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 What is this? Armikrog is a point-and-click adventure game that was released in 2015 (It was successfully Kickstarted in 2013). It's also the spiritual successor to The Neverhood. Despite some of the similarities in style, both games are not linked by any other means than by the creators. I will try to stop making comparisons but both games were made using stop-motion, the big difference with Armikrog is that they used a variety of materials instead of solely using clay. We also get to control two different characters in Armikrog, Tommynaut (Michael J. Nelson) and his faithful companion Beak-Beak (Rob Paulsen). The duo are from the planet Ixen, whose population is facing extinction as they need the power of P-tonium to sustain them. The pair are on a mission to find more of these crystals to aid their people but it doesn't go off to the most smoothest of starts... LP Details This will be a VLP and I will be recording commentary live and unscripted. I don't have a schedule, it all depends on when I have free time around work and child care but I will aim to have at least one video up a week. Let's Play: Armikrog     The Armikrog Chronicles Part 1 Rocket Baby Dolls fucked around with this message at 22:29 on Apr 24, 2024 |
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Oct 25, 2023 20:02
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| # ? May 9, 2024 11:59 |
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Now this is a game that I definately heard of but for some reason absolutely nobody seemed to talk about.
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Oct 25, 2023 21:55
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Tombot posted:Now this is a game that I definately heard of but for some reason absolutely nobody seemed to talk about. I would imagine it's because it was made around the same time Doug TenNapel went completely mask-off, going full Scott Adams and basically destroying his brand. Armikrog was probably an unfortunate casualty.
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Oct 25, 2023 23:53
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EclecticTastes posted:I would imagine it's because it was made around the same time Doug TenNapel went completely mask-off, going full Scott Adams and basically destroying his brand. Armikrog was probably an unfortunate casualty. I wasn't aware of TenNapel and his views before I started The Neverhood LP. Before then, The Neverhood was just a cool-looking game from my youth that I never got to experience fully until now. I've sat on this reply screen for an hour and I keep rewriting whether I should denounce his views or justify why I'm playing this game despite his views. This is a game that exists regardless. My first experience with it in this first half an hour isn't good.
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Oct 26, 2023 00:34
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I don't think you're contributing anything to his influence by LPing it, so whatever. And if this isn't a "wow, this game rules and I want to share it" type of presentation, then you're probably not going to have us buying copies and supporting him. I wouldn't worry about it beyond maybe a disclaimer that he sucks and you don't endorse him.
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Oct 26, 2023 01:07
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Rocket Baby Dolls posted:I wasn't aware of TenNapel and his views before I started The Neverhood LP. Before then, The Neverhood was just a cool-looking game from my youth that I never got to experience fully until now. Hey, I'm not judging, Neverhood and Earthworm Jim were very influential games, even if their creator failed them terribly in recent years, and it's totally valid to talk about them as works of art. I was just offering up a potential explanation for why Armikrog was largely ignored.
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Oct 26, 2023 02:02
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I mean, at the end of the day, he is a piece of poo poo, but he wasn't the only person who worked on these games, and I don't think he went full mask-off until late into the game's development. Though for some reason, this game doesn't seem to have the same charm as the Neverhood at the start, I'm guessing because Klayman was much more child-like with his characterization and you're just thrust out into the world early on with that first person exploration with the black void in the background. This... had a poop... joke?
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Oct 26, 2023 03:25
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I honestly have no idea what was the logic behind that mobile puzzle. Is there a pattern I'm missing?
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Oct 27, 2023 22:31
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anilEhilated posted:I honestly have no idea what was the logic behind that mobile puzzle. Is there a pattern I'm missing? You have to get the three monster toys in the correct order. The incorrect monsters will fall off when the light hits them and then you have to jeep trying again until you get the correct order. The issue with this one is that you have to wait until the light goes around in a complete circle without an error to complete the puzzle. It's not a hard puzzle to do as you just need to put the three toys in the correct position, it's just the waiting around which is the annoying part. Edit: I do have to apologise as this video was a re-recording as the original one didn't capture the cursor. I'm not good with re-recordings as I loose track of whether I've already said something or not. Rocket Baby Dolls fucked around with this message at 23:12 on Oct 27, 2023 |
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Oct 27, 2023 23:05
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Now this is a weird game. How are you supposed to figure out the solution to the baby's toy puzzle?
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Oct 28, 2023 04:35
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I mean, there's only 6 combinations of toys (I think, it's been a long week and my brain is a potato) but does the light speed up at all after the first go around, or does it make you wait the whole cycle each time?
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Oct 28, 2023 04:50
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Randalor posted:I mean, there's only 6 combinations of toys (I think, it's been a long week and my brain is a potato) but does the light speed up at all after the first go around, or does it make you wait the whole cycle each time? It makes you go around the whole cycle again at the same speed regardless of whether the answer is correct or not.
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Oct 28, 2023 08:43
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Oh, so it's trial and error. Not what I'd call good puzzle design.
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Oct 28, 2023 10:19
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anilEhilated posted:Oh, so it's trial and error. Not what I'd call good puzzle design. It's completely trial and error, with the added bonus of waiting several minutes between each try. I still have no idea if there were any clues to click on the Octovater.
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Oct 28, 2023 11:01
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Rocket Baby Dolls posted:It makes you go around the whole cycle again at the same speed regardless of whether the answer is correct or not. Oof, I'm guessing this means TenNapel never gained any respect for the player's time in the... 19 years between Neverhood and Armikrog. Godspeed Rocket Baby Dolls, hopefully this LP serves as a warning to others to avoid buying this game.
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Oct 28, 2023 13:01
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Oh God, and with the sound of a crying baby in the background too.
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Oct 28, 2023 13:26
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We have now reached the second tower out of four, which means we're now about halfway through the game. This tower seemed more straightforward than the first, but a big part of that was the recycling of the mechanics from the first tower. We do get some more backstory but I'm not sure if there is any further advancement to the plot as we're still just solving puzzles and progressing from one area to the next.
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Nov 2, 2023 14:52
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These puzzles seem more annoying than difficult, the kind of thing where you know what the solution is, but the path to getting that solution is almost too annoying and time consuming to bother with.
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Nov 2, 2023 23:35
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Tombot posted:These puzzles seem more annoying than difficult, the kind of thing where you know what the solution is, but the path to getting that solution is almost too annoying and time consuming to bother with. There is a lot of unnecessary going back and forth, I feel like I spent more time walking about in this tower than anything else. I thought that I'd give the third tower a practice run so I can record something tomorrow. I was going to say that I don't want to spoil anything but I really don't know if there is much to spoil, apart from a short plot point. I read that they had more planned for the game but they ran out of funding. At times I don't know whether I'm seeing the frameworks for more potential clues for puzzles or if they are just background decorations. I was expecting a lot more from this game, especially with all of the talent involved in making it.
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Nov 3, 2023 00:31
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I've just finished recording the third tower and the final video is a whopping 12 minutes long. I had to abandon one recording because the talking statue had glitched out and another because the vehicle had turned neon green. I'm going to upload the video now but I will wait until the weekend to push it live along with the update.
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Nov 3, 2023 12:03
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Oh please include a snippet showing the neon green car. I need a good laugh.
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Nov 3, 2023 12:10
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Randalor posted:Oh please include a snippet showing the neon green car. I need a good laugh.  I didn't get any footage of it in the distance, unfortunately. Edit: I wish I did now as it was more of the vehicle was covered more in the distance shot. Rocket Baby Dolls fucked around with this message at 12:35 on Nov 3, 2023 |
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Nov 3, 2023 12:28
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I finally watched the second video. Wow, this is a game that just doesn't respect your time at all. And while some of the puzzles are, well, puzzles (the light one is actually pretty good as far as puzzles go), you have bullshit like the mobile that just seem to serve to pad out play time. I guess you can't refund the game if you pass the two-hour time limit waiting for loving mobiles!
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Nov 3, 2023 13:49
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That's pretty faithful to the spiritual antecessor. And you probably should not buy it anyway to deny TenApple the proceeds.
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Nov 3, 2023 14:23
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Spoiler alert: I didn't buy Armikrog 
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Nov 3, 2023 14:41
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I am perfectly morally ok with that.
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Nov 3, 2023 14:44
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I kickstarted Armikrog and played ten minutes exactly. My disappointment was immeasurable and my day was ruined.
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Nov 3, 2023 21:12
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And has it worsened yet when Doug open his big ugly mouth?
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Nov 3, 2023 21:28
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Prior to this let's play I had never actually seen the final game, the most I did was give the OST a listen to (it's very different from Neverhood's ost even though it's the same guy; apparently he wanted to avoid typecasting himself, which I find commendable; if there's one thing in the game that I like with pretty much no strings attached its said OST), though even then it seems that the game's a bit weird and spotty with how it uses the OST; seems like it takes like a minute of ambient noises before the songs kick in. The actually visuals are pretty nice for the most part (love the concept of the more multi-media aesthetic) except that there's a slight motion-tweeniness to some of the animations that feels distracting, like it feels like some of the framerates should've been reduced to look more "natural". But yeah everything else about the game's structure feels very mid.
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Nov 3, 2023 21:39
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This video is the third tower in full. I don't really know what to say about this tower. There's a plot advancement and a new puzzle but there's nothing really new here. If anything, each tower seems to be bringing less to the table instead of adding to it. There's one tower left to go and I'm really not expecting much from it. I still need to finish off the video for the Ogdilla entry from The Neverhood. I may just do the lore for Armikrog afterwards as it's much shorter and I can close the LP down sooner.
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Nov 5, 2023 14:19
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christ is this game really half the length of the Neverhood?
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Nov 6, 2023 04:15
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Wow. Aside from the cutscene at the end that entire tower was so unremarkable I'm not even sure what to put here other than to restate how unremarkable it was.
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Nov 6, 2023 04:32
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That... you can definitely tell where the budget started to run out. But clearly now that we have a villain, it will be revealed thar this was just the first act of a much, much longer game, right? ... right?
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Nov 6, 2023 12:04
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I understand that a lot of effort needs to go into claymation and stop-motion, also that they probably didn't hit the funds that they were really wanting too. But what started out as alright has just continued on to be repetitive and bland. I'm surprised that they hired the talent that they did for the voice acting as I've barely heard a dozen lines between them. If they knew the game was going to be short because of minimal funding then they should have made something short and with a lot of punch.
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Nov 6, 2023 14:35
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It's not even that, it's that most of the puzzles we've seen are just the same 2 or 3 puzzles repeated. How many puzzles have you solved, and how many of them were that sliding block puzzle to open the doors, or the mobile? I would love to have a behind the scenes look at the game, and see what was intended vs what actually got into the game, and at what point they realized "Oh gently caress we don't have enough money/we overspent on VAs".
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Nov 6, 2023 15:26
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Shall we take bets on whether the fourth and final tower will be a whole new set of puzzles or not? I'm going to attempt a practice run of the final tower tonight, from the looks of things it's going to be about as long as the third tower.
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Nov 6, 2023 17:27
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I'm going to say at least one more track rotating "puzzle", one more sliding block puzzle, and another switch puzzle involving the push able blocks. Though I will admit that they're nicely set up for a joke where you catch up to the villain because he's stuck having to do the mobile puzzle himself.
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Nov 6, 2023 17:40
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E: oops I meant to post this in a different thread, I already know how this game ends and it's more of a 'meh'
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Nov 6, 2023 17:55
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I was hoping to do a test run of the fourth tower tonight but the game completely bugged out on me. The game slowed to a crawl when I managed to get inside which made one of the puzzles inside impossible to complete as I couldn't move anything. I finally tracked down a patch but it's rendered my latest save unusable so I'm going to have to redo the third tower all over again. The curse of the neon vehicle is back and it's stuck in this position: I think that I'm just going to go to bed and try again tomorrow.
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Nov 7, 2023 00:23
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I gotta be honest, this game seems kind of bad. No wonder I'd never heard of it until this LP. The fact that you have to do that baby mobile puzzle multiple times is wild to me.
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Nov 7, 2023 05:06
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