LogFAQs > #976906067

Still Playing: Questy Chess

Thoughts:
-Ok, so in the third area I find a bishop. I have basically every movement I need now, so I go back and unlock all the stuff I was missing from before. There are a couple of stages I think I must need some sort of item for, so Ill check in post game.
-The enemy AI is just terrible in this game. They have this tendency to put themselves directly in danger. It makes things pretty simple when youre the only one using strategy.
-Like, here's a level. There are four rooks in this level and this little wall area you can duck behind. I switch to my rook and move behind the wall. The rooks then each take turns moving down, then moving right in front of where I'm ducking behind the wall so I can kill them. This happens four times. I feel like I'm playing chess against a third grader.
-I have to farm the bishop for a bit too. What an utterly bizarre gameplay choice to make these things consumables.
-I also still have no clue what some of these items. Long range, for example, seems to do nothing. It doesnt seem to change movement or indicate anything. No clue what it is other than a wasted spot in my inventory.
-Heres another weird thing: the game scores you on health. But you can enter a level with less than full health. So you can essentially get punished for how you did in a previous level.
-I cant beat one of these levels yet so I must need a new item. On to area four!
-Area four gives me a queen. All these other pieces are literally useless now. Bye trash pieces!
-Well, actually, I still need the knight. There are parts I need to jump to so I have to have the knight with me still. Sorry knight I never meant to call you useless.
-I think I might actually be stuck. What awful gamed design.
-Turns out I wasnt stuck, just dumb. I restarted the entire game, which deletes the save file, and realized like halfway through I wasnt stuck at all. So I might be double dumb. Time to beat the whole game again, I guess.
-Luckily its short and I know what Im doing so I fly through it.
-Final level is a raven? Aw fuck I just finished Fall of the House of Usher so this seems like an ill omen.
-Pawn, I am the oracle. Thank you for questing this far. I quested twice because Im an idiot, in case that earns me extra bonus points.
-A terrible thing happened to our land. A single corrupt pawn disturbed the great upgrade. Wait, wasnt that me? I thought I was the corrupt pawn this whole time.
-Please help us. Can you upgrade yourself and save chess? I suppose if it is to save chess
-Pawn, thank you for saving us. Your journey is complete. I am still a bit confused if I was the corrupt pawn or what the hell is exactly going on here. But youre welcome.
-The end. Nah man I gotta get 100%.
-So I have three levels left but Im not sure I can actually get 100% on them. The movement requirement seems impossible.
-This is one of the times that appearing on the Playdate is a true curse because I cant find any information anywhere. I checked the Discord and I swear like 75% of the comments about this game are it is okay but Ill play it later. All these people are damn liars because the never came back. I swear this one level has a five move requirement and the lowest I can get is six. Ive tried like twenty different times.
-OHH wait. On that terraform spot, you can actually push left or right too and move other columns. I had no idea this was something you could do because the game NEVER TELLS YOU. Awful game design tbqh.
-You still have a limited selection of columns you can adjust but it is more than one. Im assuming this will help me in the other levels.
-Well, that still doesnt help, I dont think. It doesnt move any of the columns I need moving still.
-I try the transport to end of stage item but it doesnt work here. I think it only works on levels that have a pinwheel somewhere in it as thats where you get moved too. Again, not something the game explained.
-Jeebus I finally figured it out and it took me at least twenty minutes.
-You have to use the clone yourself item and then you can use that clone to essentially skip a movement as it is further ahead than you when it spawns. Theres a specific spot where if you use the item, you get it positioned in a good spot.
-This is a fun use of this mechanic, but is also something the game 1) never explains to you and 2) only uses in like two levels. Seems like a waste.
-Also, super annoying, you cant pick where the clone spawns and it isnt consistent. Sometimes it will be to the left, sometimes the right, sometimes above. It does seem to always spawn in a specific spot if you attempt it from one specific location, but there is no way to plan where it will spawn until you actually try it out.
-One of the missing 100% just needed that terraform trick. Check. One level left.
-This one also took a while to figure out, but I essentially knew what I had to do right away. It is the longest level in the game, I think, and there is a bit where you need to move a clone onto a spot so you can open a door and move on. The hard part is getting the clone to move the right way. It wasnt a big deal when I was just trying to get through, but you cannot move yourself and the clone independently. You move them both at the same time, even though you arent forced to move them in the same direction. So you can move your clone all the way to the left while moving yourself up one. Theoretically. The game gets super confused though because you trying to move both at the same time with the dpad and you cant actually move the clone how you want because of this. I essentially had to find a spot where I could spawn the clone where I wanted (because again you dont pick where they spawn) and get the movement right without the console getting too confused. It was a mess.
-Well, thats it. I do the final segment again but there isnt any additional dialogue.
-Ill have full thoughts soon, but man is this a game I wanted to like more than I did. Some flashes of fun ideas here but a lot of really bad design choices hold it back.

Time Played: I'm going to guess like 4-5 hours, but a lot of that was me being too dumb to recognize the drawing of a pawn wasn't a drawing of a keyhole.
High Score: One raven talked to.
Beaten? Twice almost.
Grade: I'm leaning a four, which might be too high. I really liked the concept but the execution is a mess.
Favorite Part So Far: That slow moment of horrific realization dawning on me that I just played this game twice for nothing. I'll think back to that next time I'm feeling too full of myself.