[h1] Dash and Bash [/h1]
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Cute and oddly challenging action-puzzle game. The goal is to simply to color the tiles on the level as you try to avoid enemies along the way. While the objective is quite simple in nature, Vividlope shakes the formula enough with new rules on top, so the gameplay loop itself never gets old.
Visually speaking, Vividlope pays homage to the style certain games used back in the Dreamcast, early PS2-PSP era—Chu-Chu Rocket! and Super Monkey Ball instantly came to my mind while playing. Pastel colors, abstract backgrounds and most importantly, a cute-looking mascot. You can also say this game pays tributes to the early, more optimistic Y2K aesthetics. A visual language mostly defined by the promise of a brighter, more connected, clean digital future: The Dawn of the New Millennium. Suffice it to say we're long past that era, but Vividlope still manages to encapsulate this style effortlessly all these years later.
As the game progresses the difficulty naturally begins to ramp up, but how does Vividlope creates challenge specifically? Throw everything at the player! Let me explain. Vividlope starts off tame, maps are easy to navigate, the enemy spawn rate is low, rules are simple—you'll be having the best of times filling tiles. The difficulty steadily scales and by World 7, the issue becomes immediately noticeable. Most levels are tightly designed with not much room to improvise or rather move freely, now add enemies that move within the same confined space as you but also have the evident advantage of well, being your enemies. There are ways to fight back at them, weapons occasionally drop to deal with annoying foes or quickly fill tiles depending on what weapon you pick up. The trick lies in knowing when to use each weapon more effectively, even though their main purpose is just to defeat enemies—you'll be hard pressed to find a creative use for each one.
The main characters resemble rabbits, so it would only be logical for them to have the ability to jump — which they unsurprisingly can. A forward leap only goes over one tile, though you can also jump in eight different directions. Jumping as a mechanic is strange as is one of the main mechanics that you'll find yourself using a lot, even though doesn't feel like it is necessary in order to complete most levels. Certain hazard do require it, such is the case with tiles that disappears once you step on it. But otherwise and for what I've experienced, jumping is not strictly necessary to progress in the game. However, it becomes an incredibly more important ability once you get that itch to complete each level with a perfect rank or then again, simply jump over an undesirable obstacle.
Enemies on their own are easy to predict and avoid, but in larger groups they become near impossible to manage. The spawn rate seems to increase significantly in later levels, often causing enemies to pile up faster than you ever eliminate them. It is hard to tell whether the difficulty was well balanced or not, which feels strange since the level design seems to be hinting towards a more reasonable and fair challenge. Perhaps, and I may be speaking out of turn here but the focus should've lean more towards puzzle-solving more than action. Designing stages with an already pre-established enemy placement would've been much better than randomly throwing them on the map. There's also an Easy difficulty toggle in case you're having a hard time with one of the levels.
The cozy and bubbly aesthetic is often at odds with itself and doesn't always manage to find a cohesive sweetspot with the gameplay, especially towards later levels. This is subtle earlier on in the game, but as you may already know, it becomes much more noticeable to the point it could be even considered an objective flaw. The soundtrack is largely responsible for shaping this nuance with an often frantic experience. Don't get me wrong, this is a great OST, but the game doesn't let it breathe enough.
Easy difficulty might have alleviated most of what I've been saying, but I'm incredibly stubborn so I never switched. Despite everything, Vividlope still oozes a lot of charm on its own, I can't bring myself to completely dislike it but feel that there is untapped potential with this concept.
