This review contains spoilers
I feel so silly tagging such a simplistic looking game with a spoiler warning, LOL. Anyways, I have mixed feelings about this one.
I'll start this review by saying this game is a prequel explaining how the world from the first game came to be lifeless/colorless. (Which is why I'm marking this as spoilers!) It's a case of "Same names same designs but still different characters" syndrome.
There's three different modes: A Tale for One, A Tale for Two (multiplayer), and A Tall Tale (tall boy mode). A Tale for One has two endings, but you're always going to get the bad one on your first playthrough, as you have to beat all at least once for what's considered the true ending. This bad ending is the actual true ending, as it ends on the same screen that the first game starts with: a dead box in an empty, colorless world, and a new one falls out of the sky and lands next to it.
Gameplay wise it's fantastic and overall the hardest in the series, as "You have _ boxes you can use before you can't collect the crowns anymore" got switched to box count and the crowns being seperate, so you have to manage both. You can't just collect the crowns then use as many boxes as you want afterwards. Being a prequel, almost all the old mechanics from the first three are gone, such as the stages where you lead the Spikys into traps. Because you have three seperate modes, there is no postgame. I played A Tale for Two by myself (you get Four Swords "play as one at a time" controls) so I can't comment on whether it was good or bad from a multiplayer standpoint. A Tall Tale let's you play as Qudy and you have to work with rectangular boxes instead of square boxes, and is probably the best mode of the three.
Like the last games, you have your extra stuff in the shop. Some of the translatations of the 4komas feel like the jokes got lost in translation. You also have the shop challenges akin to the first game. Instead of time attack/score attack, you have a set time to pop some ballons. Sometimes the balloons won't pop though? It's happened to me once or twice. The challenge theme from the first game also gets re-arranged here, albiet it's not nearly as anxiety inducing. Since this game has actual color and backgrounds, you don't get the fun inverted colors anymore like the first game. Since the costumes are part of a gacha now, you can get assists like jump or extra boxes from alternate items you can buy instead rather than them being tied to specific outfits.
Visually though it looks....bad. The visual simplicity is used in the original trilogy for a lonely atmosphere, accompanied by some empty sounding songs. The original 3DS trilogy didn't have crazy detailed aniamtions or anything, but the crunch of the 3DS screen and the pixels make it look a lot nicer. This game has fully colored backgrounds and really smooth animation. Too smooth, to the point it looks like a browser game. There's not many overworld animations either, which was one of my favorite parts of the original trilogy (especially the second one.) The costumes being parts from a gacha intead of full outfits also led them to being super stiffly animated as well, and it's kinda jarring. The mix of mostly black and white with some bits of color just looks kinda odd a lot of the time? I'm not sure how to explain it. It's a shame, because the backgrounds are extremely well done, especially in the final levels.
The music is great, and the musical style is also switched up a bit from the original trilogy. There's some motifs from the original trilogy used here and there, such as the Box Ship theme getting used in World Map 3 and the first game's title theme being used at the end of the credits theme. It's very "snappy" and, with the exception of the final level theme, doesn't feel as empty as the songs of the first three games.
I also feel like, despite being a prequel, it's not a good starting point for this series, and they're best played in release order. I dunno, it's just a bit too different from the others. I do like this one a lot though! It's just...kinda ugly. I wouldn't be surprised if this game was rushed..it really feels like it.
I'll start this review by saying this game is a prequel explaining how the world from the first game came to be lifeless/colorless. (Which is why I'm marking this as spoilers!) It's a case of "Same names same designs but still different characters" syndrome.
There's three different modes: A Tale for One, A Tale for Two (multiplayer), and A Tall Tale (tall boy mode). A Tale for One has two endings, but you're always going to get the bad one on your first playthrough, as you have to beat all at least once for what's considered the true ending. This bad ending is the actual true ending, as it ends on the same screen that the first game starts with: a dead box in an empty, colorless world, and a new one falls out of the sky and lands next to it.
Gameplay wise it's fantastic and overall the hardest in the series, as "You have _ boxes you can use before you can't collect the crowns anymore" got switched to box count and the crowns being seperate, so you have to manage both. You can't just collect the crowns then use as many boxes as you want afterwards. Being a prequel, almost all the old mechanics from the first three are gone, such as the stages where you lead the Spikys into traps. Because you have three seperate modes, there is no postgame. I played A Tale for Two by myself (you get Four Swords "play as one at a time" controls) so I can't comment on whether it was good or bad from a multiplayer standpoint. A Tall Tale let's you play as Qudy and you have to work with rectangular boxes instead of square boxes, and is probably the best mode of the three.
Like the last games, you have your extra stuff in the shop. Some of the translatations of the 4komas feel like the jokes got lost in translation. You also have the shop challenges akin to the first game. Instead of time attack/score attack, you have a set time to pop some ballons. Sometimes the balloons won't pop though? It's happened to me once or twice. The challenge theme from the first game also gets re-arranged here, albiet it's not nearly as anxiety inducing. Since this game has actual color and backgrounds, you don't get the fun inverted colors anymore like the first game. Since the costumes are part of a gacha now, you can get assists like jump or extra boxes from alternate items you can buy instead rather than them being tied to specific outfits.
Visually though it looks....bad. The visual simplicity is used in the original trilogy for a lonely atmosphere, accompanied by some empty sounding songs. The original 3DS trilogy didn't have crazy detailed aniamtions or anything, but the crunch of the 3DS screen and the pixels make it look a lot nicer. This game has fully colored backgrounds and really smooth animation. Too smooth, to the point it looks like a browser game. There's not many overworld animations either, which was one of my favorite parts of the original trilogy (especially the second one.) The costumes being parts from a gacha intead of full outfits also led them to being super stiffly animated as well, and it's kinda jarring. The mix of mostly black and white with some bits of color just looks kinda odd a lot of the time? I'm not sure how to explain it. It's a shame, because the backgrounds are extremely well done, especially in the final levels.
The music is great, and the musical style is also switched up a bit from the original trilogy. There's some motifs from the original trilogy used here and there, such as the Box Ship theme getting used in World Map 3 and the first game's title theme being used at the end of the credits theme. It's very "snappy" and, with the exception of the final level theme, doesn't feel as empty as the songs of the first three games.
I also feel like, despite being a prequel, it's not a good starting point for this series, and they're best played in release order. I dunno, it's just a bit too different from the others. I do like this one a lot though! It's just...kinda ugly. I wouldn't be surprised if this game was rushed..it really feels like it.
2 Comments
@NOWITSREYNTIME17 Omg I saw earlier I had to do a double take
NOWITSREYNTIME17
2 months ago