Developed by Score Studios and published by Rainy Frog, Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons is a brand-new puzzle game featuring classic Piczle Cross nonogram logic puzzles. While Score Studios is not new when it comes to nonogram puzzle games, this time around, they have set the theme of their new puzzle game around the charming and wholesome farming franchise Story of Seasons. As you solve nonogram puzzles, you will uncover different farming tools and equipment and in the background, you will continue to develop your farm. This is our review of Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons on PC via Steam in which we solve some challenging puzzles and develop our very own farm.
If you have been playing nonogram puzzle games for some time, you will not be a stranger to this genre. Basically, in Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons, the puzzles are solved by figuring out the current amount of blocks that need to be filled inside a grid based on the numbers provided on the side. You will come across different grids of diverse sizes with the smallest ones being 5×5 and the biggest ones being 20×20.
At the end of each of these rows, you have numbers written which dictate how many blocks you need to tick off to successfully complete the puzzle and figure out which particular farming item or tool you will uncover. While there is no proper story, the progression is shown by a farming scene playing in the background which expands and adds new animations to the scene as you complete more and more puzzles.
As you progress in the game, naturally the puzzles become harder and harder. The grid starts to get bigger, and you will start seeing multiple numbers on the sides of rows and columns as well. This means that the puzzles not only cater to increased grid sizes in terms of rows and columns, but you also have to cater to more numbers on each size. Depending on your skills in solving nonogram puzzles, it might take some time for you to understand how the puzzles work. You might pick them right from the start or you might take some time solving them. If you are finding it hard to complete the puzzles, the developers have ensured that it remains accessible to everyone.
There are different mechanics in place which ensure that you are always at the top of your game. You can use all of them, none of them, or use a selection of these mechanics which will help you in a variety of ways. You can use autocorrection to identify and correct the mistakes or you can start with a roulette that correctly marks one row and one column for you. These assists are available throughout the 350-strong puzzle lineup of the game. There are two main types of puzzles to solve here. 270 of these puzzles are main puzzles which vary in grid size and difficulty as you progress in the game, but the rest of the puzzles called Collage Puzzles are a collection of puzzles that you solve in order to complete a much bigger puzzle. The puzzles follow the same gameplay style and only the type and difficulty vary progressively.
The game ‘progresses’ in the background with each puzzle you solve so basically, each puzzle represents one day in the game. The more puzzles you solve, the more days pass and your characters continue to develop a farm in the background. There is not much to this farm, and it mostly plays the role of a screensaver because while you can view it, you cannot interact with anything in it. But progress is visible and even the smallest puzzle adds something new to your farm and you can continue to see additions with progression. This not only adds new stuff to your farm, but it also passes the time in it and with time, you can view your farm in different seasons as well. This is a cute, little detail in Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons but it is just for the aesthetics. It is not a farm-builder, and you only have to solve nonogram puzzles to progress in the game.
Coming to secondary content in the game, you do get a Journal which serves as a record book for all of your gameplay stats that you can check out at any time to see how well you have played the game so far. Apart from this, you can also access the Almanac which is a collection of information of all previous releases in the Story of Seasons franchise. It lists information about different animals, people, and other details from different games. Some of the entries are unlocked right from the start but rest are unlocked as you progress in the game. Apart from this, you can replay levels and try to complete them without using any of the hint mechanics at the best time possible to beat your own scores since there are no online leaderboards or ranking systems in the game.
Final Verdict:
While Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons is a great title on its own, it may be a little letdown for the franchise veterans who loved playing the cute, little farming title. The unique direction it takes may be new for its fans, but it manages to deliver a fun yet tricky new way to experience this wholesome franchise. The puzzles are tricky, but the farming aspect is nothing more than a theme of the game. Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons is a nonogram puzzle game and a great one at that. Some UI improvements would have been amazing but even in its current state, if you love puzzle games and more specifically if you love nonogram puzzle games, you are going to love playing Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons. I can recommend Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons to players who are fans of puzzle games only and for fans of this particular franchise, it may not be up to mark since there is no farm building.
Final Score: 8.0/10
