For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Match and Rogue: Pixel RPG, from Another Jay, on my iPhone 14 Pro.
It's a combination of a Match 4 game and a Roguelike and going in i was very curious how it would be balanced. the Match 4 gameplay style is similar to the famous mobile game 10000000, and it's later sequel You Must Build A Boat. so i was familiar with that gameplay style, but the game also does well with it's tutorial in not only explaining but also showing how it works.
With the tutorial being so strong for one aspect of the game, i was disappointed in how it stops with the other aspect of the game. Match and Rogue: Pixel RPG has been developed clearly with mobile in mind, it's playable with one hand and is welcoming to new players. so it's hard to understand why the developer decided to stop being so welcoming when it came to the Roguelike aspect of gameplay. There's no tutorial and the game doesn't even push the player to that aspect of the game. it's entirely possible to play Match and Rogue: Pixel RPG and never interact with it's Roguelike half when you first play it.
clearly, the game needs to either hold the players hand and take them directly to this section so they can spend the ability points gained from levelling up, or change the labels to make it clear that you can quit and upgrade. As for the Roguelike aspect of the game, i learned that you do not keep any in-game upgrades you obtain. Nor do you keep money. but you do gain XP and when you level up you gain Skill Points. these are permeant and you can spend these points on the home screen in the Skill Tree section.
But i felt that this section also needs a little work. i didn't feel like i gained anything useful from the first 2 upgrades. i feel the start of this Skill Tree needs some tweaking, some rebalancing, to help make the first step a noticeable change for the player. gaining a secondary weapon did little to nothing in the first stage as my first weapon was able to kill most things in one hit anyway and was more powerful than the secondary skill i could equip. I think moving the third skill, a new Grid Power block, down to first and then having Grid Power Weapons spawn in the level, or after a boss, would be a better way of introducing the mechanic but also showing how it can make you stronger.
The music in Match and Rogue: Pixel RPG is fantastic and i'm glad there are separate tunes for bosses in the levels. a little more fanfare on levelling up would've been nice, and helped draw attention to unlocked skill points, but what's there is great and i would like the soundtrack.
Even as it currently is, Match and Rogue: Pixel RPG is a good and well worth downloading. It's one i'm going to play in my free time and i will keep a look out for updates to it as there's a solid base to work from.
Version 0.3.3 Played.
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