Pixel Puzzle Makeout League

Honestly, this is the first game I ever played after discovering pixel puzzles. It is really good into pushing beginners and teaching you the strategies slowly before throwing you into the deep end with harder puzzles. It also has several options to ease up the puzzles if you need to. Foe example, starting with two rows already filled in, not allowing you to make mistakes, turning off the timer, etc. I personally used the one which highlights which rows can be added to with the information that you have. It's a nice way of helping without being too obvious. Any of these can be turned on or off at whim during the whole game, and as far as I know, do not affect any of the achievements. Now onto the story. Judging by the title I did not expect much going into this story. The art is simple, but seems to fit the story in a nice way. Going into this, I saw that the author asked players to vote for this game as the best story driven game. This seemed off to me at first. When you begin the game, it has a basic story line and typical characters. I expected the obvious. The heroes save the day and defeat the villain. To my surprise, the game quickly developed into something more, even going as far as breaking the forth wall multiple times. I'm not afraid to admit that I actually cried in some moments. The relationships were also deceiving at first. All of the characters seemed already infatuated with you, including the walking puzzle piece. (This is not a joke, you can romance a jigsaw piece.) Over the course of the game though, they developed. I found myself actually liking the characters and rooting for them. It was difficult to pick who I liked best. Each had their quirks and negatives. I can now see why the author wanted the votes. The story is really something in this. It may not suit everyone as sometimes there is a lot of dialogue between puzzles, but if you want both then this is the game for you. If like me, you are looking for a game that you can complete to 100%, then this is also a good choice. You only need to replay the ending once to get all of them. It is also separated into sections, so if you want to replay a scene you like, it is very easy to do. I really recommend this game.

I bought this on a whim because I like picross games and it looked dumb and fun. I thought I knew what this game's about. You think you know what this game's about. You don't know what this game's about. This game just [i]crackles[/i] with the energy of a game made by human beings who are vibrant and engaged and who want to tell you something. Buy it. It's dumb and fun when it starts off. Stick with it. It'll drop hints. When it tells you what it's about, you'll know. I couldn't tear myself away from it towards the end. When it was over, it was two in the morning. I had to go out and look at the stars.

... I can think of nothing better to describe this game than the fact that I was in tears during the finale. No, I'm not weird! I'm... I don't have a good pitch. The Picross is good, and the characters compelling, but... more I can't say sans spoilers. Just... give this a try. I doubt you'll be disappointed.

Did I enjoy this game? Yes, it's well-designed and the nonograms are fun. Do I think it's "good art"? Well, not really. In terms of the positives, like I said, the nonograms are good. They're pretty forgiving, unless you don't like the timer, but there are various customization options to set them up how you like. There are A TON of puzzles, including a bunch of bonus ones, so the game delivers well in that sense. Overall, the game is polished and has high production value, and the 2D art is nice (not the 3D abominations). As for the negatives... well, the story is pretty cringe. The writing is the most millennial thing I've ever seen, and I definitely mean that in a bad way. Nothing really makes much sense, a lot is left unexplained, and the ending never ends. I mean, two separate times it psychs you out with what looks like an ending, except there's actually like 15-30 minutes more story left. The second time, it tacks on a 15-minute live-action video at the end, and while the video is well-made, [i]it shouldn't be there[/i]. Basically, this story is trying to be a million things at once, which doesn't work, and [spoiler]it turns into psychological horror at the end. Doki Doki Literature Club pulled that off by making the "off" vibes apparent early on. PPML doesn't, and that's why it feels cheap and inappropriate[/spoiler]. Regarding the art, I have no idea why people who clearly have a good sense of design threw hideous 3D models into the mix. Congrats on downloading Blender, I guess, but save it for your Intro to 3D Modeling class. The real-life objects also mess up the art coherency, and I suppose there's vaguely a "plot reason" for it, but that aspect is never explained and doesn't really make sense anyway ([spoiler]what's the villain doing, throwing soccer balls at his nonograms?[/spoiler]). And the text effects... whoever designed the effect for crashes/shock has clearly never heard of legibility. I mean, you can read them, but good god is it annoying. So, do I recommend the game? Yeah, the puzzles, which are the heart of the game, are good, and overall the game itself is well-made. It's just not going to win a Nobel Literature prize or anything.

These puzzles are more than the sum of their pixels lol

The picross/nonogram part is spot on and adjustable at will depending of your taste, the game doesn't lack in content, the writing is actually really good with a good story to boot. Don't be fooled by the name, there's no lewd or objectable content here, it's more sillyness than anything. It sure took me offguard, but it hit all the right mark. Highly recommended! ^^

So far seems about 50/50 VN and picross puzzles. The difficulty varies but none so far have been very hard. The story is incredibly creative and the main character is very likeable. Glad I picked this up!