First Impressions: OneBit Adventure

OneBit Adventure

Release Date: August 2, 2019

Systems: Android, Windows, iOS, macOS

Publisher: Galactic Slice

Developer: Galactic Slice

For all of the shit that I have given mobile games over the last six months, I finally found one that is what I wanted it to be.  OneBit Adventure is a simple semi-monochromatic vertically scrolling roguelike/roguelite where the end game is, from what I can tell, to last as long as possible while looting as many things as possible.

Not knowing anything about the mechanics of the game before starting, I decided to play a Wizard out of the seven possible character classes (Warrior, Blood Knight, Wizard, Necromancer, Pyromancer, Archer, and Thief) partly because the pixel art is exceedingly similar to that of the Black Mage from the first Final Fantasy.  I went with that without looking too closely at the rest of the stats or character descriptions. I only now just noticed that it has the lowest difficulty rating, although also the third lowest health (I think), below the Archer and Pyromancer.

As of this writing, I have done two runs in the game over three days and it is pretty fun.  Attacking is similar to the Witch and Hero series where you just run into enemies to do damage, although with the Wizard, if you have a wand equipped you can use your mana to automatically cast a spell if the enemy is two spaces away from you.  So you move up the screen, killing enemies, collecting coins on the ground, breaking open crates and barrels to find consumables and sometimes equipment, opening chests for the same, and occasionally running into merchants to buy/sell and upgrade gear.  About halfway through the stage (maybe?) you have the option of entering a separate dungeon area to collect materials used to upgrade your equipment which culminates in a boss fight.  If you win, you unlock a chest with what I presume to be better loot than what would normally drop during a standard run.  Then return to the regular map where you continue your ascent up the screen and ever greater glories.

Like a good video game mechanic, you can rest at campfires which heals your HP/MP (if applicable) to max and gives you the option of saving your game and returning to the main menu, resuming your current run, or ending it and tapping out.  There are plenty of other mechanics here because this is a free-to-play indie game, but most of the pay options have to do with either avatar and profile cosmetics, and buying diamonds (in-game currency)or materials for equipment upgrades.  I haven't yet come across any pop-up ads or a limit on how long you can play, but after each death after your first, you can either pay diamonds to revive (since your first revive is free) or end your run and return to the home menu.  The incentive is that the more steps you put in, the harder the monsters get although the more XP you get in turn.  Once you reach 1,000 vertical steps (if your think of each row on the screen as one, you only earn one step for each new row you step on the first time, likely to prevent people from running around in circles to rack up steps without actually doing anything), you can fast-travel to that point after you die.  It is really refreshing not to have to be constantly bombarded with options to buy anything using real-world currency, although the option to do so is there in the background.

Maybe because I haven't delved too deeply into the game and how the game is handled in terms of progression, as my only and main complaint is with the location of the directional pad being off to the bottom right of the screen with no option to move it to another part of the screen.  I know it's a personal preference thing, but I hold my phone with my left hand so then moving has my entire thumb covering up the entire bottom of the screen.  And since I do tend to still be active on the bottom part of the screen, at times my character is completely obscured by my thumb.  The fix for this is to hold my phone in my right hand and use my right thumb, but this feels awkward and I feel uncoordinated.  I wish there was an option to either move the directional pad or have it be an invisible floating one on the bottom quarter of the screen, similar to Mighty DOOM.

And the music.  The music!  It's appropriately chiptuney and not trying to come across as something that the visuals are not.  It's also very repetitive, but considering the game, it works very well.  Zero complaints about the music.  I would like to say more about this, but stay tuned later in the week and I promise that we'll get there.

I could see keeping OneBit Adventure on my phone for the foreseeable future, playing a run or two in just a handful of minutes, and calling it for the day.  The game doesn't really ask more of you than that unless you are trying to get on one of the unassuming leaderboards, which the game thankfully doesn't try to remind you of every time you die.  There's no "Keep Playing to be the Best Adventurer!"  Just a skull (your skull?) to tell you you've died and how many, if any diamonds to resurrect you.  And with the game also available on Steam and itch.io, I kind of wonder if there is cross-platform saving/progression, but I think I really want to keep this as a mobile-only game, for the same reason that I don't want overly complex and mechanic-heavy games on my phone.  I know that there are additional dungeons but I don't know if those are locked behind and paywall, a skillwall or a leveled wall, so we'll have to wait and see for the Cthulhu Dungeon.

I may also attempt to tinker with some of the other classes to see how they play and how/if they make the game feel any different than playing with the Wizard.  Does having a tanky Warrior mean that I won't have to focus or think about my MP or will they learn magical abilities?  I guess we'll all just have to find out together as the year progresses.

And now that you've reached the end of this article, I present to you a short run-of-the-mill run with my Wizard:

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
I'll Keep Your Memory Alive