52 Reviews:
Nearigami
The saves legitimately make this game way worse but even without that you'd be left with a sort of light precision needle game that is good as junk food but doesn't require anything beyond that. Still, I'm glad to have played it because I got to properly practice my ability to jump cancel which is something I've put off properly learning for 7 years. I liked it despite the obvious problems.
[1] Like
Rating: 6.0 60
Difficulty: 65 65
Dec 17, 2023
CanusAntonius
Seven Trials is a very questionable game, and as you can see from most reviewers is also not that liked. I'm finding it hard to truly judge it myself, as I did have genuine fun playing parts of it, enough that I don't think I'd give it a negative rating overall. I still acknowledge issues with it, however, and probably wouldn't recommend it to most.
It's hard to tell what this was meant to be originally. If it was supposed to be an ambitious Needle Collab then it didn't really seem to get finished, stages are pretty short, a lot of the design seems rushed, and the game doesn't even have music. Even the difficulty ratings of the stages feel completely incorrect. It really does seem like the project fell down completely at some point with everyone abandoning the ship, it's a skeleton without flesh.
I won't review each stage partially because I don't think it's necessary, though I'll mention some key points of the game. First to address the elephant in the room, Doruppi area, I don't think it's the hardest. The infamous water plane save is probably the most bothersome in the stage, but it's really just about doing a rhythm and that's it, you'll succeed at some point. This stage was also the first time I've ever done a downwards plane, so I'll give it props for teaching me something. There are other jumps in the game I did dislike, however, specifically a weird ceiling diamond in Aquas stage, and a double upwards plane in Caruas, I honestly found them way harder than most jumps in the 3-4 star stages. Besides this, nothing in the game really stuck out as particularly bothersome, but of course, this is going to vary based on the player since it is all precision needle. I will also mention though the touch saves are extremely annoying, not sure why they though these were a good idea to have.
Once again, I'm not sure I'd recommend it to most people, but I did find it fun. Also, I was able to beat the game without canceling at all, so it's definitely never required in any jump. If you want to check the game out then go ahead and quit if you start to dislike it, but only play it if you're genuinely interested.
[1] Like
It's hard to tell what this was meant to be originally. If it was supposed to be an ambitious Needle Collab then it didn't really seem to get finished, stages are pretty short, a lot of the design seems rushed, and the game doesn't even have music. Even the difficulty ratings of the stages feel completely incorrect. It really does seem like the project fell down completely at some point with everyone abandoning the ship, it's a skeleton without flesh.
I won't review each stage partially because I don't think it's necessary, though I'll mention some key points of the game. First to address the elephant in the room, Doruppi area, I don't think it's the hardest. The infamous water plane save is probably the most bothersome in the stage, but it's really just about doing a rhythm and that's it, you'll succeed at some point. This stage was also the first time I've ever done a downwards plane, so I'll give it props for teaching me something. There are other jumps in the game I did dislike, however, specifically a weird ceiling diamond in Aquas stage, and a double upwards plane in Caruas, I honestly found them way harder than most jumps in the 3-4 star stages. Besides this, nothing in the game really stuck out as particularly bothersome, but of course, this is going to vary based on the player since it is all precision needle. I will also mention though the touch saves are extremely annoying, not sure why they though these were a good idea to have.
Once again, I'm not sure I'd recommend it to most people, but I did find it fun. Also, I was able to beat the game without canceling at all, so it's definitely never required in any jump. If you want to check the game out then go ahead and quit if you start to dislike it, but only play it if you're genuinely interested.
Rating: 7.0 70
Difficulty: 70 70
Aug 31, 2022
theTics
Still remeber when this game seemed impossible for me years back then, but it was really fun to slowly breaking my previous limit, performing seemingly vicious jump that I gave up. Some jumps cost me 2k or 3k deaths, but I managed to beat it eventually.
I know there aren't that many creative jumps, but it was a fun challenge for a novice like me. Touch saves and some bad aligns still suck btw.
I know there aren't that many creative jumps, but it was a fun challenge for a novice like me. Touch saves and some bad aligns still suck btw.
Tagged as: Needle
[1] Like
Rating: 7.0 70
Difficulty: 75 75
Sep 29, 2018
PerliousFalcon
Old and horribly outdated Needle Collab.
Honestly, the worst I have to say about this game is that it's boring. From the easiest stages, it was clear that the makers only focused on hard for the sake of being so or shoving as many spikes as possible into a single screen (Looking at you tikuwa and yasuna stages). The only one I thought was sorta decent was kikkuxu stage.
Oh and regardless of your Needle skill level, you are not ready for the real seven trials that is the downwards water planes in Doruppi 2nd screen and to an extend most of the water saves.
One more thing: Those touch saves will be a pain in the ass to deal with and you CAN get potentially softlocked. It happened to me on Dorrupi first screen.
The one good thing I have to say that it was a decent-ish challenge for those treading into more advanced Needle as Kale put it. But there's so much better games for that.
Honestly, the worst I have to say about this game is that it's boring. From the easiest stages, it was clear that the makers only focused on hard for the sake of being so or shoving as many spikes as possible into a single screen (Looking at you tikuwa and yasuna stages). The only one I thought was sorta decent was kikkuxu stage.
Oh and regardless of your Needle skill level, you are not ready for the real seven trials that is the downwards water planes in Doruppi 2nd screen and to an extend most of the water saves.
One more thing: Those touch saves will be a pain in the ass to deal with and you CAN get potentially softlocked. It happened to me on Dorrupi first screen.
The one good thing I have to say that it was a decent-ish challenge for those treading into more advanced Needle as Kale put it. But there's so much better games for that.
Tagged as: Needle
[0] Likes
Rating: 2.0 20
Difficulty: 73 73
Nov 4, 2024
Jopagu
Seven Trials is an infamous old needle collab, focusing on precision before the genre of "L-needle" had been developed. As such, it provides in interesting look into how that sort of thing was designed before there were genre standards and tropes. Unfortunately, interesting does not translate into enjoyable. I found many of the stages had some cool stuff, but there were a lot of generic jumps, and the hardest part of the game (Doruppi screen 2) felt overloaded with planes. In addition, there are multiple places where it's possible to get stuck with a bad align, forcing you to redo the stage if you didn't look ahead.
By far the worst part about the game is the saves. The game uses touch saves, which is already a horrible idea for a precision game. Worse, they are activated as soon as you respawn, while you're still touching it. This means that if you delay before jumping, the save with refresh and you'll get saved in midair and lose your position. Even worse, there is a bug where your save position seems to get nudged sometimes. After a few attempts at a jump, I would find my saved position to be several steps left or right of where I'd started, making it impossible to maintain a saved setup. It is hard to understate how horrible this save system it. Practically every hard save was made significantly more unpleasant because of it, and you constantly have to be finicking with your position. If the saves were changed to normal saves I would raise my rating by at least a point. It is incomprehensible that this feature made it into a game like this.
I should mention that one of the coolest parts of the game is the couple saves that use conveyor belts. Having some gimmicks present made the jumps a lot more interesting than the standard fare that filled up everywhere else. I wish this had been pushed further, perhaps later movements in precision needle would've taken inspiration and does similar experimental, gimmicky things.
Overall, I really can't recommend this outside of its historical value. There isn't much that stands out, and the hard content and horrible save system really drag down the game.
By far the worst part about the game is the saves. The game uses touch saves, which is already a horrible idea for a precision game. Worse, they are activated as soon as you respawn, while you're still touching it. This means that if you delay before jumping, the save with refresh and you'll get saved in midair and lose your position. Even worse, there is a bug where your save position seems to get nudged sometimes. After a few attempts at a jump, I would find my saved position to be several steps left or right of where I'd started, making it impossible to maintain a saved setup. It is hard to understate how horrible this save system it. Practically every hard save was made significantly more unpleasant because of it, and you constantly have to be finicking with your position. If the saves were changed to normal saves I would raise my rating by at least a point. It is incomprehensible that this feature made it into a game like this.
I should mention that one of the coolest parts of the game is the couple saves that use conveyor belts. Having some gimmicks present made the jumps a lot more interesting than the standard fare that filled up everywhere else. I wish this had been pushed further, perhaps later movements in precision needle would've taken inspiration and does similar experimental, gimmicky things.
Overall, I really can't recommend this outside of its historical value. There isn't much that stands out, and the hard content and horrible save system really drag down the game.
Tagged as: Needle
precision_needle
[0] Likes
Rating: 4.0 40
Difficulty: 72 72
Apr 11, 2024