Gyromancer -- Have At You With My Jewels Of Doom! They've Been In My Family For Generations!

Okay, I don't know for sure if the battle system does represent Rivel Arday's family jewels, but there must be some reason why he stands there in the forest, facing a monster, and twisting jewels around on a game board to kill them.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The object of Gyromancer is basically to get people to pay for Bejeweled Twist again.  Then again, you could say that about most games that reuse systems of game play.  Of course, the system can be both a boon and a curse.  Those who have tried Bejeweled Twist and found they liked it might not want to pay for it a second time.  Those who have tried it and found they hated it would definitely not want to try it again, since almost nothing's changed.

So what makes Gyromancer worth downloading a second time?  It's probably the story contributed by the writers at Square Enix (I'm assuming they're the ones who provided the story).  You are Rivel Arday, and you have found yourself on a quest to stop some sacred woods from being taken over and tainted and stuff.  The story is presented like most story modes in puzzle games have been, through a kind of a slide show, where characters appear when they're talking or when their presence is relevant (right before death, a character will suddenly receive a splatter of blood, on camera).  As such, the game adopts a style where instead of showing what's happening, the characters talk about it.  The dialogue is interesting in that it looks in places to be riddled with errors, yet the words that you think are spelled wrong are indeed words that exist in most dictionaries.  My vocabulary expanded because of this game.  At least I hope it did.  When a game company decides to use largely unused or obsolete words, you stop looking for errors and just assume the script is error free.  At one point, I thought I saw an error in grammar but decided that it was probably correct for the time period that the writers were pretending to use.  Previous attempts to catch errors in spelling were fruitless, so I didn't double-check the grammar.


The visuals used to illustrate the story were probably contributed by the Square Enix half as well.  Everything is beautifully rendered, even the monsters.  The game itself seemed rushed from the initial announcement to the finished product, and I'm glad that it didn't show in the graphics department.  Both companies probably have a dedicated staff present who can whip out graphics quick enough to meet deadlines.  I'm very glad that neither company said, "Well, we've given ourselves very little time... let's just see who's available on DeviantArt."

The music in the game was probably one of PopCap's contributions.  I don't know for sure; for all I know, Square Enix could've provided it as well.  After all, in many of their other Bejeweled games, PopCap has used a techno, spacey type soundtrack which would easily fit on a radio station dedicated to ambient music.  Not so, this time.  The game manages to use an epic-themed soundtrack pretty well, and uses the standard electric guitar to raise tension during certain battles.  Although the tunes don't stick in your head, you can't help but be impressed by them.  Generic, they may be.  But they work.

Speaking of battles, here is where your suspension of disbelief may take a tumble.  Battles consist of you playing with your jewels.  Okay, I had to throw that in there.  But like I said above, this is basically Bejeweled Twist with experience points.  Because, of course, Square Enix has launched themselves upon a holy quest to add a level up system and a strength stat to every genre of video game known to man.  As for the battle system itself, if you think this is going to be like Puzzle Quest, you're mistaken.  Instead of a battle system where both the player and his opponent participate in battle, Gyromancer is basically one guy approaching monsters, saying "Hey there, I'm Rivel.  Nice to meet you.  Now just stand over there while I wail on you for a while.  Occasionally, I'll sprinkle some blood on my face and say 'Ouch'."  What the enemy does in battle is basically let his abilities accumulate enough so that they'll possibly influence your monster.  There's not much else they can do, and if you're at a high enough level, your monsters can kill pretty much everything, including the final boss (despite a level cap of 70).

Your monsters vary in ability and elemental affinity, and some are definitely better than others.  It's pretty easy to break the game with some of these monsters, considering how powerful their abilities are.  Some of them can even change the colours of certain jewels, which make things easier for your monster to perform its abilities while restricting your opponent's use of their own.  Even near the end of the game, if you keep certain tricks in mind, you can wipe the floor with the end bosses.  It's that easy a game.

Each stage is organized kind of like levels were in Dissidia.  You move around a board that contains treasure chests, enemies, and friendly monsters that you can take with you, as well as the occasional healing spot.  In fact, the only difference between moving around in Gyromancer and moving around in Dissidia is the size of each stage.  In Dissidia, it all fit on one screen, in a rather tight area.  in Gyromancer, each stage is a sprawling labyrinth chock full of stuff to do.  Occasional puzzle battles are included, where the object is to do a certain trick or satisfy a certain objective, usually to gain access to a new monster for you to summon or a treasure chest or something equally beneficial.


One thing this game doesn't do that Bejeweled Twist does is guarantee that a move is possible.  Occasionally, it's impossible to match a set of jewels and that's when items come into play.  Items are only available in certain treasure chests, and there are never enough of them.  DLC for Gyromancer exists and grants you the ability to buy more items if you need them (and most likely, you will; some news sites indicate that the DLC pack exists for both the Xbox 360 version and the PC version, but I have yet to locate it on the Steam network and haven't seen it in game).  Anyway, the four items available include a Magick Mirror, which allows you to reverse the direction of the next twist, and a Magick Key, which breaks all the locks on the board, as well as a Remedy (removes poison) and Hock of Meat (adds your abilities to the board).  Unfortunately, the game is basically one big luck based mission and occasionally you'll be dealt a bad board, and will run out of Mirrors and Keys.  In the 360 version, this might not be so bad.  In the PC version, unless you have better luck finding the promised DLC, this can hinder your game.  When you run out of possible matches, you are forced to twist a couple times to set up another match, and are penalized for such "idle twists".  Penalties for being unlucky have always been annoying, and date as far back as Dragon Warrior II, possibly further back than that.  It was a bad idea back then, and a worse idea now, since you'd think people would've realized that kicking a player when they're down is not the way to keep them playing your game.

This is a short game, and if you're in it for the Bejeweled Twist game play, just download Bejeweled Twist.  There's even a Zen mode in Bejeweled Twist that is rigged up so that you'll always be able to make at least one match.  Otherwise, if you're a puzzle game junkie, and want to see what happens when PopCap phones up Square Enix and says "Yo.  I'll bring the puzzle system if you bring the story," then go ahead and download Gyromancer.  Myself?  I actually liked it.  I can recognize why this game isn't the best puzzle/RPG hybrid, but I actually liked it.  Of course, your mileage may vary, but I assure you, it is an enjoyable game if you're open to this kind of thing.