It's Picross, so it has the sauce.
Look, there's only so many ways to talk about Picross. I mean, I've played probably three dozen nonogram games at this rate, and I keep finding out about more and more keep coming out, I only have so much to say.
This one has the benefit of having a story, established characters, and humor. I wasn't terribly interested in any of that because I mostly wanted to just play Picross, but the characters are decent for what it's worth, and I had some chuckles. I haven't played the main Khimera game yet - it's free and I have it downloaded so it's only a matter of time - but the characters felt comfortable enough in this game.
I have three complaints about this game, however. First, one that only applies to this game, then one that applies to most nonogram games, and third a unique issue with this game that might apply to others.
For the one that only affects this game, I feel like I'm rarely making an actual image by solving the puzzles. It's a little hard to explain, but in another Picross game, the picture that I made by solving the puzzle feels clear even before the tiles are colored in, but here, the pictures feel nonsensical and the colored-in image looks way different. It doesn't really matter since I'm not truly trying to figure out what I'm filling in until after I already solved it, but still, it feels like the solution comes out of nowhere.
The second complaint is something I see it practically every nonogram game that isn't Jupiter's Picross games. It's... very hard to describe with and without a visual aid and would only bother Picross vets like myself, but still. There are times where the game will tell you what specific number you filled in without the player being able to know what they filled in with just the information in that line. That probably doesn't make sense so let me use an example.
Let's say you're doing a 15x15 puzzle and the line you're looking at has the numbers 1 1 2 1. Now let's say you put a tile in the third spot on that line because you know thanks to other lines that that tile can be filled in, and then you put an x on both sides of that tile. It's the third tile of line so you know that it has to be one of the first two "1s" of the line, it cannot be the two, and that's why you put the x around it. However, given the space on the right side of the filled-in tile, you are not yet sure if this tile is the first "1" or the second "1". Yet this game, and other games like it, already knows if it's the first or second "1" and it'll darken it out. So if it's the second "1" it'll darken out the second number in the sequence (11 2 1). You, the player, have no way of actually knowing it was the second "1" given the information you already have, but the game acts as if you do, which gives you more help than you should presently have available.
I don't know if that makes sense at all. As I said, it's hard in just words, but it's a persistent issue in these games, Jupiter seems to be the only developer to get it right. Another thing Jupiter gets right that other devs don't is its hint system. By default in Jupiter's Picross games, they'll have an option turned on where the game will highlight rows/columns where you have more possible moves to make with the information you currently have. I always turn this option off because I don't want the extra help, but it's a great feature for new players - I probably wouldn't have gotten into Picross without it. Other nonogram games don't tend to have this feature. This one... does in a limited and confusing capacity.
Let's say you are looking at a line with the numbers 1 5 2. Now lets say you've filled in the line like so (dots are a tile filled in, underscores are unfilled tiles): . _ _ . . . _ . _ _ . .
Apologies if this doesn't make sense visually, I don't know how else to put it. But anyway, looking at this information, you have the "1" and the "2" filled out already, and even though you don't have it filled in yet, you know you must fill in the seventh tile in that sequence in order to finish the "5". In Picross, this would be represented by the row turning blue; the "1" and "2" would be darkened out, but the "5" will be blue, the game's way in telling you there's a move you can do. In Khimera, instead of turning the line a different color, the game will un-darken the two numbers you already figured out, so now the whole number sequence (1 5 2) are lit up again despite the fact you've done nothing wrong. This is confusing because the game does this if you've fucked up or if there's a number to finish filling in, which makes it confusing. Why not just have different colors to highlight the rows and columns when there's new information for that line?
Well, this is definitely my most incomprehensible review, and awfully negative for a five-star game. Look, I just kinda give all nonogram games five stars, it would have to be a truly bad nonogram game for me to rate it lower. In reality, I think Picross truly is the peak of nonogram games, and pretty much all others have issues that Jupiter's games simply don't. At the end of the day, though, they're still Picross and I love this shit.
Look, there's only so many ways to talk about Picross. I mean, I've played probably three dozen nonogram games at this rate, and I keep finding out about more and more keep coming out, I only have so much to say.
This one has the benefit of having a story, established characters, and humor. I wasn't terribly interested in any of that because I mostly wanted to just play Picross, but the characters are decent for what it's worth, and I had some chuckles. I haven't played the main Khimera game yet - it's free and I have it downloaded so it's only a matter of time - but the characters felt comfortable enough in this game.
I have three complaints about this game, however. First, one that only applies to this game, then one that applies to most nonogram games, and third a unique issue with this game that might apply to others.
For the one that only affects this game, I feel like I'm rarely making an actual image by solving the puzzles. It's a little hard to explain, but in another Picross game, the picture that I made by solving the puzzle feels clear even before the tiles are colored in, but here, the pictures feel nonsensical and the colored-in image looks way different. It doesn't really matter since I'm not truly trying to figure out what I'm filling in until after I already solved it, but still, it feels like the solution comes out of nowhere.
The second complaint is something I see it practically every nonogram game that isn't Jupiter's Picross games. It's... very hard to describe with and without a visual aid and would only bother Picross vets like myself, but still. There are times where the game will tell you what specific number you filled in without the player being able to know what they filled in with just the information in that line. That probably doesn't make sense so let me use an example.
Let's say you're doing a 15x15 puzzle and the line you're looking at has the numbers 1 1 2 1. Now let's say you put a tile in the third spot on that line because you know thanks to other lines that that tile can be filled in, and then you put an x on both sides of that tile. It's the third tile of line so you know that it has to be one of the first two "1s" of the line, it cannot be the two, and that's why you put the x around it. However, given the space on the right side of the filled-in tile, you are not yet sure if this tile is the first "1" or the second "1". Yet this game, and other games like it, already knows if it's the first or second "1" and it'll darken it out. So if it's the second "1" it'll darken out the second number in the sequence (1
I don't know if that makes sense at all. As I said, it's hard in just words, but it's a persistent issue in these games, Jupiter seems to be the only developer to get it right. Another thing Jupiter gets right that other devs don't is its hint system. By default in Jupiter's Picross games, they'll have an option turned on where the game will highlight rows/columns where you have more possible moves to make with the information you currently have. I always turn this option off because I don't want the extra help, but it's a great feature for new players - I probably wouldn't have gotten into Picross without it. Other nonogram games don't tend to have this feature. This one... does in a limited and confusing capacity.
Let's say you are looking at a line with the numbers 1 5 2. Now lets say you've filled in the line like so (dots are a tile filled in, underscores are unfilled tiles): . _ _ . . . _ . _ _ . .
Apologies if this doesn't make sense visually, I don't know how else to put it. But anyway, looking at this information, you have the "1" and the "2" filled out already, and even though you don't have it filled in yet, you know you must fill in the seventh tile in that sequence in order to finish the "5". In Picross, this would be represented by the row turning blue; the "1" and "2" would be darkened out, but the "5" will be blue, the game's way in telling you there's a move you can do. In Khimera, instead of turning the line a different color, the game will un-darken the two numbers you already figured out, so now the whole number sequence (1 5 2) are lit up again despite the fact you've done nothing wrong. This is confusing because the game does this if you've fucked up or if there's a number to finish filling in, which makes it confusing. Why not just have different colors to highlight the rows and columns when there's new information for that line?
Well, this is definitely my most incomprehensible review, and awfully negative for a five-star game. Look, I just kinda give all nonogram games five stars, it would have to be a truly bad nonogram game for me to rate it lower. In reality, I think Picross truly is the peak of nonogram games, and pretty much all others have issues that Jupiter's games simply don't. At the end of the day, though, they're still Picross and I love this shit.