Grindstone

Blowing off steam

I love this game. The weirdness of it makes it the perfect game for me. But it’s also one of the most annoying games I’ve ever played at the same time. That’s why I’m here to blow off steam. It’s so aggravating to get put in a level where you need a minimum off 5 jerks of the same color in a row in order to bust a boulder or whatever and all you can get is 3 or 4. You smash the 3 or 4 hoping that some more of the same color will drop so you can get a long enough chain to open the board up so you can actually have a chance to do something. Instead you just go back and forth killing the 3 or 4 jerks you can and try to avoid getting hit by the increasingly angry jerks or another one spewing lava from its head. Inevitably you get killed before you even got a chance to try. It’s freaking maddening. My poor dog got upset because I was griping at then game and she thought I was griping at her. Do the developers try these levels out before they publish them or just cross their fingers and hope for the best. The only bright spot is that it’s an Apple Arcade game so it’s not costing any money just time off of my life. Arrrgghhh!!! Other than that it’s a great game. 😏

Unique, enjoyable, and beautiful!

I LOVE this game. It's such a nice change of pace from the repetitive, pay-to-win match 3 games that the app store is saturated with. Not only is the gameplay intuitive, smooth, and easy to get the hang of, the levels are well designed and thought out so that they're actually winnable even if it takes a couple tries; you don't have to pay for extra powerups or additional turns to get past a level. Also, the lore/worldbuilding is so detailed! I love all the unique characters and you can tell a lot of thought went into designing this game. Not to mention it's just so nice to look at! My only really minor gripe with this game (and maybe this is just because i'm impatient) is having to wait for all of the animations to finish before starting the next turn. This is especially tedious in levels with Gladjys because it takes a bit for her to start her animation so I end up having to wait a while between turns. In a lot of games you can tap to skip the animation so I wish this game had that feature as well. Overall though, an incredible, well thought out game that I don't see myself getting tired of anytime soon!!

They literally called it a grind.

Ugh. I want to love these games, but I end up hating them. This one is another in a long list of adventure-puzzle-match-three games like Candy Crush or Best Fiends. Grindstone is dressed up as an Apple Arcade game, but it reeks of a more nefarious money grabber like the others. Here is a summary: 1) great concept with good presentation. 2) progressively harder - by world 2, it already becomes either beyond challenging or pure luck to beat levels (I’m a completionist and go for the crown in every level, which for all intents and purposes is impossible). 3) eventual frustration and deletion. Good for a couple hours. A slog after that. The Achilles heel of all of these games is the random drop engine. These can dictate whether you luck into a 12 move combo or get stuck with only 1 color in each direction. As you move on, the boards become more ridiculous blocked with boulders and crates that can’t be wrecked because there is no way to get combos long enough. Ultimately, this was designed to make money by getting players to buy lives and pay-to-win with charms and stones, but ended up in the Apple Arcade, which is exactly the kind of garbage I hoped to avoid with my subscription. Oh and a bit of constructive feedback: it would be nice if you didn’t have to go to the tavern after every round to refill your lives. It’s a lot of clicking and time wasting for no reason.

Doesn’t remember your place, otherwise great

Grindstone is great — probably one of the best games on Arcade. So why four stars? It does have some small annoyances, like not being able to see your character’s stats at a glance on the map, animations being unskippable (I reeeeeeeally don’t need to have to wait for the barkeep to go through the animation of “pouring” in order to continue, just let me tap the exit button as soon as I’m done). My biggest issue though is that the game doesn’t keep your place in the dungeon. Let’s say I am playing and doing pretty well, but have to stop for a bit and switch apps. Most games would just save your place and “freeze”, putting you back in the exact same spot on the board when you come back to the app, right? Grindstone just... resets. All the way back to the intro movie. I feel like I’m back in 2009 and multitasking isn’t yet a thing on iPhones with this system — seriously, this should not be a problem at this point. Edit — I complained about the game getting unloaded from memory too quickly and then I realized that it’s most likely the fault of the OS and not the game. Not really fair to rate it lower because of that. 5 stars!

Love it. Makes me excited for Apple Arcade.

Out of the 4 or 5 games I’ve sampled out of the Apple Arcade launch games, Grindstone so far is my favorite. The art, style, music, and gameplay are all stellar. Collecting blueprints is my crack. I’m grateful for Apple Arcade for it’s non-micro transaction environment and curation because I would have never tried this game out with out it. I’m only around level 20 and I heard the difficulty is borderline brutal later on but it doesn’t take away how much fun I’ve had in the past few hours. Room of improvements? Sure. I’m always a sucker for rpgs and character customization. It would be cool if our avatar leveled up and unlock, or we could buy, traits or abilities ... like reducing the hit requirements of boulders by 1 or having an additional small diamond drop on the board when a chain of 20 or more is achieved. Regardless, great game from a talented developer. I hope it gets expanded on. Capybara Games, if you ever need a 39 year old gaming enthusiast intern with a B.S. in Visual Communication, I’m willing to relocate. I love your work.

A must-play!

Grindstone is, almost without a doubt, the best game on both Apple Arcade and quite possibly the App Store in general. While it’s core premise (color-matching puzzle battles) isn’t the most original thing in the world, the polish, creativity, and production value of Grindstone are almost completely unmatched in quality. The game is both challenging and fun, and a variety of equipment adds both strategic variation and a sense of progress as you fight your way up the mountain. There’s also an interesting economy and meta-resource management aspect to buying and repairing gear. I’m putting off playing AAA games from my Steam collection to play Grindstone! It’s honestly that good. If you, like me, are forever searching for a good RPG puzzle-battler ever since Dungeon Raid met its demise in the 32-bit apocalypse, you must play Grindstone. It’s not quite the same, but it scratches the same itch, and is a wonderful game on its own. Grindstone alone is responsible for my Apple Arcade subscription - excellent work all around!

Best game in arcade

Easily one of the best games in arcade. It’s the best of both worlds of checkers and chess, plus its own original strategy and character. Achieving long chains is satisfying. The layers of sound effects give it the novelty of a real arcade game. I find myself glued to my phone when I’m walking around in public - no other mobile game has been able to engage me like that. I’m only on level 30- something, so it’s sad to hear some people stopped enjoying it after level 100. I guess that happens with a lot of games. Or those people are just stuck on a particularly hard level. As for feedback, it seems to me like some of the storytelling animations are not as intuitive as they could be. For example, when seeing my earnings at the end of a level, it’d be nice to see my entire inventory with “+#” underneath the item(s) I’ve earned, similarly to how it’s done in the Challenges section at the bar(?). For this, I’d give mechanics a 9/10, whereas graphics receives a 10/10. Still 5 stars though!

Favorite arcade game...so far

This was a fun game, too bad it only had 150 levels. Disappointed to see the chopping and roaring end. For those who struggle and run out of grindstones to purchase power ups, go back to levels that allow you to rack them up but also make a swift escape Alive when you need too. I would normally go to level 29 (I believe it was this one), set up the armor that gives you a chance at blocking attacks, the shield that you can use once per round, and the bone shield. That’s gives you at least 6 hits you can take before you need to escape. I usually left that level with 50 grindstones or more each attempt. There were a few rough levels that took repeat plays, but you get through it sooner or later. I finished the game with well over 1,100 stones and plenty of resources. I was able to craft unused items, stock every item at the inn, and still had 700 left. So don’t feel like you’ll get stuck like a previous review. Just put in work and enjoy!

Best game in the Arcade!

Don’t listen to the folks saying the difficulty is to high or it’s just luck with the mobs that drop. Neither is true. I finished the game and 80% of the levels I cleared my first time through. There is definitely a challenge to the game, and some levels in particular, but I never had to replay any of them more then three times to get through. My advice would be to use the wooden shield, arrow and dashy sword - with those I was able to get through 80% of the levels and stash resources. By the time I got to lvl 130 I realized I was never going to use all the resources I had so I started equipping more powerful items and had fun with those. The bone or spike shield with the jump potion and the wooden arrow became my go to load out. Key is to start thinking a couple of turns ahead when plotting out your moves. Sometimes leaving mobs that you could chain through is the better move if it sets up a longer combo in a turn or two. Also, the single wooden arrow is invaluable. Many times you’ll be one creep short of taking down a mob. A shot from the arrow will bring down their HP by one, same with chests. Also works great if you need to have a row shift down one to allow a chain to progress. Overall great game with excellent production values, game design and balance. Just the right amount of challenge to make clearing a board feel rewarding, without so much that it felt punitive or discouraging. Best game on the Arcade that I have played.

More levels please!

There are currently only 150 levels! Completing all “challenges” requires some replaying so I’m not done with that part *quite* yet but I hope more new levels appear - maybe make it an even 200? The game starts out simple but becomes surprisingly strategic. A couple levels around 110 are *unusually* hard (in that they seem to require an unusual amount of luck) but once you get past those it gets easy again. Tips: Be willing to lose hearts by stepping through lava or fire to achieve important goals. On many levels you have a long-term problem (say, open the door) conflicting with a short-term one (some bad guy coming for you) - if you’re having trouble, try changing your priority as to which to work on first. Be really careful deciding how and where to *end* a chain - often that’s a free choice where one option is much better than others. Favor a consumable shield when you can - bone or thorn shield. Use jump potions judiciously. Good luck!

It has published titles like Grindstone, Super Time Force, Superbrothers: Sword & Sorcery and BELOW. Capybara Games Is Hiring | View Open Jobs...

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Developed by Capybara Games (or "Capy"), now known for Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery and Grindstone among many other hits, it swapped out...

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This Definitive Edition is being handled by DotEmu, but Capybara's most recent game, the wonderful Grindstone, contains some similar puzzle-...

Rock Paper Shotgun Fri Jun 23 2023

Image credit: Capybara Games. Imagine that Candy Crush Saga collaborated with the likes of The Regular Show, and you almost have Grindstone...

VG247 Thu Nov 02 2023

... company's game subscription service known for its library of ... Grindstone, Capybara Games' charming, multilevel puzzler, as a model example.

The Verge Thu Jul 23 2020