Neoverse: Trinity Edition (Switch)

A new rougelite card based RPG released for the Nintendo Switch from developers Toni Games offers turn based tactical combat across a variety of game modes, so let’s take a look and see if it’s worth the price tag (£17.49)

Usually we open up with a bit about the story in our reviews, but honestly I’m at a bit of a loss with this one. Neoverse offers an opening cutscene showing the 3 protagonists slaying all manner of foes – and that’s it. With a little imagination you can make a few wild guesses at what’s happening, though your interpretation would likely not be confirmed at any point. I didn’t really see much expansion on the narrative, while that is no reason to dislike the game, but it’s something to keep in mind if you like more story in your games 

The visuals for Neoverse are actually on the nice side of what I have seen on the switch, in both its character models and backgrounds, and other animations on top of this. It didn’t seem to have any visual bugs or lengthy loading scenes.

Audio also is well timed for animations and effects, and persists in all areas. I personally enjoyed the ambiance music while on the character load out screen.

Gameplay is split along multiple game modes, adventure, challenge and hunter (all self explanatory and almost exactly the same) as well as characters (only one available at the start, agent Naya ) and also card decks. On top of this there are skins and items that can be unlocked/purchased (using in game currency) making for a fair amount of variety. While it’s not full customisation, and it requires some unlocks, it adds somewhat to replayability and helps make things feel a bit fresher when replaying – if only a little.

Combat is a turn based affair with yourself taking on 1-3 enemies per stage, with a boss every few levels to mix things up a little. 

On your turn you have to use your mana to select cards to play attack, defence or “buff”, in any combination you choose as long as you have mana remaining. The idea is you must deplete all the enemy’s HP while managing attack, defence and HP. There are no level ups in Neoverse to get stronger, instead you gain skill points in a variety of ways, including clearing stages and completing objectives. You spend these points on passive skills to try and gain an edge in combat.

While the game does drop a basic tutorial on you, I don’t recall it teaching me parry or combo attacks. Almost immediately dropping me into the action and one of my first objectives being to combo left me scratching my head.

The game does not have any exploration or divergents, instead going for what I’m dubbing an “on rail turn based RPG” . As you clear a battle you will be given options on if you want a normal or elite battle, but for the most part it’s one battle after another all the way to the end.

Despite the lack of a detailed story that is my personal preference, I enjoyed the gameplay of Neoverse. While it did give me a headache at first, as I got used to the mechanics of the title I got more into making combos and building a strategy to take down my foes.

Overall I did enjoy the games combat and modes, as well as building the best deck, while picking and choosing if a reward would was worth taking or not. A lot of different builds can be made and each run isn’t exactly the same because of this, sadly besides your build the different modes are more of the same with a different name. While I tried them out, I can’t say any was more or less enjoyable than the other, with the only real changes being restrictions