Nonorelia Early Access Review – No, Not Really Interested

Nonograms, which some may know by one of the other 29 names listed on Wikipedia (Picross, Paint By Numbers, Pixel Puzzles, etc.), are these captivating puzzles that are all about coloring in tiles accordingly to the numbers on the sides of presented grids. Nonorelia, a title by Middle Edge Software, claims in its Early Access page’s description that it aims to be the best nonogram experience on Steam. To that end, it has a very long road ahead.

Starting off, in its current state Nonorelia does not provide the players with the full tutorial. At the moment of writing, two out of the planned three voiced parts are available: the first covering the basics and the second covering two basic techniques. This immediately eliminates the possibility of engaging with its most complicated puzzles for any newcomer; it is something that should be completed by its Early Access release.

This does not come into play during the two available chapters of the visual novel campaign, as they serve as introductory segments for the gameplay and the story. The real issue comes from the puzzles, which do on occasion require the use of strategies that may only be explained through the hints system available to the player. Said hints are obtained by filling out a certain amount of squares, and as such are a limited commodity.

The amount of puzzles outside of the campaign is impressive, and the complexity ramps up steadily. The hints that one gathered during the first few hours quickly prove to be very useful, the tutorial does not cover all possibilities after all. Unfortunately, it quickly becomes apparent that hints are pretty useless.

For some reason, the system operates on the grid the player has filled out if they are late into a stage, meaning that if they made a mistake at any point and are in too deep, the game does not show them where the mistake was made. Instead, it may show them how to further dig themselves into a hole. Some nonograms are large, and it may already be impossible to properly retrace steps and spot the error. All that is left at that point is fully restarting the puzzle—the hints used up on an already doomed stage, however, do not come back. Restarting everything is an annoyance in and of itself, but also a given in these kinds of puzzles. Being punished for that by taking away hints which only deceived the player into thinking they were on the right track is just disheartening.

All this leads to the feeling that the game is not there to help the player and instead is actively working against them. Each nonogram in and of itself is an enjoyable experience, they are never limited by attempting to make up a shape which is a breath of fresh air, but anyone mistake may cost the player all the hints they gathered up to that point, and even then it is possible that they are being wasted.

There are some other annoyances, such as not being able to drag the flags and having to manually apply each of them, not being able to use multiple colors of flags, and the backgrounds being dull, but features and graphics are things I am sure are being worked on and will improve with time. A more worrying aspect is the quality of the visual novel itself.

The story revolves around a production facility run by a wife and husband: Noah and Hannah. To help run this facility, they create several hundred copies of their daughter, named Angelon, all of which are robots unable to comprehend basic human concepts. They all also refer to Noah as Father and are naked at creation. These certainly are choices alright.

Noah and the Angelons have a very simple dynamic: she does not understand anything, and he is annoyed that he has to explain the same things for the hundredth time. As such there is frankly little to them at the moment, there is some family drama involving more characters that are currently only seen and heard as pictures in another mode. The story picks up quickly, but there is currently very little to comment on, and none of it left a particularly positive impression.

The quality of the voice acting for the protagonist is incredibly inconsistent. Longer dialogue boxes usually result in a lot of lip-smacking and audible breathing. The Angelons are a bit overbearing at first, but they, alongside other characters, do not seem to share the same problems as Noah. The worst bits can be heard during radio transmissions, which occasionally interrupt the calming music on the regular tileset. Poor accents galore!

The last thing worth noting is the ASMR mode, which has unique voiced sections, in which the actors speak in a softer voice, which is explained in-universe by Noah and Hannah getting too drunk on the day prior. The nonogram solving is as such accompanied by quiet voices alongside typical ASMR sounds: scratching, drilling, flowing liquids, etc. Given the currently discouraging state of nonogram solving, the mode is not the best fit, but it can be pleasant on the lowest difficulty.

Nonorelia is in a rough spot right now. Lacking things such as a complete tutorial tells me that it was released to the public too early, as it is alienating a large chunk of the audience that may be intrigued enough by the visual novel aspect alone. Eliminating barriers is the biggest challenge for Nonorelia at the moment, but there is a lot more that needs to be done for the game to reach its desired spot at the top of all nonogram-based titles.

Mateusz played Nonorelia in Early Access on Steam with a review code.