Review: Gyromancer

Nimbus

Token Irish Guy
Oct 22, 2008
2,162
0
0
I had the opposite experience I was getting bored of the easy gameplay until the idle twist rule came into play.
 

SenseOfTumour

New member
Jul 11, 2008
4,514
0
0
I'm waiting for Peggle meets Chrono Trigger, then I'm in.

Spin 4 doesn't do it for me, tho Puzzle Quest was good.
 

StrangerQ

New member
Oct 14, 2009
327
0
0
truly a pity...
like many others i was enjoying gyros first about 5 maps...
then this morning i decide to have little fun with it and go first map...Boom idle rule...
yep kinda ruined my morning due imbossibility to prevent dmg from some too fast ability gaining monsters... yep wasted 15$ what a pity
 

WhiteTigerShiro

New member
Sep 26, 2008
2,366
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0
Eh... I was turned-off to this game when I watched a trailer for it and saw that it was just Bejeweled Twist with flashy lights. Over-all, I just don't care for puzzle games that fall under the premise of "Clear a line, then hope that the new pieces falling into the field form more patterns for a huge bonus." Frankly, I'll always be a Tetris guy. It's a nice and simple game when all I want to do is clear some lines to kill a little time, but it still has challenging elements for when I want something to pull my hair over. And in both cases, there's very little luck involved when played right.

Not that every puzzle game needs to be a Tetris clone for me to like it, I've also liked games like Yosumin, Quantz, Cogs, and Loopz (I bet no one's heard of that one), none of which have anything from the Tetris formula. They just aren't puzzle games that are focused around random luck of the draw. The Bejeweled formula is just the opposite though. There's really no going for a high score because so much of the game's bigger score options are focused around crossing your fingers. It's fine if you only play for the casual sake of it, but for a gamer like me who likes to specifically go for a new high score every now and then, I prefer a puzzle game that puts more of the scoring options in my control.
 

Andronicus

Terror Australis
Mar 25, 2009
1,846
0
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Eudaemonian said:
Jandau said:
Also, the fact that different rules apply to the player and the AI (AI doesn't need to work the board) means that some monsters are better suited to the AI. Anything that spawns large amounts of Rocks on the board is great for the AI, since it limits the player, but is also useless to the player for the same reason. There's an entire family of orange monsters dedicated to this. Guess which monster type I never used...
Yeah, at first I thought white was made weaker because of its ability that turned a bunch of gems white, but then there is a purple creature with the same ability.....
What's wrong with turning a bunch of other gems white? Honestly, I thought if they focused a bit more on variation and balance between moves, it could have been a bit more tactical in it's approach. Granted it would distract from the "casual" label that gem twisting so often carries, but it's Square-Enix, isn't it? Yeah, the purpley monsters have an advantage against a whole range of other types, but did you even bother to look at their moves? There's only one actual direct damage-dealing ability, and it's slightly lacking in the power department. Whites don't have any advantages, but the ability to turn an entire colour to white means that the board will instantly be filled with their colour. Oranges fill the board with stones, but all their moves are relatively powerful damage-dealing attacks. I'm only really covering the initial summons in the game, seeing as I haven't really advanced that far yet, but they seem relatively balanced so far.

I think it would be better if you could choose the moves your beasts gained, rather than just new beasts, and try to get a range of moves that suit your play style. The idle twist was a bastard when it was introduced, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't think it was a breeze beforehand. Besides, if there was a bigger focus on various abilities, it would come down more to a "what can I afford to be hit with, and what can't I?" when there's too many damned countdowns on the board to deal with.

Of course, this is just a "what if" scenario. As it stands, the story is lame and generic, and the graphics, while pretty, are, well, pretty standard. My biggest problem would be the fact that there's no bloody store to buy my magic mirrors.
 

Signa

Noisy Lurker
Legacy
Jul 16, 2008
4,749
6
43
Country
USA
I've still got a raging hard-on for both puzzle quests, so this one hadn't escaped my attention. By the sound of the review, I'm glad I didn't drop the $15 on it. I'll probably still pick it up when it hits $5 on Steam, because you know that will happen eventually.
 

Eudaemonian

Executor
Jan 22, 2008
115
0
0
Andronicus said:
What's wrong with turning a bunch of other gems white?

...

I'm only really covering the initial summons in the game, seeing as I haven't really advanced that far yet, but they seem relatively balanced so far.
Turning gems your color is a good thing. My point was that that ability was offset by the weakness of white against other colors.

One of the non-initial purple creatures gets an attack that puts two cross-explosion attack gems into play, an ability that turns all the gems of the same color purple, and another useful ability.

Any semblance of balance really seems to slip away after the initial summons.
 

Andronicus

Terror Australis
Mar 25, 2009
1,846
0
0
Eudaemonian said:
Andronicus said:
What's wrong with turning a bunch of other gems white?

...

I'm only really covering the initial summons in the game, seeing as I haven't really advanced that far yet, but they seem relatively balanced so far.
Turning gems your color is a good thing. My point was that that ability was offset by the weakness of white against other colors.

One of the non-initial purple creatures gets an attack that puts two cross-explosion attack gems into play, an ability that turns all the gems of the same color purple, and another useful ability.

Any semblance of balance really seems to slip away after the initial summons.
Well, that's what I'm saying. If they just balanced the moves a little more, make it so you could choose your own moves maybe, then there would be a lot more room for tactics and lateral thinking. And I disagree that all semblance of balance disappears. I've got most of the second tier beasts of each category, and they've only got one different move from the first tier beast. One of the purple beasts has a move that's simply "Create one lock". Yeah. Great. Real useful. Purple sucks. There's a bit of disparity between the health of the beasts too.

Yes, there could be a bit more balance, and perhaps some more variety, but even I can see it from the tactical viewpoint.
 

Tharticus

New member
Dec 10, 2008
485
0
0
Sorry, but I prefer bejeweled than this. It seems more tacky add ons just to spread jRPG.
 

YoUnG205

Ugh!...
Oct 13, 2009
884
0
0
Good review. i have not played the game and i don't plan on becuase it looks crap...
 

Grimskunk

New member
Jun 7, 2005
1
0
0
I got this game for USD 0.30 cents today in a bundle with Mini Ninjas on steam, I consider this to be a pretty decent price for that game. At this price, I would've rated it 4 1/2 stars out of 5. My opinion about idle twist is that it was needed for this game to be challenging, and I expected challenging of a SqareEnix involved game. Works for me so far! will I finish this game anytime soon, not sure, but as my only puzzle game (Pop cap style), it fills its duty as a time-waster.