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| Title Screen |
It's finally here! I know I've been waiting a long time to get my hands on a release copy of this game, so it's been a pleasure to play through this initial release version. If you aren't aware of Battle Gem Ponies yet or want to know where you can find it, click here.
I spent the last two days playing through the Arrival Story of Battle Gem Ponies, and I'd like to share my experiences with you all.
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| The three pony starters in the Ponipedia |
The game starts you off in much the same way as many other games in its genre (RPGs where you collect and battle with monsters): as a young protagonist ready to take on the world with your creature pals. Only in this game, your battling companion is a pony that can transform through the use of gems. You begin the game with three gems, allowing you to transform into Simber, Orscina, and Mauss. In Battle Gem Ponies, you are not required to make a choice on which starter you like best; you get all three.
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| My first encounter |
Right away after starting the game, I walked into a patch of tall grass and was off into my first encounter: Shyshock. She is a cute electric bee that bears an uncany resemblance to a certain shy pony we all know and love. I had to capture her.
The combat system in this game will feel very familiar if you have played any Pokemon game, but it has several unique twists that set it apart. It has several additional/changed types that alter the matchup chart. Additionally, many moves have two seperate typings. Whether a move is strong against, weak against, or completely resisted by a pony becomes more challenging to calculate because of this. Thankfully, the game has a helpful feature that will tell you what types of ponies each move is effective against so you don't need to memorize that huge matchup chart and compare it for both move types x_x. Lastly, the combat in this game is 3v3. You can travel the world with 6 pony gems to switch into on the fly, but you have to select which three you want to take with you into battle.
The capture system is again very similar to Pokemon, but you must defeat the pony after you capture them. This adds much more strategy into deciding when you use the gems because even if they are successful, the pony will attack you back afterwards. It was tough, but after a couple of attempts I captured myself a Shyshock. *yay*
After several more wild encounters and a tamer battle or two, I stumbled upon the main city in this game's Arrival Story: Pinto Town.
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| Center of Pinto Town |
The sprite work and music are superb in this game. As I entered town, I immidiately felt nostalgic for the good 'ol Gameboy Advance and DS days. All the normal things you would expect are here: you can talk to NPCs, go into houses, heal at the Crystal Stable (bottom right building in above image), and shop at EquiMart (bottom left building).
After spending a good amount of time talking to all of the NPCs (you want to do this, trust me), the main objective for now was revealed: capture all of the alpha ponies. In addition to the normal capture mecahnics, there is a transformation mechanic. Ponies have Ultra Forms that you can activate if you have captured an alpha of that species in a gem.
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| My first alpha encounter |
There are a multitude of alpha encounters for you to experience in this game, some of which require some puzzle solving to find. Once you capture all of the alphas, you can go back into Pinto Town and the game progresses (I won't spoil anything :P).
The overall gameplay loop is what you would expect: going around and capturing all of the ponies you see, leveling up, and defeating all of the tamers. The battle mechanics are refined enough for this to not feel like a chore. I wanted to complete this game, which is something many modern games do not have me saying. That being said, this is a shorter experience (for now). You will likely complete the Arrival Story in less than 10 hours. The game still has something to offer after you complete the story though.
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| Versus Mode |
If you select "Versus Match" on the title screen, you can create one-on-one battle team to fight against the computer using all of the ponies you've collected in the main game. You can also do a random quick match to get right into the action if you don't want to go through the trouble of setting up a specific team. This feature is great and offers additional play time beyond just the single player adventure. I wish more games would have a mode like this.
Overall, I would highly recommend this game if you are a big fan of turn based RPG games where you capture enemies to make a team (like me). It is on the shorter side for now, but the game is actively being worked on as I speak. There's already been a patch since launch yesterday, and the developers are hard at work making more. There are also plans to release free additional content updates that increase the game's length. For the low entry price of $4.99, it's hard to complain. I'd say give it a try if you are on the fence.
