Lately there has been an influx of JRPG/rouge-likes/dungeon crawlers that have been getting releases in North America. There’s Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk, Damascus Gear Operation Osaka, Haunted Dungeons: Hyakki Castle, MeiQ Labyrinth of Death and many others. In the past few years the increase of JRPG dungeon crawlers can be mostly attributed to Nippon Ichi Software/Nippon Ichi Software America. Personally I am really liking the fact that NIS/NISA have decided to more of these types of games, however it seems that most of the games are starting to look all the same to me, ie anime art style with similar layouts and mechanics. Then there’s NISA’s latest release, void tRrlM(); //Void Terrarium for the Nintendo Switch.
Story
In void tRrlM(); //Void Terrarium, the world has ended, somewhat. All human and most organic life has cease to exist, leaving behind robots that have had their AI’s go feral and wild. Players take on the role of a small maintenance robot. As its wandering around it encounters a broken and decommissioned AI named factoryAI. Afraid that he was going to die alone, factoryAI befriends the small robot, to which he names it Robbie. As factoryAI is talking to Robbie, they notice a creature near a broken terrarium. They discover that its a human girl, to which factoryAI names her Toriko and she is in very bad shape. They take it upon themselves to save her and Robbie ventures into the wasteland in order help Toriko and figure out how did she end up in the junkyard and how the world came to be.
void tRrlM(); //Void Terrarium story is actually pretty charming and has the feel of a fantasy story but in a post-apocalyptic world. As you learn more about the world, Toriko and how things came to be, you start to feel very protective over Toriko, making sure she is well and pushing further into dungeon areas to get the items she needs to survive.
Gameplay
void tRrlM(); //Void Terrarium’s gameplay is divided into two parts: a dungeon crawling rouge-like and a tamagotchi style “pet” simulator. The dungeon crawling rouge-like is pretty self explanatory: as Robbie players are exploring various zones looking for various items and materials to repair and upkeep the terrarium that Toriko is living in, not to mention food and medicine to keep her healthy. Combat is pretty simple: each turn that Robbie takes (moving, attacking. using items, etc) the enemies of that zone will move. At first he will have one basic attack, but as he defeated enemies he will level up and either gain new skills to which they can be mapped to different buttons or passive skills that give him various buffs such as higher chance for critical hits, increased health, higher chance for better loot, etc. While this might sound like a typical dungeon crawler/rouge-like experience void tRrlM(); //Void Terrarium has a bit of a twist: Robbie will only be able pick one skill at a time with each level. This makes player think about how they want to tackle the dungeon and be strategic with their choices. Do you pick all of the passive buffs and skills that increase attack and defensive stats and tank your way through the dungeon or do you pick buffs and skills that focuses more on speed? Just be aware that with each movement or action that battery energy will start to deplete and Robbie will blow up. This will send him back to the junkyard where the items get tallied up and can restart the dungeons from level one again.
Now as for the tamagotchi “pet” simulator, the reason Robbie is traveling through the various dungeons is to gather items for Toriko and the terrarium. As he’s making his way through the dungeons, there is a indicator on the lower left part of the screen that shows the status of Toriko. It shows her health, mood, hunger and cleanliness. You can take care of her needs either in person in the junkyard where the terrarium is or remotely when in the dungeons. However taking care of her needs while in the dungeons will count as an action and deplete energy as well.
The mix of the two gameplay mechanics is pretty unique and heightens up the tension when exploring the dungeon areas. While the dungeon crawling is your typical dungeon crawling affair and has its annoyances such as difficulity spikes, its really fun and thinking about what skills or buffs to apply when leveling up makes you think about how you want Robbie to tackle the dungeons adds to that fun. As for the tamagotchi-esque gameplay, while taking care of Toriko can be annoying, especially when deep in the middle of a dungeon run, you can’t help but want to make sure she is happy and healthy at all times. Even if it means dying over and over again just to get a specific item that will increase her chances of survival.
Graphics
For a game that takes place in a post-apocalyptic world run by robots, void tRrlM(); //Void Terrarium has some really cute and whimsical graphics. Yes I did call a post-apocalyptic world run by robots whimsical. The graphics have a sort of charm to them, which make sense since the developers of void tRrlM(); //Void Terrarium also worked on htoL#NiQ: The Firefly Diary. Now the backgrounds and the enemy robot models will, as per dungeon crawler, are used multiple times in the various areas of the game in various colors to make each area seem different from each other, ie everything is recycled. Again this is mostly due to how dungeon crawlers are designed but can be forgiven as the graphics are really cute and whimsical. That and the gameplay is pretty fun.
Sound
void tRrlM(); //Void Terrarium has a very eerie yet soothing soundtrack mixing soft fantasy like melodic sounds with the fast almost robotic like sounds of EDM. It make sense since while most sentient organic life has disappeared from the world, nature (ie plant life) has taken over and at the same time the AI of various robots have gone feral. Each area has it own track, with encounters with boss enemies having their own shared track. Lately I’ve been listening to similar music to void tRrlM(); //Void Terrarium and will be adding the game’s music to my playlist.
Final Verdict
void tRrlM(); //Void Terrarium is a pretty fun and charming rouge-like dungeon crawler. From the soundtrack and graphics to the music and the combo of dungeon crawling/tamagotchi-esque gameplay, everything about void tRrlM(); //Void Terrarium is full of charm. If you are looking for something that is visually different from the rest of the rouge-like/dungeon crawlers that have been released, then give void tRrlM(); //Void Terrarium a shot.
8/10
