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I noticed part 8 is already up on Youtube, but for some reason not visible in the thread.  Anyway, I stumbled upon this thread by accident and finally got around to catching up on the videos. I'm a little different from the folks who had some luke-warm experience with it, as I absolutely adored the game and its expansion. I still play it on occasion and hope to finish the main game's über-hardcore one day. (I got to 3-7 during a lucky day once, once you know the levels, there are really only a handful of true trouble spots in the mandatory part of the levels) I do get what people say when they say the game eventually wears thin and what the LP-er meant when he mentioned the "sameyness" in level 2-1. (levels generally have some unique stuff, like the floating castles in Crystal Canyon and the ravine in the background in Owl Shriek Ravine, but the "feeling" of many of those areas is somewhat similar) And while the 1st and 2nd "world" frequently introduce new mechanics, the 3rd world is all about throwing it all together and making you struggle through it. And yeah, the game initially lets you use the training wheels during the first few levels, then suddenly yanks them away in Owlbeak Castle before making you ride a tightrope above a shark pool in the Amethyst Mines. And that's nothing compared to some of the later levels too. The Easy difficulty (which adds shield gems and additional platforms in dangerous areas) wasn't even present in the first version, but was added when casuals started complaining about suddenly getting wrecked. A little tip for you that's mentioned in the expansion's loading tips, but goes unmentioned in this game: the game lets you use a "safety jump". Basically, you can not just jump while on the ground, but also in mid-air under certain circumstances. You do this by walking (not jumping) off a ledge, then pressing jump while you're falling. (you can add a twirl or dash after this jump too) The same is the case when you fall due to a crumbling platform disappearing underneath you...you can jump when you're falling in order to get to safety. This technique is very useful when you need to cross wide gaps with low ceilings and will come in handy in the penultimate level of the second world. Nidoking posted:Something to watch for that I just discovered - because it's such an old game, it's already losing backward compatibility. I can't run it on my Windows 10 systems, and the developers told me that I also need a dedicated graphics card for it - the Intel onboard card is insufficient even at the lowest settings. I'm still mulling over whether it's time to pull an old computer out of retirement just so I can play along. That might just be your computer. I have Windows 10 too and it runs like a twisted dream for me. A dedicated graphic card was always necessary for the game IIRC. Jamesman posted:Yeah I just played a level that pretty much confirmed I HAVE to do this if anyone is going to keep their sanity. This is not the quaint little generic platformer I thought it was going to be. That's too bad.  If you've already made up your mind about this, I guess it can't be helped, but since you asked for opinions, here's mine:In my mind there are three kinds of Let's Plays; "Expert LP's", "Blind LP's" and "the rest". "Expert LP's" are playthroughs by someone who knows the game and mechanics like the back of their hand and are much more well-versed in the game than even the average fan. You don't really see these kinds of LP's for a game like Twisted Dreams, but I enjoy them for games like RPGs where they show unorthodox approaches to bosses or situations and where they elaborate on lore, fan theories and the such. In other words, I enjoy those kinds of LP because I learn new things from them. Then there are the "Blind LP's" where people jump into things without any preparation and where you get to see have their first experience first-hand. I enjoy watching people's first reactions to games I've played. I enjoy the giddy anticipation as they're approaching particularly challenging parts without knowing what's gonna happen and watching the "Whoa, crap!", "Wait, what?", "Hmmm...how do I tackle this?" "Aha!", "Ugh, no I got this!" and "gently caress Yeah!" reactions; the player getting caught off guard, or cursing at the game's sadism, or watching the wheels turning inside their heads as they try to figure out how to best tackle a situation. I even enjoy the slight sense of despair when a blind LP-er gets owned several times in a row by a nastier part. Yes, it's a little sadistic, but hey, I was in the LP-er's shoes once and most of the time didn't even do better. And during those times, I do find myself rooting for the LP-er a bit, wondering how many tries it'll take before they proceed. Obviously, even sadism has its limits, so if a particular obstacle clowns you 10 times in a row, there's no need to show all 10, just the first few attempts with the rest edited out if it gets repetitive. (heck, this is what you'll be doing for the game's final boss anyway, I'm calling it now)Then there's the "the rest" LP's, which is just someone playing. No in-depth expert analysis, but no juicy first-time reactions either. Just...playing. There's less the desire to root for the LP-er because you know they already finished the level several times. The only deaths you get to see are not when a new situation tackles the unaware LP-er, but when the LP-er loses focus and has a "stupid death" as you called it. Stupid deaths are the least interesting to watch. I suppose to people who never played the game, explanations about how stuff like the "green alien/spikey box"-mechanic works are interesting, but me, I already knew all that stuff and I was more curious about how long it took you to figure it out and whether it was by accident or part of concious deliberation. When you say stuff like "first time I played this level, I died a lot", my first reaction was "where and how? Any particular parts? Any parts where you lucked out? Show, don't tell!". It kinda felt like a tease for a prequel that ended up cancelled after announcement.  I didn't mind you carefully searching for gems everywhere. I'm not a new player using your videos as walkthrough.Compare Blind LP's of the same game and all of them are different, since different people have different first reactions. Compare non-blind LP's and many of them start feeling samey eventually since they lack the spontaneity of the initial impressions. Obviously, if you have a maximum movie length you strictly feel you must adhere to, there's not much to be done. But personally, I don't feel my own sanity is being saved by getting deprived of your initial impressions. In the end, though, it's up to you to determine what kind of LP-er you want to be and what you want to show or not show your audience. Erpy fucked around with this message at 20:38 on Dec 15, 2017 |
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Dec 15, 2017 20:21
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Yeah, "Enchanted Mountain Path" is kind of a breather level. The same can't be said of its alternative version, the Halloween Special 2012, which is quite tough at times. "Clockwork Lighthouse" has some tricky bits too, especially the part just before the first ghost-killing light beams. (you can use the safety jump there to make it a bit easier) Dreadful Straits is quite a fun level, and fairly unique looking with its ship and lagoon theme. It's probably the most water-intensive level. The firewall chasing you can catch you off guard. If you don't like stuff chasing you, well, the third world will frequently make you shout. "Octor Freud" is by far the most straight-forward of all bosses, including the expansion boss. He's also the only one you can directly damage. Overall, you did a pretty good job with the boss level. Now onto the third world. It's where the game definitely takes off the kiddy gloves and puts on the spiked gauntlets, even more so if you want all the gems. One little thing: while you CAN switch to Punk Giana while the fish is jumping out of the water and then quickly try to get on top of the turtle before gravity reasserts itself, you don't actually need to. While in Cute Giana form, simply wait for the fish to be in the air, then immediately do a diagonal-upwards dash towards it. The dash causes Giana to transform, transforming the fish into the turtle and you'll bounce off of it into the air, getting some additional height you wouldn't be able to get if you had to jump on top of it.
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Dec 20, 2017 01:24
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BTW, it's not uncommon for people to firedash towards enemies and then die because the dash ends just before they reach the target. The dash' length is determined by how long you hold the button; a quick tap results in a shorter dash, and letting go of the button immediately cancels it. The dash's length tends to be extended a bit when homing in on nearby enemies, but it still gets canceled when you let go of the button before it connects, so the best way to avoid these kinds of deaths is to hold the dash button until you hear the pop of the enemy getting defeated.
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Dec 20, 2017 11:22
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Jamesman posted:Well I'm glad I'm not alone there. It's just sometimes I miscalculate the distance and the attack runs out just before touching the enemy. I feel like something could have been done to better refine the dash attack, but I'm not quite sure what. I don't think it'd be possible without taking away the player's ability to cancel the dash, which would be worse. If a dash homes in on an enemy to begin with, it should hit that enemy unless you prematurely let go of the button. But like I said, a dash that has locked on is extended, meaning you have to hold down the button for longer than usual too. If you hold the button only for the amount of time it'd take to cover its usual length (which you generally do when using the dash to navigate obstacles) and then let go, you risk cancelling the dash right in the enemy's face. It's the player who has to switch gears here.
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Dec 21, 2017 17:34
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Mr. Highway posted:After that worm(?) boss, this squid boss seems much more generic. It seems this game doesn't have the same sense of progression that you'd find in other platformers: there world themes are sparse or non-existent, difficulty varies, the second boss seemed like a better introduction than the first. It does have a sense of progression as far as difficulty is concerned. World 1 was mostly cake except for the sheer spike at the end. World 2 was consistently tougher and World 3 has quite a few spiteful spots including two levels where the game won't even give you shield gems. The first two bosses are about the same as far as difficulty is concerned with the first one mostly being about figuring out how to hurt it and the second one making it easier for you to accidentally kill yourself.
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Dec 22, 2017 17:22
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Glazius posted:I suppose we should be thankful there aren't any crystals you can only pick up during boss fights. Yeah, about that...
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Dec 27, 2017 07:54
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Good to see this one back. Yeah, the bubble can take some getting used to. It's apparantly an element that already appeared in the original Giana Sisters game. It's not too bad once you get a feeling for it and simply move around by doing quick taps rather than holding the jump button for longer than a split-second. There's never a need to build up momentum with this thing and almost always gets you killed. Welcome to World 3. As you have seen, things get hairier here. Emerald Cliffs can be annoying, particularly the passage where the owls rain down and you're attacked on all sides by enemies and pinwheels. When using a turtle/fish to get onto a high point, there's no switch to Punk Giana and then jump up to it and dash. Just be Cute Giana, wait until the fish reaches the apex of its jump and press the dash key while aiming the stick towards it. Since the dash already switches worlds, you'll get maximum altitude with this approach.
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Jan 6, 2018 11:50
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The skull signs don't just signify bottomless pits though. They're used throughout the game for all kinds of hazards, including acid, amethysts and thorns/spikes. Jumping in there without a bubble IS death, so taking away the sign would have resulted in players jumping down and having an acid dip. Placing it lower would have made little sense because the screen cannot scroll down far enough to show that it's acid rather than a bottomless pit of death.
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Jan 7, 2018 11:06
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After getting used to the jumping at the end, Haunted Swamp is a fairly relaxing level (lots of shield gems and lots of light beams to kill ghosts with) with the exception of the area with the rising acid at the very bottom of the level, which is annoying even on replays. This is probably the first (but not the last) level where you have to deal with rising acid.
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Jan 9, 2018 08:53
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One little gem you failed to show on your "retrieval run" yet didn't get on your first one was the small gem hidden near the boxes next to the last big gem that rose from the acid. It's pretty fitting they introduced the rolling boulder hazard in the Temple of Doomdidoom level. Overall, the level's not too bad aside from the part where you're chased by the flame walls, which remains tricky even when you're very familiar with the level. Playtime's over. Now the spiteful part starts. 
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Jan 11, 2018 22:05
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Owl Wing's Nest savaged me the first time I ran through. Especially some of those areas with the buzzsaws. In the area around 15:00, it's actually possible to navigate a large part of that section by using your flaming dash to zip from owl to owl, though you won't be picking up all gems if you do it that way. You did very well on this level.
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Jan 13, 2018 22:07
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You managed this level very well. No boss here, but there were several of those dragon statues in the background of the level as you made your way through. Speaking of background objects...notice the huge owl-shaped airship moored in the distance? You'll be exploring it in the expansion. Breakneck Passage stands out in the back of my mind as one of the more infuriating levels, but that's not due to the level being the peak of sadism, but due to the fact that this is the first level to completely lack any shield gems, meaning getting hit is always fatal here and there are a handful of spots (like 6:30, 14:40 and 15:50) where it's REALLY easy to slip up for a split-second and die. So far, of all the Über-hardcore runs I've made, this level ranks top as the ones that ended my run. Though I suspect eventually that honor will shift to the next level, which is my least favorite level in the game. No ghosts, but that's barely a consolation.
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Jan 15, 2018 23:59
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Well, failing one's way to victory or not, that was a remarkably solid first playthrough. Boiling Springs (almost) has it all: truckloads of deadly water, rising deadly water (including at the point where you threatened to angrily shout), rolling boulders, plenty of small platforms, precision bubble segments, rows of fireball throwers, absolutely no shield gems (again) and that segment at 14:20 that's essentially like flipping a coin on whether I make it through or die horribly. It's pretty much the  emoticon in level form.The good news: aside from a brief nasty section early on in the penultimate level, your current skills should allow you to make it from here to the final boss' doorstep with relatively little trouble.
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Jan 17, 2018 22:59
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Jamesman posted:The level after this I ended up doing a practice run of, because I kept dying to stupid things and it was throwing my focus off too much, but even then, yeah I'd say this level was a bit of a spike compared to what's come directly before and after. I've been checking out a few videos of other playthroughs on YouTube, and one person had almost 40 deaths on this level, so I don't feel too bad about my death count. I'd complain about that, but the two times I made it all the way to that level, I died in very stupid and avoidable ways (once I missed jumping on a frog and got drooled on, once I missed a fireball dash against a flying owl I didn't need to kill in the first place and tumbled into a pit), so you're not alone there.
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Jan 19, 2018 22:27
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Dread Dragon's Keep is a bit of an rear end in a top hat right at the start with those two small platforms and orbitting skulls/masks that you access by using the trapped box to bounce up. The slightest mistiming has you crash into the orbitting hazards or slipping off the platform. After that part and the floating skulls immediately after, you get a shield gem and the rest of the level is very managable. "I'm looking forward to the final boss."  Yeah, no surprise if you'll be needing a few practice runs for that one. Erpy fucked around with this message at 17:40 on Jan 21, 2018 |
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Jan 21, 2018 17:38
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Congratulations, you beat the main game. Well done. It's not uncommon for people to make it all the way to the end and then ragequit upon bumping into the final boss. To be honest, the long completion times for this level (the game gives you 30 minutes in time attack mode, which is a lot) is mostly due to the boss and the fact that a LOT of the fight against him involves waiting for him to cycle through his attack pattern. (it seems to want to give the crumbly platforms time to reappear before cycling to the next move) The level itself, once you know what to expect, is quite a bit easier than most levels in world 3. Well, until you get to the chase part, that is. If you don't care about gems, that one's not too bad, but every time I try to collect all gems there, I tend to get run down at least once. Gurglewocky is probably most people's least favourite boss. The fight is extremely long, the lava sticks around after the first phase, the random pattern of the rain of fire means that no matter how much you practice there's always a chance the RNG screws you over and generates a fireball spread you just can't properly avoid, Gurglewocky spends a lot of time between attacks just waiting (which drags out the fight even longer) and worst of all: that poo poo-eating smug grin of his all throughout the fight is like a permanent troll-smiley mocking your efforts, your failures and your very existence. Most people (yours truly included) had a MASSIVE death count before finishing this level for the first time. Gurgly is that horrible. On easy mode, it's a lot easier since they insert solid non-crumbling platforms as well as multiple shield gems in the room. BTW, Gurglewocky has one attack I don't recall seeing in your video...during the third phase he sometimes does the "breathe lava all over the room"-move a second time, causing the lava to rise to the middle of the room and submerging the floating platforms near the bottom. The lava eventually drains away to cover just the floor again, but if he decides to be an rear end and use the fireball move right afterwards, you're in for some tense moments. In the first build of the game, you actually get the shield gem after the FIRST round rather than the second, which most people rightfully called unnecessary since you can still use the floor at that point, so Black Forest Games eventually moved it to the end of the second round. BTW, you don't need to dash into the extinguished meteorite, just touching it or jumping into it or landing on it is enough. The four "normal" bonus levels are kind of "retooled" versions of levels you've already conquered in the normal game, except due to different enemy, trap and obstacle placement, they still feel mostly like a new experience even though, if you recognize what level they used as a template, you'll easily be able to get the hidden areas since those are unchanged. The exception to this is Halloween Special 2013...that one's a literal clone of level 3-6 Breakneck Passage with absolutely no changes whatsoever aside from the visuals. You can safely skip that one, since you've already played through it a couple of episodes ago. The Dieselstörmers level is the odd one out in that its design is not based on an existing level as it's meant to be a plug for Black Forest Games' Rogue-like/Shoot-em-up game Roguestormers and its level is somewhat based on the level structure there. It's also more a plug than a deliberately designed level, so it's the easiest one by far. It's also kind of a spoiler for Rise of the Owlverlord since the music in that level is a tune that's a homage to the themesong of a certain movie franchise and it's introduced in a level in the expansion that has a similar theme to those movies, except futuristic. Obviously, in the Dieselstörmers level, the reference is lost. Speaking of the expansion, you'll enjoy Rise of the Owlverlord. It's kinda short (only 7 levels), but there's a lot more variety in the level design, the levels together form somewhat of a narrative and the boss is my favourite boss in the two games...lots of fun to fight and not nearly as infuriating as Gurgly. In the expansion, "normal" is the main game's easy mode and "hard" is the main game's normal mode, so you should totally pick the latter...you shouldn't have much trouble handling it. Erpy fucked around with this message at 23:48 on Jan 23, 2018 |
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Jan 23, 2018 22:43
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Jamesman posted:I fought him for over an hour and this never happened. Maybe it was removed? Naw, he's done it to me plenty of times, but he only starts using it after you've hit him twice and I got the impression that after you hit him twice and got your second shield gem, there were no further deaths. Jamesman posted:Does this apply to both and Normal and Hard versions? Is there no reason to show off either of those? Halloween 2013 Normal is the same as Breakneck Passage on Easy and Halloween 2013 Hard is the same as Level 3-6 on Normal, so no, no difference. You can briefly start it up if you like to show the visual difference, maybe even side-by-side if you enjoy editing shenanigans, but there's no need to play it all the way through because you've been there and done that.
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Jan 24, 2018 09:08
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Haha, yeah, that part is "fun". You're like 2 seconds into the game and you suddenly have "oh crap" moment. Rise of the Owlverlord has a tutorial level specifically so they can immediately throw you to the wolves the moment you start the actual game.
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Jan 24, 2018 20:29
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The bonus levels aren't a combination of different levels. The geometry of the levels is pretty much identical to the levels they were based on. What's different is the object placement...enemies, ghosts, light pillars, clouds, amethyst crystals, lava/ice floors, enemy spawners, skulls and impenetrable platforms in a few locations. That's all. It's nice to see how different the creators can make the levels by fiddling around with the objects inside them. (more so in the Christmas level) The Halloween 2012 level is a modified level 2-5: Enchanted Mountain Path. The Christmas 2012 level is a modified level 1-4: Soar Wing Hills. And yeah, the lava-ice mechanic is one that was never used in the base game. The area near the exit was actually a nice "puzzle" where in the dark world the floor is lava that kills you on contact, but in the light world the area's dangerous too because the area contains A LOT of spawners that rapidly spawn invulnerable armored Demowls, so if you don't switch back to the dark world every few seconds the area becomes too infested with armored demowls to cross. You need to switch back to the lava and drown the enemies. And yeah, the music in the Christmas levels had bells added to the background music...another nice touch. The backgrounds in the light Christmas levels are some of my favourites in the game.
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Jan 26, 2018 23:59
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You're wrong about Christmas Special 2013 being a newly designed level...you already noted parts of it looked familiar and even mentioned you might have traversed a part in a bubble. The level is actually a heavily modified version of Level 3-1: Fluffy Cloud Mountain. That area at the start where you jumped down and paused to explain the slippery ice control is the very area that had acid and a few gems at the bottom (only explorable by going down there by bubble) and a skull sign at the top, causing you to complain that "the game has started lying to me about the meaning of the skull signs". Yeah, that level. The fact that they make you traverse it completely on foot instead of bubble and made changes to a lot of the objects and platforms make it feel new though, but the general geometry is pretty much the same. Yeah, Rogue Stormers is a rogue-like shooter. I own it myself (I was one of the backers) and it's quite a lot of fun, but very difficult at first. It's a rogue-like, so it has permadeath. Die and you start over from the very beginning of the game again. Collecting experience pickups eventually makes you level up and allows you to pick from two randomly selected "perks". (like extra max hp, being able to briefly hover during a jump and lower cooldown on secondary weapons) Those levels and perks stick around even after death, so eventually you get stronger and stronger. That mechanic obviously doesn't make it extremely suitable for LP's. The Dieselstörmers level in Giana Sisters isn't actually an existing level in Roguestormers, because (like many rogue-likes) levels in that game are randomly generated, but the level does "feel" a bit like the upper parts of the first level there. (the crazy amount of enemies is kind of a slick reference to the large enemy mobs you sometimes face in Roguestormers) The music's not from Rogue Stormers though, it's from Rise of the Owlverlord. We'll get to that one later. I kinda felt the same way about the "multiplayer mode"...I wouldn't say it's bad but the mechanics and controls are different enough to make people who've spent a lot of time playing the main game struggle. The three multiplayer levels in this game are kind of an appetizer and plug for Giana Sisters: Dream Runners, which is essentially the multiplayer mode as a stand-alone game and it has 9 levels and some unlockable skins. Erpy fucked around with this message at 16:29 on Jan 29, 2018 |
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Jan 28, 2018 21:32
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Yeah, Rise of the Owlverlord uses a revamped and much spiffier version of the Giana main theme. It's really good. The expansion doesn't mess around. The tutorial is a mini-level walking you through the basic actions and then they make you walk the plank into shark-infested waters immediately 2 seconds into the next level. As you noted, it's a very bad idea to play this without having played Twisted Dreams first. The expansion only has 7 levels, the last one being essentially a boss room and corridor leading up to it, so they didn't have the opportunity to gradually increase the difficulty curve from Mysterious Meadows-levels to Boiling Springs-levels and still give people who beat the original (the primary audience) a good challenge.Overall, Rise of the Owlverlord is short but good. Each level has its own theme and also its own unique loading screen animation, allowing the game to give the slight hint of a story. Not knowing what to expect causes the levels to be World-3 grade in difficulty, though only one of the levels is consistently tough on Über-hardcore. Also, this is the first time I've seen the alien dudes get stuck in walls. It's not something I've ever experienced myself. You were right in picking "Hard". The original had "Easy" and "Normal", this one has "Normal" and "Hard". Hard in this one is normal in the other one. Bonus levels are the same, btw. No need to check them out. They were essentially there to give people who didn't own the base game two additional levels to play around with. Erpy fucked around with this message at 19:04 on Feb 1, 2018 |
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Feb 1, 2018 19:01
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Naw, your play on the whole was good aside from a handful of silly slip-ups that seemed more like temporary brain farts than lack of skill and you did find all gems in the level on your first time through. Floating Ruins IS a tough cookie, especially since the level gives you absolutely no shield gems and it frequently lobs curveballs at you that you don't know are there until they're already in flight and heading for you skull at 200 MPH. Glad you like the level design. If this level tickled your fancy, Mistral Reefs and the one after it would like you to hold their beer. Here's hoping your computer troubles will be over soon. I'm not completely sure if it was concept art of the expansion you saw in the base game, since that art has been in there from the beginning, so it's more likely that the art you see in the base game weren't so much previews but they were meant to be in the base game at some point, but the devs never got around to properly implementing them and when creating Rise of the Owlverlord they took some of that unfinished stuff and finished it at long last. Erpy fucked around with this message at 08:12 on Feb 8, 2018 |
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Feb 7, 2018 22:28
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I did play through the new Bubsy game and you're correct in that it's essentially a reskinned Giana Sisters without a lot of the elements that made Twisted Dreams fun. The way you walk and the way you jump feels pretty much exactly the same as in Giana Sisters, Bubsy's floating move is exactly like Cute Giana's twirl move and his pouncing move is a more unwieldly version of Punk Giana's dash. (what makes it unwieldy is that unlike the dash, which you can execute in 8 directions and has fairly reliable homing properties, Bubsy can only pounce straight ahead, it doesn't home as much and it travels in an arc, so it's very easy to overshoot your target if you're too close or you're not properly aligned) Even the safety jump and the "hit enemy in the air for another twirl/dash charge" mechanics are in there. Unlike Giana Sisters and its expansion, most of Bubsy's levels are almost entirely horizontal and it doesn't have many of the hazards that made Giana Sisters' levels fairly interesting. You can collect yarn, just like you collect gems, but I don't believe not having enough yarn blocks your progress to the next level, so it's easy to rush through and finish the game in less than two hours or so. I can't shake the feeling Black Forest was given a very limited budget to work with and the game itself feels like a rush job, which is a shame because as Rise of the Owlverlord shows, the team does have the ability to create enjoyable levels if their heart is in it. Speaking of, Mistral Reef can be tough, but it's a very enjoyable level and the cannonball mechanics make for interesting sections. Given that the theme of the level is a fleet of flying pirate ships, the music in this level was probably meant as a little easter egg/homage to "He's a pirate". Take a listen...the similarity is too close to be a coincidence.
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Feb 18, 2018 13:08
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Welcome back. Flying Factory is indeed a huge level, but also a very fun one with a very unique look that's not used anywhere else in either game. (and yes, it is the owl-shaped fortress you saw in the background of several other levels) The section at the end with the conveyers, crushers and cannonballs can be troublesome, but overall once you get a hang of the place it's easy to just sprint, dash and twirl your way through the level without ever slowing down. That won't be the case with the next, though.
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Mar 11, 2018 00:20
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Color me impressed. Black Forest (yes, it was a shoutout) is by far the toughest level in the expansion and a throwback to some of the original's more dickish levels such as Amethyst Mines, Owl Wing's Nest and Boiling Springs. Lots of buzzsaws, lots of long trips over spikes and acid, several well-hidden master gems, but fortunately quite a few shields too. Making it through there without dying is impressive on its own, but doing so while also getting all gems is worthy of praise. Especially the gems at the part where the wall of buzzsaws chases you are still something I've occasionally tripped on. The buzzsaw wall can be tanked with a shield gem, but since it sticks around when it reaches its destination, eating the hit gets you stuck on the wrong side. Anyway, don't be intimidated by the large number of gems in the next level. It's actually quite a bit easier than this one. It's also the final true level. The final level isn't even a level, but rather a corridor (with one secret area containing some master gems) to the boss. You're very, very, very close to the end right now.
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Mar 13, 2018 23:07
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Okay, have it your way. You're good. Well, Spring Tide Bay IS a bit of a breather after Black Forest, containing plenty of shield gems, no acid pools or long sections where you have to ride platforms with sawblades/pinwheels everywhere, just the introduction of a gimmick (the rising and lowering tide when switching) that's fairly easy to deal with. (and yes, this is the only level where that mechanic is used) Still, credit where credit's due, you've gotten to the point where you're quickly able to assess new situations and deal with them without having to die first as long as the game grants you a moment to observe your surroundings and the fact you're able to beat most levels on replays with a death count of 0 means you'd probably be able to tackle hardcore with a bit of patience. (all that does is remove the checkpoints, it's basically speedrunning without the speed) Your playing style has gotten fluid enough that didn't notice any "whoops" moments that had you eat a hit because you mistimed a dash or jump this episode. I doubt Score mode would challenge you a lot. (it's essentially playing through the levels at a brisk pace in order to keep the score multiplier high) Speed mode through some levels would be fun to see because you have the liberty of completely ignoring gems and can just twirl, dash and bounce from one end of the level to the other. (though I get that you're done with this game now and you've pretty much seen all there is to see) Just Owlverlord's Fall left. That large crashed air fortress on the level's menu picture was already seen in the distance during this level.
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Mar 23, 2018 08:37
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 13:46 |
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Well, I guess that's it. Good job on beating the final final boss. Of the four bosses the game throws at you, the Owlverlord is by far my favourite and I personally found him loads of fun to fight. Unlike the first two bosses, this one has a decent bag of tricks at his disposal, there's more room to navigate than Gurglewocky's lava-filled lair and unlike Gurglewocky's battle where you frequently had to wait for him to stop smirking and throw out his next attack already, the Owlverlord's battle is much better paced; you're constantly moving about, dodging the boss and his various attacks and he's not a static enemy who sits in the background, but he dashes, flies and teleports around the room, making the battle much more dynamic. I like the boss music too, which is a remixed version of the tune you hear in the levels that lead up to the bosses. Out of curiosity, which of the bosses resulted in a larger death count, Owlie or Gurgly? Overall, this LP has been a joy to follow. Since you played most levels blind, the game didn't feel like a run-of-the-mill walkthrough, but your playing skills improved quickly enough to not have each level beyond 1-4 be a long-rear end mixture of death, cursing/complaining and more death for 40 minutes straight either. Pretty much the perfect balance. Glad to see an LP of the game that also appreciates its strengths. The game deserves more exposure than it gets.
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Mar 24, 2018 16:12
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