Remember when we had things called Tamagotchi? Those small robot-pets you could keep in a keychain and be given to children to prove that it was hard to raise a pet. I never had one, since I had four real-life cats growing up. They gave me more love and attention than a robot-pet ever could. Still, the idea intrigued me, and it was the first thing that popped into my head when I booted up void tRlM(); //Void Terrarium. But this time, it was I who was kept as a Tamagotchi. I’ll refer to Void when I’m talking about void tRrLM(); //Void Terrarium for the rest of the review.
void tRrLM(); //Void Terrarium:
In a world contaminated with toxic fungi, a discarded maintenance robot finds a girl named Toriko on the brink of death among the discarded junk in a scrapyard. After nursing her back to health, it is revealed that she may very well be the last remaining human and is highly vulnerable to the deadly conditions of the outside world. To ensure her survival, the Robot, and his newfound friend, a decommissioned AI is known as factoryAI, creates a refuge for her within a terrarium. To reinforce the terrarium as well as Toriko’s poor health, the lone Robot must venture into the wasteland to gather resources while battling the vagrant machines and mutated creatures that roam there. Along the way, the uncertain future of Toriko’s existence and with her, the entire human race, will slowly come to light…
An excellent story setting, right? Usually, it’s the other way around, the world gets destroyed by robots, and you are the only human capable of stopping the robot revolution! Well, what if a simple AI made a simple mistake of wiping out the entire human race. Well, yeh, that’s basically what happened in Void. Luckily there is this one, lonely girl named Torkio who is on the verge of death. Our little friend Robbie finds her and wants to help her. But to do so, he has to engage in some robot-roguelike action runs, gathering and scavenging everything he can find to deconstruct and build tools to save Toriko.
What to do?
Do mind, in the beginning; Void isn’t entirely clear on what to do – my best bet was to explore and dive deeper and deeper into the locations I unlocked. Luckily I figured out how to craft items and that my run was not ‘saved’; ergo losing all my perks, upgrades, and weapons returning to the scrapyard. Players familiar with the Mystery Dungeon games or Chocobo Dungeon game will be finding themselves at a familiar place since the gameplay is 80% the same. And I mean this in the right way since I love these types of games. Void differs from them due to the implementation of the roguelike aspect.
“Save the last remaining human from the dangers of the toxic world”
Each level up, you’ll gain a perk, which could be anything from a new skill to buff in attack or defense. Keep in mind that you can only pick one, and they will not last after you die. While exploring the dungeon, you’ll have to keep an eye out on your health, battery (food in Pokemon/Chocobo) but also the food levels and health of Toriko. Having a great run, but did you forget to feed Toriko? Well, tough luck, back to the scrapyard it is – since Torkio is your primary goal, next to clearing dungeons, but you won’t have anything at a cleared dungeon with a dead Toriko.
After clearing the first few layers, AI will fill you in on more and more of the story and grant you with some updates. These updates will give our little Robot a better fighting chance and make the living environment for Toriko a much more suitable place. Upgrading your Robot and terrarium will provide you with access to the deeper layers of the dungeons since both you and Toriko will be able to last longer without food or decontamination items. It’s these aspects that keep Void entertaining and different from the standard ‘Mystery Dungeon’ games. You could say it kept drawing me in for more and more, I wanted to clear layer 15 of the said dungeon, and I wanted to progress. Dying on layer 12 felt like failing, which kept me diving back in – while looking for suitable food for Toriko.
Perfect?
Sounds like the perfect game, right? Well, in a sense. I had a lot of fun and put in way too many hours in a short time spawn. Then I came to a certain point, in which the difficulty was raised a lot, and it became almost unbearable. I had to grind, grind, and grind while only finding contaminated food for Toriko. This led to her becoming sick, me finding medicine, and diverting from my goal further and further. I don’t mind a challenge since I play a lot of roguelikes, as you already noticed. But, they have to be beatable without grinding myself to death. I was racing for a high score on this title until this occurrence. It put a damper on the fun, which is a shame since the rest of Void works like a charm.
Graphical-wise, Void looks like something from an artbook you see in high-end stores. The hand-drawn art style, with its dark undertone, works great with the setting they are trying to emulate. The dungeons are the same maps over and over again (with some different textures and colors), but this never bothered me. Isaac and other roguelikes (yes, even Pokemon) use this function, and when it’s not a game-breaker, I don’t mind. The maps, however, were a bit empty compared to their size – this resulted in a lot of running around, triggering traps in further empty rooms and much more of these small annoyances. Luckily the mini-map can help you sort this out a bit.
Conclusion:
Void tRrLM(); //Void Terrarium is an exciting roguelike, with a unique twist on the whole total annihilation setting in a dystopian future. It’s a little on the text-heavy side due to the manuals you’ll have to work through. Once you handle the basics, the game feels like smooth sailing. It offers enough challenges for players who thought Pokemon Mystery Dungeon was a little bit too easy. If you don’t mind a little bit of grind, you can pour hours and hours in creating the perfect terrarium (and gaining stat upgrades in the process). It will certainly draw me in for a few more hours.
