In the world of indie gaming, innovation often emerges from blending unlikely genres, and Peglin is no exception. Combining pachinko mechanics with rogue-lite elements, Peglin offers a refreshing and addictive gameplay experience. With its charming visuals, strategic depth, and endless replayability, this game has captured the attention of casual gamers and hardcore enthusiasts alike. This detailed review will explore every facet of Peglin, highlighting its features, mechanics, strengths, and areas for improvement.
What is Peglin?
Developed by Red Nexus Games, Peglin is a rogue-lite game where players take on the role of a mischievous goblin exploring a world filled with danger and treasure. The game’s unique hook lies in its combat system, which is inspired by pachinko, a popular Japanese game involving balls dropped into a pegged board. Each level presents a mix of challenges, including enemies to defeat, treasure to collect, and strategic decisions to make.
Core Gameplay Mechanics
The Pachinko Board
At the heart of Peglin is its pachinko-inspired combat system. Players launch orbs from the top of a pegged board, and as the orbs bounce off pegs, they generate damage or trigger special effects. The goal is to strategically aim and time shots to maximize damage against enemies positioned at the top of the screen.
Peg Types: The board features different types of pegs, each with unique effects. Regular pegs add standard damage, while critical pegs amplify damage when hit. There are also bomb pegs that explode and deal area-of-effect damage. Refresh pegs reset all used pegs, giving players an opportunity to sustain long chains of hits.
Orb Variations: Players have access to a wide array of orbs, each with distinct properties. For example, stone orbs deal basic damage, while fire orbs ignite pegs for ongoing damage. Healing orbs restore health, while multiball orbs split into multiple projectiles for increased peg hits. The variety encourages experimentation and strategic planning, as each orb interacts differently with the board.
Rogue-lite Progression
As a rogue-lite, Peglin offers procedurally generated levels and a sense of progression between runs. Here are some key elements:
Randomized Levels: No two playthroughs are the same, thanks to randomly generated boards, enemies, and treasures. Each run feels fresh, presenting new combinations of challenges and rewards.
Persistent Upgrades: While death resets most progress, players can unlock permanent upgrades and orbs that enhance future runs. Artifacts found during gameplay provide game-changing effects, such as doubling damage on specific pegs or adding passive healing between battles.
Difficulty Scaling: As players advance, enemies become tougher, and boards grow more complex, keeping the challenge engaging. Boss battles introduce additional layers of strategy, requiring precise aiming and resource management.
Strategic Elements
Peglin isn’t just about mindlessly launching orbs. Strategy plays a significant role:
Choosing Your Path: Players navigate a map with branching paths, deciding whether to pursue combat, treasure, or elite enemies for greater rewards. Each choice can significantly impact the success of a run.
Managing Resources: Health, orbs, and upgrades must be carefully managed. Taking unnecessary damage or failing to optimize shots can lead to an early demise. Balancing risk and reward is essential.
Adapting to Randomness: Luck is a factor in Peglin, but skillful aiming and resource management can mitigate its impact. Learning how different orbs and artifacts interact with the board is key to success.
Graphics and Audio
Visual Style
Peglin features charming, cartoonish graphics that appeal to players of all ages. The goblin protagonist is endearing, and the environments are colorful and varied. Each board is thoughtfully designed, with visual cues that help players strategize their shots. Boss designs are particularly creative, ranging from giant tree monsters to fearsome armored knights.
Sound Design
The game’s sound effects are satisfying, with the clinks and bounces of orbs adding a tactile quality to the gameplay. The music is light and whimsical, complementing the game’s playful tone. However, some players may find the soundtrack repetitive over extended sessions. Customizing audio settings or adding new tracks could enhance the experience further.
Replayability and Depth
Peglin’s rogue-lite mechanics and randomized elements ensure incredibly high replayability, making each session feel like a new adventure. This section explores why Peglin has such lasting appeal and what makes its depth so engaging.
Diverse Orb Selection and Synergies
One of the key factors contributing to Peglin’s replayability is its wide range of orbs. Each orb has unique abilities, from basic stones to elemental orbs that deal fire or lightning damage. The game also allows players to upgrade orbs, enhancing their damage or unlocking additional effects. Combining orbs with complementary artifacts can lead to powerful synergies. For instance, pairing a Multiball orb with artifacts that refresh pegs creates endless opportunities for massive combos. Experimenting with different orb builds encourages players to refine their strategies and keeps gameplay exciting.
Dynamic Enemies and Challenges
Peglin’s enemies are varied and increase in complexity as the player progresses. Early encounters with simple slimes gradually give way to battles with heavily armored knights or magical foes with unique abilities. Boss battles introduce additional layers of challenge, requiring careful planning and precise execution. The unpredictability of enemy patterns ensures that even experienced players must adapt their strategies.
Branching Paths and Exploration
Each run presents players with a map featuring branching paths. Deciding which path to take—whether to focus on battles, treasure, or healing—adds a layer of strategy to the game. Special events on the map, such as hidden treasure rooms or encounters with mysterious characters, provide additional opportunities for rewards or unexpected challenges. These decisions make each playthrough unique and engaging.
Hidden Secrets and Special Events
Peglin rewards exploration with hidden secrets and special events that can dramatically alter the course of a run. Some events offer rare artifacts, while others introduce unique challenges that test a player’s adaptability. Discovering these secrets adds an element of surprise and encourages players to experiment with different paths.
Procedural Generation and Infinite Variety
The procedural generation of levels, enemies, and treasures ensures that no two runs are the same. This randomness keeps the game fresh and unpredictable, requiring players to think on their feet. While skill and strategy play significant roles, adapting to the ever-changing landscape is crucial for success. Procedural generation also allows Peglin to scale in difficulty organically, providing a satisfying challenge for players of all skill levels.
Artifacts and Meta Progression
Artifacts are game-changing items that add depth and variety to each run. From doubling damage on critical hits to granting passive healing between battles, artifacts can significantly influence a player’s strategy. The meta progression system allows players to unlock new orbs and artifacts over time, creating a sense of long-term achievement. This progression ensures that even after dozens of runs, players have new content to explore and master.
Endless Replayability for All Skill Levels
Peglin’s balance of luck, skill, and strategy ensures that it appeals to a broad audience. Casual players can enjoy the game’s whimsical visuals and simple mechanics, while hardcore gamers can dive into its complex synergies and challenging encounters. The combination of accessible gameplay and deep strategic elements creates a game that remains enjoyable for hundreds of hours.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Unique Gameplay: The pachinko-inspired mechanics set Peglin apart from other rogue-lites.
Strategic Depth: Balancing randomness with skillful planning creates an engaging experience.
Charming Aesthetics: The visuals and sound design are delightful and cohesive.
Replayability: Procedurally generated levels and a wide variety of orbs keep the game fresh.
Accessible Yet Challenging: Peglin’s simple mechanics are easy to learn, but mastering the game takes practice.
Frequent Updates: The developers actively improve the game, adding new content and balancing features based on player feedback.
Cons
Repetitive Soundtrack: While pleasant, the music can grow monotonous over long sessions.
Luck-Dependent: Some runs feel overly reliant on RNG, which can frustrate players.
Steep Difficulty Curve: New players may struggle with the unforgiving nature of rogue-lite mechanics.
Short Runs: While engaging, some players may find the average run length too brief compared to other rogue-lites.
Tips for New Players
Aim for Critical Pegs: Prioritize hitting critical pegs to maximize damage. Refreshing the board can help set up better opportunities.
Balance Risk and Reward: Taking on elite enemies can yield great rewards but may end your run prematurely. Assess your current health and resources before engaging.
Experiment with Orbs: Try different combinations to discover synergies that suit your playstyle. Don’t hesitate to upgrade orbs that align with your strategy.
Plan Your Path: Use the map to chart a course that balances combat, treasure, and healing opportunities. Avoid taking unnecessary risks when low on health.
Learn Enemy Patterns: Understanding how enemies behave can help you prioritize targets and plan your shots effectively.
Future Potential
Peglin’s developers have shown a commitment to improving and expanding the game through updates. Potential future additions include:
New Orbs and Peg Types: Expanding the arsenal of tools available to players. Introducing orbs with unique mechanics, such as teleportation or gravity effects, could add depth.
Additional Bosses: Introducing more challenging encounters to test advanced strategies. Multi-phase bosses could further diversify gameplay.
Expanded Lore: Adding depth to the game’s story and world. Including dialogue or cutscenes could enhance immersion.
Multiplayer Modes: Competitive or cooperative gameplay could enhance the experience. Imagine racing against other players or teaming up to defeat powerful bosses.
Seasonal Events: Limited-time events with exclusive rewards could keep the community engaged.
Conclusion
Peglin is a delightful blend of pachinko mechanics and rogue-lite gameplay that offers a unique and addictive experience. Its charming visuals, strategic depth, and high replayability make it a standout title in the indie gaming scene. While it has areas for improvement, particularly in its soundtrack and content variety, Peglin’s core gameplay is strong enough to keep players coming back for more. Whether you’re a fan of rogue-lites, puzzle games, or just looking for something fresh and fun, Peglin is well worth your time.
I love the game, but hate one of the changes they did in a recent update. Orbs getting smaller as they split might be more balanced, but its not very fun. I would really love the ability to stop orbs from getting smaller as they split in settings.Great game overall though.
I played this game for much too long. Most of the reviews point out the steep difficulty or requirement for a massive amount of luck to win a run in later stage games. That's correct for at least everything above level 15. You have to have massive damage and a consistent source of healing for these levels. I must have tried at least 200 runs to beat cruciball 20.Yet the concept was innovative and the mechanics fair. I had fun. Would recommend it for casual players for the first 15 levels.
Game is fun but some of these peg boards are either poorly designed or completely luck based. Losing an hour long run to a board where 1/4 of the pegs kills the enjoyment this game could have.
Listen, I adore this game - it feels so, so wrong to be giving it a negative review. But, I need you to understand what it's like to actually own this game after having put some hours in and learning to appreciate it.It's like this. You look through your library and find "Oh, Peglin, I used to love this game, why did I stop playing it?" So you drop back in and you blaze through boss after boss - and quickly you remember how all the relics stack with different balls for MASSIVE DAMAGE.So you get creative, you try and have a little fun. You try to make builds that scale with the amount of damage you've taken. Or utilize the reload mechanic to your advantage. It takes some luck to get the right items together, sure, but there's a few ways to get the same or similar effects so if you're clever enough you can make most things work in most runs... or at least pivot to something else similar or similarly interesting. It's great like that, encouraging you to try new things by giving you stuff that's, maybe, not what you were hoping for but "if I pick this up, it might stack with that, and this" and suddenly you have a new favorite build you're trying to create.But, then you see him, the wall of stone, one of three bosses for the second phase; the fun killer. You have two choices - either restart and hope for better luck on the next try - or push ahead hoping the stars align and maybe you'll get exactly what you need to beat him even though it will probably mean completely sacking whatever fun strategy you had been building to pivot into direct attack strength.Let me be clear, it's not that he's difficult - he's relatively easy if you build out for DPS, but the game is full of all these ways to do things other than pure DPS. It's a shame almost none of those are remotely effective against the wall. If you try turning armor into attack, well you better do it really fast because if he reaches you before you can do 4k damage - it's game over. Specked yourself to turn damage into attack and heal with pegs? That's a really fun strat, but he doesn't attack so you're limited to what self damage you can inflict. Besides, none of that is gunna be practical above, like, crusiball 7 anyway. Maybe, maybe you use the binding mechanic to hold him back for just a little more time? Hah, nope - he's immune to that too.What this means is, basically, the further you get in the games progression, the more you'll need to limit yourself to the more direct DPS options to beat the wall..Regardless, it's just one run, right? Next time you can do something fun and interesting. So, It's fine. You just got unlucky - it happens. But then you get him again, and again. And you realize - theres only like 3 bosses in the second stage so you have a 1/3 chance of getting this boss every time. The boss that requires pure DPS to beat. Who's only attack is an instant kill so you can't turn his attacks into damage. Using reloading mechanics only speeds up his advance so that's out. He's the fun killer. Whatever you thought you were gunna do, you're not doing it any more - you're either a DPS build now or you're starting over in the forest. Again.
And this, ultimately, is the problem. It's not that this boss exists - it's that he appears so frequently it's feels less like "oh, darn I got unlucky" and more like - "hmmm, if I want to progress further I guess I'll just have to stop trying to use these really cool and novel mechanics and just stick to obvious combos with high base/crit &/or lots of bombs".And you remember that, this, this is why you stopped playing before.And you wonder - are the dev's ever gunna do something about this? Are they ever gunna reduce his odds of appearing or add something to his fight that enables more interesting play styles than pure DPS to get past him? Maybe some day. But, today, I guess I'll just stop playing.
It's a fun, fairly relaxing game. Pretty annoying when it doesn't go the direction you wanted during navigation, but otherwise a very fun game. One of those games I play when I don't know what else to play. I also get cravings for it like Minecraft. Play a run here and there with months of in between time. Definitely worth it though.
After few updates game became much less infuriating experience. Gameplay is little more flexible, allowing more synergies between relics and orbs.
On cruciball 15-20 first relic, first fights and question marks decides will you leave the forest at all. Sometimes wrong first relic means abandoning the run.
In my opinion all classes should have the same ability to chose the same number of relics as Peglin class(and adding even more choices for Peglin character).
I had a run with very high normal damage and low crittical one. Every chest and miniboss in second map was giving me only relics adding critical pegs. If there was a possibility to sell item in a shop or dropping it like in Enter The Gungeon.
In summary. It can be fun game on lower difficulties but in higher ones prepare for most of your runs to crash in burn in a few fights.
all of the updates have made this game a lot worse. everything was broken so the game was fun, but literally everything got nerfed so you have to stick to 1 playstyle now or else you wont even beat the castle boss. so boring.
[h1]🧩 [i]Peglin[/i] - Peg-Popping RPG Fun[/h1][b]What I Played:[/b] I dived into Peglin for a few hours, bouncing orbs, popping pegs, and battling it out with roguelike flair.[b]The Good:[/b]
[list]
[*]The mix of Pachinko and RPG elements is surprisingly addictive. Strategizing where to aim your shots for maximum damage adds a nice layer of depth.
[*]Relics! These game-changers keep each run fresh and exciting. Discovering new relics and figuring out how to combo them feels so satisfying.
[/list][b]The Bad:[/b]
[list]
[*]The randomness factor can be a double-edged sword. Sometimes you get insanely good combos, other times... well, not so much.
[*]The pacing could use a bit of tweaking. Some runs felt a tad slow, especially during enemy turns. Speeding things up a bit would make it even more engaging.
[/list][b]Verdict:[/b] [b]Recommended[/b] - Peglin offers a unique take on the roguelike genre with its peg-popping mechanics and strategic depth. It's a fun, casual RPG experience that's worth bouncing into for some orb-smashing action!
Peglin is a blast of a deckbuilding roguelite for the first few completed runs, however once you start doing runs at higher Cruciball difficulties, the cracks really start to show. The game does not give you the ability to adequately gain strength to a degree that can contend with the rapid difficulty spikes of Act 2 and 3. I have over 70 hours at the time of writing and not once have gotten lucky enough to pass Cruciball 10.Because of this, combined with a distinct lack of meaningful meta progression, means that the fun build variety you'd usually get out of roguelikes does not actually exist. A lot of "upgrades" (often received from fighting bosses) come with downsides that far outweigh the positives they could ever give you.A lot of pegboard layouts focus far more on the theme of the encounter than actual play-ability. There are many where a single bad Refresh peg spawn can end entire runs and others that practically require specific balls or upgrades to even contend with, resulting in very unsatisfying deaths.For the price, it isn't worth it. If the devs ever show interest in levelling the playing field then I'd consider picking it up, but until then save your money for a game that respects your time investment and allows you to interact with the tools it has on offer in fun and impactful ways.
As a big fan of Peggle and also various rogue-like/rogue-lite games, I tried really really REALLY hard to like this game. However, the honeymoon phase wears off incredibly quickly, and the clashing game design elements very quickly begin to become frustrating, and the core game play loop repetitive and boring.Like many rogue-likes, this game features crucible/ascension/whatever you wanna call it: scaling difficulty. It is not enough to beat the game, you have to beat it 20 times per character on increasing levels of difficulty. In many rogue-likes, this offers a nice challenge; as you get better at the game, its difficulty increases and you're forced to use resources more efficiency, create stronger builds, and so on. Unlike, Balatro or Slay the Spire, which this game desperately tries to copy every mechanic from, it doesn't seem that skill alone is enough to beat the game starting around 10+ "cruciball". Whether or not you can win is almost entirely determined by beating the Act 1 boss.That is, unless you randomly encounter one of many "fuck you"'s this game has to offer further down the road. For example, there is an encounter in the last act that features a board with only 1 peg on the screen that spawns another peg when hit, that spawns another when hit, etc. Did you pick up the relic that makes it so you shoot from 2 predetermined locations with no way to actually aim? LOL sucks to be you, lose instantly! This is not an exaggeration and just one of many ways you can at the very least lose half your health, or flat out lose an extremely promising run instantly, by rolling an enemy or situation against which there is practically no counter play with your current build.This just begs the question, what's the point of a game with almost all of its core mechanics being luck based and random, including drops, draw order, enemies, to some extent even how much damage your able to deal per turn, if making the wrong "choice" is so incredibly punishing? This game would be so much more fun if, like Peggle (the game the pachinko mechanic it was based on), it focused on being fun and feel rewarding for the player rather than trying to be a serious, punishing rogue-like. The two styles just don't mix, and what you get is a which has none of the positive elements of either.
