While Button City may not appeal to those who are looking for more RPG than narrative adventure game, it is nonetheless a cute game to play through. It keeps up with the minimalist style of the game and makes it so that there isn’t anything more than what is needed on the screen at one time. While at first, I was a bit sad about there not being a little town to walk around on a singular level, it does make fast traveling very convenient. The layout of the different levels of Button City is something that I’ve personally never seen done this way and caught my attention. So if you find button controls harder to manage with rhythm games than touchscreen controls, you might run into some difficulty playing the rhythm game. And unfortunately, while the rest of the game is touchscreen compatible, this rhythm game isn’t.
The rhythm game, Prisma Beats, makes use of the direction and face buttons, with four lanes as its layout. The other two minigames are optional and you can play them at any point in time once you’ve gone to the arcade. The battle arena game, also known as Gobabots, is the main game that you will play through the majority of your playthrough. There are a variety of minigames that you can play in Button City: a rhythm game, a racing game, and a battle area game. Some of these items can give status boosts or allow you to change your appearance at any point. Some of these items can give you coins (also known as buttons), which can be used to purchase items. As you explore around, there are many items that you can interact with. These zones only have one major building or area, which can open up to new locations, such as the arcade having two main floors that you can traverse. The entirety of the town is split up into different zones and you will need to fast travel to get from one place to the other. The touchscreen functionality does make it easier to be precise though.
This can be felt if you need to direct Fennel into tight spaces to interact with an item, or you need to climb up a set of many stairs. And if you end up completing the main story quest before you are able to finish up your side quests, worry not, as the game allows you to go back in and 100% everything after the fact.Īs this is a game where you move around a lot, it’s unfortunate that the movement does feel a bit clunky and slow. Along with the main story quest, there are a few side quests that you can pick up along the way as well to spend your time completing. While Button City is labeled as an RPG in the eShop, the game plays out as a narrative adventure game, where you travel around to different locations and perform different tasks for characters. These moments are low and are obvious when you stumble upon them, but they do exist and end up feeling more like time fillers. Another downside is that given that this is a narrative game, a good chunk of it will end up with you performing fetch quests, in some cases having to go back and forth multiple times. Given the price tag of the game, this could end up being a downside. But if you are looking to 100% the game, or even just explore around a bit, that time does go up. Button City is a relatively quick game to get through, lasting about 2-4 hours or so if you play through the main story only.