At first look, the world of Patch Quest is inviting, colourful, and heat. Nevertheless, you quickly come head to head with a colossal web-slinging spider, and instantly, the world appears way more harmful.
In Patch Quest, you play as an explorer seeking to sew collectively the quilted world of Patchlantis with the assistance of your monster friends. Your first few hours are an amalgamation of quite a few video games which have come earlier than it: You may tame monsters à la Pokémon, acquire gadgets à la The Binding of Isaac, and dodge in your life à la Enter the Gungeon. However regardless of its clear inspirations, developer Lychee Recreation Labs has created one thing distinctive: a monster-taming roguelike all its personal.
Each time you embark on a quest, you get misplaced in Patchlantis’ labyrinth of a world along with your monster-taming lasso and trusty blaster with one objective in thoughts: Pin the world again collectively, one patch at a time. On the outset, I ventured into Patchlantis and met my first enemy, a mere moth. The frail bug appeared like a weak associate, however after taming the Hypnoth, it proved to be a dominant ally, whose energy to make different beasts dizzy greater than made up for its puny stature.
Picture: Lychee Recreation Labs/Curve Video games through Polygon
On the again of your new colleague, you’ll journey by way of the quilt maze, defeating opposing animals and powering up with fruit ammo and charms. You conflict with bosses, unlock shortcuts, and acquire vegetation till you meet your eventual demise, at which level you come to your base camp. Earlier than setting out on one other quest, you acquire perks to bolster your explorer and scatter vegetation across the camp to strengthen your loved one pets, getting ready you in your subsequent journey.
Now, we’re able to pin the patches of the world again togeth— Maintain on, is that an armadillo with a hat? That’s what I’m speaking about! The animals and creatures inside Patch Quest lured me in with their cute demeanors (even the creepy-crawlies), however lots of them should not excited about being my good friend — some are feral beasts merely in search of their subsequent meal. The animals of Patch Quest are born wild and undomesticated, however reasonably than taming and amassing these animals, I need to remove them.
Picture: Lychee Recreation Labs/Curve Video games through Polygon
Their projectiles litter my display, and I attempt my finest to dodge with the minimal area I’ve. There are undoubtedly factors the place I ought to take injury, and even die, however Patch Quest is forgiving in its software set. Slightly than dodging, I can destroy or deflect projectiles, and generally, my “dodging degree,” which provides you an opportunity to take no injury when hit, is excessive sufficient to evade all however essentially the most cluttered bursts.
A number of hours in, Patch Quest started to really feel a bit too forgiving, so I checked the issue settings, solely to find that I’d been enjoying on the bottom issue potential. Because the Gamer that I’m, I upped the issue to “Degree 8: Deadly.” Oh, did I quickly be taught that I’m not the Gamer I believed I used to be. Patch Quest’s issue settings run the spectrum from inviting and approachable to punishing and chaotic. A lot of the enjoyment of Patch Quest stems from revisiting increased difficulties when you unlock perks and degree up your newfound companions.
After some experimentation and trial and error (often known as dying many instances), I felt good about my understanding of Patch Quest’s core gameplay loop. Though the maze itself is predetermined, the enemies and patches themselves are completely different each time, which provides you a recent expertise for every run.
Picture: Lychee Recreation Labs/Curve Video games through Polygon
The start of Patch Quest can take a while to totally flesh out, however every quilt begins from a singular thread and needle. It shortly weaves in new gameplay parts to forestall it from getting dusty or matted. Monster-taming forces you to diversify your play model, and it doesn’t simply really feel like a random gimmick to make itself completely different. The search system provides you a way of path within the winding labyrinth, and the shortcuts make it so that you simply’re not simply endlessly navigating the maze to get to your goal. The fight ropes you again in and ties you into that satisfying roguelike loop of upgrading your gear and bettering in your final quest.
It’s spectacular — particularly for a recreation developed by a single particular person — what number of disparate genres and what number of distinct gameplay loops Patch Quest manages to juggle, with out letting a single one fall. It could be a Pokémon, Castlevania, Binding of Isaac, Enter the Gungeon smoothie, but it surely’s a smoothie that I plan on ordering time and time once more.
Patch Quest was launched on March 2 on Home windows PC. The sport was reviewed utilizing a pre-release obtain code offered by Curve Video games. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These don’t affect editorial content material, although Vox Media could earn commissions for merchandise bought through affiliate hyperlinks. Yow will discover further details about Polygon’s ethics coverage right here.
