Sequence

 **Be sure to check out the video review!** 

Sequence is yet another game I picked up because it was involved in the Steam 2011 winter sale achievement contest. When I originally looked at the games involved for that day, I noticed that Sequence was $1.25 or so, at which point I'd almost certainly pick it up, since it was so little. I did want to read a little about the game first though, just to see if it would be something I'd at least be interested in playing, or if it was something I should just pass on, and at that price, it would take a fair amount for that. I literally read the following before backing out: "Sequence combines elements of both rhythm and role-playing games..." That's right, I didn't even make it through the first sentence before deciding it wasn't worth my money, because I don't know if there is anything I'm worse at than rhythm games, though the few attempts I've ever made at DDR in public have drawn cheers, but only because it is so easy to find pleasure in the failure of others.

Later in the day, I thought I'd at least read the rest of the game description, and maybe watch the videos. Both trailers, one of which shows off the mechanics of the game, while the other is simple an encouragement to buy it, were full of humor, such as the following gem from the trailer that explains the underlying mechanics "Honestly, if you don't understand how hitpoints work, this game probably...probably isn't for you. Go download some...apps...or something." It was this, as well as several other witticisms throughout the two trailers, that tipped my mind, and so I picked up the game, thinking that $1.25 wasn't a bad price to pay for it.

Unfortunately, I was terribly, terribly wrong. Though it's not what you think. I didn't pay too much for this game. I paid too little.

At least I can play this in the privacy of my own home, so no one can see when I fail like this.

Sequence is a beautiful mix of two extremely different genres, rhythm and RPG, with one of the best stories and character development I have ever seen in a game. You play as Ky, a young male who was kidnapped and brought to the mysterious tower, a place where monsters are trying to kill you, and the only way to make it out alive is to take the help your guide provides you to survive all seven levels and their respective guardians. In this case, your guide is Naia, who provides plenty of back and forth conversation with Ky as she generally tries to keep him from getting himself killed.

Combat in Sequence occurs through the rhythm portion of the game. After selection of one of your current floor's three potential opponents to battle, which you do by exiting the safe room you spend all your down time in, the music for that particularly badie starts to play. You'll see three screens, or as the game refers to them, fields. They correspond with your attack, incoming damage, and mana regeneration. However, you can only have one field active at a time, so you must switch to whatever will be the most beneficial to be active in. This usually means you'll only be in the mana field, which is your only way to regenerate the fuel for your attacks, when there isn't a cascade of incoming damage en route. If you're completing an attack, by flawlessly executing the required moves, you may just have to take the damage, trading blows until one of you is dead, since you do need to beat the time limit for the song. As you progress, the enemies get harder, not only sending more attacks at you, but also sending attacks that are worth much more than a single hp, which is denoted by the different colored arrows, so while it isn't too bad if you let white or green ones through, which deal one or two damage each, you really need to stop those red ones, dealing 10 damage, and if there are enough coming, you may just break off your attack, or try and grab them in the small break you have between groups of arrows.

The enemy selection screen provides all kinds of useful information, including the break down of the enemy attacks. This guy has a 50-50 split between white and yellow, or one and three damage attacks.

The rest of the game, that is, everything out of combat and non-story related, is RPG, and even here you'll find humor. It starts when Naia explains the stat values to Ky, covering things like Offense, Defense, and HP, and Ky questions why he's a five. Naia's response is simply because he looks like a five. It continues by making references to the seemingly arbitrary stat system found in many RPGs, or the proper pronunciation of mana. You'll even find humor in the item descriptions, such as the weapon Sonic Disruptor, which is super effective against hedgehogs. That sort of humor is pervasive in this game, and is a nice juxtaposition with the at times seriousness of the main story. But back to the RPG stuff.

As you successfully defeat enemies, you earn experience points, and begin to level up, increasing your stats in the process. However, experience also serves a crucial role as the currency in this game, as it's the cost to synthesize an item, by combining the raw materials you'll sometimes get from enemies, as well as the cost of learning a new spell, which you accomplish by successfully beating a challenge, like continuing a perfect combo on a song for a certain number of beats or maintaining a high accuracy. When making new items, which is a must as they augment your stats, you can choose to spend more or less experience in the process, which increases or decreases your odds of success. You can only go up to 95% though, and it takes a whole heck of a lot of points to get that high, to the point that you can easily lose a couple of levels for the chance to make an item. That's right, you can actually go down in level in this game if you're not careful with how you spend your points. And even if you choose to up the success rate, maybe not to 95%, there is still that chance of failure, in which case you don't lose the materials, but all those experience points go bye bye for nothing.

Since I never throw away anything, even in a video game, you can view my inventory of the various items you can craft.

When you begin each new floor in the tower, you'll be given a stack of recipes, which require various items, usually specific to that floor, to make. Each of the three enemies on a floor have three possible drops, but they very in rarity from extremely common, to the other end of the spectrum, where you'll find yourself repeatedly grinding away on the same enemy in hopes to finally get the last Uranium-235 you need to make your next piece of gear. You'll usually end up with a surplus of other items, which is fine, because you can just desynthesize those for some additional experience.

While the gameplay is interesting, and the crafting system is different than anything I've seen before, it's really the story that makes this game so good. The quality of the voice acting is superb, and all the interactions are well done, particularly Ky and Naia, all of which just results in a deeper, and more believable, experience. As the relationship between Ky and Naia develops, as you start to learn more about this strange place called the tower, and as you discover some of the secrets it holds, you can't help but to want to find out more. If you take the time to craft a special item, you can even unlock an additional ending that provides you with more information, but ultimately leaves you asking more questions, the forefront of those being "When is Sequence 2 coming out?!?"

I think I have successfully pulled off that attack once. I wouldn't even think of trying it on piano jam. That song is just evil.

The combat is fun, and it can be challenging to defeat certain enemies, particularly the guardians at the end of each floor. You'll need to carefully pick your spells, such as one that reduces the likelihood of high incoming damage, a damage over time attack, a heal, and a big direct attack, in accordance with your need, and your skill in executing the required moves to actually cast it, because some of the high end spells, in addition to costing more mana and having a longer cool down, are really hard to pull off. The crafting system, particularly with it's use of experience as a currency, is pretty interesting, but there is the downside that sometimes it just seems like you absolutely cannot get that last item you need to drop, and so you keep fighting the same guy over and over and over, and at times, that grind can get old, especially since this game could have used one or two more songs to mix things up a bit, though everything included is great. The story is one I wouldn't mind just watching start to finish, to hell with the rest of the game, and it is a good game too. All in all, I got about 11 hours of game time out of Sequence, but I will admit I played on "Easy - For those musically challenged." rather than risk it on "Medium - for those musically challenged, yet stubborn." which actually got me a 100% complete game, even covering the little augmented reality game that's included. I do highly recommend this game, and even if you're bad at rhythm games, like I am, just go for the easy difficulty and enjoy the rest of the experience. Oh, and pay full price, because it's more than worth it - 10 out of 10.

So, the final breakdown:

Score: 10/10

Suggested Price: $5, only because it doesn't cost more