Petal Crash

**Petal Crash** is a tile-matching puzzle game developed by Friend and Fairy and published by GalaxyTrail. It is the second game developed by Friend and Fairy, after Grapple Force Rena. The player takes control of a character of their choice who has the goal of collecting the seven Sacred Blossoms in order to have their wish granted.

The game was created by Tim Ashley Jenkins. It was first announced on October 27th, 2019 on the GalaxyTrail YouTube channel in their "GalaxyTrail Mix 2019", which was a livestream in which Sabrina DiDuro and Jenkins shared footage of the studio's upcoming games. Alongside the livestream was the launch of a Kickstarter for the game, which reached its fundraising goal in six day on November 2nd. Jenkins would continue to provide a steady stream of update over the course of the game's development. The game was released to the public a little less than a year later on October 12th, 2020.

## Characters

### Other Characters:

* **Likes**: Organize
* **Hates**: Error
 **The Baz** | A loudmouthed man who wanders from game to game in search for a place he can call home. He is a famous crossover character who has made appearances in various indie games.
* **Likes**: Glory
* **Hates**: Losing
 **Mimi**
* **Likes**: Disguise
* **Hates**: Hero
 **Nova**   | A cheerful green squirrel who likes puzzles. She comes from an NES homebrew game called Nova the Squirrel, and she was added into the game because the creator, NovaSquirrel, helped with the programming for Petal Crash's upcoming Online Mode. She was added into the game in Version 1.1.
* **Likes**: Computer
* **Hates**: Mean
 **Milla** | An enthusiastic basset hound with a passion for the sciences, especially alchemy. She originates from Freedom Planet, another GalaxyTrail game. She was added into the game in Version 1.1.
* **Likes**: Cube
* **Hates**: Fleas
 **Arlet**
* **Likes**: Dresses
* **Hates**: Yelling
* **Occupation**: Far From Home

## Plot

### Background Lore

Long ago, there was a large kingdom known as Florea that was held together by the power of magical flowers called the seven Sacred Blossoms. However, the kingdom eventually collapsed and broke up into various city-states. Alongside this event, the Sacred Blossoms were separated from each other and scattered across the land of the former kingdom. A rumor floats around the land that whoever can gather all the Sacred Blossoms and return them to the old royal garden will have their wish granted if it's truly what their heart desires. From here, the direction of the story changes depending on the character that the player selects, with the chosen protagonist seeking out the Sacred Blossoms and obtaining them via playing games of "Petal Crash".

### Lilibri

Lilibri, a fairy scholar who runs a small library, reads about the legend of the seven Sacred Blossoms in one of her books. Motivated partly by a desire to verify the truth of the legend and partly by her wish of recovering all knowledge that was lost to history, she breaks away from her studies and heads out with her Sacred Blossom, a Lily, to find all the other Blossoms. She obtains the her second through sixth Blossoms without much struggle, but when she encounters Rosalia, a former knight of Florea, at the royal garden, Rosalia tells Lilibri that her vision is too short-sighted. She tells Lilibri that her goal is to actually resurrect her old kingdom to the power level that it once was. Lilibri dismisses the idea immediately, which irritates Rosalia, who ends their conversation early and challenges her to a final game of Petal Crash, which she proceeds to lose, giving Lilibri the last Sacred Blossom that she needed. However, once Lilibri gets ready to make her wish, she relents, realizing that having knowledge would be useless if no one is interested in hearing about it. She decides instead to wish for her library to become a school as well so that she can teach people about all the topics that she has learned about through her research. She is seen at the end of her story educating a group of children.

### Strelitz

Strelitz, a young troublemaker who lives in a village full of fiendkin, is frustrated with the calm lives that his parents and community choose to live. He desires to become a powerful demon and rule over Hell as its new King, so he steals his village's Bird of Paradise (one of the Sacred Blossoms) and runs out of the village to find the remaining six items. Unbeknownst to him, the people of his village know what he is up to, and several of them (including his parents) decide to follow him in secret so he doesn't get hurt. Though he expects his mission to go smoothly, his hotheaded attitude in combination with his cowardice often gets him into trouble. When he meet Rosalia in the royal garden, she initially is shocked that a child is challenging her for the final Sacred Blossom, but when Strelitz tells her about his plans to become the King of Hell, she becomes far less willing to hold back. In the end, however, Strelitz prevails, but before he makes his wish, he admits to himself that he's been nothing but scared and insecure during his entire journey. He ultimately decides to wish to not feel so small and restrained anymore. Immediately after his wish, he hears one of his mom's voice behind him. He turns to look behind him and sees his moms, the village elder, and a few other people from his village behind him, though they look different from before because they've gained a few levels from defeating monsters to keep them away from Strelitz. His moms tell him that they are proud of him for finding out the secret behind their village's Bird of Paradise, and they agree to give him more freedom to do what he wants. They all decide to go home, a place that for once, Strelitz is actually glad to be in.

### Penny and Deony

Penny and Deony, two newborn twins, were abandoned at the doorstep of an elderly seamstress by their parents when they were born with a Peony (a Sacred Blossom) as their only possession. Years later, they opened up a successful clothing shop, in which Deony sows various outfits and Penny markets them to potential buyers. Each twin believes that the other one does most of the hard work. One day, Penny discovers from a customer that her Peony is actually a Sacred Blossom, and her and Deony decide to gather all seven of them in order to finally find their parents. Neither of them really care a lot about finding their parents, but both of them believe that the other one is very invested in the quest. When they run into Daize, a laid back beastkin with a knack for reading people, on their journey, he drops a hint towards Deony that, despite what Deony thinks, Penny believes that Deony actually does most of the hard work. The pair eventually reach Rosalia at the royal garden, and she cynically mocks the twins for thinking that their coalition will hold together if they get the chance to make their wish. The two of them beat her in a game of Petal Crash, but when they fail to make their parents show up, they realize that neither of them actually cared that much about finally meeting them. They decide to head back to their shop, content in their bond with each other.

### Ore Kid

Ore Kid, a treasure-hunting dwarf, is going through her usual daily routine of mining up various items for her collection when she stumbles upon a glowing Orchid buried underneath the ground. She later finds out that it is a Sacred Blossom and decides to try and find the six remaining Blossoms in order to break up the tedium of mining every day, despite having no idea what she would wish for. She obtains most of the Sacred Blossoms uneventfully until she meets Daize, who is rather critical of her decision to seek out such powerful objects simply for the sake of it, as there are other people who would use the Sacred Blossoms to help themselves or others, which causes Ore Kid to spill that she just wanted to quest for the Sacred Blossoms to quell her boredom from mining every day. She encounters Rosalia at the royal garden, but her antics quickly frustrate the elven knight, so their conversation ends short. Ore Kid beats Rosalia for the final Sacred Blossom, which surprises the both of them. After much deliberation, she decides to wish for an idea of what to wish for, which results in nothing happening. She smiles in acceptance of this outcome and decides to go back to her mine, content with the outcome.

### Daize

Despite Daize's calm and collected persona, he holds a deep hatred for his city, as it is run by greedy elites who use their immense amount of money to screw over the town's "good folks". So when he acquires his Sacred Blossom, a Daisy, by winning it in a gambling game, he heads outside the city to search for the six remaining Blossoms in order to wish for enough money to always be able to offer financial assistance to those who need. He obtains most of the Blossoms without anything of note occurring until he meets Rosalia in the royal garden. When he describes his wish to her as "getting a payday", Rosalia initially misunderstands his goal as simply wanting money, but when he explains that he plans to use it for the working poor in his city, Rosalia realizes her assumption was wrong and apologizes. The two of them Petal Crash, and Daize emerges as the winner. As he reflects on his journey, he modifies his wish slightly, asking the Sacred Blossoms to give him enough money to lift everybody in his city out of poverty so that they can be on equal footing with the wealthy. In the end, the Blossoms do not grant his wish, which Daize doesn't seem to mind. When he heads back to his town, he makes a promise to himself to start a political revolt against the upper class that he hopes the common folk in his city will join.

### Yosoti

Yosoti, the latest edition to a line of famous centaur dancers, has been thinking over their family's long legacy. They desire to form their own identity rather than just being another link in the family chain. When they find out their Forget-Me-Not is one of the seven Sacred Blossoms, they venture out to collect the rest of them in order to wish to put on a unique performance, separate from their family history. Though they try to keep a low profile, they are constantly recognized by the various other characters in the various Florean city-states, such as Penny and Lilibri. When Yosoti meets Rosalia at the royal garden, they are shocked to learn the Rosalia already knew their name. Rosalia informs her that long ago, she was a big fan of several previous Yosoti dancers, as they were hired by the Florean royal family regularly to perform for their entertainment. Yosoti is initially enamored by how long her family legacy is, with this instance seemingly being the first time she has ever given its length any serious thought, but she soon snaps back to reality for her final Petal Crash against Rosalia. Upon Yosoti claiming victory in the match, she reflects on Rosalia's words to her. She comes to a revelation that her ancestors also likely had a similar wish to stand out from all other in their family line, but the entire reason why the Yosoti have been so well known is because they have been around so long. Yosoti walks back to her village for another performance, finally content with her place in the family tree.

### Rosalia

Before watching over the royal garden, Rosalia was a servant to the long gone royal family of Florea. Back in these old times, Rosalia proudly guarded the seven Sacred Blossoms in the royal garden whenever someone wanted to have their wish granted. Rosalia remarks that back then, when the Blossoms were united, she felt whole, but now that this time has long since passed and the Blossoms are now scattered, she feels "distorted and stretched thin". After decades of waiting with her Rose for somebody to gather the Blossoms at the royal garden, Rosalia decides that she can no longer continue to waste her years waiting for someone else to accomplish her goal for her, and she wanders out into the city-states to gather up the seven Sacred Blossoms. As she travels across the land, she sees how the various characters of the previous stories seem to be genuinely enjoying their lives. Through her interactions with the various locals in each town, she gradually softens up in her goal to restore her fallen kingdom, to the point where even Petal Crashing against Strelitz proves tough for her. Rosalia's final destination ends up being Lilibri's house, where Lilibri attempts to convince Rosalia that Florea was not the amazing kingdom the Rosalia seems to believe it is, which leads to the pair Petal Crashing. Rosalia comes out as the winner, but before she makes her wish, she ponders on how much the land that made up Florea has changed and how little she has in comparison. Rather than wish her old kingdom back to life, she instead brings the Sacred Blossoms back to the royal garden, where they grant anyone's wish should they so need it.

## Gameplay

### Basic Gameplay

Regardless of the specific gameplay mode the player chooses upon booting up the game. Petal Crash offers an in-game tutorial explaining the basic gameplay mechanics. The four main rules of Petal Crash are as follows:

1. The player can push colored blocks in any direction on the board (left, right, up, down), and when pushed will continue to travel in the pushed direction until it hits a wall or another block.
2. As the player makes new moves, more blocks will begin to appear on the board. The player can also speed up how fast the blocks appear without making new moves. If the board becomes completely covered in blocks, then the player gets an immediate game over.
3. If a block hits another block of the same color, both blocks will explode, pushing all surrounding blocks away. The explosions can push blocks into other blocks of the same color, causing chains of explosions. The more blocks that are destroyed with one move, the more points the player will get. Simply lining up blocks of the same color next to each other will not cause explosions, however.
4. In some game modes, there are special grey-colored garbage blocks that cannot be moved by the player. These blocks appear twice as fast as colored blocks, and the only way to get rid of them is to explode colored blocks around the garbage blocks.

### Game Modes

There are many game modes in Petal Crash that cater to various different audiences. They are grouped into three different categories: Solo Play, Versus Mode, and Puzzle Mode. Solo Play and Versus Mode both feature difficulty setting that determine how intelligent the AI is, with 1.0 being the dumbest AI and 9.0 being the smartest.

#### Solo Play

Solo Play is comprised of Petal Crash's single-player content. It hosts one of the signature modes of the game (the story mode) and various time trial modes.

Select any of the characters and try to get the highest possible score with a limited amount of turns, with 500 being the upper limit and 75 as the lower. The player is given infinite time to decide on their moves.

#### Versus Mode

Versus Mode allows the player to play Petal Crash matches against either a CPU or against another player. Currently only couch multiplayer is available in the game, but there are plans to add an online mode.

A very similar mode to Tug of War except each player has only one life, and players cannot send garbage blocks to each other.

#### Puzzle Mode

Puzzle Mode is the third game mode of Petal Crash. It allows players to players to play premade puzzles that were designed by the developers. It also allows the player to make their own puzzles and share them with other players.

A program that allows the player to design their own puzzles. Upon the creation of a puzzle, the game generates a code that can be shared with others so they can play the newly created puzzle.

## Trivia

* Three of the extra characters (Libbie, Baz, and Mimi) were added into the game by Kickstarter donators who gave $2,000 each to the production of the game.
* Nova the Squirrel was added into the game in the 1.1 update as a thank you to developer NovaSquirrel for helping Jenkins with the online play.

## Gallery

Milla's guest appearance in Petal Crash.Logo for Petal Crash Online.
1. ↑ Libbie the Cyber Oryx by TysonTan on DeviantArt