Idle Game – Pinkie's Paradise

It’s Raining Cats and Dogs: Castle Cats and Dungeon Dogs Review

So I have some very big news! Probably! It is not official yet but it looks like I might be moving soon! it This past Saturday I did something else other than watching anime! I went to view a new place I could rent! Less drug trades on the parking lot, less illegal racing or violence! More tolerance and an appartement with some actual space! It looks like I got it! Though I haven’t signed a contract yet, all parties were in agreement! So yay! Better times ahead. I will stick by my rules though and not watch the anime later that day as I was well worn and had a nice dream buzz! No instead we will finish catch up week by taking the Cat from catch-up and adding some nice clothes to them!

Kittens and Puppies

So normally I am not into mobile gaming. I played some Dragon Ball Legends, I played some Dokkan Battle, but usually whenever I am done with a Story Mode I am done with a game. Sure they get updates every now and again and I might come back.. but I don’t stick to Mobile games all that much. I still play Dragon Ball Legends and Pokémon Go and very loosely but other than that I rarely play a mobile game. So when Summer of Foovay’s Cauldron told me this game was good I thought… I’ll probably try it out for a day and dump it on the second..I am however been pretty dedicated for over a week now and I want more! Well at least of Castle Cats!

Castle Cats and Dungeon Dogs are both Idle Hero games developed by Pocapp Studios.
In Castle Cat you make a Guild Master of a Heroes Guild and collect cats to make them go on quests in the hopes of defeating the evil Pugomancer. In Dungeon Dogs you make a Rebel Captain Dog.. and collect dogs to let them do missions for the resistance against the evil cats. Both are essentially the same game with a different story and different flavouring but the exact same mechanics. It’s up to you whether Dogs or Cats are more your thing. Where Dungeon Dogs is only a recent game though Cats has the more impressive library of collectables With about 260 cats where currently you can collect 60 ish dogs. Guess I got suckered into two more collectable creature games huh!

As an Idle game the gameplay consists of making Gacha-pulls if you have the right resources and clicking on a few spaces to gather these resources or allocate cats to get them for you. Each mission has a timer but the player can join in a battle and tap on a boss to reduce their health while charging up their heroes powers until they can unleash a super attack. With the resources gained you can upgrade your furry friends with new outfits, powers and make them eligible for more quests. Other options involve upgrading your base to gather your three main resources faster or your main building which allows you to send more allies on a mission at the same time. Other than that you can craft some items with an alchemy station for aid when you do battle, or a bigger reward payout. Yet there are also special crafts depending on events you got going on. Which usually leads to super unique heroes being collected. It doesn’t do anything special gameplay wise but everything happens in a very non intrusive way. You can choose to just toss your phone aside and let the troops do the work or actively take part in the fights. I prefer to keep my paws clean and just let my darlings gather resources while I blog! Each day I collect a few kittens and puppies and I just smile.

Mi’wow

While Dungeon Dogs doesn’t impress me as much as Castle Cats does I must comment both for their lovely presentation. The Joy on your cats and dogs as they complete a mission, or walk through your field is amazing. The design of creatures, especially the higher rarity ones is incredible! There is so much personality in them.The colours are vibrant and both your main story heroes as well as those rare finds oftenly look good enough in design to be in an actual cartoon of sorts. This is these games greatests plus. Oftenly mobile collectable creature games on mobile can look really unique but there is nothing to bind you to them. Say some Fakemon shows it and it looks mighty cute, I am still not tempted to drop some money in as it would be nice to have.. but there is no NEED to have it. A game using an existing IP thus makes a better Gacha! I want the new Majin Vegeta in Legends so I might drop some cash or do missions to get him.. as I recognise him.. he becomes something to pursue. Pocapp Studios manages a way to balance this greatly.

Most of the cats and dogs to collect have a reference, they are something else from another source of media. So for example my first Mystical was a cat called Howard, who when evolved turned into the Eldritch Cthulhu. Howard of course being the H in HP Lovecraft. But I also got Bunny! A cat who was chosen by the moon to be a guardian. When you evolve her she gets a sailor outfit and blonde buns.Usagi is the Japanese word for Bunny.. so you really know who you just collected. All of them have dialogue too! Scarlett really makes me laugh! It is a cat who wants to be a Blobmon trainer. He really wants to ride a bike.. but he knows now is not the time and place and HE is always watching. Scarlett indeed is Red from Pokémon. Because these games take a deep dive into Geekdom there is more reason to collect the creatures other than their cute look! You want to find out who they all are! My best friend Bean for example got a cat named Edward..He doesn’t like to be called small and his brother is an armor. I really want him!

What is also very impressive about these games is that you seem to get “fair deals” for spending money. You don’t need to spend money and by watching adds you can unlock a whole bunch of extra goodies as well so there is no real need to put money into it.. but the bundles and deals you get seem actually cool! Where Dokkan Battle for example only really has sweet deals when it comes to summonable stones in these games some creatures are strictly for sale. Yet some of them have powers to spawn resources you might need like Embers used to upgrade your creatures, or crafting resources. So while you get a cute cat, you also get some usability out of it. Package deals can refill your resources, can offer your embers, cats and skins summon tickets all for a bundle deal so there is always something nice in the store for you. You can say.. I do not care about that..but let’s be honest a game needs to make money and it needs to work with these deals.. that’s how they work so I wont judge them for it! These deals feel unique and rewarding and not like a complete rip-off. So while I will not become a money investing whale here.. they very much know what they are doing.

That confidence is shown in just about everything. The Story lines of the games are both cute, though I again vastly prefer the story of Castle Cats as it has that cuter atmosphere that just fits better with the aesthetics and the genre. Dungeon Dogs focussing on rebellion just feels a bit forced somehow. Mostly because their size seems to exist in the universe so I would assume they have the upper hand.It just doesn’t feel as magical! Castle Cats story however is surprisingly entertaining for a mobile game. Again it has a bit that saturday morning cartoon vibe with each story mission being a cartoon episode. While we only get a few lines of dialogue it is easy to imagine how that adventure will go. Both games feature three protagonist that all are very fun. Lyra the Golden Retriever dog is not my favourite as I find her a bit bland. Poppy the Barbarian Dog is probably one of my favourite characters though! For Castle Cats, Catniss ,(which indeed IS a reference) Conan and Frederique are all pretty good. It’s funny to see Catniss volunteer for every suicide mission because.. she is Katniss. It might not be fully original but these games just ooze with charm. Making it really something you want to play.

A Bark Worse than It’s Bite

The games are not flawless though, especially not if you choose to play both. Both games promote playing both through a quest line but because of it you see they are a bit TOO samesey. It makes sense from either a dog person or a cat person perspective but since both games push you to play both..chances are you will experience how same everything is. The base is a sprite swap with everything at the exact same location, the mini games are the same between the games, even the resources don’t look THAT different. Instead of Iron Ore, dogs gets bones and some stuff is swapped around but essentially it is the same and you can craft the same things with it.. it’s all just sprite swaps. It also leads you to compare items. Avatar items for example are WAAAAY better in Dungeon Dogs, the items are so much more detailed and ornate. Yet Cats have so much more felines to collect.

However the worst part about these games being so linked! Your VIP status is NOT linked. I spent 7 dollars now on Castle Cats which was enough to get me to VIP1 and I feel I should have shared that level between both games. That way I could buy dogs I want when I already have the cat from the monthly bundle or vice versa and still keep my VIP level up! But no alas.. it is seen as a different game any money spend is counted for that game alone. If those get linked I might go deeper but for now it means I shall invest 0 money in Dogs.

I honestly suggest you stick to one game and for me it would be Cats. The references are a bit sharper, although the dogs have more intricate designs. There is not really a bad side here. During my time playing I experience a few glitches in Castle Cats. For example my Adds for extra rewards or skipping missions will sometimes refuse to play unless I reset the game. Other times my screen would go unresponsive during the minigames. I haven’t had these issues with Dungeon Dogs yet.. but that one plays a lot more additional commercials which you can spend a pass on to have them disabled. I dislike that choice which puts me off Dogs a bit more than Cats.. I have control over what I watch in Cats and more control over my spending. In the end these games are made for you to pay for a creature or two. I am not going to hold that against them. It doesn’t HAVE to be fully playable for free. You can have your fun with it for free but like a real Gashapon vending machine.. it is cute to stare at for free but a lot more fun if you toss a few coins at it. That is fine and no one is gonna convince me otherwise, this is a type of game now, deal with it!

The biggest gripe I had with my gameplay so far is that the game at one point bottlenecks you in story mode. IF you haven’t chosen to keep up your main three heroes. I got a lot of Cats that can generate embers.. so I prefer to send those on missions instead. Yet later you need to send a cat with two skills on a mission. Usually the only ones who fit are the main heroes. I have been stuck for two days now being forced to grind embers and levels for Conan, draining my resource pools for a cat I did not really want to level. Of course I could spend money on it to make it go by easier..as you can both by level boosters and embers but thats not how I like to do things. However it makes story progress slightly more unappealing as it limits you very much! I can’t say how much of these missions will come as of yet as I am stuck at this one so much but if you play these games do level up your main heroes! Regardless if I progress in the main story or not though I still have lots of fun with this game so the positives really outweigh the negatives.

Positikitty

These are wonderful games for you to play on the side or whatever else you are doing that day! Mind you .. Emphasis on the side. The gameplay is monotone so it would not entertain you through the day. It has the stamina thing most Free to Start games have so gameplay is not unlimited either. Yet if you play it casual this is one super fun game! I got two friends addicted in a short time. Cute sweet innocent fun, with a amazing design time behind it and witty yet also very clear cut references. These are games that reward you from dropping money, but hardly ever punish you for going free to play and that for me is the ideal mix. I don’t think Free to Play needs to be equally rewarding. It has fun enough gameplay an amazing store and even if you don’t use it a very fun libarary of creatures to collect so if you want something fun feel free to try it out! If you REALLY want to try it out though give a shout out to me in the comments! I could send you an invite and get stuff as a reward… I am all about those rewards now.. because I am hooked enough to at least put in an effort. That is more than most mobile games can make me say.

As for what flavour to reward it with..I feel that is rather relative for this one. For me personally this is a Gacha Idle Game done right. I feel the need to collect and the urge to pay and I would happily splash a few dollar for it here and there. It gives me satisfaction without the need to feel to purchase everything. I can take this journey like I take this game. One step at a time. I’ll get there when I get there. Meanwhile I stare at cute cats a grin widely! This is fun, it does more for me than Dragon Ball Legends does.. which is a fine game but I can still see myself getting frustrated with it within a few week so it won’t receive the highest of my praise. In the end I find this game Berry Good…now I want a cat named Berry Good! I might be more addicted than I think!

Review: Pokémon Quest (Android)

Hello once more my little monsters. I had a bit of a crappy day today, so I decided to forget all about it and write you all a nice little bonus blog. That will cheer me right up! Recently I got a phone that actually works, and isn’t powered by fossil fuels anymore. Finally I could play what some people consider worse than Fortnite, Mobile Games! What else what I play but Pokémon though? So today we have a review for Pokémon Quest!

The concept:
Describing what Quest is about is already a bit difficult, in essence I would describe it as an on rails Pokémon Mystery dungeon like game, which played a lot of minecraft at the daycare center. From the egg between those two, came Pokémon Quest. In non poké-players terms, it’s a semi automated dungeon-runner with cubelike pokémon. You play a nameless and faceless adventurer along with their robot pal MoBee. Mobee and you travel on a cute little ship , when you stumble upon Tumblecube Island, which is is a very diverse island, with lush jungles and scorching deserts, alongside vast pink plains and some cavelike stuff, among other things. Each area holds a variation of the original first generation pokémon, as well as some tribal statues you and Mobee are trying to collect. Don’t ask why, it’s just a thing you do. It doesn’t take MoBee long to locate you a starter pokémon, you get choose from Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, Eevee and Pikachu. Of course I chose my pal Bulbasaur.
From there on out you get to explore the island.

The Atmosphere
The game’s main selling point is how freaking adorable it looks. Cube Bulbasaur is kawaii as frizzlesticks. Kawaii being weeaboo for cute. Man is this game adorable. After your first expedition you get a base camp where all your pokémon gather and hang out. You can see your cube pidgey hang out with your cube bulbasaur playing together by jumping in rhythm. Sometimes they even stack themselves on top of each other, which also looks adorable. Sometimes you just see them talking to each other, well you actually see a bunch of shaking cubes.. but you know what’s it about. The amount of life they managed to get into these cubes is truly amazing Attacks are mostly recognisable , for example my bulbasaur knew petal dance which is animated a series of pink cubes spinning around, but pidgey actually got a little tornado for gust. The cubiness never is used to excessive and there is still a distinct pokémon feeling about how everything looks. The sounds are okay, of course it does feature the original cries of pokemon, which is super neat and whenever you attract a new pokemon, you get them blacked out with just their cry, reminiscent of the “who is that pokémon” game we all know and love. It’s charming throughout. The music is nice and peppy, though they oftenly feature weird sound bites inside them and can be really busy. I don’t mind , cause it’s totally me, but I can see this getting annoying to some in time.
The game is quite grindy so music is created a lot. I am not particularly fond of the boss theme for that reason. All in all they create a solid atmosphere that makes the game fun to look at and listen too. A nitpick of mine is how they could have made the layout feel a bit more inline with what we usually see from Pokémon games. The chosen Icon and HUDS just don’t feel very Pokémon like to me, making me believe this might have started out as a different game.

Technical Thingies:
Programming wise the game is pretty solid. I have to commend the Autoplay AI (which you in time will use) for actually being somewhat tactical in when to use powers and when it doesn’t. Yet for boss battles you might want to consider taking back control, because the difficulty scale is a tad on the harsh side. The game oftenly provides a power level you need to have to pass a mission, but this doesn’t always fly true. Nor do the reckoning type badges apply to each level making the game feel a bit wonky at times. Loading times also seem a bit longer then what is needed for the actual screen to appear, causing me to press buttons without them responding, however in fairness this may also be due to the hot weather slightly affecting my screen. The biggest technical snafu however is the pathfinding.
As mentioned earlier pokemon move sort of on rails. However that rails is randomised each time. They just run to a new random spawn zone on the map without you controlling it. In doing so however both your team as the enemies can’t tell if there is a river , a mountain or nothing in between you. They do learn but if Pidgey and Bulbasaur clip behind a rock and Vulpix is free, the latter will not wait for it’s team members and go on a suicide mission, which can be detrimental to runs. They did make a button to fix those issues though, that cause a pokemon to backdash.
On the plus side, controls are simple clean and as soon AS they are responsive they react accurately and properly. Swapping item, placing decorations and all the extra stuff works very smoothly so I’d say the game preforms average to okay on this area.

Green Hiils, only Sonic can cope with those! Pokémon just up against them!

The gameplay
Unfortunately I can’t be quite as positive about the gameplay, though I would not call the game pay to win too much, the pase can be dreadfully slow if you don’t pay.
In essence the game works like this, in your base camp there is a cooking pot. You toss some fruits, mushrooms and fossils (for some reason) in the pot to cook meals.
These meals attract pokémon that you can add to your team. You can take up to three cuties on an expedition with you, giving you new power up items and ingredients to cook with. Each time you start cooking it will show you a 0 out of X number. The X is how many expeditions you have to do before your new soup is ready, iow you need to play that many rounds to get a new pokémon. You level up your Pokémon by having them go on expeditions or by doing training. New moves can only be learned through training and that is exactly where the game falls apart for me. Training..sacrifices pokémon you caught, the more pokemon of the same type you use.. the more experience you get. Move learning however is an entirely different form of training als requiring you to sack of some Pokémon. A soup will, at least in the earliest stages take you about two two five expeditions. Each expedition costing Mobee some battery energy. He has five! energy. Each bar recharges in 30 minutes. This means you’ll get one or maybe two pokémon per two and a half hours. These pokémon are heavily RNG influenced. A pokémon can learn one or two moves, which can both be status or attacking moves. Everyone has a basic attack as well. These basic attacks are super weak though, so basically if after two and a half hours you get your new mon and it only learns lightscreen… you either need to sacrifice four pokemon (10 hours of work) to learn it a new one, or rely on RNG and hope that you attract a better one by creating a similar soup. Luckily this is somewhat compensated by recipes. Certain types of soup attract certain type of Pokémon, so if you need a water type, it’s a safe bet to cook with a lot of blue ingredients. My luck in attracting Pokémon is horrendous , though I did manage to get my hands on a shiny machop! If you pick up certain package deals you will get up to three extra cooking pots, which I must say are somewhat fairly priced for something that effectively doubles up to quadruples your game speed. The expeditions themselves are fun and short enough just to fire your phone up for briefly. The descent autopilot makes it into a decent idle game as well. Just turn it on while chopping your salad or flipping your burger and you can still have a fun time, if you don’t mind trying your luck. The in game currency you can get fast enough to expand your pokemon slots and item slots without it limiting your game, just don’t go crazy and shop for to many decorations in the beginning. Those offer you a bonus themselves but until you get a versatile team, having power up items and plenty pokemon is more beneficial. No great gameplay, but it’s free to start so it doesn’t underachieve for me either.

Your pokémon will have a lot more fun at basecamp than you , if you play for free.

Score
Definitely the cutest pokemon game, (at least if we don’t consider the ones who use the IP illegally) you can get on your phone, but with plenty of frustrations to be had if you allow it to. Something you can easily pass upon and you would not really miss out on anything, yet again if you really love pokémon or even just love to see some cute cubed monsters running around there is no really any harm in playing it either. You will not even feel totally ripped off, if you buy the adventure packs. As for available purchases this game does actually give you some worth for your buck. Guaranteed pokémon, and permanent game speed upgrades?! I can totally live with those. Don’t expect a Pokémon Go like mobile game which you can constantly play though. Compare this game to an episode of a Joy of Painting (Bob Ross).
There’s a lot of happy little things and some bosses you can beat the devil out off, but in between those waits it’s borings as flan.

An I don’t mind it, seems like a perfect score, it’s exactly how I feel about the Joy of Painting as well. Have you played this game? What is your favorite mobile Pokémon game?
What is your best happily little accident? Leave a like and thanks for reading once more.
Stay a thinned Alizarine Crimson! (That’s Pink)