BALLxPIT Full Playthrough (Xbox Series X/S)

Welcome to the next Free Play Long Play, where I play through a long (2-8 hours) game in one video. This edition features a look at one of the biggest surprise independent hits of 2025 and a game that really grew on me as I played it more, “BALLxPIT". Developed by Kenny Sun and released on Xbox Series S/X, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 1 & 2, PC & Mac in October 2025 by Devolver Digital, BALLxPIT is a 3/4 overhead vertical RPG/shooter. It follows treasure hunters descending into the ruins of Ballbylon, a vast pit filled with monsters and resources. This video features the Xbox Series X/S version. The game has two main parts-first up is your home village, where you can harvest materials and create buildings using blueprints found in stages. These buildings let you unlock additional characters, improve attributes, gain additional resources and unlock other perks that help you in stages. Second are the stages which are accessed via The Lift, which takes you down into The Pit, which has multiple levels. To go deeper and access more levels, you must collect Gears to upgrade the lift. Gears are awarded when you complete a stage with different characters for the first time-you must find blueprints to build their houses first then complete construction during harvest-once you do, new characters are permanently unlocked. Characters attack with, as the title suggests, balls-a steady stream of “baby balls” and each character starts with a Special Ball, which is larger, has different attributes and does more damage. You can find more Special Balls during gameplay as well as Passives which provide different benefits. Enemies drop down from the top of the screen and slowly move towards you (some attacking with projectiles), and each stage also has a different built-in effect to make moving around more challenging. If an enemy reaches the bottom of the screen or close enough to detect you, it will melee attack, after which it will disappear (except mini-bosses), which will reduce your HP. The stage is failed if your HP reaches 0, but any resources and XP collected are kept. XP is collected from gems dropped by defeated enemies and allowed you to level up-attribute gains during stages are temporary and only last until the stage ends, but XP is also earned after stages end and those gains are permanent. The gauge on the right side of the screen tracks your progress with mini-bosses appearing at the 1/3 and 2/3 mark. These larger enemies have much higher HP and typically stay in the middle column. When the gauge is full you reach the stage boss and the gauge changes to reflect it's remaining life. Bosses are much larger with a variety of different attacks including regular enemies. If you defeat a boss the stage is cleared and you receive additional bonuses including a Trophy, which will permanently provide a stat bonus for all characters-clearing that stage with more characters increases the bonus. There are 8 stages in total, which after clearing once can also be played at higher speeds. You can slow down or speed up gameplay but it only affects the actual speed of everything and not difficulty. When you finish the VASTxVOID, the first 8 characters to do so must enter the defeated final boss. When you finish that stage with 8 different characters, you complete the game and see the ending (it only is shown the first time it happens) and unlock New Game+, allowing you to play more difficult versions of the stages (you also must clear each stage with 8 different characters to unlock the subsequent stages again) while retaining your progress. The game reminded me of an Apple Arcade game called "Angry Birds Bounce" and, the more I played it, the more I got into it. The game starts out difficult as your initial character is weak with no resources but the more you put into it, the more you will eventually get out of it and the easier it becomes, plus there is a lot of replay value if you try to 100% everything. I found it on Xbox Game Pass and I'm glad I did, but it's a real hidden gem at $15 or less wherever you find it. Notes: This playthrough was recorded before the game’s first “major” update in January 2026 and does not include the 2 new characters & other content added in that update. This recording was just after I completed the main game so there is no ending sequence shown. (It only happens once per game) All stages were played on the highest speed setting, which is about 50% faster than the “normal” speed setting. Being able to take 2 characters into a stage is unlocked by creating a specific building. In addition to one character that auto-plays stages (not guaranteed to be AAA-quality skill, sometimes it's pretty bad), one stage features a character that makes battles turn-based instead of real-time when used. The game was also released for Apple iOS devices in February 2026.