Platform:  Android

Release Date: January 26, 2015

Developer:  moitititi

Publisher:  moitititi

Genre:  Role-playing game

Nerd Rating:  7 out of 10

Everything you need to know is always visible.

While my previous experience on the Android appstore seemingly scared me away from any mobile games for a while, I recently happened upon this game, Minutequest and have not been disappointed at all. While Minutequest is actually more of a sucessor to the developer’s 2013 release, Himatsubaquest, but with refined graphics, it’s still a worthwhile game to play. Actually, it sells itself more as a time-wasting game and even tracks the amount of time spent playing and experience and gold per second earned right on-screen. But the game’s biggest draw is in its simplistic but yet addictive nature. And the game only has one objective, to progress forward which you do by taping or holding down either the left or right side of the screen. The Hero also attacks in the direction you’re holding or tapping in automatically when an enemy is within reach. In my opinion, it’s easier to hold the side of the screen when going through smaller enemies and rapidly tapping during boss battles.

The further you go, the better equipment you’ll come across.

In Minutequest, you play as the Hero whose goal is to venture forth as far as possible to the right. You first start in the castle with the King who has some pretty cheeky lines to you. When you’ll see a treasure chest nearby, in order to open it, just keep progressing right and the Hero will automatically open it. That first chest is always a Full Heal, which comes in handy before fighting bosses. At first you’ll probably die a few times, especially since you only start with about five hitpoints. However, whenever you die, you’ll simply be teleported back to the castle to start your trip again with the same level and money. The game doesn’t punish you for dying in any way, actually it even allows you to pick up money from the King upon returning to the castle using the “Pay Up” button.

When you’re fighting an enemy, their stats will appear on the bottom.

The fact that players aren’t punished for dying is what makes the game replayable; this allows the player to build their character to overcome the challenges that had previously killed them. And at the same time, it gives the player tons of satisfaction in that they have managed it. I know the first time I killed a boss I was estatic, and that feeling continued every time I reached a farther screen in the game. Another thing that helps this game is the amount of equipment that your character can obtain overtime. While you’ll encounter shops for armor and weapons at certain distances, you’ll only unlock pets at random by defeating certain enemies. When you open up the equipt menu, you can see which pets and other items you have or have unlocked. I believe there are at least twenty-four pages of pets to unlock, so there’s a lot of choices in terms of customization. According to the Minute Quest Wiki, there are more than 1.3 million combinations of weapons, armors, and pets to choose from. Talk about customization!

The first boss I fought, Luminos.

The game’s leveling system is also pretty simple, at the bottom of the screen you’ll see how much experience you have until the next level. When you’ve reached enough, a prompt will appear on the screen for you to go to the level up menu. There you can distribute the five points you’ve gained for that level and any leftover ones to your stats. The stats you have to choose from are Power, Speed, Vitality, Intelligence, and Luck. The Power stat allows you to do more damage, which will come in handy for those wishing to stick with melee weapons. The Speed stat helps you evade enemy attacks and is popular with ninja character builds. The Vitality stat increases your total hitpoints, so regardless, it’s definitley something you should make sure to upgrade. The Intelligence stat, from what I’ve read, makes magical equipment more powerful. And the Luck stat supposedly reduces the damage you receive from enemies. Of course, if you don’t want to manually distribute points to your stats, you can simply use the Auto level up option in the menu.

In general, I think this is a really fun game and I’ve really enjoyed myself playing it, which is a first for me with mobile games. It’s really no surprise to me that this game has  started to accumulate such a following only a few months since its release, it is so addicting. Although, the Minute Quest wiki does state that the game’s ending distance is 33.7km, I want to see how long it will take me to reach that distance and at what level. Currently I’m in the 70s and have only defeated two bosses. By the time I reach the Hell dungeon, I’m sure I’ll be around level 300 and already invested thousands of hours into it. But I would recommend this game without hestitation and I’m interested in playing the developer’s other games and reviewing them here too.

So, readers, bravely go forth!