I'd like to agree with most of the comments here. The energy system just turns an otherwise solid game into a babysitting simulator like most other f2p games that uses timed energy to play. Since you have to grind materials to level stuff up you blow through your energy storage which takes several hours to recharge in like 30 seconds with quick loot option which you are forced to use once you 3 star a level. The gain energy for watching ads is capped after a certain amount of viewing/energy gained so you cant use that either to extend playtime much. Im also confused what the recovery stat is for. Does it increase the amount gained from health tiles? The timer to combo tiles? Anyone know?
The thing is, removing the energy system wouldn't really change anything unless the entire foundation of the game was reworked. Endless energy just means that you'd log into the game once every eight hours and "Quick Loot" every stage that you've already three-starred. You'd get more 'farming loot' each day, but you wouldn't be able to actively PLAY the game any more than you can now, except on the most recent stage (which you're likely not strong enough to clear unless you get a series of lucky matches), or any stages which you deliberately made sure to never 3* so they'd remain open for manual farming without being locked for eight hours.
Being able to play the stage you're on without energy would be great. It lets you try over and over again. You still keep what you defeat as a resource, so it also lets you farm monster-bits. That would change a lot for me. Also, if you could replay, not quick harvest, previous levels without energy, that would help grinding fun too. And yes, grinding can be fun.
Garlic, nutmeg... ? I can not figure out what the bonus ingredient items are used for. After getting them in a chest, there is no option that I can tell where you can use them.
Upgrade shops the answer Ah... just upgraded slime shop for the first time and answered my question about ingredients. They're needed for upgrades to the shops.
At the end of the day, though, removing the energy system simply replaces one problem with another. If they kept Quick Harvest you just use that a few times a day until you've leveled up enough for the +5% stats to get you past the current level. If they remove Quick Harvest (so you have endless energy but have to actively play stages), you could repeat Stage 1-5 endlessly and effortlessly until Jade is at least Level 40 (possibly higher, assuming a different Evo isn't needed to get her to three stars). It'd be even easier if you did that before unlocking more characters/colors. Apart from monster drops, there's no reward difference between Stage 1-1 and 4-1, so why would you ever replay a harder stage when you could advance faster by having the Blob shop always running? So they'd need to restrict your ability to 'farm' earlier stages, which means the energy system is just replaced with the timer system. The entire method of game advancement would need to be redesigned to accommodate endless play.
The energy system is garbage but that's honestly not the worst thing about the game and removing it wouldn't fix the gameplay issues. The game focuses on making combos to maximize damage but the board often does not present any possible combos, sometimes for consecutive turns. Beating a level can largely come down to how lucky you are with the board. The other problem is the stupid amount of things to collect to upgrade.
Due to an error in the shop I was able to continuously purchase a hero's token at 100 coins each, so I upgraded my Alexander to level 40. AND YET, I occasionally have trouble beating some of the the early levels of world 2. This game's paywall is so utterly ridiculous and retrospectively I don't think I need to feel bad one single bit to have used the exploit as the devs seem to be just as greedy. It's a real bummer there isn't new level music for each world either, but other than this and the ungracious energy system the game is pretty solid. If you have any more patience than I do you're probably best off to save your real money for something else, as paying any amount will just be sunk cost that doesn't magically unlock you a premium version of the game.
I still like this game and am having fun but, I feel like there is a scaling issue that makes it not as fun. For example, as you level up, you get more energy, but the levels cost more energy too so they negate each other. Then, your heroes level up, but so do the enemies so they cancel each other out as well. Only once in awhile do you find yourself slightly overpowered where you can beat a level or two before you are back to grinding and luck. It's been slow going. I'm 47% through level 1.
Has anyone confirmed if iCloud support works? If I delete this then reinstall, will my progress be recovered?
Any chance that the Devs would consider a similar paid mechanism such as that offered by Sky Force Reloaded - that is, where you can pay to speed up, but not remove, the energy timer? SFR also allows you to add extra energy units/ships, and ML does something similar by increasing your energy by 1 when you level up. Perhaps that could be increased to +2/level? TIA
Looking at the hero stats, what does Recovery do? EDIT: I'm guessing that if you match hearts (heal), it's the amount of HP the hero recovers
I'm liking it as well. The structure I'm ok with - match-3 for me are casual games I play a bit here and there throughout the day, it's not a Zelda where you sink in for a prolonged period of time. So I don't mind the energy meter that much. I also think the quick loot is quite brilliant in that I don't have to grind like nuts and get tired of the game. Overall, it's solid for what it is.
Just to add my 2 cents, I agree with GiHubb that I think this game hits a good balance, especially with the quick loot. During the day I can hop in and use up my energy quickly, but in the evening when I have a little more time I can sit down a play through a couple of new levels. One issue I have run into, is some wonkiness with the iCloud (or is it GameCenter) syncing. Sometimes it seems to work, but like right now on my iPad I've unlocked the beach levels and have played through a couple of them, but when I opened up the app on my iPhone this morning, the crab levels are not unlocked and it seems to be an older save or something. IDK if that's just a bug, or maybe adding a manual sync button somewhere would be nice. A little feature request I thought of would be a way to click on any shop, say the Bee shop, and then see what levels have bees and how many. This is especially useful if I only need like 3 more bees to open the shop, it'd be nice to see a little view of the levels and which ones I can quick loot to get those missing 3 bees. I know I can go to the bee set of levels and click on each one to see how many are available in that level, but I'm just thinking a quick view of this or something. All in all, I've been enjoying the game. I'd love to see updates with more stuff added, but I think it's pretty fun as it is. Maybe spells or hero abilities to remove all of a certain tile from the board. Possibly some sort of inventory for heroes, ie armor and weapons, but that may take away from the simplicity of the game.
Hey guys, Glad you're enjoying the game, it's had a great launch and we're hard at work on our first big content update. We do have a small update sitting with Apple now that should be out within 24 hours. It increases starting base stamina by 25% and adds a chance at getting gems in the gift box, allowing you to slowly collect premium currency faster, as well as fixes tons of bugs. Appreciate the comments
