Pureya helped me learn two things. The first one is that I do not like Pachinko. The second one is that I fucking suck at it. When I die, whether there is an afterlife, be it hell or heaven, or the eternal nothingness, I’m convinced this fucking song will be there to haunt me I JUST WANT TO UNLOCK THE MINIGAMES MAN, NOT GETTING THE SAME FUCKING SKIN FOR THAT MINIGAME THAT I HATE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-
I’ve had my eye on this one for quite a while now; Majotori was a super pleasant and fun little experience and Pineapple on Pizza was as stupid as it was endearing, so I couldn’t say no to the idea of playing more from the same developer… but the main reason I was super excited to play it is that I have actually played Pureya before.
It kinda blew up amongst some of my friends not so long after it released, and trying it out on the phone of one of them won me over. Now, I’ve beaten it on my PC, and there’s one thing I can say for sure… is that this game gains a lot when played on a handheld system. Don’t get me wrong, the phone and Steam version are the exactly the same game, but Pureya was clearly created with those systems in mind and the sensibilities that come with it; in a way it’s a testament of how well it fits that different videogame ecosystem, but its pick up and short-burst nature is inherent to it, and if you too happen to want to play this, I’d advice to get it on your phone since you’ll probably have the best experienced that way.
When seen through that perspective, the core of Pureya is absolute gold: small bursts of 9 mini-games that last about 10 seconds each, the difficulty increasing the better you do but so does the quantity of collectable marbles you can get to then use in the pachinko portion of the game. This whole system is tailor made for a game that’s supposed to be played in small sessions, it engages you with short sessions and constant rewards, and I’ll game the game that: it works, it’s fun, not all mini-games are winners but most of them, especially the unlockable ones, are great, and they all manage to do interesting or at the very least unique things with the two bottom controller set-up, from a Doodle Jump of sorts to small platformers on their own right… but still, there are some stinkers here and there. Some feel slippery in their controls, which very well be the intention, but then in others you literally cannot predict what may be coming ahead in the hardest difficulties, and the combination of those two makes some of them infuriating rather than fun.
My biggest problem with Pureya however, one that’s also at its core, is how… uneven it can feel at times, if that makes sense. It’s random to a fault, but it also gives you a ton of options regarding customization and selecting minigames you may not want to play, which sounds cool, but it can also turn the experience into something far more predicable and repetitive if you engage with it. The rewards are cool!... until they aren’t; aside from some cool skins (The Sailor Moon Crab and Batman Squirrel have to be my favorites) and the best remixes, the songs and cosmetics don’t feel as cool as getting brand new mini games, which can feel like a pain to get by the time you get near the ‘’ending’’ and the golden cosmetics and medals don’t really feel like a good incentive one you reach that point, at least to me. You may get a dopamine rush when you see a high number of rewards at the pachinko, and the cutscenes that sometimes play when the last number is about to be revealed are super cute and funny (two dinos playing baseball is peak comedy and nobody can tell me otherwise), but they are still ornaments or momentary additions to what, in the end, is just a luck-based system that only feels entertaining when you try it out for the first time.
Pureya is fun, fun enough to grip me till its finale, at least; I really like it’s almost WarioWare approach and the charisma it oozes through its mini games, even though I wish it went in the ‘’toy-box’’ direction a little bit more and had a bit more variety— I’m sorry but three ship-based mini games felt like a ton, even if they all played differently—, I enjoy the game, but I sadly cannot see it as anything more than a fun distraction because of its own nature and flaws.
It's commendable its as fun as it is considering how some of things that go against it are intentional, but I just wish it could have been done differently in some areas…
I’ve had my eye on this one for quite a while now; Majotori was a super pleasant and fun little experience and Pineapple on Pizza was as stupid as it was endearing, so I couldn’t say no to the idea of playing more from the same developer… but the main reason I was super excited to play it is that I have actually played Pureya before.
It kinda blew up amongst some of my friends not so long after it released, and trying it out on the phone of one of them won me over. Now, I’ve beaten it on my PC, and there’s one thing I can say for sure… is that this game gains a lot when played on a handheld system. Don’t get me wrong, the phone and Steam version are the exactly the same game, but Pureya was clearly created with those systems in mind and the sensibilities that come with it; in a way it’s a testament of how well it fits that different videogame ecosystem, but its pick up and short-burst nature is inherent to it, and if you too happen to want to play this, I’d advice to get it on your phone since you’ll probably have the best experienced that way.
When seen through that perspective, the core of Pureya is absolute gold: small bursts of 9 mini-games that last about 10 seconds each, the difficulty increasing the better you do but so does the quantity of collectable marbles you can get to then use in the pachinko portion of the game. This whole system is tailor made for a game that’s supposed to be played in small sessions, it engages you with short sessions and constant rewards, and I’ll game the game that: it works, it’s fun, not all mini-games are winners but most of them, especially the unlockable ones, are great, and they all manage to do interesting or at the very least unique things with the two bottom controller set-up, from a Doodle Jump of sorts to small platformers on their own right… but still, there are some stinkers here and there. Some feel slippery in their controls, which very well be the intention, but then in others you literally cannot predict what may be coming ahead in the hardest difficulties, and the combination of those two makes some of them infuriating rather than fun.
My biggest problem with Pureya however, one that’s also at its core, is how… uneven it can feel at times, if that makes sense. It’s random to a fault, but it also gives you a ton of options regarding customization and selecting minigames you may not want to play, which sounds cool, but it can also turn the experience into something far more predicable and repetitive if you engage with it. The rewards are cool!... until they aren’t; aside from some cool skins (The Sailor Moon Crab and Batman Squirrel have to be my favorites) and the best remixes, the songs and cosmetics don’t feel as cool as getting brand new mini games, which can feel like a pain to get by the time you get near the ‘’ending’’ and the golden cosmetics and medals don’t really feel like a good incentive one you reach that point, at least to me. You may get a dopamine rush when you see a high number of rewards at the pachinko, and the cutscenes that sometimes play when the last number is about to be revealed are super cute and funny (two dinos playing baseball is peak comedy and nobody can tell me otherwise), but they are still ornaments or momentary additions to what, in the end, is just a luck-based system that only feels entertaining when you try it out for the first time.
Pureya is fun, fun enough to grip me till its finale, at least; I really like it’s almost WarioWare approach and the charisma it oozes through its mini games, even though I wish it went in the ‘’toy-box’’ direction a little bit more and had a bit more variety— I’m sorry but three ship-based mini games felt like a ton, even if they all played differently—, I enjoy the game, but I sadly cannot see it as anything more than a fun distraction because of its own nature and flaws.
It's commendable its as fun as it is considering how some of things that go against it are intentional, but I just wish it could have been done differently in some areas…
2 Comments
@Detectivefail Not gonna lie, that random beep that plays just before it starts looping caught me so off guard the first time I listened to it I laughed, but still, I gotta admit that for the most part it is indeed awesome... the rest of the OST is still way better tho, most songs only last about 10 seconds but in the middle of gameplay they really do leave an impact
Detectivefail
3 days ago
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Nevermind...