Out of curiosity, I took a quick gander at Gun Gun Pixies over the course of the last couple of lunchtimes at work. I haven't got very far yet and, as I've mentioned a couple of times, I'm planning on covering it in detail alongside Bullet Girls Phantasia after Senran Kagura, but I thought I might as well give a few brief first impressions!
I had no real idea what to expect going in other than "tiny girls vs giant girls". That is indeed a part of things, but one thing I'm already quite enamoured with is the fact that the game appears to be as much an environmental puzzle as it is a third-person shooter. In fact, so far it's actually been more of an environmental puzzle than a third-person shooter, since so far the shooting has been extremely simple and largely simply a trigger to move the story on.
Where the puzzling stuff comes in is in how you traverse the various rooms in which you find yourself, and how you reach the "Picoins" that are scattered around the place. These are all clearly visible from a distance and there's a handy "free camera" that you can pan all around the room (and take screenshots with) to hunt down ones you're missing; this latter option also freezes the action so you can survey the environment at will without pressure.
Inevitably, the Picoins are hidden in awkward places like on top of high shelves or hidden behind and inside things. The Pixies are pretty agile so they can jump pretty high (and far if they get a dashing start) but they do have their limits, so you have to plan your routes carefully.
Alongside the Picoins, there is also "information" to find around the various rooms, largely in the form of objects you can walk up to and search, which triggers a discussion between Bee-tan and Kame-pon. These are all quite entertaining and give the game a slight "adventure game" feel — with the twist that you are in control of a tiny character exploring a normal-sized environment.
I've enjoyed what I've played so far, and I'm looking forward to exploring it further. The game has Compile Heart's trademark charm all over it, but the gameplay is a bit different from what one might usually expect from them — it's not an RPG, in other words!
More words to come on that soon — and $5+ Patrons, you're due a wallpaper, so I should be able to find some time for that this weekend.
Hope you all had a good week, and if you didn't… I hope you have a good weekend at least!
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