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 Homestuck is a somewhat well-known web comic, started by one man, Andrew Hussie. In it, a group of kids basically have to play a complex, almost magical game in order to create a Universe. In 2012, the game was officially announced and given a Kickstarter page, which very soon exceeded its end goal. Unfortunately, production was complicated and the old developers, The Odd Gentlemen, left the scene. The game was converted from 3D to 2D, and the release date was set back. Thankfully, after about five years, the first ACT has been released, mere hours ago as I type these words. Will the wait be worth it, or was the five year wait all for nothing? Let's find out. Why Hiveswap? As kind of embarrassed as I am to admit, I used to be a pretty big Homestuck fan. I enjoyed the complex story, all the characters, the nods and pokes to the fandom that Hussie gave. Of course, nothing good lasts forever and the latter half of ACT 6 and ACT 7 left myself and a number of fans disheartened. But we still had the game to look forward to, right? Sadly, the delays kept coming, and a lot of people including myself were worried the game would never hold up. And with this LP, I'll see if the game will live up to the expectations, or be a mediocre point and click game. About the LP: For the first time in a while, I will be playing this live, and on Steam. As far as I know, there aren't any major secrets in the game, so I will simply be trying to get through it as best as possible, giving my thoughts along the way. As it will be my very first time playing through, I may get stuck, but will cut away time if I'm taking too long to figure a puzzle out or whatnot. I only have a few episodes recorded, so I can't say how well I'll do overall, let's just hope I don't fumble around too much. And I should note I won't be reading the dialogue out loud, so no need to worry if that bothers you. As a warning, since it came up in the Sandcastle thread, I WILL be talking during cutscenes, just so people know if that kind of thing bothers them. SECOND WARNING. I will casually drop endgame spoilers for Homestuck, so beware. Schedule: As usual, there's no specific schedule. I'll simply get to the LP when I'm able to. Hopefully at least two or three videos a week. Spoilers?: Considering the game literally came out hours ago, please hide all major story points in spoilers, which I will do myself. AN ADVENTURE FIVE YEARS IN THE MAKING: Part 1 - And Then Suddenly, Monsters Part 2 - Hey Jude Part 3 - The Portal Part 4 - Xefros' Peril Part 5 - END OF ACT 1 TheLoneStar fucked around with this message at 01:06 on Sep 23, 2017 |
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Sep 14, 2017 21:54
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| # ? May 12, 2024 20:19 |
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Reserving this post, just in case.
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Sep 14, 2017 21:54
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And now the first episode: Part 1 - And Then Suddenly, Monsters So...So far, not too much for me to say. I admit, I think the (forced) change from 3D to 2D was a good one. The animations are nice and smooth, and Joey's little dances are endearing and kind of cute. As I make it clear, I am not a fan of Jude. The way he talks just really annoys me for some reason. But who knows, maybe he'll grow on me as things go on. I noticed a number of little references I missed to the Homestuck "lore" as it were. In the hallway by the closet there's a castle playset reminiscent of Lord English, for instance. And it's interesting the game is set in 1994, taking place before Homestuck properly started. And Roxy and Papa English are there, so who knows where this takes place in comparison to Homestuck. Clearly not the same exact world, because Roxy and Papa English shouldn't exist at the same time like that, and in Roxy's too young to grow up into Mom Lalonde by 2009.
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Sep 14, 2017 22:02
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Continuing onward. Unfortunately, I hosed up and for this video the commentary isn't live because I forgot to save the audio. It won't happen again, I promise. Part 2 - Hey Jude We get our first proper look, physically, at Jude in this episode. I still don't particularly like him very much, he just kind of bugs me in a way I can't really explain. Admittedly, The Long Gunmen being referenced in the pigeons was about the last thing I expected. I mean it's not unwelcome, just kind of bizarre. I have to say, I still don't really have much of an opinion on Joey yet. Her animations are spirited and endearing, but that's about it. Hopefully I'll be able to actually fight an enemy for real at some point, though I have the feeling all Strifes will be puzzle-like without any monsters actually being killed. At least while playing as Joey, that is. And anyone who's seen any of the trailers knows what the deal with the portal is that Jude mentioned...the question is why it's even there at all.
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Sep 16, 2017 01:35
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Part 3 - The Portal And now we're on Alternia. I was always a tad bummed we never got to see much of the Troll's planet in the comic itself. Small peeks and the occasional throwaway line, but aside from a basic overview we didn't get too much. I mean, that's just me. I really like world building. The first Troll we encounter is a pushover Rust Blood, Xefros. He kind of reminds me of Tavros, but not as annoying. I was kind of bothered by him at first, but by the end of the ACT I grew to like him. And I'm embarrassed at how I got stuck so horribly in this video, to the point where I cut out maybe ten minutes or so of me wandering around, despite the puzzle solution being super easy.
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Sep 18, 2017 03:30
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Uhhh... Dude? You may want to space out your updates. Dropping three in a row, in one day, is kind of a Faux Pas, as it kinda looks like you're doing an LP dump, a big No-No in this parts. Even if you have 3 updates ready to be posted at the same time, space them out, give people a few days to consume and digest your first update before dropping the second. That will also give you a backlog, so in case you need to take a rest from playing, like, say, you gotta work extra hours for a week, or a medical emergency or a vacation away from your main computer, you can post the backlog videos and not lose out. Just a few tips 
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Sep 18, 2017 04:26
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Siegkrow posted:Uhhh...
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Sep 18, 2017 05:17
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Game looks very different from the Homestuck I remember. Last I checked 10 year old trolls were kissing each other and I felt uncomfortable.
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Sep 18, 2017 05:42
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Putty posted:Game looks very different from the Homestuck I remember. Last I checked 10 year old trolls were kissing each other and I felt uncomfortable. Part 4 - Xefros' Peril Xefros really started to grow on me at this point. His spineless nature is still kind of annoying, but there's just something oddly endearing about him at the same time that I can't quite pin down. Also, I really just had no idea how to figure out that snake puzzle correctly, I think I was making it out to be way more difficult than it really was. Seeing more freaky Alternia stuff is always nice, even if most of it is just for jokes rather than serious world building. But then again that's just the Homestuck style, I suppose.
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Sep 20, 2017 03:18
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TheGamerGuy23 posted:But I started posting on the 14th. I've posted three videos in about as many days. Yeah, you're fine, ignore that guy. It's really, really obvious you're not youtube-dumping.
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Sep 20, 2017 03:27
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Putty posted:Game looks very different from the Homestuck I remember. Last I checked 10 year old trolls were kissing each other and I felt uncomfortable. As for the snake puzzle, it actually had the answer in the top right, at least after you go look at the paper. I guess Joey writes it down herself.
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Sep 21, 2017 10:44
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I'm pretty sure the "Clarissa" Joey keeps referring to is a reference to
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Sep 22, 2017 13:22
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Quantum Toast posted:I don't know, it reminds me a lot of the early bits. Except doors are locked instead of having bathtubs dropped behind them. taiyoko posted:I'm pretty sure the "Clarissa" Joey keeps referring to is a reference to Huh. Maybe. It'd be one Hell of a random reference if that's the case. And now for the ending, believe it or not. Part 5 - END OF ACT 1 And...that's it. I was pretty surprised the game was THIS short. I know it was only ACT 1, but it only took about two hours to beat, even with me getting stuck like an idiot a couple of times. I really don't know how I feel about the game overall so far. I mean it certainly isn't bad, but it's not like it's an experience I want to revisit right away either. Not a lot of characters to get to know, Jude stopped appearing halfway through, leaving only Joey and Xefros. Any other character was built by word-of-mouth. Dammek sounds like a prick, but compared to some of the poo poo pulled off by Trolls in the comic, he's small potatoes. Jude I still find annoying, and I still can't put a finger on why that is. I know it's not the all-caps thing, Karkat and Caliborn never annoyed me with that. Xefros was annoying to me too at first, but by the end he grew on me. As for Joey...I dunno, I gotta say she seems almost vanilla in a way. Nothing particularly good or bad about her in my opinion. Aside from goofy/cute animations, I can't really say much about her. I went at length at how I like the 2D animation, and really enjoyed how smooth and...well, animated it was. But yeah, hopefully ACT 2 comes by sometime soon...I'm not sure if these five years were spent entirely on ACT 1 or not. I hope not, I really don't want to wait until 2022 to play ACT 2. I guess I might use this thread for ACT 2 if it comes out before the thread is deleted/archived. If not, hopefully ACT 2 will give more material than five videos worth of a playthrough.
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Sep 23, 2017 01:06
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