Game 3: PictoQuest Jan2025 PictoQuest: The Cursed Grids takes a fairly interesting idea of nonograms or picross, and brings in a splash of RPG goodness to effectively do nothing with it. Like in terms of a relaxing nonogram game? Ya, it is, but not really for the intend reason that it may have wanted to be. The RPG elements are also very clearly washed away drastically into a few random enemy battles, and bosses that honestly fail pretty badly when it comes to a challenge. In a lot of ways my enjoyment of this game is really in spite of it, and not because of it.
Like I'm not here to say this game is easy, but for what nonograms are? Ya, this game isn't going to challenge anyone beyond a beginner in terms of the puzzles it has through out. While a lot of the puzzles tend to be 20 X 20 grids, they mostly don't use the amount of spaces needed to really provide a challenge over simply making the puzzle take longer to fill. Honestly, I played a fair amount of picross games so far, and I know plenty of 15 X 15 grids that gave me far more problems than anything in this game. Attached to the usual difficulty, PictoQuest also sports some RPG elements, mostly ranging to helpful items and spells as well as enemies you have to fight along the way. A lot of the time my difficulty with this game's puzzles is simply due to enemy attack rates versus filling out enough of a given puzzle to ward off the attacks. On top of that, all the enemies and bosses tend to curve downward the further you go along each puzzle due to the nature of nonograms filling more as you get closer to solving it. The items and spells are somewhat useful to helping you solve the puzzle faster, and they never really get too powerful to make the game solely winnable through there use.
Overall, i feel that if the game leaned more in on RPG elements like using spells, magic points, and boss encounters; it could have upped the difficulty more. As it is though, it mostly just has a cutesy map designed with a very barebones story that would make Nintendo blush with how barren the plot is. PictoQuest is certainly an interesting idea of blending nonograms with RPG elements, but due to not making good use of either side of it's spectrum it kinda just comes out as a watered down experience.