izigame.me

Very pretty but infuriatingly bad tables. They are designed with an idea in mind, which is nudging early while the ball is still on the ramps in order to save the ball. I don't think this idea was executed well on these tables, especially since nudging is borderline useless now for some reason.
On Verne, everything, and I do mean everything sends the ball down the middle or the outlanes so you gotta nudge early as the ball is coming back from ramps. It happens so much, this table is without a doubt the one where I trigger TILT the most.
You know those moving enemy drop-targets tables often use in missions? On every other table you'd get a ball-save for something like this, but not on these. They look like flat cards, but their hitboxes are actually round capsules, so every landed shot sends the ball in a random direction. Completing this mode is pure RNG. The kickback has a chance of mis-firing the ball or sending it into the other side's outlane. When you lock the ball for multiball, the auto-launcher also has a chance to send the ball straight down the drain. It's ridiculous. I've been grinding Verne for over 30 hours and got into classic realistic top 20 without reaching the wizard mode lmao.
EDIT: 100 hours later I finally reached the wizard mode of Verne. I must say it was profoundly underwhelming. Totally not worth the suffering. You don't even get a Steam achievement for it, just the in-game table award, because apparently it's an old table. Starting the wizard mode is frustrating too, it requires multiple shots at the blocked-off center lane, which always throws the ball down the middle or off into the outlane and if that drains the ball, you can start over. This made me crawl up the wall.
The Samurai table is a little better, the duels are very well designed fun boss fights. You still have to nudge a lot, even after successful shots. It's a bit of a jRPG table, you have to level up your stats (e.g. strength for extra damage, resolve for longer timer on mission) in order to make some of the later duels beatable. Leveling up resolve is particularly important and it requires you to send the ball to the bumpers, but the way the ball comes out from those is very random and might often send the ball down the middle, so once again you must be ready to nudge early while the ball is still on the ramp. Often it's not possible to save the ball though. You hit the katana in the wrong spot? Ball drains. Slingshot hell? Slings will send the ball to the sword and it will drain. Pop-up enemy targets? Hitbox is capsule again, drain. Bumpers? Drain.