In today's post, I'm gonna talk about a game for the very first time in its full-fledged state. That is Punch Upon a Time. I have been playing a decent amount of Punch Upon a Time lately since the game is in Early Access. I genuinely loved it The Ultimates are decent and its Classic Mode has a mix of game modes. I pretty much enjoyed the goodness and concept of fairy tale and fable characters beating each other up for sport and supremacy. But there are some areas that need improvements, so that said, I decided to list following improvements Punch Upon a Time needs.
Before I get to the improvements, let's take a look at the roadmap of planned content coming to Punch Upon a Time. Up next on the docket are a bonus new character, match stats. saga rank. They are coming out in this December, In Spring and Summer 2027, we're getting three new DLC characters and one new voted character. There are tons of new content coming throughout 2027 as you can see the arrow pointing right to indicate that there will be more content beyond this roadmap.
The next character is getting closer to its reveal. Looking at the silhouette, the new character looks hardcore. We don't know who this is, but we know it's not a gorilla because gorillas don't have tails.
With that out of the way, on to the improvements.
Fancier Ultimate Gauge:
I am loving the Ultimates so far. But the ingame Ultimate meter looks boring and plain and when filled up, the button callout to active your Ultimate appears and it's not necessary to have that. But what if we can make the Ultimate meter fancy? It can work. Not only that, the current Ultimate meter needs to be moved to a circular gauge around the character's portrait. It is fancy enough to justify an Ultimate meter.
Lv. 2 and Lv. 3 Ultimate Attacks:
Even if my suggestion of a fancier Ultimate gauge comes to fruition, Ultimates sticking to one level is just plain, so I think we can spice it up with Ultimates that come in two higher levels, with lv. 2 Ultimates that work similar to Final Smashes with the exception of cinematics and have effects in the background specific to each character and lv. 3 Ultimates that are cinematics with character-specific jingles. Think of it as PlayStation All-Stars. I believe that it can spice up the Ultimate gauge. I do love seeing cinematics since they are fun to experience. If you don't know what I'm talking about, hang on. Let me give you an example.
Let's take Snow Queen for example. Snow Queen is pretty much a decent character I loved. She resembles Elsa from Frozen, but she had to be distinguished from Elsa into her original design to avoid infringing Disney's copyright. Her lv. 1 Ultimate is relatively decent that she can call ice stalagmites from below. But we could give Snow Queen her hypothetical lv. 2 and lv. 3 Ultimates to spice things up. Let's take a look.
First, Snow Queen's hypothetical lv. 2 Ultimate is Snow Dance. Snow Queen dances to channel her energy that freezes opponents for a duration. And for her hypothetical lv. 3 Ultimate, Blizzard of Judgment. When it connects, Snow Queen calls upon a blizzard against her opponents. And that's it. These are Snow Queen's hypothetical lv. 2 and lv. 3 Ultimates.
Now this is where we hit a bit of a snag when it comes to higher level Ultimates. Punch Upon a Time is more than just fighting. It's about having fun beyond fighting and various minigames. I don't think that it's gonna be a snag.
Ultimate Cutouts:
Punch Upon a Time used to have Ultimate cutouts until they were removed. I like for them to return, but with a little kick. But having one would be boring, so let's spice it up with more dedicated cutouts for lv. 2 and lv. 3 Ultimates.
Victory Screen and Jingles:
Smash became known for having victory jingles in the screen where the character performs their victory pose. They are the best in Smash. We currently have characters standing on pedestals at the end of each match, which is just boring. But we can change that from characters standing on pedestals to a victory screen that shows the character performing their victory pose while their victory jingle plays at the end of each match. The devs have planned to implement post-match stats and that is a good thing. We can't have a victory screen without post-match stats to determine their performance.
Online Free-For-All Queues:
Smash became known for four-player free-for-all matches. 2v2 queues are back, but online free-for-all queues are missing. This is something that needs to be implemented. Local matches are being planned and it's also something that can't be absent, especially when in a competitive scene.
1v1 Intro Dialogues:
1v1s have been a staple in competitive Smash. They became very competitive and they have items off. The 1v1 battles in Punch Upon a Time are pretty decent. And do you know what would make it even more decent? 1v1 intro dialogues between certain characters. Games like Mortal Kombat 1 and Tekken 8 have intro dialogues and they are fun to hear. For example, if there is a 1v1 match between Big Bad Wolf and Red Riding Hood, you would hear the dialogue between them to honor the lore within the iconic Little Red Riding Hood.
If you're around the same age on that time, an animated movie that launched 21 years ago called Hoodwinked!. I do love me some Hoodwinked! and I watched it when I was like eleven years old. Great movie, by the way.
3v3 Battles
Punch Upon a Time has queues 2v2 battles and they are fun as that of the ill-fated MultiVersus. But I think we need to have 3v3 battles. It can't be just for mini games. It can also be for battling each other.
International Expansion:
Many games have international releases across multiple countries. Currently, Punch Upon a Time supports English text and voice language and sticking it to just one language is just boring. But it can be spiced up by expanding Punch Upon a Time to many countries to have various languages other than English like Japanese, Dutch, French, Spanish, Korean, Chinese and Russian. With localization, matchmaking would be improved to cover all countries internationally since the game is gonna have rollback netcode to provide a buttery smooth and lag free online experience no matter how high the ping is.
In Game Subtitles:
Subtitles are beneficial for a global audience to understand what characters are saying. I would love for Punch Upon A Time to have in game subtitles, but work similarly to Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time's subtitles to have the text of the character name at the beginning with a text color varying by character, making it unique and cover voice lines pertaining to getting a kill, intros, intro dialogues, jokes and taunts.
Character Skins and Recolors:
Character skins and recolors are known for giving characters flair and changing appearances and providing effects specific to skins. They are the best and they provide bold personalities. They can also distinguish things. Character skins would be awesome in Punch Upon a Time. The perfect example of a character skin would be Fire Queen Snow Queen.
In Game Currency:
And let's not forget about something that most games have; in game currency. I like to make myself clear that the in game currency in Punch Upon a Time should be free currency to be earned through all means like finishing matches and clearing daily and weekly missions.
Daily and Weekly Missions:
Speaking of daily and weekly missions, I am also suggesting this one so that it can make grinding for in game currency easier when it comes to getting skins.
In Game Crest Effects:
The best thing about Punch Upon a Time is that when you click on a character in the gallery, they have a character crest to represent their personality and they are in the same level of uniqueness and distinctiveness as that of the crests in BlazBlue. I think we should see crest effects in game. Only for when a character uses their Ultimate to make things easy to tell.
Unique Character Portraits:
Currently, there are character portraits, but they look dull. But they can be spiced up by having character-specific crests you see on the hub attached to them.
Let's put together the suggestions as a summary. I would like for Punch Upon a Time to have the following improvements below.
-Fancier Ultimate Gauge
-Lv. 2 and Lv. 3 Ultimates
-Ultimate Cutouts
-Victory Screen and Character Jingles
-Online Free-For-All Queues
-Lv. 2 and Lv. 3 Ultimates
-Ultimate Cutouts
-Victory Screen and Character Jingles
-Online Free-For-All Queues
-1v1 Intro Dialogues
-3v3 Battles
-International Expansion
-In Game Subtitles
-3v3 Battles
-International Expansion
-In Game Subtitles
-Character Skins and Recolors
-In Game Currency
-In Game Currency
-Daily and Weekly Missions
-In Game Crest Effects
-Unique Character Portraits
All of these suggestions above are gonna make everything up to snuff and ensure everything is complete and polished.
That is my feedback to make Punch Upon a Time the best it can be. If you're interested in getting Punch Upon a Time, here's the link to the game below.
And do you know what I like about Punch Upon a Time? It is developed by a smaller and independent team, Supersaurus Games. The game was met with a lot of positivity because of innovative gameplay, various mini games, fairy tale and fable characters battling each other for supremacy, unique Ultimate attacks and the potential inclusion of chaotic 12-player brawls containing four teams of three characters, though there is criticism towards how weak Captain Hook's lv. 1 Ultimate is because her pistol doesn't even launch opponents at higher launch rates after she catches them with her hook, so I'm gonna add this suggestion; make Captain Hook's pistol launch opponents at higher damage during her lv. 1 Ultimate.
While Punch Upon a Time is a Smash Bros.-like platform fighter, I think they are not being influenced. Let's look at MultiVersus. During Open Beta, the game became a success, but during full release, it became a flop due to aggressive monetization mechanics contributed by replacing Gold with two currencies that are earned through limited means and can't be used to purchase recolors or decorative skins like the Friday the 13th mask, indicating that Gold was why the Open Beta was better. But since Supersaurus Games is an indie studio, it will never be the case. As an indie team, they will not just avoid following Warner Bros' footsteps by not priortizing monetization, but will always remain committed to listening to player feedback and priortizing engagement during active development of Punch Upon a Time, rendering it a spiritual successor to MultiVersus.
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