Lost Your Marbles is a charming visual novel where the roll of a marble makes all the difference. Join PROTA in this branching-narrative adventure as she makes her way through Pomegranate Village on a quest to find her lost dog MINTY and make it to the annual Festi-Ball before day's end.
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(PLAYDATE GAME)
polished but kind of insufferable
polished but kind of insufferable
I wasn't expecting a visual novel as part of the playdate season. It's pretty quick and doesn't overstay it's welcome and apparently has tons of branching paths for replays. I think that's cool. I like when visual novels break things up with a little minigame and the marble rolling with the crank in this was a fun version of that. The writing was meh but not too annoying.
I think this is the most solid week of the playdate season so far. Two winners in my book.
I think this is the most solid week of the playdate season so far. Two winners in my book.
The first Playdate season has done a good job of giving out a wide variety of different genres, with this week's title being a visual novel -- Lost Your Mables. It's a short story about a girl traveling around an eccentric town looking for her dog. Dialogue choices are made by playing a pseudo-pinball minigame, which uses the crank to tilt a stage, allowing the player to direct a ball into one of three dialogue options. It has some clever writing and some cute characters, but I'll admit I didn't care much for this game. The plot is goofy to the point of not mattering, and the dialogue minigame, while cute, is difficult to control and none of the dialogue choices feel all that impactful. This game does claim to have 10 different endings though, so if you really enjoy it, you can subjugate yourself to trying to hit the needed targets. However, this was one of the weaker Playdate titles for me.
Una visual novel muy Steven Universe-core que no termina de aterrizar ninguno de sus chistes y que tiene un irritante minijuego de mover una bolita para tomar decisiones (¿por qué no usa el acelerómetro en vez de la palanquita?). Al menos estéticamente es agradable y dura poco.
Cute game, writing can be pretty funny at times. Characters are pretty memorable despite only getting a couple minutes of screen time, and the "choose your own adventure" aspect combined with the marble mini-game is neat. Also liked the design of the little overworld map - gave this small game some scale and added charm.
Marble game itself is simple, but a fun use of the Playdate's crank.
Wish there was a way to see which game routes you have taken previously without rolling credits (e.g. via an option on title screen)
Progress: Rolled credits a couple times to get a couple different endings.
Marble game itself is simple, but a fun use of the Playdate's crank.
Wish there was a way to see which game routes you have taken previously without rolling credits (e.g. via an option on title screen)
Progress: Rolled credits a couple times to get a couple different endings.
The story and writing are quite poor but the idea and art captured my interest. I love the idea of mad libs conversations solved by balling-rolling puzzles but it is just nowhere near snappy enough to make it work. Too much text and the ball-rolling levels feel too long to keep up the pace.
In general, I'd say text-heavy games do not work well on the playdate. It is far too small to read tiny text on for long periods and even the best writing would struggle with its limitations. I think story-based games can work on the system, but only by relying less on long conversations in favor of environmental storytelling and moments of action.
Although I could see a version of this game, leaning more into the mad libs element, having no idea what the conversation is even about until after you finished filling in the blanks. I would definitely be interested in seeing the idea further explored.
Also, it is kind of unacceptable for a VN not to have an auto-text-advance option. It is like the bare minimum for quality-of-life features.
In general, I'd say text-heavy games do not work well on the playdate. It is far too small to read tiny text on for long periods and even the best writing would struggle with its limitations. I think story-based games can work on the system, but only by relying less on long conversations in favor of environmental storytelling and moments of action.
Although I could see a version of this game, leaning more into the mad libs element, having no idea what the conversation is even about until after you finished filling in the blanks. I would definitely be interested in seeing the idea further explored.
Also, it is kind of unacceptable for a VN not to have an auto-text-advance option. It is like the bare minimum for quality-of-life features.