We think it’s fair to say that modern gamers aren’t known to be the most patient of audiences. When we want gratification, we want it now. It’s 2021, we don’t want instruction manuals (unless they’re part of some boutique physical release, of course), we just want to get into the game. Neoverse Trinity Edition achieves quite the paradox; it’s both quick-go accessible and incomprehensible at the same time.
Neoverse is a card battle game with no story. Or, at least, none that made itself particularly apparent. You choose a character (two initially, with a third unlockable), each having a selection of preset decks that each favour a particular playstyle and set of mechanics – aggressive shooter, blood-draining vampire, etc, etc. Then you’re straight in at the deep end. While the basic play controls are explained – sort of – the actual rules of the game will, by and large, need to be puzzled out by yourself.
It’s nice that the core game isn’t super complex, but a compact little tutorial would have gone a long way to ease the player into Neoverse Trinity Edition. As it stands, there’s a bit of a barrier to entry; why is any of this happening? Who are these people? What do these numbers mean? What are these currencies for? A combo bar? What combo? What does “Punishment” mean in this context? How does Radioactivity affect your plays? Even now, we’re not sure of the answer to all of these questions.
That doesn’t mean we didn’t have fun with Neoverse Trinity Edition, though. While it’s just a series of card battles, they play out like a turn-based RPG. You’ll have five cards drawn across the bottom of the screen. Pick your card, and if you can afford it, you’ll play the thing. You’ll need to balance attacks with defensive moves as you work your way through to each boss battle, because your health doesn’t automatically regenerate between fights. Thankfully, you’re able to use the cash and skill points you’ll gain through winning “matches” and achieving different goals to upgrade your abilities as well as buy and upgrade cards for your deck. You can also get single-use items that don’t cost anything to use but can turn the tide of a sticky situation quite effectively – healing your HP, or unleashing a single powerful attack, for example.
It’s pretty compelling as you figure out how your deck works, how you interact with the enemies and how to mitigate the nuisance cards they’ll foist on your hand. Clarity, however, is something of an issue. This writer is fully prepared to hold his hands up in deference to his own stupidity, but shuffling the deck – a request the game repeatedly made of us – remained an absolute mystery, despite inspecting every command on the screen. Additionally, the UI feels extremely small and bitty in handheld mode – the text is minuscule and, while readable, it’s far from ideal.
In fact, we'd say that graphically, we fear that Neoverse Trinity Edition leaves quite a lot to be desired. The visual style is generic and cheap-looking, with animations that fail to spark interest and a litany of performance issues like hitching and slowdown – just moving both analogue sticks at once causes the game to violently soil itself in an attack to multitask, which is technically atrocious.
We also found a few decisions rather confusing or irritating – why do you have to collect your post-win rewards individually? Why even have the option to skip them? Maybe we’re just rubbish, but we can’t imagine getting particularly far without buying more items and cards. That said, while Neoverse can be surprisingly tough, it's a very fair game, and it's always apparent what's going to happen in the next turn, allowing for a fairly deep level of strategic planning if the game clicks with you. It's just a shame that it sometimes feels like it's doing its level best not to.
There's plenty of replay value here with the unlockable gear, extra decks, fanservice-laden costumes and the randomised nature of the gameplay naturally extending your playtime. The many variables and status effects should keep you on your toes, along with the way a battle can suddenly flip on its head with monsters able to summon or buff their fellow scallywags.
Conclusion
Neoverse Trinity Edition succeeds at being an enjoyable deck builder, but it does so in a way that's seemingly desperate to highlight its limitations. It runs embarrassingly poorly at times, and does almost nothing to ingratiate the player to its many systems, all of which must be puzzled out more or less from scratch. While this is far from ideal, it's not enough to totally kill the game's appeal. Robust strategy is both possible and necessary in order to progress much beyond even the second boss. If you vibe with Neoverse Trinity Edition, it'll last you a while. It's just very, very difficult to get to grips with this bizarre, confusing game.
Comments 22
"You..."
"Yes, me....me,me,me."
"Me too."
I have put in countless hours to this game (really should check my profile for the tally). Didn't really find anything difficult in understanding the title, but maybe as I had been playing other deck builders recently.
Technical hitches do suck though, and while the frame rate and resolution didn't matter to much to me, can see it being off putting for others. Also to note I have only exclusively played it handheld, no clue how it holds up docked. You are normally too focused on the cards than the turn based animations.
To end, go radioactivity build and you'll destroy everything sadistically.
who is your fav matrix character Mine is smith.
Strange they went 3d for a card game, seems like if they didn't the framerate would've been fine, and they could've spent more time on content than, y'know trying to get smooth 3d animations down. But I didn't read the article, so who knows.
Development meeting:
Ok boys, Slay the Spire was a near perfect game. What do we add to make it even better?
...
...
...
Boobs?
I LIKE WHERE YOUR HEAD IS AT! Project funded!
@XenoShaun
I remember when I thought radioactive was better then a min/maxed shooting build!
Was I ever so young?
Game is really not too hard to figure out, if you're familiar with the genre. It is however, thoroughly mediocre. Decent enough distraction, but only grab it for $10 or under, and if you love the genre. Sunk almost 10hrs into it on Steam, then went back to Slay the Spire and Monster Train.
@Low_ink I'm sure it probably runs better on PC which they originally developed it for. Switch version is a port which sounds like it wasn't very well optimised.
I played this at launch for a few mind. I thought it was done by just one guy.
Obscure or abstruse, not obtuse ;-p
However, this review did make me Google if Nintendolife have done a best of card games, so I have that to go through before (if) camping season starts up again
"we don’t want instruction manuals"
Actually I miss them a lot, even the Wii U and 3DS digital ones (even if pretty barebones and colorless) were better than the nothing we constantly get nowaday ;w;
too many blondes
Nintendo Life's questions answered, in order.
"Why is any of this happening?" the title screen opening crawl says, in TL;DR: In an unspecified point in the future, humans learned to travel to alternate timelines, and as a result, they broke reality. Now past, future, fantasy and scifi are nearly indistiguishable from the present, and only 3 hot babes can save reality.
"Who are these people?" Well I must admit you almost have me stumped there, as I don't know which people you're referring to. If you mean the playables, they're heroines who've united to explore and rescue this broken reality. the story's just thin window dressing after all. As scanty as the girls' outfits. And for this game, I like that, on both counts.
"What do these numbers mean? What are these currencies for?" Gold to buy new cards and items, Skill Points to buy upgrades during a run, and Trophies to unlock game features and costumes.
"A combo bar? What combo?" If you play the combo of colored cards shown on the combo bar, in order, the next Attack (red) card after that, will do double damage.
"What does 'Punishment' mean in this context?" The Paladin can stack Punishment points when playing certain cards, and the next enemy to hit her will receive the Punishment score as counter damage.
"How does Radioactivity affect your plays?" It's like Poison in other games. It's DOT that degrades each turn, and hurts you regardless of your armor.
Now you know how to play Neoverse. You're welcome.
@Rambler You have a point, but obtuse's meaning has expanded over the years:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/obtuse
@RetrovisRabbit thank you!
Seems very unfair to mark down a game for not spelling all that out whereas cultist simulator and others actually get respect for making you figure it all out.
I learned all this by playing for about a two hours. This is at least a 7 or 8. It’s a good game.
@BenAV That would make sense then, just seems sad for anyone who likes the genre, and well uses a switch.
I could get into a card game with hotties, but not one with performance issues. Maybe on the cheap.
@Damo
Fair point well made
(Although that does look like a conflation, abstruse is a ridiculous word, and pain to spell, so could be good riddance at some point)
@Beatrice
I have NEVER understood why Baten Kaitos hasn't seen a rerelease. That was an extraordinary card rpg
It's a shame that it's so incomprehensible, but did you check to make sure that there wasn't actually an explanation provided for this stuff in a (digital) instruction manual?
Just because most modern games have in-game tutorials and other in-game explanations doesn't mean all of them have to be designed that way. Instruction manuals can still provide valuable information even in games that do have tutorials, and you'd be a fool not to look through them at least once.
@HeadPirate I have played the way of shooting too. Getting 5+ costless shooting cards every turn is devastating especially if you have the card that grants you force for each overheat activated.
I normally do a mix of both shooty and radioactivity in the extra modes (forget it's name but you do 20 battles). Can be a deadly mix especially with the trophy item that grants radioactivity on all enemies per attack card used.
I had this on my wishlist for monitoring pruposes (reviews). Shame it hasn't turned out that decent. Never mind. Thanks for the review.
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