BraveMatch

Genre: Match-3 Puzzle

Players: 1

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Review:

BraveMatch is a Match-3 Puzzle game released on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch in 2021. This game has players connecting tiles to battle opponents in one-on-one fights, with a medieval fantasy theme.

The presentation here has some interesting elements, but overall it’s somewhat lacking. It uses 3D characters with heavy cel shading, and a background that could be 3D or 2D (it’s hard to tell, there’s no camera movement), stylized to look similarly cel-shaded. Nothing here moves save for the characters themselves, acting out attacks with a set animation as you clear matches or pass enough turns that the enemy’s attack is automatically triggered. While not ugly to look at, it’s not exactly great either, and it’s paired with a fantasy-appropriate instrumental soundtrack that’s, well, pretty generic. And yet, for this minimal, not especially impressive presentation, you’ll be using up over 1GB of space on your Nintendo Switch.

Before getting to the gameplay, I feel the need to address one major issue this game has right from the start – it is unplayable in docked mode. Oddly, the Nintendo Switch version of the game can only be played in handheld mode with touchscreen controls, despite that it was released alongside the PlayStation 4 version, which has no touchscreen to make use of. The touchscreen controls work well enough, though some of the text is so small I doubt this game’s creator put much thought into requiring the game to be played this way.

Players are given no explanation of the gameplay, and there’s shockingly little in the way of interface indications of what’s going on, but despite this it won’t take you very long to pick up on how to play this game. That’s because BraveMatch is extremely shallow – a game board fills up with rings, shields, swords, and blue herbs, and players must match three or more of one of these in a continuous line to enjoy its effects. Rings add currency, shields deduct damage from the enemy’s next attack, herbs refuel the magic you use to do special attacks, and swords, deal damage to the enemy.

Right off the bat, this seems to set up gameplay that’s similar to a cross between Puzzle Quest and Grindstone, and that’s a promising combination – both of those are phenomenal Puzzle games. Unfortunately, it fails to properly build on any of this. There is no enemy AI at all whatsoever – enemies will wait for two turns, and on the third turn deal a set amount of damage, always, without any deviation. Players can upgrade their shield, armor, and weapon, but different equipment doesn’t do anything in particular, it just buffs one of your stats.

To make things more absurd, upon realizing that buyable equipment just buffs stats and isn’t particularly special, and seeing that higher-level equipment isn’t all that much pricier than prior equipment, I found myself saving up rings for a few battles until I had enough to purchase the highest-level armor… and then did so again for the highest-level weapon. At that point, I was one-shotting enemies left and right. Even the final boss went down with one use of the weapon’s special attack and two decent hits.

Yeah, I completed the entire game in about twenty minutes. And once you complete the game… that’s it. There’s no multiplayer mode, no challenges, no puzzle mode, no New Game+. Twenty minutes of boring gameplay that wasn’t challenging or especially interesting.

It is so very sad that BraveMatch started with such a promising premise of mixing the mechanics of two greats of the genre, but did absolutely nothing to build on that idea. The gameplay is shallow, the enemy AI is brainless, the presentation is uninspired, the game is so laughably easy you can beat it without any trouble in under a half hour, and the content is so severely lacking that you’ll have nothing else to do after that half hour. And keep in mind, if you have a Nintendo Switch and want a Match-3 Puzzle game like Puzzle Quest or Grindstone, you can not only get Puzzle Quest or Grindstone, but you can also get Gems of War, created by the folks who made Puzzle Quest, free-to-play, and quite good. So why the heck would you waste any amount of money, even the low $5 asking price, on this disappointment of a game?

tl;dr – BraveMatch is a Match-3 Puzzle game that takes inspiration from Puzzle Quest and Grindstone, but does absolutely nothing to build on that inspiration. This game is only playable in handheld mode with the touchscreen, the presentation is lacking, and the gameplay is shallow, with dumb enemy AI and easy upgrades that make the game easily beaten in a half an hour, and after that, there’s nothing else to do here. Do not waste money on this game.

Grade: D

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2021 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: The “Why is this taking so much space on my memory card!?” Award

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