'Khimera: Puzzle Island' is a spin-off of Suits & Sandals' 2D platformer debut that takes place after its events, being a nonogram game with cutscenes. This implementation is novel to me and suggests a certain malleability of genre that the studio is willing to explore, even if the implementation plays much the same as any other nonogram game. It's refreshing to see puzzle games with a 'campaign' and a beginning-to-end that goes beyond the hitting of a brick wall ('Pictopix') or a milquetoast story ('PictoQuest: The Cursed Grids').
As a nonogram game, it is extremely basic. You are given a hundred levels split across six courses that comprise the main story, plus four bonus 'mosaic' panels to fill out. You have the ability to pick up or buy items to aide you, and this alongside your swiftness with solving the puzzles can determine the payout or items you need to use. I, admittedly, never used any of these items and I completed each campaign completely flawlessly. This is likely due entirely to the fact that I've become proficient at nonograms to a point that items would be more of an impeding force than a helping one. I suspect beginners to nonograms will find this much more of a challenge.
Speaking from experience, though, there are certain auto-enabled mechanics that somewhat irked me—chief of which is that you can cheese out a lot of individual points within a puzzle by plugging numbers in and having the corresponding number be either rendered solved or unsolved. I suspect this was switched on by default due to its permissiveness, but it also allows for rather sloppy and somewhat cheat-y solving that makes me hesitate to call this game a good option for beginners. It enables "improper nonogram etiquette", as it were. Though, this being a setting as opposed to a locked feature does assuage me somewhat.
The campaign's story is the exact fashion of quirky but humble conversational humor that 'Destroy All Monster Girls' employed, just put a lot more up-front. I like the characters, I like the mild prodding that K1tsudon makes at gaming and streaming culture, I like the subtle implication that Chelshia is queer toward the villain in chapter six. It's endearing, which is a description applicable to most of this game: It's an endearing story-based puzzle game about girls fucking around on an island. Whether you like it or not will depend almost entirely on your patience with nonograms and similar pen-and-paper style games, but for me it was definitely a positive experience and a good way to kill time.
As a nonogram game, it is extremely basic. You are given a hundred levels split across six courses that comprise the main story, plus four bonus 'mosaic' panels to fill out. You have the ability to pick up or buy items to aide you, and this alongside your swiftness with solving the puzzles can determine the payout or items you need to use. I, admittedly, never used any of these items and I completed each campaign completely flawlessly. This is likely due entirely to the fact that I've become proficient at nonograms to a point that items would be more of an impeding force than a helping one. I suspect beginners to nonograms will find this much more of a challenge.
Speaking from experience, though, there are certain auto-enabled mechanics that somewhat irked me—chief of which is that you can cheese out a lot of individual points within a puzzle by plugging numbers in and having the corresponding number be either rendered solved or unsolved. I suspect this was switched on by default due to its permissiveness, but it also allows for rather sloppy and somewhat cheat-y solving that makes me hesitate to call this game a good option for beginners. It enables "improper nonogram etiquette", as it were. Though, this being a setting as opposed to a locked feature does assuage me somewhat.
The campaign's story is the exact fashion of quirky but humble conversational humor that 'Destroy All Monster Girls' employed, just put a lot more up-front. I like the characters, I like the mild prodding that K1tsudon makes at gaming and streaming culture, I like the subtle implication that Chelshia is queer toward the villain in chapter six. It's endearing, which is a description applicable to most of this game: It's an endearing story-based puzzle game about girls fucking around on an island. Whether you like it or not will depend almost entirely on your patience with nonograms and similar pen-and-paper style games, but for me it was definitely a positive experience and a good way to kill time.