Today I played 200% Mixed Juice! Each week, I select a game from the 229 entries in my backlog*, typically at random. Then I play only that game until I beat it or a week elapses, writing about it here whenever I can!
I've talked about gachapon games here before. I played the heck out of Final Fantasy Brave Exvius before I collapsed under the time and attention burden of its numerous "daily" quests and checklists. It's hard to resist the slot-machine power of those game mechanics, especially when they're backed up with the nostalgia factor of collecting animated versions of characters from a beloved series.
It's safe to say, though, that a randomized character dispenser does not alone make for an engaging game. Enter 200% Mixed Juice!
Word to the wise, Steemians. If somebody says you can earn Steem Power just by rolling dice, they're scamming you.
I'd never heard of the Orange Juice series before this. In fact I don't even remember how I got this game! I can only imagine it came in a bundle with games I actually wanted, or perhaps I grabbed it free from a giveaway. The impression I get is that Orange Juice is a danmaku series, and that 200%'s predecessor 100% Orange Juice was a Mario Party-esque digital board game featuring OJ characters. Never having played any of those, then, I lack a frame of reference for appreciating the dizzying cascade of characters popping in and out of the narrative. What remains is something that looks like it's trying to be a parody of old-school JRPGs, given all the fourth-wall-breaking commentary. But in a bout of halfassery, 200% only manages to slavishly imitate that genre's worst aspects. Allow me to enumerate:
- Grind. I logged seven hours on the game. Somewhere between two and three of those hours were dedicated to leveling up for the penultimate boss. Your level is the top determinant of success in any given fight. Every character you obtain starts at level 1 and must be carried up to par by repeating old battles over and over before they become useful.
- Dead abilities. You know how in many classic RPGs, it's not worth your while to buff, debuff, or inflict status effects, because the success rates are so low and it's more efficient to just dish out more DPS? Thats true 200% (rimshot) here. Because battles proceed with a strict 1-to-1 action economy between you and your opponent, a given buff, debuff, or heal needs to more than double your next attack's effectiveness to be worth doing. In my time playing to conclusion of the main game, I did not once find a non-damaging ability that cleared that bar.
- There's a scene where sexual assault (groping) is played off as slapstick. I guess this is a gross anime trope?
- Opaque mechanics. Characters have a classic spread of attributes, like Attack and Dexterity and Speed, but the game never explains what any of them do. I had to visit a game guide on Steam to learn that there's an initiative order to determine what action goes first in a turn, and that order is based on the category of action used (e.g. Debuff, Bullet Rain, or Close Combat). Buffs and debuffs say what stats they affect, but not how long the effect lasts, nor the magnitude of it. There's no way to know how likely an attack is to hit other than spamming it and paying attention to the miss ratio. Etc.
- The story is paper-thin and pretty much unintelligible. It's nothing more than handwaving to cross over characters from different games and have them constantly fight each other.
Me either, kids, me either.
I have a vague sense that the creators of 200% had more planned for it than came out. The fact that playing through the story content leaves you so woefully underprepared for the final battles is one indicator. There's another hint in dialogue from the early game that seems to imply the existence of a Persona-esque "Social Link" system, where you'd work to befriend different characters in order to recruit them. No such system manifests; a small handful of characters join you during linear story events, and the rest you buy as randomized cards. I'm picturing the OJ 10th anniversary getting close, panicked devs saying "but it isn't done!!", and the studio head or publisher saying "eh, ship it."
By my prior rubric, because I managed to finish the game, it'd be three stars. But I don't think I'd have made it that far if it weren't for the somewhat enforced play time of this blog. So we'll split the difference and call it 2.5 stars.
* -1: finished 200% Mixed Juice. +2: Got Rise of the Tomb Raider and Catherine for Christmas!
Next up, @curubethion has requested that I play Life is Strange. Stay tuned for that! I'm pondering further ways for folks to participate in the game selection process, so that also is coming soon!