Recent reviews by Semple

After reaching Cruciball 20 on all four classes (at the time of this review), I felt as if I had to do a review in order to proceed. Otherwise, what would have been the point of going to all that trouble? It's not like anyone else knew... assuming my neighbors didn't overhear me when I was particularly displeased with, and particularly vocal about, certain low moments in my runs.

Peglin is a game I was introduced to via youtube videos, most prominently Aliensrock but also Timetogrind, Frost Prime, and Angory Tom. Funnily enough, all of them have unique relics in the game, but that's a digression I won't follow further. Watching Peglin runs is all well and good, but it's frustrating when someone you're watching skips over what would have been an amazing combo in one's own hands. Actually going and buying the game meant I could do runs myself, but it also meant if something went wrong and a build fell apart, that was my fault.

It's a rather interesting mix of roguelike deckbuilder and peggle. In each encounter, you get given a pegboard with specific patterns on it, have to navigate the orbs through that pegboard (be warned that they will bounce in ways you can't make sense of), and hope that the outcome is favorable. Also, pay attention to what orb you're throwing, since while most of them are some type of damage orb, some of them have different incompatible synergies, and some of them just plain don't do damage at all. Still, with practice, one can get the hang of how things go.

...Sort of. Some of the mechanics are uncompromisingly brutal. You might go for navigation gold after a close battle, only for bounces to end up going wrongly and dumping you in the fire several times in a row, or sending you off to a shop while you're so dirt poor you can't afford anything, or in the worst case scenario sending you to an elite fight when you just don't have the strength for it. I'm also really not a fan of the mechanic where if you pass on a relic, you will never be able to obtain that relic again later in the run - sure, it gives you more variety to work with, but if you're forced to choose between two or three very good relics or fail to afford a crucial relic from a shop, it hurts. It'd be nice if that was something one could toggle in the settings, or at least could be enabled as a custom run modifier.

Now for the classes. As mentioned, there's 4 of them, and they all start with a bunch of Pebballs (plus some other things on higher difficulty settings). Going over them one at a time...

The default Peglin class starts with a Daggorb, an orb that has low damage on noncrits but very high damage on critical hits. He also has the starting relic Peglintuition, which gives you +1 option when choosing rewards from treasures or fights. As the resident jack of all trades, he can borrow most of the orbs and relics from other classes, though I feel like there's some hidden mechanic that means you only get half of the focus of each other class at a time. It'd make sense if that was how it worked, since otherwise that's a ludicrous amount of variance to squeeze into something coherent.

Balladin, who to my understanding was the first alternate class added to the game, is a class focused around Muscircle, Ballwark, and self damage. He starts with a Sphear, which has lower crit damage than the Daggorb, but it strikes through multiple targets. He also has the starting relic Balladroit, which gives you some Ballwark at the start of battle. Mechanically, Muscircle increases the damage you do on hits that DON'T crit, Ballwark is basically extra health that takes damage before your actual health, and self damage should be obvious. I've found that he's arguably the strongest class, or at least the one who is the most random-bad-event-proof, on account of how much Ballwark you can build up if you make the effort. It's also very fun to get the Unpretentious Pendant, a relic that removes a crit from the board while increasing your noncrit damage. The only caveat is you have to unlock him via doing a default Peglin run where you build up a certain amount of Ballwark to begin with.

Roundrel, the second alternate class, is focused around Spinesse, Ballusion, and status effects, with a bit of coin chicanery thrown in for good measure. He starts with an Evasive Maneuvorb, which funnily enough grants you Ballusion after you attack with it, but is also the only starting orb with targeted attack mechanics instead of projectile attack mechanics. He also has the starting relic Roundreloquence, which in addition to being moderately hard to pronounce also applies random negative status effects every time you hit an enemy. To be honest, I don't enjoy playing with this class. Peglin is already a game that feels very unforgiving to the unlucky, and when you add in a class that survives through the mostly-random mechanic of dodging attacks, and gets most of its damage from the semi-random mechanic of crits? It just becomes too unreliable. If you fancy your odds or just like the thematics, you can unlock him in game by stacking up a lot of Spinfection, the local poison effect - though you will need a very tanky enemy to target so you can stack that poison properly.

Spinventor, the third alternate class, is focused around slime, upgrading pegs, and I guess also "technology" but that feels like a copout to write. He starts with a Splatorb, which has pretty good damage but is more focused on applying rubber slime to pegs, making them both bouncier and durable - essentially meaning you can hit them multiple times and they won't go away. He also has the starting relic Spinventoriginality, buffing the damage of each orb in your deck that you only have one copy of. My thoughts on this class can be summed up as

A GOOD SLIME A GOOD SLIME A GOOD SLIME A GOOD SLIME A GOOD SLIME A GOOD SLIME A GOOD SLIME A GOOD SLIME A GOOD SLIME A GOOD SLIME A GOOD SLIME A GOOD SLIME

and also it is incredibly funny to take way too many swoltorbs and (Defresh Potion / Gift That Keeps On Giving) to repeatedly upgrade the board so much that the numbers stop fitting nearly in the pegs. Definitely worth doing if you can make it happen. You unlock the Spinventor by hitting 6 slimed pegs, I think it has to be in a row, which will either take some considerable precise setup or you'll accidentally sneeze during navigation and somehow get given an achievement for free.

I am not going to cover every enemy type in the game since that's way too many things, and this review is already... very stupidly longwinded, but just know you'll probably want AoE damage before going into floor 2, and you'll definitely want some healing or a Level 3 Shock Orbsorber before going into floor 3. Trust me, it will help.

Now, to the point, do I recommend the game? Sure, with some caveats. If you are someone who rages easily, you will feel a lot of rage and should consider investing in soundproof walls. If you are someone who struggles with feelings of depression and futility, you ought to give this game a pass. If you are someone who has limited time to do things with your life, you likely have better things to do than spend it in 40+ minute sessions of a game that isn't guaranteed to reward you. But hey, you can buy it and play it through anyway, just maybe avoid the higher cruciball levels since that's where the bulk of frustration comes from. And if you do go hunting that coveted cruciball 20 on all classes milestone like I did, well...

"The way of the warrior is resolute acceptance of death." -Miyamoto Musashi.

Bought the game. Tried running the game. Unbearable lag. Not sure why. Can't troubleshoot it since "rounds" is an annoyingly vague search term.

Would probably recommend if the lag weren't a thing.