Magical Drop VI Involves Too Much Unlocking

Magical Drop VI is, in many ways, a fairly admirable entry. It features six single-player modes, with solo competitive, puzzle, and survival options and a story mode that essentially combines elements of all three. You can play locally or online. However, it also features drastic unlocking elements

To start, you only have four characters available out of 15 available to you in multiplayer at the outset in Multiplayer. (These are Fool, Justice, Lovers, and World.) If you want the others, you need to complete certain modes or hit various milestones. However, in Single Player you only have Lover initially in Match. Fool, Justice, Lovers, and World are open in Survival right away. Given how critical multiplayer is to the game, it’s so disappointing to not immediately have every character available to use.

Screenshot via Siliconera

So, how do you get them? You’re forced into other modes! In particular, I’ve gotten Daughter Strength and Temperance from the Puzzle Mode. Survival mode on various difficulty modes unlocks additional ones. However, the downside is you might only unlock the character for a particular mode. It could be o mode you didn’t like. Worse, you might unlock them for one you haven’t unlocked yet. Especially since one is hidden behind the Story mode. So I earned Devil from Puzzle, but then could only use him in the Path of Destiny mode… that I hadn’t yet unlocked.

See, the Story Mode balancing ifeels a bit off, which proves to be an issue with even more unlocking. This is partially because of an unbalanced Ai, as even from the very outset on Easy it involves a reliance on combos. Which means if you aren’t at your best at the very outset and don’t set up combos in the first few moves, you could end up losing both rounds and finding your run completely done. Yes, the Story mode saves, but it’s an immediate game over if you lose a match against another CPU character. Which means if you’re having trouble there, you don’t get to unlock Path of Destiny.

Screenshot via Siliconera

At least all multiplayer options are unlocked the moment you open the game. You can immediately head into a local or online regular, Time Crush, or Quota Crush match, though characters are restricted. However, if you come to Magical Drop for competitive play, this could prove an issue. The online option only allows you to directly face one opponent. You can’t create a lobby or organize an impromptu tournament among friends.

It’s great to have a wide array of modes, and Magical Drop VI benefits from it. However, this is also the sort of puzzle game people might prefer to play in certain ways. Someone might be more into the solo puzzle-solving and survival elements, which is fine. But a competitive player will find themselves drastically restricted, and it’s a shame.

Magical Drop VI is available for the Nintendo Switch and PC.