Breathtaking//inspiring – Picross Luna Review

This is, by far, one of the most beautiful games I have ever played. Every bit of this game breathes my style, from the easy to use picross controls to the soft colors and art style. I have spent hours playing this game, always curious to what my next piece might be. I generally don’t write reviews, but once I had turned on my sound and heard the lovely soft piano ballads this game had to offer, I knew that this would be a game worth reviewing. There are two aspects of this game, a story mode and a journey mode. The journey mode is more of your expected picross experience, in which each puzzle makes a picture once completed. Puzzles can be completed in black or white or in color, a delightful option. Most pictures are related to fairy tales, keeping an even theme throughout the game. While each puzzle is completely independent of another, it feels cohesive. There are a few hundred puzzles to work through ranging in difficulty for 5x5 to 20x20. The second mode of this game is the story mode. Each “chapter” is present as a large picross broken into smaller pieces. Once you have completed the 50-100 or so smaller puzzles, a larger and much more intricate picture is revealed. After completing each larger puzzle, there is a small portion of the story unlocked for you to read. The translation for the story is a bit... in broken English, but it is more or less easy to understand the fairy tale being told. The story is delightful nonetheless. Overall, this game is everything I would ever want in a game, based solely on my own aesthetic. However, there are a few things that keep me from giving this game a 5/5 star review: First, there is absolutely no way to block the ads. While the ads aren’t as intrusive as other games, I find ads painful to sit through. As I am an apparent absolute princess about this matter, it annoys me to no end that there is no buy out option to prevent them. Although, I can understand why the developer would choose to do this, and this point is moderately forgivable. Second would be the English translations. I might be a bit picky to say that the broken English is somewhat bothersome. I wish the developer had taken the time and money to hire an official translator for the English release of this game. I understand that English is not easy for everyone, nor does everyone speak it, but it would have been the icing on the cake for this game, and might unfortunately deter some people from even playing it altogether, which is an absolute shame. And lastly, there is no way to access the music of this game outside of the game. There appears to be no credited composer or name for the songs played in the background of the game. I admit that I am being extremely spiteful on this matter, but the fact that I have no option to buy or download the in game music is the worst thing that could have possibly happened to me. I appear to not be the only person who has this problem, as I have done several extensive searches into the songs. The developers also appear to be silent in the matter, and for this reason alone, I could not and will not give this game the five stars it should deserve.
Review by Nie Nie Lyn on Picross Luna.