Extra Coin

Extra Coin: Extra Coin
Released: October 8, 2024
Game Length: 8 Hours
Grade: C

 

Setting

Gameplay: If you chose to play this game blind, then you are going to be quite surprised with what the developers chose to be the main attraction. There are two loops that the game tries to push on you. A good loop encourages you to take some time off and relax. Depending on where you choose to go, a specific mini-game will be available where you must react to some button prompts to receive points. After completing one course, you will then be sent to a secondary duel loop where they hand you a giant blade to go do battle with another user. When you do challenge someone, you will be sent to a... tennis court? Not exactly. The only rule you have is to get the ball to touch your opponent's back wall. You can hit the ball as many times as you want and bounce it against the side walls. You don't have to worry about a net or trying to strike the ball in the air. Challenges are optional but you will want to become acquainted in the field when it comes time to defeating key opponents in the story.

Upgrades: Whenever you participate in a mini-game, your stats will increase. How hard you hit the ball, how quickly you move, and technique will all help in the coming matches. Occasionally, you will be able to learn an ultimate ability that bends the rules. These can include temporarily increasing something with your character, lowering your foes ability to react, or changing how the ball moves around. Points you earn from mini-games can be spent on buying these abilities from a merchant or obtaining various cosmetics. However, the game fools you in the sense that you cannot wear any cosmetics you obtain with your current situation.

Story: The game does not sugarcoat the situation. You are left alone in a depressed mess when you watch the last person in your family drift away. Alright, you do still have your cat to keep you entertained. Every time you look out the window, listen to the radio, or look at drawings, you are reminded of how horrible and rather lame situation you are in. Eventually, you become of age and join the digital world to search out what really happened to your family all those years ago. In the meantime, you learn that the fantasy world has its own share of horrors. There are players who are indefinitely hooked up to the system, certain individuals who are classified as cloudjumpers that can die for good, people that can have their memories wiped when entering or leaving the system, and moderators that reinforce the strict rules in place. Go against the schedule too many times and someone will be knocking on your door to challenge you. 

Collectables: If you aren't playing the mini-games or dueling, the third option would be gathering glitches, or tiny white dots you can barely see, from spamming the action button as you walk across the landscape or conversing with other characters. Be careful not to accidentally trigger an event that will cause you to leave before checking. You can get a total of two dots per zone per loop per chapter. Once you obtain enough, you can see short cutscenes upon the characters related to these memory fragments. 

Summary

Review: Despite the developers making a statement about the end of fixing bugs, there were quite a bit of hiccups in my playthrough. There was a screeching sound after using an ultimate ability half the time, the character's face didn't quite work whenever shifting her eyes, and an error that prevented me from continuing the game in the theater. I didn't like how you could suddenly trigger an event without a prompt (other than dueling) before exploring a region. Several times I visited a place with nothing available. Between the depressing nature of the story and the unusual gameplay mechanics, I do not recommend this game.