Void Terrarium Review: A Gorgeous Tamagotchi Dungeon Crawl

Void Terrarium is a gorgeous dungeon crawler RPG with a touching premise. Unfortunately, its execution is nothing special.

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Void Terrarium (styled void tRrLM(); //Void Terrarium) is a post-apoctalyptic rougelike where players must take on the role of a robot who has to nurse the last living human on the planet back to life. Sounds like a pretty high stakes game, no?

Void Terrarium is a gorgeous dungeon crawler RPG with a touching premise. Unfortunately, its execution is nothing special, resulting in a surface-level and repetitive story with no real dynamics.

Humanity’s Last Hope

Developed by Nippon Ichi Software, Void Terrarium tells the story of a robot named Robbie who resides in a desolate and toxic wasteland that once was filled with humans, but is now void of any living creatures. One day, he stumbles upon a sickly human girl. He then encounters a sentient A.I. who explains that humanity has been eradicated due to poisonous fumes that killed them all. Only this one girl, who Robbie and the A.I. later name Toriko, survived.

Robbie decides to nurse Toriko back to health and protect her from the harsh world around her. To accomplish this, he must travel to various parts of the wasteland, fight against enemy robots and creatures, and collect food and other materials that will keep her safe.

Void Terrarium’s gameplay has two distinct features – dungeon crawling and terrarium building. Throughout the game, Robbie routinely gets new objectives, all having to do with protecting Toriko, which requires him to build new features and gather resources for her terrarium home. To accomplish that, Robbie must venture into different areas of the wasteland.

The gameplay follows a typical roguelike, with each area represented by into their own unique multi-leveled dungeon that is filled with enemies Robbie must defeat through turn-based combat. Robbie enters each dungeon at level 1; as he advances by killing enemies, he gains EXP which will award him with randomly-selected passive skills that can help during combat.

In addition to watching out for enemies, Robbie also needs to keep an eye out on Toirko’s well-being – the longer his mission takes and he’s away from her, the hungrier (and weaker) she’ll become. After Robbie successfully finds all the required materials, he can then return to Toriko and upgrade her home. He also can feed her, using food he’s collected through his travels, and watch as she grows healthier and stronger throughout the game.

A Beautifully Ominous Atmosphere

Though dungeon crawling does make up the majority of gameplay of Void Terrarium, the first thing players are introduced to is the gorgeous setting of the game – Toriko’s terrarium home. The setting appears to be muddled and blurry, almost like looking through a watercolor painting through dirty lenses. It’s a subtle but beautiful detail that emphasizes just how poisonous and horrible the outside world has become, further reinforcing the vital objective to protecting Toriko from all the elements that could easily kill her, and thus, humanity’s only hope.

Beyond that, the ominous, yet melodic combination of piano and electronic music that accompany the setting is paired beautifully, creating a dark fairytale-esque atmosphere that works like a charm. While it definitely can connote ideas of bleakness and melancholy, it still emphasizes the ideas that the artwork laid a foundation for.

Additionally, despite our two leads’ non-human manifestations, the creators have done an incredible job bringing them to life through dialogue, animation, and sound effects. Robbie’s adorable animations, the A.I.’s conversational dialogue, and the music that accompanies each of their conversations reinforce the idea that these two truly care for Toriko; and, in turn, make the player do so as well.

Post-Apocalyptic Tamagotchi Rougelike

But when it comes to the actual gameplay, players will spend the majority of their time dungeon crawling. Luckily, Void Terrarium’s gameplay is not too difficult, and the game’s tutorials do a great job of effectively explaining the controls and functions. Each dungeon is randomly filled with different functions, including items, monsters, and checkpoints, making it interesting each time a player goes through.

The game is a great starter for gamers who are interested in roguelikes: While there are multiple dungeons to complete throughout the 25-hour long game, they don’t differ too much in terms of layout, making it easy for newbies to get a handle on the mechanics. Additionally, a lot of the crawling and turn-based fighting is luck-based (rather than skill-based), which is also friendly to newcomers. (For those looking for a challenge…more on that later.)

When it comes to actually caring for Toriko, that feature can be likened to the popular Tamagotchi digital pets – she needs to be fed with food, given medicine when she’s sick, and her home needs to be cleaned every now and then. Despite how daunting that might all sound, caring for Toriko is a fairly easy process. She’s also just simply adorable.

Repetitive & Luck-Based

Though Void Terrarium’s dungeons might be ideal for a newcomer, the similar nature between each of them can get a bit repetitive for those looking for a challenge. Additionally, as much of the game’s fighting is dependent on chance, specifically from the randomly selected passive skills gained to help you in combat, there’s not much a player can do when it comes to strategizing. Combined with the similar nature of the dungeons, the game can get a bit boring.

Finally, while the premise of the game is definitely unique, the story is unfortunately not particularly dynamic. With such an interesting premise, it would have been cool to see a more engaging narrative, especially to break up the repetitive dungeon crawling. Instead, we have a very pretty-looking story that has lots of good aspects – but doesn’t necessarily achieve anything groundbreaking or monumental in execution.

With a beautiful atmosphere, loveable characters, and intuitive controls, Void Terrarium is a great dungeon crawler for those looking to dip their toes into the genre. Unfortunately, it lacks substance beyond that, rendering it a pretty unremarkable entry in the rougelike game canon.

A Nintendo Switch version of Void Terrarium was provided to TheGamer for this review. Void Terrarium is available now for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4.

Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/void-terrarium-review/