Also don't expect anything at all to clarify. I got what I paid for and even though I'm disappointed, that's life.

That being said, I want to clarify that I don't expect major changes to this game given it's late. I figured I might as well try asking for something, but the issues here seem to run deeper than a more minor fix could fully address. The core Picross system is great, but the wrapping is lacking.

When you talk about pushing players through this extrinsic reward scheme as part of the design and philosophy, you're talking about forcing them to experience a game a certain way where it really shouldn't be necessary. That should be room for pause and I'd urge you to reevaluate that.

The underlying effect of that is that it allows players who don't care as much for the extrinsic side of things to jump back into playing quicker because that's what's more enjoyable for them and that's where they want to be.

Take Ridge Racer from 2004, a random game I'm playing right now. The game has an extrinsic value system in the form of car unlocks, and fancy cutscenes to highlight them. The player is entirely free to skip them. I have with most, but did choose to watch one for a car that was difficult to unlock.

Seeing you double down on the philosophy gives me pause. What I'm bringing up is a UX issue: your post- and pre-Picross menuing takes extra time to navigate because you didn't build that to be player driven. There's room here to build systems with optionality that don't comprimise your intent.

This shit is intense.

Finished the first tour after and it introduces a whole new mode, being a more traditional duel race that's far more difficult. Took some doing to clear, but the game really shines when pushed to the limits.

Why don't more JRPG characters drive over their enemies with cars? It'd simplify so many random encounters.

Some trivia: The game was called Ridge Racers in Japan and Ridge Racer everywhere else, convoluting an already confusing naming scheme. The game also had a sequel - Ridge Racer(s) 2 - which was never released on the PSP in North America, though it eventually got an NA Playstation port in 2022.

Genuinely incredible game. It looks and sounds fantastic and still plays like a dream, over eleven years past when it first launched with the PSP in Japan in December 2004.

It seems to take at least around ten seconds to get into a new puzzle without any special conditions and that adds up a lot over 800+ puzzles. Even if it changes nothing in this game, it is something to consider for future titles.

No problem! The one last thing I'll say is that it'd be good to find an average of times between exiting and entering new puzzles between normal animations, sticker popups, pages being finished, etc., and multiply that to find a rough duration of how much downtime is in a full playthrough.

I know that's too much to ask for though. That's a major structural overhaul of the game flow that opens up a number of other considerations. If anything, leaning into the other side of things, being able to disable the times shown per puzzle would be nice. That's been influencing how I play so far.

Interrupting the gameplay every few minutes to be made to click through menus again is, to me, the opposite of zen. What's relaxing to me is to be able to get in the zone and enjoy the gameplay. I do wish there was some sort of focus mode where I could go through the puzzles without interruption.

Two things on that front. a) The inclusion of time logging by default and the ability to turn on timers during gameplay stand antithetical to that front, nudging players to play faster and b) the animations are a forced break, and not playing at all. I don't find them relaxing personally.

@alexstrook.bsky.social @lukathemouse.gay Skip animation option please 🙏🙏🙏

Otherwise it seems very good so far and I can't wait to put Possum into Jim Henson's The Cube (1969).

Eleven puzzles in and the one big complaint I have so far is that the UI animations between puzzles take too damn long! It's already annoying on an individual scale and I know it's going to get more so given that there are hundreds of them in this game.