Photon Cube [フォトン・キューブ] Game Sample - PC/Doujin

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Vysethedetermined2

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Published on September 11, 2019 11:54:41 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ip7PyRFwKw

Game:

Photon Cube (2017)

Duration: 18:57

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17

Do you like games that really make you think? Do you like cutesy anime characters? Ever enjoyed titles like Soukoban/Boxxle/Shikinjou (though Shikinjou puts a Mahjong Solitaire spin of sorts on it) and titles of their ilk? Ever did that sidequest in Saga Frontier in the Luminous Labyrinth where you had to aim beams of light around to mix and match colors and earn prizes? If you answered yes to any of those questions, then you might enjoy SMILEAXE's Doujin puzzler, Photon Cube (PHOTON³). Published by the English branch of DLsite, Photon Cube takes eveything you've come to know about Soukoban and color fusion and puts it into a delightful little game made in the Unity engine. With over 50 levels to conquer and a modest asking price of $7, Photon Cube is hard not to recommend. Some might have even noticed her small graphic placed in our current YT banner. ;)

The goal of the game is to get photons to the different areas of various planets that need them, and you're Ray, a new "Cube Trailer" aiming to be the best there is with your dependable Mecha, Cu-Be. Working with the "Cube Trailer Management Association" (aka "Photon Union"), you'll lift, push, climb, twist and think your way through level after level of puzzling goodness. The game controls fine and the concept of lifting helps protect you from over-pushing like in some prior titles of this kind, as you can carefully turn and place objects where you need them. Rather than simply reaching an exit however, your job is to utilize all the "Light Condensers" on a level by using different blocks to change color patterns and reflect light in various directions.

Like games of this kind, you want to accomplish your task using as few moves (or Steps, which are counted when lifting, dropping and pushing blocks) as possible and you can rewind or redo several moves if you make some mistakes, though your counter won't reset. You can also easily get stuck or accidentally get hit by photons which will cause your character to faint and start the level from the beginning, but it's not anything you probably haven't come to expect at this point. Levels will gradually throw more gimmicks at you, but if you ever get stuck, you can use the Primary Color chart in the bottom left corner for color conversion reference. If that's not enough of a challenge, you can make your own levels and share them with QB codes online.

Visually, the game isn't anything special in theory with the resources at our disposal these days, but it's beautiful considering it has almost no coeval competitors to speak of and is obviously a marked improvement over most of its predecessors in this particular sub-genre; characters are drawn well, menus and stages are nice and sharp, and there's a nice amount of color usage. Stage backgrounds are grey and pixilated fixtures that strictly adhere to the planet you're on (trees for the forest world, fish for the water world, etc.) but this was done consciously as to not pose as a distraction since later levels will have beams in various colors of the rainbow all over the place. Ray herself is done in a chibi, cel-shaded style and looks cute if not unremarkable. The music is an acquired taste -- there's nothing really wrong with the compositions themselves (most having a sort of interstellar vibe), but the base themes are very repetitive and pick up a bit as you come closer to solving a puzzle or doing certain actions, so their mileage really varies... if you're like me and you can get stuck on a level for hours or even days at a time, then you'll tire of them before long.

Overall, if you need a puzzle fix that strays from the current over-saturated Match 3/4/Dropper/etc. titles, then you would do well in adding this title to your library and, at the very least, kill a weekend or two trying to conquer it. This is a video of the game in action illustrating the core mechanics. This game was also released on the Nintendo Switch (though it's MUCH more expensive at basically double the price...) and Japanese PS store. You can get the game at:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/867510/PHOTON_CUBE/
https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/photon-cube-switch/
https://store.playstation.com/ja-jp/product/JP1179-PCSG01071_00-PHOTONCUBE000000
(^ Japanese)
Enjoy.

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