The last closed-beta for ‘Tricky Revive (Trickyal)’ developed by Epidgames ended on April 2nd.
‘Trick Curl’ was officially released in September 2021, but due to many bugs and low game quality, it has a painful past where it was closed following switching to open beta in a few days. Since then, the developer has made a new game while struggling. The released ‘Trick-Cal Revive (hereinfollowing referred to as Trick-Curl)’ promised changes to users to the extent that ‘Revive’ was added to the game title. In September of last year, with a completely new look, following the first closed beta test (CBT), the final CBT was finally conducted on March 30th. Many users who participated in this CBT showed positive reactions such as “If I refine it a little more, I can officially release it enough” or “It was very fun” through cafes.
‘Trick Curl’, which is released as a collectible RPG, is a subculture of ‘Dyap’, a famous illustrator, ‘Paulpa’, a story writer of ‘common worldview comics’, and ‘Warak’, a composer of rhythm games such as the ‘O2Jam series’. It is also a game created by a dream team. In particular, Diyap, who was in charge of the original drawing, is famous for his career as an official cartoonist for ‘Last Origin’ in the past. In the meantime, it has been loved by users with a cute drawing style emphasizing the unique cheeks and the opposite ‘spicy’ story. Eventually, a book titled ‘Dyap’s Last Origin Comic Theater’ was published, and it was so popular that it was once listed as a Kyobo bookstore bestseller.
As such, ‘Trick Curl’ is a game that draws attention from the fandom of subculture games. As much as I was confident that it was the last CBT, I experienced what kind of game was being created.
The most important thing is to ‘ball’
The illustration style of ‘Trick-Curl’ is an SD form that emphasizes the ball very much with a 3-headed body. Epidgames or the text inside the game expresses this as ‘ball picking’. It’s hard to start and draw. Cheeks are also mentioned here and there in the card items. Users can see this ball picking game throughout the game. but not boring This is because it is very cute because it uses the original drawing of ‘Diyap’, which became famous for cheek picking. When I play the game, I just want to pull it. You can actually pull it from anywhere. Even NPCs can be pulled. The biggest feature of this game is its visuals. In terms of design, it feels like they bet everything on the original painting of ‘Dyap’ and ‘Cheeks’. As such, the evaluation of users is “It’s definitely DYAP” or “The cuteness is certain”. Compared to other subculture games, it focused on ‘cuteness’.
‘Cheeking’ is the key, but I didn’t get buried only in it. You can feel each character’s individuality through design and live 2D where you can feel different characteristics for each character. Centering on the cheeks, each different movement, design, and expression went into detail. Thanks to that, each character has their own individuality in a lively atmosphere. Just looking at the expression of the fairy queen, Erfin, looks like a full-bodied idiot, and just looking at the expression of the elf secretary, Amelia, you can feel that she is a cute and cool beauty with a cheeky cheek.
The individuality of the characters shown in the story is also a pass as a subculture game. The story starts out of nowhere with revolutions and riots. It’s just like the buzzy atmosphere I mentioned earlier. In addition, the characters are lacking one by one or are seriously obsessed with something. Erfin, the first character you meet, is looking for bread while running away from the revolution. lack of responsibility Mayo, who joins in the middle, is more interested in protagonists and relics rather than revolution. I don’t really feel the seriousness that I often see in subculture-style games these days. However, this rowdy atmosphere feels like a new festival, and the characters who lack something feel friendly and attractive. There are various parodies and memes throughout the game, so it is a bonus to make users feel welcome.
Interactions between characters that were not shown in earnest in CBT are also expected in official services. It’s a little different from other subculture games, but the noisy atmosphere and slightly outrageous characters are enough to give other games a chance to win.
A game where ‘luck’ and ‘strategy’ are as important as deck construction
As a collectible RPG, the core content of ‘Trick Curl’ is to collect characters to create an appropriate deck and clear missions. Characters can be acquired through a draw, like other subculture-style collectible RPGs. In particular, it is almost identical to ‘Blue Archive’. After obtaining it, you can collect character fragments and raise them to a higher rarity. After gathering characters, you need to think regarding their synergies and build your deck. However, in the CBT of ‘Trick-Curl’, the characters’ personalities and role division were all. Instead, it is important to have a variety of characters because personality synergy is greatly applied.
Other collectible RPG games enter missions by optimizing their decks. However, for ‘Trick Curl’, you need to build your deck in an optimal state during the mission. This is the biggest difference and charm that ‘Trick Curl’ has with other games along with ‘Ball Dtakgu’.
Once you have gathered as many characters of the same personality as possible and made a deck, the next step is the battle. When you enter a battle mission, the initial team is determined ‘randomly’ from a pre-prepared deck. I don’t know which character will come out. Out of the six characters in the deck, if you’re unlucky, only a healer might come out, and if you’re lucky, a dealer, a tank, and a healer might all come out. After the initial team is decided, random goods are provided. The user uses the goods to continuously choose one of the three cards presented ‘randomly’. If you choose a character, you can join the team or increase the ‘grade’, which is a kind of level concept, and purchase an artifact to equip it to a character in the current team. When you choose a spell, the effect is immediately applied to the entire team. If you keep choosing cards, the goods will disappear, and the user will have his own team. After that, it’s a battle. During combat, there is little the user can do. If you have a 6th grade character, all you have to do is use the ‘Graduation Skill’ at the right timing. The combat speed is horribly slow and needs improvement. After one round like this, it’s the ‘team building’ stage once more. Repeating this until the final round is the basic combat structure of ‘Trick-Curl’.
Thanks to ‘team building’, there is a ‘strategy’ that users must think regarding during battle. After playing the game for a while, you will get a clear sense of which character you need to push. It is up to the user to purchase the randomly provided cards and place them appropriately. Pick a character card that is advantageous to the mission as much as possible, and if it doesn’t come out, you have to think regarding the next best thing. If you feel that your luck is bad, you can make up for what you lack with your skills. Of course, if the characters are strong, you can proceed with automatic battles.
Still clumsy deck building
The rule to strengthen my deck little by little every round through goods was similar to the board game ‘Dominion’. Dominion, a deck building game, is a game that strengthens one’s deck with certain goods given every turn. ‘Trick Curl’ didn’t bring all the feeling of ‘deck building’ in that you mightn’t build a separate deck for artifacts and spells. Characters can be prepared in advance by users considering synergy, but artifacts and spells are determined ‘randomly’ from all cards in possession. I don’t know what will come out. If you’re lucky, you can come out with a powerful spell with a high rarity, but if you only get a low-quality weapon like an awl, you’re ruined.
As quick-witted readers will know, randomness was constantly emphasized. The battle of ‘Trick Curl’ is just as important as luck. Totally lucky. For example, if you bring only magical characters, but only melee weapons are available, the difficulty level may suddenly rise. In an important battle, the dealer might be defeated in an instant by coming out with a tanker card and a spell to increase defense.
Also, it was a pity to use the ‘graduation skill’, which is considered to be the core content of battle, and to rely heavily on luck. It is common to go through a shiny character card to enter the 6th grade. However, if you’re unlucky with this card, your level will drop. Even the ‘Graduation Skill’, which is the only user can interfere in battle, cannot be used at will. Still, if you’re lucky, being able to clear missions at once with the 6th grader’s ‘Graduation Skill’ may be its own characteristic.
Everything else is there
‘Trick Curl’ differentiated itself by introducing a unique combat system, and has a ‘ball chase’ that other games cannot follow. But everything else is filled with things I’ve seen somewhere. Thanks to this, people who have played subculture-style collectible RPGs can get used to the game without any difficulty. Instead, there were a lot of inconvenient parts and minor mistakes in the game. There is no way to receive the quest bonus goods at once, and the filter keeps resetting. Of course, CBT is a schedule to fix that, so I think it will be a better game when it’s officially released.
On the other hand, Epidgames said on April 6th that it would unveil what kind of game it will make in the future by summarizing the opinions received through this CBT.
