Using the words “Neoverse” and “Trinity” in the same sentence might lead science fiction fans into thinking this is a new Matrix game. Wrong! Now that I have your attention, let’s talk about “Rogue-like” gameplay. It seems to be a growing trend nowadays in game development. You typically see it in action RPGs or platformers. So how about mixing it into a deck-building card battling game? That’s exactly what Tino Gamez has brought from Steam PC to the Nintendo Switch system. Unfortunately, it’s the rogue-like component that will try your patience and suck out some of the fun of an otherwise addictive card battler. Welcome to our Nintendo Switch review of Neoverse Trinity Edition!
No Setup Required, Well At Least Not Given
This card battling game has very little story or instruction of any sort. In fact, there is no tutorial to speak of. So if you’re one of those types of people that likes to figure out things for yourself then you came to the right game. What little we know is humans discover the multiverse. Not a unique discovery if you’re an avid reader of DC and Marvel Comics. Eventually, someone finds a way to jumble all the multiverses into one “Neoverse” (okay this is starting to sound like DC Comics’ forthcoming “Infinite Frontier” Omniverse reboot).
You start gameplay by picking one of two anime-based female avatars. Later on, a third avatar becomes unlockable. The game is “rogue-like” meaning you start a journey and keep going until you’re beaten. When beaten you lose some “stuff”. There are also three game modes to choose from; Adventure, Hunter, and Challenge. Adventure mode is the equivalent of a story mode. It consists of fifteen rounds or battles one after another with every fifth battle being a Boss fight. Hunter mode consists of playing twenty rounds and is more like a “Quickplay” mode offering a fast-paced challenge. Lastly, challenge mode allows you to take on all the most difficult enemies but there’s a cost to entry. You pay to play with trophies, which is the top tier in-game currency.
Addictive Battles
Neoverse Trinity Edition is quite addictive once you get on a roll. As you win rounds you get to pick the difficulty versus rewards level for the next battle. Battles contain mission objectives and rewards. Normal battles and objectives have scaled rewards while Elite and Epic battles have better just desserts. Some battle-round rewards can be stat increases, extra skill points, different card types earned, etc. It adds another layer of focus to card battle rounds as you have to keep the current objective on your mind. It’s very rewarding to see that “mission completed” banner pop-up during a card battle.
The other interesting gameplay mechanic is that you can earn better attacks by chaining, or creating a battle tech, for a given color of cards together. You can play cards in any order you want as long as you have enough “energy” to spend on a given card. At times it was a challenge to my willpower. I had to fight not finishing the color combo because instead I desperately needed to use a defense card to keep the battle going.
Neoverse Trinity Edition has a lot of strategic gameplay to its card battles as well. A lot of the cards play off each other, things like finishing a combo doubles the damage on the next attack card played.
When you lose in battle you’ll get the option to save your current deck. This is especially helpful if you’ve earned epic cards or have chosen to evolve several of them. As you progress through battle rounds you’ll also accrue skill points which you can spend on perks. These skill points don’t directly carry over though to the next journey if you fall in battle.
Starting Over With Benefits
When you start a new journey you’re offered a bunch of selectable perks based on what you’ve accrued.
You’ll also be able to spend accrued earned trophies on an in-game gear store. For the patient, there are some cool mostly cosmetic items here.
The game played well for me in docked and undocked mode. All text in undocked mode was fairly legible, meaning appropriately sized fonts. There are some UI design decisions that seemed like odd choices. I guess it shouldn’t feel odd that a cursor is used in some areas as it’s safe to assume this was ported from the PC version.
Also, it felt quite odd to have to select each individual reward after a battle versus a “claim all” button. That same “rewards” screen had a “skip” button on it which I was afraid to try. Another pet peeve is it seems like touch screen support would be nice for this type of game.
Compare To: Slay The Spire
This review was accomplished using a Switch code provided by PR.