I truly do not know why I keep playing these games. I am the annoying sort of blurty person that likes to answer questions I know the answer to for the dopamine hit, and I've come to realize that nonogram games are a similar kind of low-hanging fruit. The basic rules are interesting, and the way different-sized puzzles makes you revamp your mental math can be a nice change of pace, but ultimately it's just mind-numbingly repetitive, applying the same algorithm over and over until the thing is all filled up. I know they are technically puzzles, but it is like a Rubik's Cube in that as soon as you know the gameplan, the actual act of solving is more of a formality than anything.

I have seldomly been really challenged by a Picross-like, the kinds that really make you work your tail off for every cell, but as you might guess by the chibi artstyle, PictoQuest does not provide that. What it does provide is a warm thematic wrapper over the core Xs and Os gameplay, with the basic plot of a cute little quest, a health bar (under threat of enemy attacks, as their ATB meter fills) cleverly disguising a timer mechanic, bonus levels masquerade as side-quests, and so on. It is, in short, what you expect.

What it attempts, though, it does largely succeed at. PictoQuest is visually tidy and colorful, making playful twists on all sorts of fantasy tropes, and the music is relaxing and unintrusive, setting it apart from the vast majority of nonogram games. A broken-English translation of already hammy dialogue is worth a chuckle here and there. The game can, occasionally, distract you from the soul-crushing tedium of what you are doing, and perhaps that is the best I can say of it.