Arcesius' Pursuit of Completion

[Joe Dubz]

I too played Trine 1 and 2 back in the PS3 days when they came out. I thought I remembered enjoying them back then anyway! In more recent times, I repurchased 2 I think it was that was released again? At any rate, I was just not having fun with it this time around and it's currently on my backburner indefinitely ? I think my mistake was playing through it again solo; it would definitely feel like less of a chore if Mrs. Dubz were to help me out!! Now if only I can peel her away from Animal Crossing long enough to do so...! ?

 

1 hour ago, Copanele said:

To have a sort of comparison, Trine is your basic sandwich with lettuce, ham, splash of sauce and some tomatoes. Sure its a very good sandwich... Until you unlock the Angus Beef, the multiple vegetables and so on. Suddenly you kinda don't feel like having that ham sandwich anymore unless you are hungry And really, after the adrenaline madness that was Splasher, Trine just doesn't hit the same. 

 

Now that I made you all hungry, Trine ain't bad. It just doesn't have anything extra shiny to keep it alive for long

 

You seriously have me cracking up over here at this!! A perfectly apt analogy if you ask me ?And yes, it's lunch time over here in Pennsylvania, so excuse me now that I'm extra hungry and craving a burger of some sort...! 

[Arcesius]

5 hours ago, Copanele said:

To have a sort of comparison, Trine is your basic sandwich with lettuce, ham, splash of sauce and some tomatoes. Sure its a very good sandwich... Until you unlock the Angus Beef, the multiple vegetables and so on. Suddenly you kinda don't feel like having that ham sandwich anymore unless you are hungry And really, after the adrenaline madness that was Splasher, Trine just doesn't hit the same. 

 

Yeah that is certainly a good point. Trine doesn't do anything outstanding, even though its premise certainly would allow it to do so. And while I feel the same about the first to games to some extent, this third entry, striped of all good stuff, a barebones version of its predecessors, shows that if you just have a look at the basic gameplay, the game just isn't polished. 

 

 

5 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

I like all the Trine games to some extent - as I've said, but I won't pick apart your arguments, because, frankly, I can't ?

 

Good, then I feel at least like my critique is appropriate  Certainly it seems like the issues the game has bothered me more. And honestly, had I played Trine 3 solo, I probably would have been even harsher. But luckily, playing it with Ms. Arc (are we all now doing that thing were we take our nicknames and put Ms. in front of it?), we had quite some fun and laughs. Unfortunately for Trine 3, we laughed a lot AT the game. 

 

 

4 hours ago, Deadly_Ha_Ha said:

I see you did Magicka 2. I mean you did a lot obviously and your account is extremely impressive, but can you recommend the game if I might be able to snag a few friends? And if I play it more than they do are there things I can do solo in between co-op play sessions? I've been holding onto this game in my library for so long now.

 

Haha thanks! Appreciate it  

 

So, I agree with @DrBloodmoney that the game can be quite fun solo as well. However, I did my first playthrough with two other people in local coop, and then did the Bananas playthrough, all challenges and all feats solo. And I certainly had more fun with the game during the coop playthrough. If you are going to play this with friends, then yes, I can definitely recommend it! The friendly fire especially makes for some hilarious moments  

 

What would you be doing solo in between sessions? If your friends just want to do the story with you, you could always just do the challenges / feats in between sessions, or grind some misc trophies or whatever. 

 

 

3 hours ago, Joe Dubz said:

I too played Trine 1 and 2 back in the PS3 days when they came out. I thought I remembered enjoying them back then anyway! In more recent times, I repurchased 2 I think it was that was released again? At any rate, I was just not having fun with it this time around and it's currently on my backburner indefinitely ? I think my mistake was playing through it again solo; it would definitely feel like less of a chore if Mrs. Dubz were to help me out!! Now if only I can peel her away from Animal Crossing long enough to do so...! ?

 

Yeah so the PS4 version of Trine 2 has like the DLC included, I believe? Don't take my word on this.. But also here I agree. We did the first casual playthrough and collectibles clean-up in coop, and despite the game not being very good, we had fun playing it together. 

 

Then, because for some reason completing a chapter in Hard / Hardcore often only counted for the host, each of us did our Hard / Hardcore playthrough alone... Yeah, it was not even half as fun. Definitely a game that should be played in coop... 

 

Hope you get back to it, would fit the UR event nicely!  

[Joe Dubz]

25 minutes ago, Arcesius said:

Yeah so the PS4 version of Trine 2 has like the DLC included, I believe? Don't take my word on this.. But also here I agree. We did the first casual playthrough and collectibles clean-up in coop, and despite the game not being very good, we had fun playing it together. 

 

Then, because for some reason completing a chapter in Hard / Hardcore often only counted for the host, each of us did our Hard / Hardcore playthrough alone... Yeah, it was not even half as fun. Definitely a game that should be played in coop... 

 

Hope you get back to it, would fit the UR event nicely!  

I think the DLC part sounds about right! Haha because I didn't actually play through far enough to even find out yet ?

 

You are reading my mind tho, this will def be one of my picks coming up, most likely 3rd tier! I was thinking of trying to do one tier of only cleanup for past games. Yano, since my completion % is absolute shite and unsalvageable at this point (damn "video game ADD" ?), but I should at least try! Thanks for the inspiration mate ?

[Together_Comic]

11 hours ago, Arcesius said:

 

Will be fun to see how challenging the levels can get! I imagine if you needed to get gold on every single level, the plat would be much harder to obtain. 

For sure.  The Devs were super nice with how they did the trophy list.  If they had wanted to, They could have made the game very close to rival Crypt in terms of Platinum Difficulty, if not outright surpass it. 

 

11 hours ago, Arcesius said:

And in your case.. how are you liking Valfaris? After playing Slain, I think I will have to get my hands on that one as well  

 

Looking at your Slain review, if you liked it, I think you will like Valfaris it seems like a very similar style of game.  Oozing with flavor, wonton violence, and a metal edge that's played up to the extreme.  

 

[AJ_Radio]

Alright so, I just did Commando Mode solo in Resogun. 23 minutes of intense precision and utter concentration. Arcesius if you're not up for that challenge... I know you are.

[DrBloodmoney]

10 hours ago, AJ_Radio said:

Alright so, I just did Commando Mode solo in Resogun. 

 

Nice work - I know that one was a thorn in your side for a while - congrats! ?

[Arcesius]

Hey all!  I thought I would write a short update about the one game I'm currently going for... n++! @AJ_Radio you wanted me to tell you what I think about this game.. so here we go!

 

 

 

Alright, so what is n++ besides a game with a weird name? Well, it's a momentum-based platformer. The original n was released as a flash game, and has meanwhile spouted two sequels: n+ which was a console-exclusive, and n++, the game I want to talk about. 

 

For a platformer, this game surely plays very uniquely. It is a game that initially does not require a huge amount of precision, but instead focuses more on maintaining momentum throughout the levels. This... can feel pretty weird. You see, in most other platformers, you press right, the character moves right almost with no acceleration. You stop pressing right, and the character comes to a halt pretty much without delay. 

Not so in n++. Here, you press right, the character slowly starts accelerating. When you let go of the direction, the ninja keeps running and slowly comes to a halt. It's pretty weird, but the main gameplay mechanic in this game. 

 

Now, in some levels, this can feel pretty great. When you have open spaces, can take your time, and there are high places to reach or huge gaps to jump over, the movement in n++ can feel pretty awesome. However, the further you get into the levels, the more precision is required from the player. You might not have space to jump, you need to avoid hoaming missiles, mines and all other kind of enemies while traversing narrow spaces. And there... yeah, the gameplay does not shine. ? 

 

Let's talk about the levels. The first thing to mention is.. there seems to be infinitely many. Holy shit, I've never seen a level-based game with so many levels. If you want to do the bare minimum required for the platinum, you will still be playing 1'435 levels ? Yes, you read correctly! It's insane! And that's the bare minimum. There are way over 2'000 levels in this game between all game modes. 

Now, the game is composed of so-called "Episodes", with one episode being 5 levels that need to be completed back-to-back (with retries, of course), and within 90 seconds. In each level, there are "gold pieces" that can be collected, and each gold piece adds 2 seconds to the episode-timer. 

 

I'll be honest. I don't like this game very much. I know that there are people that find the movement in this game satisfying. I.. really don't. Often I just feel like I'm controlling an inert stone instead of a precise ninja. The decceleration mid-air is awkward, the jump-height does feel somewhat inconsistent (I also might just suck big time), and the time-limit for the episodes seems uneccessary. 

 

 

Here is my replay of the last episode in the fifth row, E-19. I guess from the footage you can really see what I mean by "momentum-based" and "inertia". 

 

 

 

Completing this episode actually just unlocked the 20 expert episodes.. that is, 100 of the hardest levels in the game. That's what I'm tackling next. Wish me luck!  

 

And you all have a fantastic weekend!   

[BlitzkriegHottie]

In the end, tho, once you get the platinum, you'll feel like you did next to nothing when compared to what it could have been. 

 

I get anxious just thinking about the developers making EVERYTHING required for the platinum. For instance, don't know if you're aware of this, but there are secret levels with insane unlocking requirements. 

 

And yeah, agree with you. The game shines when it isn't trying to be hardcore.

Sadly, it's almost always trying to be hardcore.

 

I'd say good luck, but it's not like you'll need it, heh, you'll crush this. 

Edited June 19, 2021 by BlitzkriegHottie

[Together_Comic]

I still have bad memories of the first level of that episode.  It took me forever to figure out how to get down the shaft, once I'd gotten up it ?.  Good luck on the expert levels.  Like Blitz said, I don't think you'll really need it.

[AJ_Radio]

Good take on N++. It’s definitely a different kind of platformer. Sounds like it’s far more tedious than difficult. May have to play it myself at some point.

[Arcesius]

On 19.6.2021 at 11:12 PM, BlitzkriegHottie said:

In the end, tho, once you get the platinum, you'll feel like you did next to nothing when compared to what it could have been. 

 

I get anxious just thinking about the developers making EVERYTHING required for the platinum. For instance, don't know if you're aware of this, but there are secret levels with insane unlocking requirements. 

 

Oh absolutely.. I haven't even checked the unlock requirements for the secret levels, but even if they would have asked the player to get all gold in all levels... Yeah, that would have been no fun ? I for one am glad that there are no such requirements this time around. 

 

 

On 20.6.2021 at 5:36 AM, Together_Comic said:

I still have bad memories of the first level of that episode.  It took me forever to figure out how to get down the shaft, once I'd gotten up it .  Good luck on the expert levels. 

 

Yeah there are a couple of such levels with narrow corridors and those drones moving around. The worst part is that the levels are starting to get much longer, and so multiple attempts can get old pretty quick.. ?

 

 

Quote

I'd say good luck, but it's not like you'll need it, heh, you'll crush this. 

Quote

Like Blitz said, I don't think you'll really need it.

 

Lol, thanks guys ? I didn't have much time to play, but I managed to finish X-0 to X-10, over 50% of the row done! 

 

 

On 20.6.2021 at 11:14 PM, AJ_Radio said:

Good take on N++. It’s definitely a different kind of platformer. Sounds like it’s far more tedious than difficult. May have to play it myself at some point.

 

I think this is a good entry point for a discussion. 

 

 

I would actually say that n++ is pretty damn difficult. But I think we need to differentiate between two ways of playing the game: 

 

Casual Playthrough vs. Platinum Hunting. 

 

You see, if you forget about the Trophy List and simply want to talk about the difficulty of n++ as a platformer, I'd say it belongs pretty high up the list of difficult platformers. Now, the thing is, the trophy list doesn't add any additional challenge, since it's basically: "finish the game". There are a couple of trophies for doing episodes without dying, or collecting all gold... but those can be earned in easy Episodes. 

 

Want me to clarify what I mean? Let us talk about 4 pure-platforming games that I have on my profile: 

 

   

 

So, from left to right, we have n++, Splasher, The End is Nigh and Super Meat Boy. 

 

Now, let me rank these four games by their difficulty as platformers, if we disregard trophies and simply think about the challenge of simply finishing the game: 

 

 >  >  > 

 

That's right. I think in terms of pure platforming, I am positive that n++ is the hardest game of the four. I think we can all agree that in the three other games, there might be levels with some tough obstacles to overcome... But even in SMB there was no single level that took me more than 15-20 attempts (except The Kid's Warp Room). 

 

In n++, there have already been a handful of levels that took me over 150 attempts, with one level taking me 186 attempts! (I think that's the highest one so far). And I'm not even done! 

 

 

Let me rank those games again, but now based on their challenge when it comes to earning the Platinum: 

 

 >  >  > 

 

Lol... It's just the reverse order. Why? Because of the challenges introduced by the trophy list. 

 

(This is of course as long as n++ stays in approximately the level of difficulty it has been so far)

 

Splasher does not require extremely precise platforming, but the time attack and speedrun requirements are fucking insane. The full-game no-death run is no joke, either. SMB adds no-death runs of each world, The End is Nigh has a speedrun requirement, a death limit AND two really challenging Carts (The Super Mega Cart and The Tower of Ascension). 

 

n++, on the other hand.. yeah. As mentioned above, its trophy list doesn't add any more challenge to the game. 

 

 

Let me put it this way: Besides Cloudberry Kingdom, n++ is the only game I know that has a trophy list that reads like "finish the game" and is still tough to do. 

 

 

I hope the above makes sense..? ? If not, I apologize for my rambling! ?

Edited June 22, 2021 by Arcesius

[Together_Comic]

7 hours ago, Arcesius said:

In n++, there have already been a handful of levels that took me over 150 attempts, with one level taking me 186 attempts! (I think that's the highest one so far). And I'm not even done! 

 

My highest attempts was the level "Nothing is Impossible" (which a quick google search tells me is X12-5) I had 251 deaths there ??.  Let me know how it goes for you. lol.

 

Edited June 22, 2021 by Together_Comic

[Arcesius]

@Together_Comic

 

It was a tough level for sure, but I found it pretty fun to learn to be honest  Died too many times to the first drop, but even so I got it in 100 attempts:

 

 

 

So far, the one level that cost me the most attempts is this one: 

 

 

Looks really simple, but with those drones moving all over the place, I actually choked quite a few times on the way back ?

 

 

"Only" 30 expert levels to go, and then it's time to continue with the Legacy levels! ?

 

I'm thinking of putting up two videos.. one with all N++ X-row levels, and one with all Legacy X-row levels... We'll see. 

[Arcesius]

Alright, we finished Trine 4 and I'm about to review it. However, I really don't feel like writing anything too long. This has been the fourth game in a series that I didn't particularly like, so I'll keep it short and give some updates on other ongoing games further down  

 

 

Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince

 

 

 

The Pitch

Come on, this is the fourth entry in the series... You don't need a pitch, you know the deal. 

 

 

 

 

The Best

After playing the 3D entry (Trine 3), going back to 2D felt... like an improvement. The game looks great and it seems like character movement is smoother. Since the gameplay is simplified again, they brought back all fancy abilities, and even introduced new ones, which made the game more interesting at times. 

 

Ane hey, they also brought back online-coop and didn't even limit it to 3 players! And so, I played this one with @Mori, @Koro249 and @HusKy. I didn't really enjoy the game all that much, but I sure did enjoy the (three, I believe) coop sessions we needed to finish this game. 

 

 

The Worst

Oh man... Well, first of all, even though it seemed to me like the hit detection and everything control-related was better than in previous entries, it's still poorly implemented. One of the comments that we repeated the most during our time with Trine 4 was "...physics...". But I've explained this in detail in my review of Trine 3, so let's move on. 

 

What's up with the combat? You know, I never thought I'd say this, but I actually missed the combat sequences in Trine 1 and 2 playing through this game. In those first two games - while sure, everything was a bit wonky - the fight sequences were pretty well made. You'd get ambushed, the arenas would often be pretty large and interesting to fight in, and you could try to escape instead of fighting. You were also fighting in the regular levels, and so always felt like those sequences were as much a part of the game, as the puzzles. 

 

In Trine 4.. fights are really uninteresting and add absolutely nothing to the game. For some reason you don't fight in the regular level, but instead are forced into small arenas that dissolve once the fight is over. Those arenas are pretty cramped, and hold a couple of enemies that you just chase down and whac a couple of times. Just... baaaaaaaaad. I remember writing about enemy variety in Trine 1, but at least I noticed the enemies there. In Trine 4, I couldn't even tell you what the enemies are, fights are just so unremarkable...  

 

You know, at least Trine 4 is self-aware.. Why otherwise would they have chose the following description for the platinum trophy? 

 

 

 

The Challenge

Like the previous entry, the game is pretty straightforward. You can cheese most puzzles if you play in coop, so progression never was an issue (although the Witch-boss and her mirror-puzzles had us really using all of our brain cells!). The final boss is a bit of a weird difficulty spike (how did @HusKy formulate this again... "You are fighting potatoes during the entire game and then THIS?!?" Yeah, that's an adequate reaction I'd say ?). 

 

The trophy list is about as boring as they come, and again no Hard / Hardcore mode were included in the game. Easy game, no challenge to talk about. 

 

 

 

 

Alright, that hopefully was the end of my time with Trine. Now, what is going on otherwise? There are two games to mention! 

 

 

n++

Man this game is long. Waaaaaaaaay too long ?

 

But in any case, I finished all n++ solo levels, including the expert episodes! (X-row). The one level that gave me the most trouble (i.e. cost me the most attempts) is one accurately named "masterclass"... 203 attempts for this one! The jumps in the second half of the level are freaking tight! And you cannot practice them, either, since you first need to go open the path. 

 

I have a video of all X-row levels with timestamps, but I'll embed it here at exactly the timestamp for "masterclass", if you want to check it out:

 

 

The very last level was no joke, either... But learning how to properly manipulate the rocket launcher was pretty fun  

 

In any case, I am now working through the remaining 600 levels of n++ Legacy, and have about 230-240 levels waiting to be completed. Slowly getting there! 

 

 

Warhammer: Vermintide 2

Remember this game? I really hope so, I've definitely talked about this one enough.. You know... Best coop game I've ever played? Well, it's getting new FREE DLC tomorrow!  Wohoooo! 

 

This new DLC adds a new rogue-lite inspired game mode, and I am really looking forward to trying it out! So this DLC coming out will probably result in n++ taking a bit longer to complete... The trophy list isn't up yet, but I'll be playing this DLC even if it doesn't add trophies (although it released with new achievements on XBox and Steam). 

 

 

Alright, that is all for now... I think I'll finish these two games, then we'll see where we get from there  Hope you are having a fantastic time with your respective games! 

[Arcesius]

n++
 

 

 

The Pitch

The "n" stands for "ninja"!

 

 

 

The Best

So, even though I didn't enjoy this game all that much, I still have to admit that it is full of good ideas. Forget about the gameplay, that will be covered in the next section (unfortunately), and let's talk about level design. 

 

This.. is oftentimes pretty good. The hazards / enemies are pretty cool, especially the so-called "clones", which are copies of the player that will perfectly follow the player character's movement / path with a delay of 2 seconds. If you touch any of your clones, you die. There are levels where these clones can be avoided without too much trouble, but there are also very cleverly designed levels where you will have to plan your movement in such a way that your clones will give you space to get past them, for example here: 

 

 

The clones are the half-transparent player silhouettes you see in the screenshot. Due to how this level is designed, you need to go around the ring 4 times... But right at the start of the level, you are forced to go through the pink rings in the bottom right, which are the ones that keep spawning clones. In order to beat this level, you need to carefully decide on a route you want to take, thinking about where your clones will land and how they will move when you are forced to go past them on your second, third and fourth round around the level. It's pretty clever, and I had a lot of fun deciphering these levels!  

 

 

The Worst

The emphasis on momentum, and its consequences on the gameplay. Now, let me be straight here: I don't think this is a flaw, and I don't think it is bad design... at all. But I still have to mention this as "the worst", because to me personally this was the worst aspect of the game. The main problem is, since it is THE central gameplay aspect, it also resulted in me not enjoying the game as much. 

 

You see, the game wants to make you feel like a ninja. For that purpose, it needs to work with acceleration and perservation of momentum, as this way it allows you to really reach high up places and fly halfway through a large level. But.. what does this mean in practice? For starters, it means that movement is not instantaneous. When you press right / left from a standing position, the ninja will start accelerating... slowly... until it reaches its maximum speed. When you let go of the direction you are pressing, it will slowly decelerate until it stands still again. This means that, for example, it is quite difficult to quickly change directions due to the occurring inertia (for example to avoid an enemy or whatever). This happens both on the ground, but also in the air. And the latter scenario is the one that - in my opinion - makes the controls feel... floaty. Like, REALLY floaty. 

 

And sure, you get used to it eventually, but that doesn't make the gameplay more fun... Especially in the later, smaller levels filled with mines and enemies the game can become quite frustrating. In these levels, the feeling of playing a ninja completely disappears (since, you know.. you don't have the space to jump around like a madman), and precision is now required. But the preservation of momentum makes it oftentimes quite difficult to really make precise jumps

 

 

This screenshot is not a very good example, since the level is quite easy to complete, but still, you see what I mean by narrow corridors, not much space, filled with hazards, etc... Oh and btw, if your fall height is too large, you die.. So for example in the screenshot above, you have to do wall-slides also on your way down a corridor, if the drop would be too high to survive. It's really difficult to tell in advance how large a fall you can survive.. I never quite managed to gauge the maximal height properly. 

 

There is another thing that bothered me. You have to finish levels in "groups of 5", called episodes. Now, you have 90 seconds time to complete an episode, and each piece of gold you get in a level adds 2 seconds to the timer. 

I'm.. not quite sure why this time-limit is necessary. It doesn't add anything to the game other than a bit more stress, and is - in my opinion - a completely unecessary feature. ?

 

Lastly... the lenght of the game. Not in hours, but in number of levels. I don't know man, even if you like a game to death, I think 2000+ levels are a bit overkill. I didn't have to complete all of them for the plat ("only" 1'435), but man, half the number would have been more than enough already! 

 

 

The Challenge

You know, having played some really challenging platformers, I thought "if this game just wants me to finish the levels, how bad can it be..?". The answer is: it can be pretty bad. There are no no-death runs, no "collect everything", no speedruns... Just play the game. But damn, that is by no means an easy task! 

 

The good thing is that the game really does a good job at easing the player into its more complex levels, where advanced techniques need to have been mastered. Initially it's all about learning how to use and maintain momentum, deal with enemies in isolation, etc... while towards the end you will additionally be navigating tight spaces filled with enemies and hazards: 

 

Damn, you just cannot land anywhere!

 

This is one of the few games I know where just finishing the game is actually a real challenge. Some of the expert levels were no joke, with quite a few levels taking 100+ attempts. The most attempts I needed for one level were 203! 

 

Overall, given the lack of "additional challenges" required to get the platinum, getting the game to 100% is easier than some other platformers. But since the game itself is already quite challenging, it is no walk in the park, either! 

 

 

I'll leave two videos here with the 200 expert levels in case you are interested: 

 

n++ X-row Solo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eqQo6EKFS4&t=2s

n++ Legacy X-row Solo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHBvEhpAzEg

 

 

________________

 

Other than that... The Vermintide 2 DLC droped as expected, but since it is free DLC it only came with 3 bronze trophies to earn. It took @Mori, @Koro249, @Floriiss and myself maybe 4-5 hours total to get them done, but besides trophies, the DLC definitely did not disappoint! The new rogue-lite inspired gamemode is really fun! I actually kept the game installed even after getting it back to 100%... I really want to keep playing this game from time to time, although it is way more fun to play with a group than join random lobbies... We'll see. 

 

I have also started Matterfall, a predecessor to Nex Machina by the Finnish game-design geniouses at Housemarque. I've finished my first playthrough and got all Misc trophies out of the way, so I'm looking at another two playthroughs: One on Veteran while completing each chapter without dying, and a speedrun on Master difficulty. 

The game is... way better than I expected! I had heard a lot of mixed opinions about this game.. but it really is very solid, and you can clearly see that Nex Machina is heavily inspired by it. 

 

I will be gone over the weekend, so I won't finish this game before next week. 

 

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend yourselves! Take care!  

[Together_Comic]

2 hours ago, Arcesius said:

There is another thing that bothered me. You have to finish levels in "groups of 5", called episodes. Now, you have 90 seconds time to complete an episode, and each piece of gold you get in a level adds 2 seconds to the timer. 

I'm.. not quite sure why this time-limit is necessary. It doesn't add anything to the game other than a bit more stress, and is - in my opinion - a completely unecessary feature. 

 

Lastly... the lenght of the game. Not in hours, but in number of levels. I don't know man, even if you like a game to death, I think 2000+ levels are a bit overkill. I didn't have to complete all of them for the plat ("only" 1'435), but man, half the number would have been more than enough already! 

 

Congratulations on the platinum! Sorry that the game didn't really do it for you.  These two complaints are basically my two major complaints about the game. I really disliked the 5 level episode structure, mostly because my gaming time is often disjointed and having to commit to working through all 5 levels all at once or starting over began to grow irksome as the levels got tougher. I think that they were trying to encourage players to not just ignore all of the gold sitting around in the level.  Doing the levels in groups of 5 also solves the development problem of neatly displaying all of the levels that they have without going overboard with a jam packed screen so they just sort of did it that way.  Not the neatest solution, but I guess it kinda works? it just leads to some frustrating consequences. And yeah 2000+ levels is way overkill.  From what it seems, I liked the game a lot more than you did, and I still was all the way over it by the time I got to the end...

 

All the same good luck with Matterfall, not that you'll need it ?.  Hopefully you'll at least enjoy it more.

Edited July 8, 2021 by Together_Comic

[FrediPy_]

Congrats on the n++ plat! And good review overall, it has convinced me that it is a task that I won't go for, even though I love platformers…

 

2 hours ago, Arcesius said:

The Worst

The emphasis on momentum, and its consequences on the gameplay. Now, let me be straight here: I don't think this is a flaw, and I don't think it is bad design... at all. But I still have to mention this as "the worst", because to me personally this was the worst aspect of the game. The main problem is, since it is THE central gameplay aspect, it also resulted in me not enjoying the game as much. 

 

… because of this. For you see, having played dozens of platformers and being kinda good at them, momentum-based dynamics is something I can't seem to get good at. Maybe it is because I have practised fast-paced platformers much more at a high/difficult level (SMB, y'know…), which is shared by some people who I've talked about this with, but even at arguably easier games with some momentum preservation such as the original Super Mario Bros I sometimes have a hard time trying to guide the character wherever I want. You saying that eventually you get used to it is somewhat comforting, but I don't know if I'd have the patience to reach that eventually! ?

 

Plus, having to play >1000 levels is… maybe too much, in my opinion. Too daunting. At least you didn't have to do all sorts of crazy things with the levels, "just" beating them.

 

So double congrats on the plat for all these reasons. 

 

PS: Also wanted to tell you, because I think it's the first time I post here (I tend to read lots and hardly ever write), that I really like your thread here. Your reviews are really nice to read.

[Grotz99]

4 hours ago, Arcesius said:

You see, the game wants to make you feel like a ninja. For that purpose, it needs to work with acceleration and perservation of momentum, as this way it allows you to really reach high up places and fly halfway through a large level. But.. what does this mean in practice? For starters, it means that movement is not instantaneous. When you press right / left from a standing position, the ninja will start accelerating... slowly... until it reaches its maximum speed. When you let go of the direction you are pressing, it will slowly decelerate until it stands still again. This means that, for example, it is quite difficult to quickly change directions due to the occurring inertia (for example to avoid an enemy or whatever). This happens both on the ground, but also in the air. And the latter scenario is the one that - in my opinion - makes the controls feel... floaty. Like, REALLY floaty. 

This sounds like when you are playing Mario and moving on top of ice.

[Arcesius]

17 hours ago, Together_Comic said:

Congratulations on the platinum! Sorry that the game didn't really do it for you.  These two complaints are basically my two major complaints about the game. I really disliked the 5 level episode structure, mostly because my gaming time is often disjointed and having to commit to working through all 5 levels all at once or starting over began to grow irksome as the levels got tougher. I think that they were trying to encourage players to not just ignore all of the gold sitting around in the level.  Doing the levels in groups of 5 also solves the development problem of neatly displaying all of the levels that they have without going overboard with a jam packed screen so they just sort of did it that way.  Not the neatest solution, but I guess it kinda works? it just leads to some frustrating consequences. And yeah 2000+ levels is way overkill.  From what it seems, I liked the game a lot more than you did, and I still was all the way over it by the time I got to the end...

 

To be honest, I disliked the game more at the beginning. Once I got used to the mechanics, I started having more fun, at least with the levels that allowed me to fully use the movement mechanics... But as we have discussed before, most of the advanced levels try to be pretty hardcore, instead of letting you have "fun" ?

 

I, too, often need to suddenly stop playing and can pick up the game sometimes only hours later. Most of the time I was able to finish an entire episode, but I still needed to either put my console in rest mode or just leave it running for hours quite often. It was annoying, and sure, it allows the devs to display their 2000+ levels in a neat way... But I'd rather have less levels and no episode structure to be honest ?

 

 

16 hours ago, FrediPy_ said:

Congrats on the n++ plat! And good review overall, it has convinced me that it is a task that I won't go for, even though I love platformers.

 

For you see, having played dozens of platformers and being kinda good at them, momentum-based dynamics is something I can't seem to get good at. Maybe it is because I have practised fast-paced platformers much more at a high/difficult level (SMB, y'know…), which is shared by some people who I've talked about this with, but even at arguably easier games with some momentum preservation such as the original Super Mario Bros I sometimes have a hard time trying to guide the character wherever I want. You saying that eventually you get used to it is somewhat comforting, but I don't know if I'd have the patience to reach that eventually! 

 

Plus, having to play >1000 levels is… maybe too much, in my opinion. Too daunting. At least you didn't have to do all sorts of crazy things with the levels, "just" beating them.

 

So double congrats on the plat for all these reasons. 

 

Thanks!  And yeah, I definitely prefer fast-paced or precision-based platformers. I didn't necessarily have a hard time getting used to the momentum preservation, I just simply didn't like how the movement felt due to it ?

 

And absolutely... It just gets tiresome after a while. There are many more levels, too, that I didn't even touch.... I mean, Super Meat Boy has 300 levels, which feels pretty good, The End is Nigh has 600 levels, and while still ok, the game already feels long. While playing n++ it feels like it will never end ?

 

 

Quote

PS: Also wanted to tell you, because I think it's the first time I post here (I tend to read lots and hardly ever write), that I really like your thread here. Your reviews are really nice to read.

 

Thanks a lot, appreciate it  Glad that you enjoy the reviews! 

 

 

14 hours ago, Grotz99 said:

This sounds like when you are playing Mario and moving on top of ice.

 

Yeah, it definitely feels a bit that way, only that in addition you need to jump through narrow gaps filled with mines while avoiding your own clones being followed by a homing missile ?

 

 

Quote

All the same good luck with Matterfall, not that you'll need it .  Hopefully you'll at least enjoy it more.

 

Thanks! But no, no luck needed indeed  It's not a too challenging game, nowhere close to what Nex Machina asks of the player. I already played through all the chapters on Veteran without dying, and am now halfway through my Master speedrun. I would expect to be done with the game in another 1-2 hours and could have finished it yesterday evening, but I watched a movie with my girlfriend instead ? I'll finish this game on Monday or so, when I'm back from the weekend  

Edited July 9, 2021 by Arcesius

[Arcesius]

Matterfall
 

 

 

The Pitch

Only you are crazy enough to put on your battle suit and help rescue civilians to join the evacuation from a planet infested with "Smart Matter", turned bullet-hell. 

 

 

 

The Best

If there is one thing all Housemarque games I've played so far have in common, is that their soundtrack is a perfect match for the game you are playing. This is no exception in Matterfall, a game that will keep your motivation to battle the various robot-alien-lifeforms high by providing a fitting electronic beat to headbang to. Now, as you know, I'm not a big fan of electronic music. But there is no denying that it is just a perfect match for games set in a futuristic, technical environment, such as Nex Machina, Furi and, of course, Matterfall.  

 

Now, the soundtrack is one thing... I started this game expecting it to be clunky, slow-paced and overall just "okayish". But you know, it's a Housemarque game, after all, so I wanted to give it a try... And man, it was anything but clunky and slow-paced! Having the ability to stun enemies by dashing into them instead of away from them, the game teaches you to play aggressively (similar to what Bloodborne's Rally System accomplishes), and the responsive controls really make the game a blast to play.  

 

While the game starts out slow, the latter levels will have you fight your way through bullet-hell platforming sections filled with enemies. And here is also where all of the game's different mechanics need to be used constantly. Use the explosion from your dash to stun enemies and clear bullets, use your matter-laser to create floating platforms and double-jump - dash onto them, use you primary or secondary weapons to defeat your enemies, detonate randomly dropping matter-bombs to clear a large number of enemies at once, etc... It's hectic, but it's a lot of fun! 

 

 

The Worst

I was really surprised (I am still surprised tbh.) to find out that this game did actually release two months AFTER Nex Machina. To me, Matterfall feels like a waaaaay less polished game than Nex, but that has very similar gameplay elements that I thought were for sure improved specifically for Nex's development... But apparently nope. 

 

And the main issues I have with the game are not minor, either... For starters, the hitboxes... Holy hell, how often did I take a hit without the projectiles really hitting my character's sprite? It's like n++ all over again, where the hit-box of the character actually is larger than the character itself. This often leads to "this is bullshit" moments, especially while playing through the game on Master difficulty, where you die in one hit. 

 

This was especially noticeable during the second Boss. Here you are floating in a 0G zone with the boss spawning different parts that shoot projectiles. This boss can be quite chaotic, but would, in principle, be pretty cool to fight. But with the hitboxes as they are, I died so many times to... absolutely nothing I can explain. Fighting this boss on Master difficulty was the most frustrating experience in this game.  

 

 

Speaking of the second Boss... You can, for some reason, only dash in the four cardinal directions. During the regular platforming sections, this is actually fine... But whenever I found myself in a 0G zone, it felt so awckward that I wasn't able to dash diagonally! Especially since bullets can come from any direction. 

 

One last thing... While you have a lot of stuff going on in Nex Machina as well at any given time, everything is distinguishable enough that you can keep track of everything... Bullets, lasers, enemies, revenge-bullets and your character... In Matterfall, this is not often the case. Enemies can spawn on top of you with not much of a warning, detonating matter bombs results in a chain of explosions that can make recognizing incoming projectiles or revenge bullets impossible, ... Everything, be it your character, the enemies, the lasers, the projectiles... Everything is in the same color tones, and so it is often difficult to keep track of what's going on. In my case, this resulted in many hits taken that I felt were out of my control. 

 

 

The Challenge

I didn't expect to find a too challenging game, and Matterfall definitely is the easiest Housemarque game I've completed thus far. There are only two trophy-related challenges that need to be mentioned here.

 

The first one is to beat all levels on Veteran difficulty without dying. Since this is not an Arcade game, you don't need to beat all levels back to back... Just each one individually, which was much easier than I expected and didn't give me any trouble whatsoever. Even the bosses didn't change from my initial playthrough on Freelancer. Had I know that this would be so easy, I would have played the game on Veteran from the beginning. 

 

The second challenge is beating the game on the highest difficulty, Master, while beating the Gold speedrun time for each level. This was slighly more annoying since on Master difficulty, you die in one hit, and enemies spawn a revenge bullet upon death. Given that I felt the game has a lot of issues with hitboxes and makes it difficult to keep track of everything, I died more often than I'd liked. But in contrast to the Veteran no-death run, you don't even need to beat each level in one go. You see, the game saves your current level-time every time you hit a checkpoint. That means that you just need to speedrun from checkpoint to checkpoint, instead of the entire level. 

 

 

 

_______________

 

On other news... I got a PS5! ? You know, I haven't been looking for one like crazy... Just checking some stores from time to time, no alerts, no twitter, nothing... The other day, I was randomly checking one of the online stores and they had a PS5 with two Dual Sense controllers in stock... I thought it must be a mistake, but still purchased one... And it's being delivered tomorrow! ?

 

Can't wait to play Demon's Souls ?

 

 

Now, as for my next "challenging" game... I was thinking of doing Wuppo next... But... I have also been craving a rhythm game (NOT Crypt...) and I'm thinking about getting The Metronomicon.

Yes, this is Arcesius once more talking about some games no one knows about ? This one is a rhythm RPG. That's right. It's a rhythm game with a proper RPG system, with leveling up, different spells, gear, etc... Sounds and looks weird, but also like a lot of fun! I'll leave the trailer here: 

 

 

 

I already own Wuppo though and The Metronomicon often goes on sale... Should I wait? ? If I like the game enough, I might write a guide for it as well... 

Edited July 14, 2021 by Arcesius

[DrBloodmoney]

Congrats on Matterfall - and on the most challenging game of the year - The Hunt for a PS5!

 

It's weird, I honestly don't recall getting too frustrated hy hit boxing in Matterfall - though I played back to back with Nex, so I may have just been in such a chaos-haze that I barely registered it ?

 

It's definitely an easier game to platinum than Nex - though I found it much harder to pick up the mechanics of early on. 

Not sure if I'd agree that it is easier than Dead Nation - though that may be more down to Dead Nation being very much a Co-Op experience for me 

 

 

Also - I'm doing the new Demon's Souls right now - and it's a marvellous remake. Maybe Bluepoint's best work so far - and you know how highly I value their Shadow of the Colossus remake, so that should say all it needs to!

Edited July 14, 2021 by DrBloodmoney

[Together_Comic]

Congrats on Matterfall and the PS5

 

I bought metronomicon awhile back while it was on sale and it has been gathering dust in the backlog.  Im interested to see what you think of it, but if you already have Wuppo, might be worth doing that one first. 

[Joe Dubz]

Congrats on the plat and the PS5 acquisition ?? Your reviews are always such a pleasure to read, JFTR!!

 

I must say, I am quite tantalized at the look of The Metronomicon... I have never heard of that but I am quite intrigued and may play that along with you if you decide to get it!! Thanks for the hot tip my man!

[Arcesius]

17 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

Congrats on Matterfall - and on the most challenging game of the year - The Hunt for a PS5!

 

Thanks! Man I couldn't tell you how lucky this random online-check was... there have been virtually no drops in Switzerland since at least March or so... Wasn't expecting to get one this year, to be honest! 

 

 

17 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

It's weird, I honestly don't recall getting too frustrated hy hit boxing in Matterfall - though I played back to back with Nex, so I may have just been in such a chaos-haze that I barely registered it ?

 

It's definitely an easier game to platinum than Nex - though I found it much harder to pick up the mechanics of early on. 

Not sure if I'd agree that it is easier than Dead Nation - though that may be more down to Dead Nation being very much a Co-Op experience for me 

 

It might be that I just notice wrong hitboxes personally, but it might not bother other players. There were a couple of times where I almost recorded a clip of me dying to a projectile that clearly didn't touch my character. But don't get me wrong, the game was fun enough that my enjoyment was not lowered by these issues It was just noticeable is all. 

 

I agree about the mechanics though. Using mostly the shoulder-buttons for everything was weird at first. Maybe doing a Vet run while still getting used to the controls would not have been the best idea indeed...

 

I haven't played Dead Nation though... From the three I've completed, Matterfall was definitely the easiest one. I proposed to Ms. Arc to do Dead Nation together, but after needing almost 2 weeks for Trine 3, a game that is remarkably short, I'm not sure if she'd be up for it... And then a Zombie-themed game... Not sure ?

 

 

16 hours ago, Together_Comic said:

I bought metronomicon awhile back while it was on sale and it has been gathering dust in the backlog.  Im interested to see what you think of it, but if you already have Wuppo, might be worth doing that one first. 

14 hours ago, Joe Dubz said:

I must say, I am quite tantalized at the look of The Metronomicon... I have never heard of that but I am quite intrigued and may play that along with you if you decide to get it!! Thanks for the hot tip my man!

 

Yeah, I decided to start Wuppo and am currently doing my first playthrough on Insane. Beat 5 bosses I think so far, the game really looks unique and has been very fun! We'll see if I can complete it before my holidays, which are coming up soon  

 

Now, I will definitely get to The Metronomicon. But having hundreds of hours in my backlog, it would be silly to pay full price now and will just wait. I bet it will be discounted soon enough. The game definitely seems to be a very unique one, and I hope that my "hot tip" doesn't flop! ?

 

 

14 hours ago, Joe Dubz said:

Congrats on the plat and the PS5 acquisition ?? Your reviews are always such a pleasure to read, JFTR!!

 

 

Haha thanks a lot!  Comments like these always make me smile  Appreciate it! 

 

 

 

Now... I have mentioned multiple times that I don't care for Milestones. But, they are not going anywhere, and some can be at least be considered a Milestone regardless of this site. I did Splasher for my 100th completion, and I'm now approaching my 100th platinum, 

 

I will not make a poll or anything, in the end it's my profile and I should choose a game I want to take that Milestone-spot. But I'd still be curious... You have been following my journey, you know what kind of games I like, and how my approach to gaming is. And while I have a specific game in mind that I want to do, there might be other games out there that I just did not think off. 

 

So, do you have any games that you think would be fitting as my 100th plat Milestone?  

 

 

P.S: And before you name Crypt.. That's just not gonna happen. I'd love to, in fact, when I started it I said that it was my goal to make it my 100th plat, but I don't have the time required to do it. ? 

[DrBloodmoney]

2 minutes ago, Arcesius said:

So, do you have any games that you think would be fitting as my 100th plat Milestone?  

 

I've heard this game is okay...

 

 

(I'm nothing if not predictable, right? ?)