Koi - Journey of Purity Review

Developer: dawei lee
Price: $1.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0.0
App Reviewed on: iPhone 5

Graphics / Sound Rating:
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Overall Rating:

My first glimpse of Koi - Journey of Purity came from the trailer, and I immediately picked up a Flower vibe from it. I wasn’t wrong, either.

Each level in Koi has you swimming around fairly large, almost maze-like bodies of water while trying to help flowers bloom - and the way you do this is by finding like-colored fish and guiding them to the right buds. Of course things quickly get more complicated when you have to clear paths by playing Simon-like mini-games, or avoid very large and aggressive fish. It’s all very pretty and quite interesting, but it’s not perfect.

I have two major issues with Koi. The first is the way you have to play that mini-game I mentioned every time you want to clear a branch out of the way (you tap the leaves in sequence). I kind of hate this because it feels incredibly out of place, totally disrupts the flow of the rest of the game, and is just plain annoying. It’s possibly to suffer through it but why would anyone want to?

My second problem is the control system. Koi uses this odd kind-of virtual joystick, but it’s more of a radial dial that controls your fish’s speed and direction. This in itself wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t take so long for the fish to turn. It’s a mild annoyance when you’re casually swimming around a big level, but it can actually be a hindrance after the big nasty fish show up.

That being said I do enjoy playing this weird little puzzle game. It’s extremely pretty, and it’s satisfying to see a level through to the end. It just requires a fair bit of patience with the controls and the out of place mini-games. If you don’t mind that kind of stuff, you should definitely give Koi a look.