to a degree, though.
Worse yet are what caused me to quit the game, which are the boss fights. Combat in Giga Wrecker is centered around having a big enough debris mass to attack and defeat the enemies in your way. It's not completely mindless; some enemies have a little trick to them, such as requiring you to bait an attack out so you can counter it and get some debris, but it's fairly standard otherwise. Boss fights are a different story, however. They're fast paced and require quick reflexes and accuracy that Reika just doesn't have. The fights themselves are centered around figuring out how to get debris, and then building up enough of it to be able to damage the boss. The initial versions of the boss fights are tough, but I could brute force them after a handful of tries. Later in the game, you have to rematch harder versions of those bosses, and it asks way too much out of you in my opinion. I think the one boss I enjoyed both times was Astra Kadru. Its balance of tough attacks and recognizable patterns feels just right to me.
One thing I can praise with no reservation is the artwork in this game. Vibrant colors contrasting with muted tones, world design that looks like it's always active, yet ready to crumble at any second. The character designs are kinda "extra", if you know what I mean, but I think it really works for the setting. Massive kudos to the artist for this game. For what it's worth, the plot drew me in surprisingly well. You uncover the social/hierarchical issues of your invaders' society through data logs, and gradually paint a bleak picture of how the world reached the state it's in, all the while attempting to reach the person who both rescued and tried to kill you.
With all due fairness, this game should get a 1.5/5, but I'm giving it a 2/5 because I can see what they were going for here. With (much) more polish, I can see this game being something really good! I wish I could've seen it through to the end, but the rematch with Astra Vinata is just too much of a roadblock for me. I might return to this game once again someday, but I'm gonna let it stop weighing on my mind from now on.
Giga Wrecker is a puzzle-platformer with an emphasis on physics and debris. Your character, Reika Rekkeiji, can pull painted debris towards her, and hold it as a giant mass. You can use the debris for combat, breaking stuff, weighing down switches, and even eventually transform your debris into useful tools. Control over Reika feels unfortunately very floaty and imprecise. This also ties into the fact that the physics in this game are inconsistent, full stop. You can do several puzzles in this game the way they were intended to be solved, and it will usually still take multiple tries to get that way to actually work. I would be lying if I said I didn't find some of that jank charming to a degree, though.
Worse yet are what caused me to quit the game, which are the boss fights. Combat in Giga Wrecker is centered around having a big enough debris mass to attack and defeat the enemies in your way. It's not completely mindless; some enemies have a little trick to them, such as requiring you to bait an attack out so you can counter it and get some debris, but it's fairly standard otherwise. Boss fights are a different story, however. They're fast paced and require quick reflexes and accuracy that Reika just doesn't have. The fights themselves are centered around figuring out how to get debris, and then building up enough of it to be able to damage the boss. The initial versions of the boss fights are tough, but I could brute force them after a handful of tries. Later in the game, you have to rematch harder versions of those bosses, and it asks way too much out of you in my opinion. I think the one boss I enjoyed both times was Astra Kadru. Its balance of tough attacks and recognizable patterns feels just right to me.
One thing I can praise with no reservation is the artwork in this game. Vibrant colors contrasting with muted tones, world design that looks like it's always active, yet ready to crumble at any second. The character designs are kinda "extra", if you know what I mean, but I think it really works for the setting. Massive kudos to the artist for this game. For what it's worth, the plot drew me in surprisingly well. You uncover the social/hierarchical issues of your invaders' society through data logs, and gradually paint a bleak picture of how the world reached the state it's in, all the while attempting to reach the person who both rescued and tried to kill you.
With all due fairness, this game should get a 1.5/5, but I'm giving it a 2/5 because I can see what they were going for here. With (much) more polish, I can see this game being something really good! I wish I could've seen it through to the end, but the rematch with Astra Vinata is just too much of a roadblock for me. I might return to this game once again someday, but I'm gonna let it stop weighing on my mind from now on.