New blog post!
https://fairysvoice.net/blog/How_to_Play_Pochi_&_Nyaa-_Forms/ It's a how-to guide for playing Pochi & Nyaa, explaining what sort of shapes are best to make and why, containing most of the know-how I've picked up from playing it for 2 years. Give it a read if you want to try the game!
Pulling this one off the shelf to see if I've "still got it"…… Maybe I'm due another hour with the controls, but other than that…
Today's Pochi & Nyaa video
Over 100 in under a minute
Pochi & Nyaa is actually good for beginners because the garbage blocks are just dogs and cats. Yes, you're going to take 78 garbage and lose, but all that means is your board is filled with cats. You can't get that mad or upset.
Now, those FREAKING Puyos, on the other hand,
I played Pochi & Nyaa on Fightcade today and my mind decided the nyan blocks looked like Void Stranger statues >:((((((((
Thrilled to announce the release of a simple tool for any curious Pochi & Nyaa players: the Pochi & Nyaa Calculator –
https://fairysvoice.net/pnyaa/ , which calculates the power of structures in the game. The numbers indicate the attack power when popped at that location.
Discovered that the damage algorithm in the PS2 version of Pochi & Nyaa is different from the Neo Geo version in one very specific yet common case, and now I'm holding back screams like a mandrake in a library.
Pochi & Nyaa is such a solid game that I suspect that you could take its entire ruleset, throw out the damage formula, replace it with something that makes chaining do something again (e.g. total blocks popped x number of chain links) and you'd instantly get a similarly fun game.
Me after I've downloaded Fightcade and parked myself in the Pochi & Nyaa lobby
Exclusive fresh-from-the-darkroom photo of me right now (I'm all the goddesses and cherubs enjoying Pochi & Nyaa)
Been playing Pochi & Nyaa story mode on the arcade (Neo Geo) port, which has worse controls and graphical feedback than PS2 but, importantly, only has 5 stages, making for a nice 8-minute challenge… Love this game.
Interesting risk/reward moment… at 0:38 I don't fire the counter because I had one more yellow in Next… but I'm not sure if adding it to the middle column was a bit risky for what ultimately became 6 blocks of garbage. It did bury the enemy's green structure pretty well…
Ladies and jury of the gentlemen,
THE GREATEST 1CC VIDEO TITLE I WILL EVER MAKE???
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RzYMVugnLASomething I'm growing interested in is the idea of discarded colours being placed specifically to collapse into paths - how, in this example, after cracking the red, the yellows almost collapse into a complete paths, and then after firing the yellows, the blues fall into place.
The three Magic: The Gathering "player archetypes" (Timmy, Johnny, Spike) are actually pretty good at describing versus puzzle game designs.
Pochi & Nyaa, for instance, is a peak Spike game. You only play it if you want the joy of outplaying your opponent.
Pochi & Nyaa is definitely a game where the only worthwhile advice for getting good at it is "learn the matchup".
By the way… I just did a 1CC of the Neo-Geo version of Pochi & Nyaa, and I only want to say, A) the controls in this version are dramatically less responsive than on PS2, and B) the CPU is definitely easier (at least for default Level 4 difficulty).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LG55kh2VyikHe only had 15 coloured blocks left on his board
Pochi & Nyaa would be so funny if it had Land Maker colour elimination + colour-contributing garbage
Not just because dropping to only one colour would make it pretty difficult to make forks
Who's got that one Pochi & Nyaa video
*absolutely no one alive takes the bait*
…OK, so, look, just watch this damn video
Notes:
The stages (opponents) are based on the number of Hurry Ups you receive in a match. Getting up to 3 Hurry Ups skips you ahead that many opponents until the end. I could have skipped up to 1 more stage by stalling, but I simply played it safe.
Everyone please watch this 1CC, but especially watch at around 5:06
https://twitter.com/webbedspace/status/1668957933189869568Whenever I lose in Pochi & Nyaa, I know it was absolutely my fault for not stockpiling long enough or tanking well enough. Whenever I lose in Puyo Puyo, I know it was absolutely my fault for expecting the fourth puyo of one colour in the next 12 pieces and then not freaking getti
What versus puzzle game CPU matches feel like
• Puyo Puyo: catapult battle with only timber and ropes provided
• Pochi & Nyaa: pistol duel with Metroid charge beams
• Panel De Pon: boxing match while wearing plate mail
• StarSweep: knife fight atop a mountain of daggers
Pochi & Nyaa is the Smash Bros. of versus puzzlers:
• Not obvious whether any attack is enough to KO
• If you aren't KO'd by a hit, then you can definitely recover
• At high percents ("Hurry Up" x4 or more) it devolves into frantically spamming down tilts and neutral airs
I honestly really, really like this game's CPU AI. It really does force you to learn the important stuff: countering only that which is necessary, keeping your main attack ready to fire, using screen space as a resource, and making sure you can numerically win an exchange.
This somewhat crudely illustrates what higher-difficulty play involves. This game places heavy emphasis on being able to hang back and tank the opponent's first hits by keeping the middle column low and the rest high, and building both your main attack and some followup fire.
Saw a review that called Nyaa and Pochi the game's "Carbuncles", which, well… it feels like a tremendous burn to compare the two unaccountable divine forces that steer the game's conflict and watch over all its battles, to pets… even though that's literally what they also are…
I think it's cute how Pochi and Nyaa are depicted repeatedly pressing red buttons to represent these two gods meddling in the affairs of mortals.
