Games worth discovering

Reverse: 1999 - STUNNING!

686 View2023-10-25

Overview & Story
Reverse: 1999 is a brand new card battler and strategy Gacha game that will be released on October 26th, 2023. You can build your own little world within the Wilderness in this game, which is similar to Dorfromantik in that you piece together tiles to form a peaceful little world where you can place and bond with your favorite characters that you have managed to pull and find that you're most attached too.

There's a lot of dialog and plot components here, as well as some enjoyable gameplay when you manage to get to fight, loads of visual flair, and a decent overall package to keep you interested. You take on the role of a Time keeper someone who is capable of traversing through The Storm a power that is causing everything in existence to vanish upon its impact on the last day of 1999, but not you.

You become the only survivor of 1999. You're hunting for the reason behind it, and the answers are hidden in the last day of 1999. Traveling back in time, you try to put together why this is and how you can stop it once and for all to save the world.

Graphics & Presentation
The promotion for this game on social media and through visual references from closed beta participants all present gorgeous visuals both in the narrative aspect and throughout the gameplay which is very similar to Octopath Traveler in terms of brilliant, post-processed light particle effects and designs.

The same can be said about the music and sound effects, which all work together to produce a nice relaxing and engaging sensations for the player.

Aesthetically matching the age and voices is a difficult thing to execute, especially the accents and mannerisms, which are incredibly authentic and true to real life from what I've witnessed. If not a annoying because some voices sound... strange.

The voice actors are fairly diversified, but to the point where you have a number of really good voice actors and a handful of bad ones, followed by some visual flaws with a few characters (eyes, hands) and a faint sensation that this is all assisted by AI.

Gameplay & Combat
I'd have to say that this game itself feels more like a movie than it is a game because it's heavy on the story, but not in a good manner. There was so much dialogue, I found myself listening to hours of it and not really comprehending it as I drifted to sleep.

Once a portion is finished, you are able to play one or two fights before returning to the story or guided tutorials, which doesn't feel helpful hours in. You go from narrative to story, dialogue to dialogue, with a few additional fights and visual flare in between.

It's fine, but the tempo for this type of gameplay is just too concentrated on the plot to keep me interested. If you fail a mission, you can hit "retry" to keep trying, until you final do win without having to give up a lot of energy to waste of the current stage.

The best way to describe this game is to imagine Candy Crush mixed with a Card Battler. You get a number of turns per round, depending on how many individuals are currently active in your party of (3) to move card positions, combine cards (that match) to empower them, and boost your Moxie to trigger strong ultimate abilities to buff, de-buff, heal, and to do massive damage at key strategical timings.

While the gameplay is incredibly graphic and enjoyable, it can become tedious and frustrating after seeing and hearing the same words over and over again, while also being story gated by a lack of good lineups that can take on the current elements

Progression
You've certainly played a Gacha at some point in your life. This game uses it in a heavily predatory manner, giving you little to do if you aren't ready to spend a lot of money to advance through the game due to the many blockades you will come to.

This game is excruciatingly slow with progression and you're unlikely to acquire pulls anytime soon, unless you're ready to invest a lot of money for a terrible ratio of pulls. $20 for six pulls is absurd, and the number of characters now available is limited.

I played for a good while and only got 30 at first because of the in-game events and incentives. However, I've barely made a dent in the actual pulling of more than 1 or 2 over the course of a few hours because there isn't anything left to be given out for free outside of story quests, which are heavily gated by the need for stronger characters of a specific rating and element, meaning you can't just sit on one team.

You can't over level your characters till you reach a higher stage. So you see how it is, the game seems to be constructed in such a manner that you are physically obligated to buy from their in-game shop just to be able to complete the most basic of tasks or wait multiple days and even weeks before you can make any progress.

Performance
Outside of the difficulties noted regarding some characters having visual defects with eye placements and facial characteristics (high mouth, asymmetrical eyes), the game operated at a high frame rate, while having no crashes or issues.

It is unsure if the game itself upon release will run as smoothly as it does currently, but be wary of the fact that it is quite possible that there will be a lot of technical issues upon release day just like any other game that gets overwhelmed.

Conclusion
The fighting and visual / musical elements were both very nicely done.

I was heavily invested in the mix of matching your cards by shifting their position using turns to empower them to greater levels as well as providing them with even stronger powers that might swing the tide of battle in your favor with disarms, debuffs, and more. I thought it was unusual and novel, and I hope to see a lot more of it in the future. My primary gripe was that, while the game includes physical gaming.

I honestly despised having only 1-2 minutes of actual battle followed by 10 or more minutes of talking, more plot, and then back to (1) or (2) fights. I didn't think the story was all that interesting, and it kept putting me to sleep by repeatedly pulling me aside to do tutorials, well past the tutorial levels, and holding my hand like I was some infant child, despite the fact that I already knew the majority of the game's components.

Waiting for these moments to be over and going back to trying to push for more content due to lack of access to everything was quite tiresome. I wanted to keep playing, but I didn't feel great being urged and effectively convinced to buy from the absurdly high and meaningless pulls as the more I got into the game, the more demanding this feature became, until I stopped.