200% Mixed Juice on PC

As a long-time fan of RPGs, it always amazes me to see the variety that can be found in the genre. While 200% Mixed Juice doesn’t do anything especially new or innovative, it’s still fun. Made as a kind of fan tribute for 10 years of developer Orange_Juice’s works, it features a cast from prior games and a light, relaxed tone throughout.

200% Mixed Juice is basically a battle RPG. Players collect “cards” either by having characters join up with them through the story or by purchasing them in shops. These cards represent the characters that the aptly-named Protagonist may use during battle, forming a party of up to three cards at a time. Battling takes up most of your time in the game, and it takes time to put together the right team and get them leveled up enough to be useful.

Outside of the battle system, 200% Mixed Juice does bring some plot to the table, even if it’s a bit disjointed. Protagonist and their friends get caught up in a tale of world-breaking proportions as a mysteriously powerful villain seeks to mix a variety of separate worlds, bringing the barriers between these worlds down and threatening the complete annihilation of the worlds our heroes know.

While the plot may sound heavy, 200% Mixed Juice approaches it in a light-hearted way. The dialogue and humor are relatively childish, but with some good self-referential jokes thrown in to keep things amusing. The writing isn’t especially great, but the consistent tone and occasional bright moments shine through to create a well-rounded feel.

Since most of 200% Mixed Juice takes place in combat, I’ll take a closer look at that system. Combat is turn-based, with players able to either swap cards or use an action on any given turn. Actions require action points, restored by die roll at the beginning of each round. Characters and attacks are assigned a Type from strength, speed, or skill. These Types play into combat in rock-paper-scissors style, with each having an advantage over another type.

Unfortunately, that’s about as deep as 200% Mixed Juice gets. The light, easygoing tone of the game keeps some interest going, but the gameplay gets pretty repetitive as players progress. Despite the cast of over 80 characters, each battle plays out in very similar fashion. The story, such as it is, failed to really capture my attention, even when the dialogue proved to bring some laughs along the way.

In the end, I think 200% Mixed Juice is an easy recommendation for fans of prior Orange_Juice games, but it fails to bring much to the table outside of that. Since it seems like that was the intended audience, I certainly can’t say that’s a fault or a shortfall in design, but the focus on existing fans makes it a bit tough to get into from the outside. Still, a low $6.99 on Steam isn’t much of a gamble, so if you’re a fan of their prior work or simply looking for an irreverent, battle-focused Japanese RPG, it may be worth a look.

Score: 3/5