Arcesius' Pursuit of Completion

[rjkclarke]

I think my wallet is safe too. Lucky me, I feel like you've done us all a great service by illustrating exactly why we should ignore this one!

 

However, as I expected, that was a thoroughly awesome read, so there are upsides.

 

I do feel your pain on this one somewhat - I also went into a game recently knowing full well I'd be playing a bad game - despite being fond of the series it came from, and purely wanting to have all of the games in that series completed on my profile. Is it ever that worth it though? .....

 

.... I'm guessing that review was at least quite a cathartic one to write down though - even if thinking about the game again probably made you want to use your keyboard/phone as a really expensive Frisbee! ?

 

[Baker]

I’m going to look for another ‘I told you so’ meme. I’ll be back tomorrow.

[Copanele]

Congrats for surviving through the Trials of the Crap Dragon there My experience with Trials is limited to the Miniclip sites (where there were 20 levels only), but damn I've seen some footage of this game and...whew I wouldn't like playing that!

Your writing on the game has been mad entertaining though So...I am both "sorry" and "thank you" for playing that game?

[Joe Dubz]

I think they should rename it "Trails of the Butt Dragon" ? Since it sounds like straight crap ?

[Deadly_Ha_Ha]

Dude you did RAD?? That's amazing! I'm gonna get to that too some time. I know it's a kind of awful grind but I'm looking forward to it. Well, until I actually do it anyway lol

[Baker]

19 hours ago, Baker said:

I’m going to look for another ‘I told you so’ meme. I’ll be back tomorrow.

I’m back.

 

 

As promised.

 

 

I’ll be back next year at the one year anniversary. 

[Arcesius]

22 hours ago, Joe Dubz said:

Yikes, sounds like Trials of the Blood Dragon should be avoided like the COVID plague... If I ever decide to jump into this series, I am definitely going to avoid this one! 

 

Ah well, now that you conquered that shitty game, you can focus on something actually fun!! Excellent write up man, even if the game was straight garbage ?

 

I hope that came across clearly enough ? Seriously, if not for the desire to finish all Trials games available to me, I would never have started this game. I was on the fence about it for a very long time, too! But all the recent Trials-talk in other checklists recently kinda made me wanna play it regardless... 

 

But you are absolutely right.. No more duds! At least not knowingly! 

 

 

22 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said:

…If I understand correctly, the difference between a regular Trials game, and Trials of the Blood Dragon is about the same as the difference between a delicious Full English Breakfast… and throwing up in England. ?

 

I'm not big on Jackass, but I always remember how they made an omelette out of vomit... Yeah, that's what Trials of the Bood Dragon would be on a buffet indeed ?

 

 

21 hours ago, rjkclarke said:

However, as I expected, that was a thoroughly awesome read, so there are upsides.

 

I do feel your pain on this one somewhat - I also went into a game recently knowing full well I'd be playing a bad game - despite being fond of the series it came from, and purely wanting to have all of the games in that series completed on my profile. Is it ever that worth it though? .....

 

.... I'm guessing that review was at least quite a cathartic one to write down though - even if thinking about the game again probably made you want to use your keyboard/phone as a really expensive Frisbee! ?

 

What game are you referring to?  But yeah, I knew at least that it would not be the longest game to finish.. Otherwise I might have had more reservations. 

 

You are right though. Usually the reviews I enjoy writing the most are those of games that indeed made me feel some kind of strong emotion. Usually those emotions are positive. But disappointment and hatred are also great fuel for a passionate review ?

 

 

12 hours ago, Copanele said:

Congrats for surviving through the Trials of the Crap Dragon there My experience with Trials is limited to the Miniclip sites (where there were 20 levels only), but damn I've seen some footage of this game and...whew I wouldn't like playing that!

Your writing on the game has been mad entertaining though So...I am both "sorry" and "thank you" for playing that game?

 

Yeah man I know you don't even enjoy GOOD platformers, I cannot imagine how you would despise certain aspects of this game ? Thanks for the nice words on the review though!  

 

 

20 hours ago, Baker said:

I’m going to look for another ‘I told you so’ meme. I’ll be back tomorrow.

1 hour ago, Baker said:

I’m back.

 

I’ll be back next year at the one year anniversary. 

 

You delivered indeed! ? Honestly though, I really hope that one year from now, we will both have forgotten about this game... ? Hopefully thanks to a brand-new, amazing Trials game! 

 

 

2 hours ago, Deadly_Ha_Ha said:

Dude you did RAD?? That's amazing! I'm gonna get to that too some time. I know it's a kind of awful grind but I'm looking forward to it. Well, until I actually do it anyway lol

 

Oh yeah, just recently It could have been an unbearable grind, but I found a way to shorten the platinum time by ~50 hours. It's also reflected in the trophy guide already, so you are looking at a less painful grind now   

 

Hope you enjoy the game! It has a lot of things going for it, but to me it got repetitive too quickly. 

 

 

 

 

So, I'm making great progress in Sine Mora EX. Depending on how much time I have to play over the weekend, and how challenging the last couple of things I need to do for the 100% turn out to be, expect either an update, or a review after the weekend  

 

For the moment, I leave you with my playlist of all 7 levels beaten in Score Attack on Hard with a rating of A or above! Required for one of the promotions... Stage VI was probably the hardest one! 

 

 

And with that, have a great weekend everyone! 

[Arcesius]

Sine Mora EX

 

The Pitch

While superficially an action-packed shoot 'em up, Sine Mora EX is a game that manages to keep the action-junkie entertained, while at the same time delivering a packing narrative filled with plots and twists.

 

 

The Best

Let me start this section by elaborating on the pitch above. I expected this game to be action, and action only. It's a Shmup after all, a game that in principle only needs to offer great gameplay to keep players interested… Not that I would know whether other games in the genre have a flashed-out narrative, but I definitely wasn't expecting one.

Sine Mora EX, however, caught me off-guard in this regard. Without going into the plot and avoiding spoiler territory, the game indeed tells a deep, interesting story. Most of the plot is revealed in text-only screens similar to what Final Fantasy XII does occasionally with the archive entries:

 

 

When the story you are telling is good, you don't need more than this. And mind you, this is not a "lighthearted" story. It is filled with topics such as revenge, treason, slavery and genocide. It is also not one that is easy to follow initially, since you are following the strings of different factions that, while they visit similar places, are temporally separated by many, many years. However, you will have to play through Story mode at least twice, most players will play through it three times, with one of these playthroughs offering an alternative narrative. This helps in combining all threads to one cohesive story being told.

 

What you definitely would expect from such a game, though, is good gameplay. And Sine Mora EX absolutely delivers in this aspect as well!

For starters, both the level design and boss design are fantastic. As far as stages go, one moment you'll find yourself in some city outskirts, the next one underwater avoiding mines…you'll travel through caves, factories, canyons filled with dragonflies, … The stages really are varied, and are a joy to play through.

 

As for the bosses… Well, just look for yourself:

 

  

 

 

Though obviously there is more to the bosses than just their looks. They often have multiple phases, and have many different attacks at their disposal. With about 13 main bosses and several minibosses to fight, they really are the highlight of every stage.

 

Now, what I REALLY enjoyed about the gameplay, is how the time-manipulating mechanic is taken further than just the story. In fact, time is the only thing that decides whether you live or die. The classic health-bar of your ship is replaced by a timer that ticks down. If it ever reaches 0, it's game over. Every hit further subtracts some time from said timer, and how much time is lost with each hit depends on the difficulty setting (on Hard and Insane, each hit is 10 seconds lost).

But you can also gain time back… killing any enemy adds to the timer. Usually only about 1 second, but destroying boss-parts or killing stronger enemies reward the player with a larger time gain.

 

It's a fantastic system. It feels similar to the rally mechanic in Bloodborne in that it allows the player to be super aggressive, since by killing many enemies you can compensate for the penalties of getting hit. That's not true for the highest difficulty settings though… Any mistake there can be deadly.

 

Other than that, when not playing through Story Mode but Arcade or Score Attack, you can freely select one of three available planes, one of seven pilots and one of three capsules. While there is only one really viable choice of plane and capsule (reflection) for the harder difficulties, the seven pilots are pretty varied and fun to try out. The difference between them (other than their role in the plot being told) is the "subweapon" they can use, of which you have limited uses (that can be refilled picking up specific orbs that drop from enemies).

 

The Worst

There are no major issues that affected my enjoyment with the game. I have two minor complaints though…

 

The less important one is the lack of cosmetic customization. There are only three ships, but my preferred choice of ship had only two different cosmetic options, and more would have been welcome. 

I know, it's a very important, almost game-breaking issue!  

 

On a more serious note… I would have to criticize the lack of custom practice options. You see, there are three game modes (Story, Arcade and Score Attack), and many of the challenges have to be completed in a specific game mode (A-rank all levels in Score Attack, complete Arcade with a primary weapon only, etc…). But not all game modes can be played in all difficulty settings. 

 

You can only play Arcade on Challenging and Hard. You can only play Score Attack on Hard and Insane.

 

But say that you are having trouble with Arcade on Challenging (assume you are just starting out, ok?). The run takes roughly 45 minutes, and you keep dying in, say, one of the last two chapters… It would be great if you could practice those chapters in isolation, right? But you can't start an Arcade run in an arbitrary chapter, and you cannot really practice those chapters on Score Attack, since Challenging difficulty isn't available in that game mode.

 

Or, for example, I would also have liked to be able to jump to any checkpoint within a specific stage in some sort of practice mode. While going for Stage I in Score Attack on Insane without pick-ups, I would have liked to be able to practice the second half of the stage, after the first boss. This wasn't possible, and getting there in the first place was the hardest part of the run. Being able to practice the second half in isolation would have made a huge difference in keeping calm and being confident throughout the entire run. 

 

There is a Boss Training mode… It would have been great to have a "stage section" training mode as well.  

 

The Challenge

Sine Mora EX was listed in my mini-series post about "games I'm scared to start". Among other things, I thought that Shmups in general would be games that require strong reflexes, and I wasn't sure if I would enjoy the game and, additionally, have what it takes to complete such a game.

 

However, my assumption turned out to be wrong. You see, while reflexes and fast reactions definitely do help in getting through the game (especially for the hardest challenge there is to complete, more on that one below), a big part of getting through levels safely is memorization. That's right. Remembering where specific enemy ships spawn is crucial in certain sections. As an example, I have created two GIFs showcasing what I mean… The exact same section, played differently (only the second one is my own gameplay)

 

   

 

You definitely see what I mean, right? By knowing where the ships that shoot the spiraling bullets spawn, you can take them out before they have any chance of making your life miserable.

Now, that's not to say that simply by memorizing enemy spawns you will have an easy time. The game is not easy, it just turned out to be more manageable than I expected. There are two challenges, however, that I'd like to mention:

 

• A-ranking all levels in Score ATtack.  
  Yep, you need to play every stage in Score Attack, and Hard difficulty is the lowest difficulty you can select. Getting at least an A-rank mostly comes down to having a high kill-% (destroy ~95% of all enemies in the level, more or less), while avoiding getting hit. From my experience, you can get hit at most 7 times to still make an A-rank, though the specific computations in the background are a mistery to me.  
  
  Stage IV was really difficult, since it was one of the few stages where I was actively fighting time. Especially the first half of the level, a canyon filled with dragonflies, caused a lot of resets due to running out of time.
  
  Stage VI was probably the hardest stage overall, mostly due to the type of enemies present in the level. Without proper memorization of the more problematic spawns it was truly difficult to avoid taking damage. The first boss of the level, Domus, was also the only boss that I needed to practice in Boss Practice, since getting through it quickly was not easy at all.

Stage IV

Spoiler

 

 

Stage VI

Spoiler

 

 

 

• Completing any Stage on the highest difficulty (Insane), without picking up anything.
  This was without a doubt the hardest challenge in the game, and the one thing that took me the longest to finally succeed at. You need to do this in Score Attack and cannot pick up any powerups. This means your primary weapon is as weak as it gets, you only have 2 uses of your subweapon for the entirety of the stage, you only have one full capsule, each hit subtracts 10 seconds from the timer and enemy explode into revenge bullets upon being destroyed.
  
  The challenge sounds like a nightmare, but it was really fun to go for. Like pretty much everyone else, I did this in Stage I. The first part of the stage, before reaching the boss, was really difficult to get through, and even after loads of practice I could never confidently start the run and know I would reach the boss.
  The second half of the stage will have you fight your way through a narrow cave filled with worms that explode when they die, and you can only afford to miss one of the worms or you'll run out of time before leaving the cave. The pathways are pretty narrow, and you have to make sure you don't touch the walls, all while avoiding the powerups that bounce around and dodging the weird hitbox of the goo from the exploding worms. 
  
  If you watch the video below... make sure to keep an eye on the timer. You only start with 14 seconds and every enemy only adds 1 second, so you never gain a substantial amount of time and every single hit is deadly. Meaning that you have to be aggressive, all while dodging everything on screen, including power-ups 

Spoiler

 

 

  

All in all, I think Sine Mora EX offers a decent challenge. But more importantly, it's just a super fun game to play. If you want to try out a Shmup, I think this is a really solid choice   

 

 

_________________________________

 

Now, what's next for me? Well, @Baker and I are going to try and figure out how much of Code Vein we can do in coop, so what I play next heavily depends on that. If we can do pretty much everything together, I will definitely jump on that game next, which will then be the last game before my #100 milestone... 

If not... well, then we'll have to see what we do. Either we play solo and do the Depths-grinding together, or I play Returnal / Valfaris / CTR / It Takes Two (featuring Ms. Arc) instead. We shall see! 

 

As for the milestone-game itself... I was actually waiting for Solar Ash to come out October 26. You know that I adore Hyper Light Drifter, so making the second game by that studio a milestone seemed like a good idea (depending on the trophy list, of course). But the game has been delayed until December 2, so I think that option was just taken off the table. 

 

And so, I think I will just jump into SMBF ? That would be the second "game I'm scared to start" in a pretty short time... But hey, why wait! 

Edited October 14, 2021 by Arcesius

[Esca]

Congrats for Sm Ex, this is probably the only shoot them up I really like too (at least with a good plot so far... Or just a plot to begin with). 

 

Do you plan to try Sine Mora Vita or Ps3? Those two a faaaaaaaaar more difficult than Ex, if I remember well you have to do the whole arcade in hard mode (challenging mode doesn't exist here) + 1cc but the worst part tied to complete this setting using only the primary weapon (capsule and subweapon not allowed), what a sweet nightmare in my memory ?. 

 

 

 

[Joe Dubz]

Well done Arc! I feel like you knocked this one out of the park pretty quickly, considering how beastly of a challenge this appears to be. I will certainly keep this high up on the list when I am in the mood for some shmup punishment ? Brilliant write-up as always, might I add! 

 

2 hours ago, Arcesius said:

And so, I think I will just jump into SMBF  That would be the second "game I'm scared to start" in a pretty short time... But hey, why wait! 

Ooooooooh boy, I'm very excited to hear your take on this one too! It's so much fun, despite the deathless runs being such an extreme challenge. It just feels 100x harder to get a good streak going, as compared to SMB. But you are no stranger to challenge, so I'm sure you will emerge on top victorious ? My guide is about 1/2 way complete at this point, but of course I'm always glad to give you advice if you need it. Feel free to PM me if so!

 

I think it's a shame more people haven't played this yet. I can only assume they may be turned off by the auto-runner style, much like I was before I took the initial plunge! It's such a well made game and the extremely precise controls the franchise is known for are definitely back. Just reading your take on how bad Trials of the Blood Dragon's platforming sections are made me appreciate this that much more! Esp the way you described the arc of your jumps and such being dismal with that one. Not at all the case here!

 

[Arcesius]

18 hours ago, escarodasoul said:

Do you plan to try Sine Mora Vita or Ps3? Those two a faaaaaaaaar more difficult than Ex, if I remember well you have to do the whole arcade in hard mode (challenging mode doesn't exist here) + 1cc but the worst part tied to complete this setting using only the primary weapon (capsule and subweapon not allowed), what a sweet nightmare in my memory . 

 

I don't own either of those consoles, so only Sine Mora EX for me  But yeah, I'm aware that those versions are harder. Not only does Arcade Primary Only have to be done on Hard, there are more challenges to complete and some of them seem to be a giant pain in the ass ?

 

But yeah, since I needed to do Score Attack on Hard, I can kinda gauge how difficult a Primary Only run on Arcade must be... definitely no joke! But the game is fun enough that I think I would enjoy the challenge   

 

 

17 hours ago, Joe Dubz said:

Well done Arc! I feel like you knocked this one out of the park pretty quickly, considering how beastly of a challenge this appears to be. I will certainly keep this high up on the list when I am in the mood for some shmup punishment  Brilliant write-up as always, might I add! 

 

So, the fastest you can do this game is 24 hours, since one of the promotions has the requirement that you need to play the game for at least that long. The 100% estimate from the guide was 25-50 hours, and I finished at pretty much 30 hours exactly. For being my first Shmup, I'm really glad to be on the lower side of the estimate!  

 

 

17 hours ago, Joe Dubz said:

Ooooooooh boy, I'm very excited to hear your take on this one too! It's so much fun, despite the deathless runs being such an extreme challenge. It just feels 100x harder to get a good streak going, as compared to SMB. But you are no stranger to challenge, so I'm sure you will emerge on top victorious  My guide is about 1/2 way complete at this point, but of course I'm always glad to give you advice if you need it. Feel free to PM me if so!

 

I think it's a shame more people haven't played this yet. I can only assume they may be turned off by the auto-runner style, much like I was before I took the initial plunge! It's such a well made game and the extremely precise controls the franchise is known for are definitely back. Just reading your take on how bad Trials of the Blood Dragon's platforming sections are made me appreciate this that much more! Esp the way you described the arc of your jumps and such being dismal with that one. Not at all the case here!

 

For sure... I guess one could think "it's only 6 levels.. should be doable", but then each level is so much longer than in SMB... so even if you can quit to map, you need to redo a much longer chunk each time you retry, which in turns gives you more options to screw up before even getting to the part you resetted for. 

 

That being said, your updates and positive impression when it comes to this game definitely has me more excited to finally get to it than a couple of weeks ago. I was indeed one of those people that were sceptical of the auto-runner nature of the game, but I will just approach this game as its own game, instead of expecting a sequel to SMB  I hope to enjoy it as much as you! 

 

And definitely looking forward to the guide... The most important thing I've taken from your updates in regards to progression is that I should be doing the no-death runs before even starting NG+ to avoid harder chunks... But otherwise I just thought of playing through the game casually, and then start going for the light-world no-death runs (which should automatically unlock the dark-world variants, I guess?) and then go for those. 

 

Anything else to look out for while progressing through the game?  

[Joe Dubz]

4 hours ago, Arcesius said:

So, the fastest you can do this game is 24 hours, since one of the promotions has the requirement that you need to play the game for at least that long. The 100% estimate from the guide was 25-50 hours, and I finished at pretty much 30 hours exactly. For being my first Shmup, I'm really glad to be on the lower side of the estimate!  

Sounds like you were kicking ass and taking names, that sounds like a pretty solid amount of time to finish, given the setup! Well played my dude ?

 

4 hours ago, Arcesius said:

For sure... I guess one could think "it's only 6 levels.. should be doable", but then each level is so much longer than in SMB... so even if you can quit to map, you need to redo a much longer chunk each time you retry, which in turns gives you more options to screw up before even getting to the part you resetted for. 

Funny you mention this, because this had definitely screwed me over once or twice, having to go through the same sections and then botching it on the 2nd attempt ? I guess that's the name of the Meat Boy game tho! It is not for the faint of heart, that's for damn sure ?

 

4 hours ago, Arcesius said:

And definitely looking forward to the guide... The most important thing I've taken from your updates in regards to progression is that I should be doing the no-death runs before even starting NG+ to avoid harder chunks... But otherwise I just thought of playing through the game casually, and then start going for the light-world no-death runs (which should automatically unlock the dark-world variants, I guess?) and then go for those. 

 

Anything else to look out for while progressing through the game?  

Thanks my man, I will be cracking away at it again today. It will just be missing 2 or 3 videos from my estimation, until I can finish this run then get the last 2 character unlock videos I want. But I know how to get them, so all the info will be there at least in text form ?

 

I did pretty much the same you are suggesting, just play through casually initially to get a feel for the speed, jump arcs, dash distance, etc. IIRC, I didn't start the deathless runs til I had all the Light World levels unlocked at least. 

 

As for what to keep your eye out for, try to get all the pacifiers and warp zones you find (30 pacifiers total on your initial run, +5 warp zones, 1 on each of the first 5 worlds). Those are both tied to character unlocks, so it's best to get them out of the way if you can. Plus it gives you different characters to play with... Best I can tell, they are all just cosmetic anyway, but still better than using Meat Boy or Bandage Girl the whole time! You can always double back later tho, some of those pacifiers are tricky to grab anyway. 

 

Once you complete a level, back at the World Map menu you can see an icon next to the level name, indicating if you may have missed a pacifier there. The warp zones are pretty obvious, but sometimes tricky to find. The screen and sound start glitching out if you're close. All my warp zones were on the Light World levels, but I think others have mentioned sometimes they are in Dark World.

 

This post is very helpful to tell you what requirements are needed for the character unlocks:

But yeah, to unlock Dark World variants, you need to beat the par time for each level, then complete a deathless run to "S" Rank. Can be done on separate runs, although usually getting the deathless run also nets you the par time, in my experience! So yes, essentially going for the Light World deathless runs will get you there. Good luck and very much intrigued to hear your thoughts once you start it up!

[Arcesius]

Update

Ok, I just couldn't resist... I was thinking about which game to play next and had several options, but in the end I decided to have plat #99 be a coop-game (either Code Vein with @Baker, if the game can be played in coop, Darksiders Genesis with @Mori, or It Takes Two with Ms. Arc), and instead started the game I have been afraid to start for a while... And the one game I'm determined to make my #100 milestone:

 

 - 

 

That's right. A couple of days ago, soon after finishing Sine Mora EX, I fired up the sequel to Super Meat Boy. A game I had been waiting for a looong time, one that got delayed multiple times.. and one that - judging by gameplay footage - doesn't necessarily look as fun as the first game. Now that I have indeed played the game myself, I think it's time for a short introduction to the game that will probably keep me entertained for a long while to come, and for some initial thoughts and impressions.

 

 

Alright so first things first... A bit of background. At the time where Super Meat Boy was released, Edmund McMillen was still part of the development team known as Team Meat. In case I haven't mentioned this enough (?), Edmund is the genius responsible for other fantastic games such as The Binding of Isaac, the best platformer on PS4 The End is Nigh and a shit ton of creepy Flash Games such as "Dead Baby Dressup" (where the "Blue Baby" first showed up, later known from TBoI) or "Fingered" ?

This guy is amazing, and if you are interested in his history as a game developer, there is a fantastic Noclip documentary that I highly recommend watching: 

 

"Meat Boy is about challenging yourself because the outcome is worth it... and The End is Nigh is about challenging yourself and questioning if the outcome is worth it."

 

 

 

Why am I mentioning all of this? Well.. because after teasing the sequel to Super Meat Boy, and after a while with no updates and no information on the game, Edmund left Team Meat. He had absolutely nothing to do with Super Meat Boy Forever, and so I was really unsure about the game. Would it live up to the expectations of SMB fans? 

 

Now, all of my doubts were further intensified by the information that followed... Super Meat Boy Forever would be a mobile game! An auto-runner with simple controls. Later down the line, the game was re-branded as a console and PC game, but it would still be an auto runner. Eeeehm... Sorry what? ?

Initial and final gameplay footage didn't sit well with me either... The game looks gorgeous, sure, but it doesn't seem to flow very well. Hitting enemies results in small pauses that break the smooth movement. Paths don't seem to be all too clear, and even look non-intuitive and confusing. The game uses seeds.. That is, there are 7'200 hand-designed "chunks", and each level is a sequence of chunks which is determined by the seed of the save file.... 

 

This all sounded way too weird. But hey, prove me wrong, game! 

 

And so far, it definitely did ? I would even dare to say that Team Meat (or well, what's left of it) really managed to put together a super fun game that, due to the vastly different nature of the core gameplay, can stand on its own feet as a great game without having to live up to any kind of expectations. Comparing the levels generated on my seed with what other players got has been very fun, too! I re-watched the first two deathless runs by @Joe Dubz after getting them myself, and the levels are vastly different! What I enjoy about this is that I cannot watch other people's videos and learn how to beat sections, but instead have to find my own ways through the stages (and find my own skips / shortcuts!). I love it, since it feels like every runner / player is just on their own and at the mercy of the generated seed ?

 

What the game does have in common with the original Super Meat Boy is the challenge it offers. And if you are not just thinking about beating the game but indeed grabbing that platinum... It even ups the challenge further than the original ever did. ?

 

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. There is still a long way to go before I grab that shiny trophy named "Ultimate God". 

 

Now, I don't want to make this post too long, it's probably not interesting to many people anyways ? so let me just wrap-up with what I've done so far. 

 

I have played SMBF for roughly 7 hours now. In that time, I beat all Light Worlds (including the 5 bosses) and all Warp-Zones that were available to me, and collected all possible Pacifiers. Since the levels are random... where you find those things is random as well. In my seed, I only found 2/5 Warp Zones in the Light Worlds, the remaining 3 will be in the Dark Worlds. 

To unlock the Dark World Levels, you have to S-rank the Light World variants. That is achieved by fulfilling two requirements: 

• Beat the Level without dying. 
• Beat the Level in under a given time. 

So, after beating all Light Worlds, I went back to the first one and proceeded to S-rank all levels. I then did my deathless run of the entire world. I repeated that process with World 2, and currently got all S-ranks in World 3 as well, but haven't yet had the time to do a deathless run (hopefully tonight). 

 

I have footage of my first two deathless runs on my YT channel, but they are not too intersting since the levels are not too difficult yet ? If you want to see some crazy stuff, I'd recommend watching @Joe Dubz's videos instead ? 

(Btw... huge congrats on getting your last deathless run earlier today! Your #200 milestone is approaching! I watched the Death Heat Girl run already and holy shit.. if that's what waiting for me then I'm in for one hell of a time ?)

 

My plan is to finish the deathless runs and S-ranks in all Light Worlds and then start clearing the Dark Worlds. There is where the difficulty goes up tremendously. 

 

Since it's going to be a while before I finish my next game, I will come back and write about the gameplay in SMBF in another post. I will also write the second episode of my Mini-Series, featuring the "Most Difficult Games I've Completed"!   

Edited October 19, 2021 by Arcesius

[Baker]

Is it just me or is the spoiler tag not working? I’m interested in watching that documentary.

 

Since I learned the speedrun trophy in The End is Nigh can be save scummed (right?) I’ve put the game in my wishlist.

[Arcesius]

1 minute ago, Baker said:

Is it just me or is the spoiler tag not working? I’m interested in watching that documentary.

 

Since I learned the speedrun trophy in The End is Nigh can be save scummed (right?) I’ve put the game in my wishlist.

 

Damn, I even checked the spoiler tag after publishing the post, but it stopped working. 

 

Well, it's my thread anyways so I can video-spam all I want  Removed the spoiler-tag, there you go! 

 

And man, happy to hear that you might play this one! ? You can save-scum the speedrun, there are plenty of other, more fun challenges to do   

[Joe Dubz]

2 hours ago, Arcesius said:

Why am I mentioning all of this? Well.. because after teasing the sequel to Super Meat Boy, and after a while with no updates and no information on the game, Edmund left Team Meat. He had absolutely nothing to do with Super Meat Boy Forever, and so I was really unsure about the game. Would it live up to the expectations of SMB fans? 

 

Now, all of my doubts were further intensified by the information that followed... Super Meat Boy Forever would be a mobile game! An auto-runner with simple controls. Later down the line, the game was re-branded as a console and PC game, but it would still be an auto runner. Eeeehm... Sorry what? 

Initial and final gameplay footage didn't sit well with me either... The game looks gorgeous, sure, but it doesn't seem to flow very well. Hitting enemies results in small pauses that break the smooth movement. Paths don't seem to be all too clear, and even look non-intuitive and confusing. The game uses seeds.. That is, there are 7'200 hand-designed "chunks", and each level is a sequence of chunks which is determined by the seed of the save file.... 

 

This all sounded way too weird. But hey, prove me wrong, game! 

 

And so far, it definitely did  I would even dare to say that Team Meat (or well, what's left of it) really managed to put together a super fun game that, due to the vastly different nature of the core gameplay, can stand on its own feet as a great game without having to live up to any kind of expectations. Comparing the levels generated on my seed with what other players got has been very fun, too! I re-watched the first two deathless runs by @Joe Dubz after getting them myself, and the levels are vastly different! What I enjoy about this is that I cannot watch other people's videos and learn how to beat sections, but instead have to find my own ways through the stages (and find my own skips / shortcuts!). I love it, since it feels like every runner / player is just on their own and at the mercy of the generated seed

I am quite happy to hear that you felt similar to me; initial impressions were not very high, but after playing the game it sounds like you are having a ton of fun with it too! I really cannot stress enough how much I agree with your thought process coming into the game. Team Meat really did manage to pull something fun and unique off here! The original Super Meat Boy to me had such charm IMO; just a fun, vibrant world with an interesting cast of characters, tons of throwbacks to fun games from days yonder... I feel like Team Meat still managed to hit all those notes, despite Edmund jumping ship!

 

I must say I am very much interested to check out the video you shared. Already having been a huge fan of TBoI myself before I jumped into the Meat Boy universe, I'm very intrigued to see what that dude is all about! I may have to tag along with @Baker here and give The End is Nigh a shot too. Although with that being said, after this beast of a game I really feel like I need a break from all the bone-crushing fun for a while and play stuff a lil more easy breezy ? I was really hoping to reach Tier 5 on the challenge, so I think I'll stick with what I have on my current tier, at least in the short term! 

 

4 hours ago, Arcesius said:

I have played SMBF for roughly 7 hours now. In that time, I beat all Light Worlds (including the 5 bosses) and all Warp-Zones that were available to me, and collected all possible Pacifiers. Since the levels are random... where you find those things is random as well. In my seed, I only found 2/5 Warp Zones in the Light Worlds, the remaining 3 will be in the Dark Worlds. 

To unlock the Dark World Levels, you have to S-rank the Light World variants. That is achieved by fulfilling two requirements: 

• Beat the Level without dying. 
• Beat the Level in under a given time. 

So, after beating all Light Worlds, I went back to the first one and proceeded to S-rank all levels. I then did my deathless run of the entire world. I repeated that process with World 2, and currently got all S-ranks in World 3 as well, but haven't yet had the time to do a deathless run (hopefully tonight). 

I was actually creeping on your profile last night & I am pretty impressed with how quickly you are progressing, Arc! I'm also very much curious to check out your videos to see how different the seeds look. I haven't had a chance to just yet but am planning to do so soon ?

 

4 hours ago, Arcesius said:

I have footage of my first two deathless runs on my YT channel, but they are not too intersting since the levels are not too difficult yet  If you want to see some crazy stuff, I'd recommend watching @Joe Dubz's videos instead  

(Btw... huge congrats on getting your last deathless run earlier today! Your #200 milestone is approaching! I watched the Death Heat Girl run already and holy shit.. if that's what waiting for me then I'm in for one hell of a time )

Woooo boy, I have finally reached the peak of the mountain! I must say it feels really good to have all that behind me ?? I know those levels were pretty rough, but in all honesty I still think The Clinic DW & to an even lesser degree The Lab DW may have been slightly harder? I dunno if it's just that my skills are sharpened enough that the last one just didn't feel as rough or what, but even playing through The Other Side levels initially I thought to myself: "I feel like I can knock these out pretty quickly"! Once it clicked, it just clicked yano?!

 

Anyway, I appreciate your kind words man, thank you for helping to keep me motivated here through the journey. Loving your review so far, brilliant writing as usual (you really have a way with words, my dude ?), and very much looking forward to your future updates and eventual milestone victory!! Cheers mate!

[Arcesius]

18 hours ago, Joe Dubz said:

I am quite happy to hear that you felt similar to me; initial impressions were not very high, but after playing the game it sounds like you are having a ton of fun with it too! I really cannot stress enough how much I agree with your thought process coming into the game. Team Meat really did manage to pull something fun and unique off here! The original Super Meat Boy to me had such charm IMO; just a fun, vibrant world with an interesting cast of characters, tons of throwbacks to fun games from days yonder... I feel like Team Meat still managed to hit all those notes, despite Edmund jumping ship!

 

Yeah, absolutely! I am having a lot of fun with the game so fur. I'm a sucker for time-attacks, and since the levels are longer than in SMB, going for S-ranks really is a lot of fun. Trying to find shortcuts or time-saves... 

 

The design choices really make this game feel like it's its own game, not simply a copy or sequel to SMB. I enjoy that. I think without Edmunds influence, a regular platformer would probably have been a bit of a disappointment. 

 

 

18 hours ago, Joe Dubz said:

I must say I am very much interested to check out the video you shared. Already having been a huge fan of TBoI myself before I jumped into the Meat Boy universe, I'm very intrigued to see what that dude is all about! I may have to tag along with @Baker here and give The End is Nigh a shot too. Although with that being said, after this beast of a game I really feel like I need a break from all the bone-crushing fun for a while and play stuff a lil more easy breezy  I was really hoping to reach Tier 5 on the challenge, so I think I'll stick with what I have on my current tier, at least in the short term! 

 

I mean... I won't ever get tired of stating how much I love The End is Nigh. From the gameplay, to the topics and atmosphere, to the challenge it offers... To it just going on and on and on... It's just a fantastic game that Edmund himself says (in the vid) is one of his best games. I agree! 

 

The platinum is easier than that of SMB, but it's one of his harder games to play casually. Still, very happy to hear that you might get to it eventually!  The game needs more players! 

 

[Destructor-8]

On 19/10/2021 at 10:42 AM, Arcesius said:

That's right. A couple of days ago, soon after finishing Sine Mora EX, I fired up the sequel to Super Meat Boy. A game I had been waiting for a looong time, one that got delayed multiple times.. and one that - judging by gameplay footage - doesn't necessarily look as fun as the first game. Now that I have indeed played the game myself, I think it's time for a short introduction to the game that will probably keep me entertained for a long while to come, and for some initial thoughts and impressions.

 

I have footage of my first two deathless runs on my YT channel, but they are not too intersting since the levels are not too difficult yet  If you want to see some crazy stuff, I'd recommend watching @Joe Dubz's videos instead  

(Btw... huge congrats on getting your last deathless run earlier today! Your #200 milestone is approaching! I watched the Death Heat Girl run already and holy shit.. if that's what waiting for me then I'm in for one hell of a time )

 

My plan is to finish the deathless runs and S-ranks in all Light Worlds and then start clearing the Dark Worlds. There is where the difficulty goes up tremendously. 

 

Since it's going to be a while before I finish my next game, I will come back and write about the gameplay in SMBF in another post. I will also write the second episode of my Mini-Series, featuring the "Most Difficult Games I've Completed"!   

 

I saw you start this up the other day & glad that you're going to make this one your milestone so I'm really looking forward to your updates on the game. I've been watching @Joe Dubz videos on this & it looks absolutely insane with what you have to do so I'm sure this one will be a very worthy milestone for you. I hope you have fun with it & I'm sure everything you post will be a great read for everyone. It looks like @Joe Dubz will make a great guide for this game as well & your experience on it will most likely help towards that too. I can't wait for what's to come here soon! It's going to be great!

Edited October 20, 2021 by Destructor-8

[FrediPy_]

Hey, thanks for sharing the McMillen clip, I hadn't come across it and he sure throws in some interesting context about some of his games. Definitely one of the best game creators/devs out there, although the bloke has done some seriously crazy stuff ? I still have to try The End is Nigh out, everything I've read around is so positive and it's been quite a lot since my last tough-as-nails platformer. Maybe after Splasher…

 

On the other side, glad to see you've finally decided to start SMBF and that you're enjoying it. I think almost all of us can relate to that feeling of being both surprised and relieved about liking the game, it's true that the concept looked anything but appealing, but the people at Team Meat have done a great job preserving the Meat Boy flavour in this game. I wouldn't know how to express it better, but it does feel like a Meat Boy game. And it is tons of fun!

 

And I have to agree about coming up with your own strats being one of the most fun parts of the experience, it's so rewarding to come up with shortcuts, consistent strats and stuff rather than looking them up, although I miss the sense of community a little bit. So good luck especially with the dark world! I still have to tackle those, I left the game on hold since I didn't have much time at the moment and the dark world sure requires a bunch of hours each, but it'll be retaken eventually. I watched your runs and aside from some particular chunks they're absolutely different, so I'll leave my runs around in case you struggle with some bit in particular (which I doubt) and you find it there (which I doubt as well), but yeah, not much we can do to help each other.

[Deadly_Ha_Ha]

Dude I don't know how much of it you've seen, and if you're interested anyway then that's all to the good, but I played Darksiders Genesis because I'm following Airship Syndicate and I thought the game sucked. Out of the 52 games on this account it was easily the worst. I don't like Darksiders at all but I figured since it's an isometric RPG it would be fine, but it's boring and tedious to play through. Maybe in co-op it would be better but I can almost guarantee that if it's not for the sake of the Darksiders IP, you can find a significantly better co-op game to play with Mori. 

 

I know you didn't ask for my opinion lol but in good faith I can't see someone consider DG and not give my take on the experience

[Arcesius]

20 hours ago, FrediPy_ said:

 I still have to try The End is Nigh out, everything I've read around is so positive and it's been quite a lot since my last tough-as-nails platformer. Maybe after Splasher…

 

Oh man, both games should have more owners! Splasher was also a lot of fun, even though the platforming in that game is relatively easy. The difficulty comes from the tight AF times, the long speedruns (73 minutes speedrun without allowing for too many mistakes? Ffs...) and the 45 minute deathless run. In The End is Nigh, while there are two challenges that are difficult (Tower of Ascension and all rings in the Super Mega Cart), the game itself is just more challenging than your regular platformer even for a casual playthrough. It's just genious, I hope you'll enjoy it!   

 

 

20 hours ago, FrediPy_ said:

On the other side, glad to see you've finally decided to start SMBF and that you're enjoying it. I think almost all of us can relate to that feeling of being both surprised and relieved about liking the game, it's true that the concept looked anything but appealing, but the people at Team Meat have done a great job preserving the Meat Boy flavour in this game. I wouldn't know how to express it better, but it does feel like a Meat Boy game. And it is tons of fun!

 

It absolutely does, and that despite of the absence of typical hazards from the original game.. And it has so many different mechanics, it's crazy! I'm actually surprised by the variety in gameplay... You know, you'd think that an auto-runner simply consists of jumping and sliding, but here you have all that crazy stuff happening, it keeps the game really fresh and fun, but as you say, it still feels like a SMB game  I have one deathless run left in the Light Worlds (excluding OxDEADBEEF) before I move to the Dark Worlds... Looking forward to the crazyness! 

 

 

20 hours ago, FrediPy_ said:

And I have to agree about coming up with your own strats being one of the most fun parts of the experience, it's so rewarding to come up with shortcuts, consistent strats and stuff rather than looking them up, although I miss the sense of community a little bit. So good luck especially with the dark world! I still have to tackle those, I left the game on hold since I didn't have much time at the moment and the dark world sure requires a bunch of hours each, but it'll be retaken eventually. I watched your runs and aside from some particular chunks they're absolutely different, so I'll leave my runs around in case you struggle with some bit in particular (which I doubt) and you find it there (which I doubt as well), but yeah, not much we can do to help each other.

 

For sure, the sense of community is... not there. Then again, the game counts ~450 owners on PSNP, so even with fixed levels I feel like this game would not generate as much attention here as the original did (and still does). Then again, I played the first game before even joining PSNP, so I was on my own then, too (even though I later shared my own tipps for Impossible Boy after joining this site). 

 

And yeah... finding a specific level chunk in another player's video ain't an easy task! ? But thanks for the vids, it will at least be interesting to see the differences between our stages  

 

 

18 hours ago, Deadly_Ha_Ha said:

Dude I don't know how much of it you've seen, and if you're interested anyway then that's all to the good, but I played Darksiders Genesis because I'm following Airship Syndicate and I thought the game sucked. Out of the 52 games on this account it was easily the worst. I don't like Darksiders at all but I figured since it's an isometric RPG it would be fine, but it's boring and tedious to play through. Maybe in co-op it would be better but I can almost guarantee that if it's not for the sake of the Darksiders IP, you can find a significantly better co-op game to play with Mori. 

 

I know you didn't ask for my opinion lol but in good faith I can't see someone consider DG and not give my take on the experience

 

Haha your opinion is still welcome!  

 

I knew that the game is usually considered mediocre at best, but "the worst in this list of 52 games" is a statement alright ?

 

But yes, even though I only have Darksiders III on my account, I played (and loved) the first two Darksiders games on the X360... So you could say that part of why I want to play this game is for the sake of the IP... and hopefully playing through it in coop will make for a fun time  

 

Oh well, we both bought this game for cheap, and we have a couple of other coop games in the pipeline that will certainly be better... But thanks for the heads up! 

[PlutoRico]

Nice review for Sine Mora EX my friend, I'll make sure to comeback and read it again when I give the game a go ? 

[Arcesius]

Update

I'm back! Well, not like I was gone for a long time, but I spent some time in the mountains with Ms. Arc and our son. In Switzerland, mountains are everywhere and thus a very common destination for short holidays, and spending time in some secluded place is always a welcome change of pace  

 

In any case, I promised my next entry in the Mini-Series, and I will start writing that one today / tomorrow. In the meantime, I thought I would give some updates on the games I'm currently playing   

 

Super Meat Boy Forever

So, last time I wrote anything about this game, I had completed 2/5 light world deathless runs. My goal was to finish all 5 before my holidays, and luckily I managed  Now, while my initial plan was to jump straight back after coming back, I honestly didn't feel like continuing just yet, and so put the game on hold to play Code Vein instead (more on that one below). 

 

I have to say, while I have been having fun with this game, I don't enjoy it quite as much as I enjoy a proper platformer. Additionally, I played through the first dark world and.. holy shit... ? That will definitely require a shit ton of practice... And I'm not quite in the proper mental space to start practicing like a mad-man just yet. I will soon, though  

 

Now, after the release of Solar Ash was pushed to December 2nd, I thought I couldn't wait that long for my milestone and so would make SMBF my Plat #100. But - especially after my break right now - I am pretty sure that I will not get this plat within the next month... So depending on the trophy list and platinum name, I might choose Solar Ash for my #100 after all ? We'll see. 

 

In the meantime, here is my video for the second-to-last light world, The Lab. Still nothing too challenging, but probably the most interesting of the light worlds since it adds a couple of nice new mechanics and hazards  

 

 

 

Descenders

You can't see that I'm playing this.. but I re-downloaded this game after free DLC dropped over the weekend. The DLC adds two new trophies related to new content, "The Grand Tour". Now, there are four tours, with an Amateur and Pro version each, and each such tour comes with 8 challenges to complete. Those challenges range from misc stuff such as changing the bike type, to jumping specific mini-bosses, to completing the "Golden Run" (beat the game without bailing). 

 

Since I already have the platinum, certain challenges are already marked as completed automatically. Other ones have to be re-done again, it seems a bit random. The problem is that - at least so far - only the NA-trophy list has been synched with the servers ? This leads to problems for EU-players, there have been bug-reports about challenges not being marked as complete on the Descenders Discord... I have deliberately left one challenge of the last Amateur incomplete until everything is fixed, since I don't want to lock myself out of anything. 

 

Also, the update broke the same trophies again that became already unobtainable with the last big update ? Damn this went well... 

I wrote the guide for the base game, I might write the one for the DLC as well, but we'll see... I didn't find this game particularly awesome or anything, and it doesn't have many players, so I'm not really sure if it would be of any help anyways. 

 

 

Code Vein

Remember that I wanted to play this in coop with @Baker? Well, tried. But like in other soulslike games, only the host makes progress, gets trophies, and you cannot even summon someone that hasn't reached the area you are trying to summon someone for. So, screw this. We are playing the game solo and will just coop for the "Exalted Reputation" trophy, which requires 400 boss kills in coop.

 

Now, while I really am not a fan of the Anime aesthetics, the game kinda hooked me, and since @Baker wants to be done before the end of November (for an event here on PSNP), I decided to prioritize the game. 

Let me say this first: I am enjoying myself, as the game is quite fun. But man, I thought Anime-style is probably among the easier ones to make look good, and this game really isn't great looking... It's also very, VERY linear, and definitely the easiest game in this "genre" I've played to date (yes... easier than The Surge 2). I am almost done with my first, blind playthrough (at least I think I am about to face the final boss), and I beat 80%+ of the bosses on my first try. In contrast to The Surge, regular enemies are not a problem, either. 

 

I think there are multiple reasons for this, but the most obvious one is that you have a partner with you even when playing solo. I partnered up with the "tank" character of the ones available and... yeah, he tanks everything alright ?

 

Anyways... I should finish my first playthrough today, and then I'll have to decide if I want to do my other two playthroughs straight away, or go back to SMBF and do the coop-grind first.... I'll probably get the other two playthroughs over with first ?

 

 

 

Alright guys, so much for catching up! I probably won't finish my mini-series entry this week, since I'm gone for the second half of the week (work-related.. I'm not always on holidays ?), but I hope to have it up soon regardless!  

[Arcesius]

Update

Hello Everyone! It has been a while since I wrote here... And there are a couple of reasons for it. I'll get straight to them. The first one, I believe, is the surge of new, amazing checklists that we have had the pleasure to witness over the last couple of months. Now, why the hell would this fact influence the upkeep of my own checklist in any way? 

 

Well, because I use my checklist for two purposes... The first one is to review the games I finish. The second one is to engage with you guys and discuss games / talk about games. Since I finish games at a veeeeery slow pace, the second aspect was the one that kept my checklist alive in-between reviews, and this worked well because when I started this checklist, there weren't too many active ones around otherwise. 

 

Now there are, and so I don't feel the urgency to discuss everything in my own checklist, but can choose to engage in any discussion going on in any of the other great lists I regularly read. This results in less activity here in-between reviews. 

 

The second aspect is my lack of motivation, the culprit being Super Meat Boy Forever... As you can see on my profile, I have currently 6 games I'm playing ? and SMBF has a lot to do with why that is. Let's get into my game-updates ?

 

 

 - Descenders 

 

Very quick update on this one. After experiencing a save-glitch when I was almost done with the DLC, forcing me to do everything again (luckily I still had my platinum save on my PS4...), I am currently the first and only 100% achiever on the EU-version of the game! 

 

 

My DLC-guide has also meanwhile been published, even though probably nobody cares about this game ?

 

 

 - Code Vein

 

Almost there! After three full playthroughs, the only thing left to do is to grind 400 Marks of Honor. The guide states that the quickest method is to run a specific depths map in coop, which should still be a 10 hour grind. 

 

But... that's not true. And luckily we figured this out before starting to grind. Turns out that there is a much quicker method: The Tower of Trials. While running the Depths map after finishing the game is a braindead grind, it still takes 5-6 minutes for measly 3-5 marks (depending on the map you run)... In comparison, the Tower of Trials takes a bit more effort to beat (meaning you need a good build and a good understanding of the game's mechanics), but can also be completed in 5 minutes. The best part... You are guaranteed to earn 10 Marks of Honor, and can earn up to 16 if you are lucky! So at the worst you are looking at 40 runs through the tower, which should take roughly 4 hours (with loading times). That's less than half the time for the method suggested in the gide! 

 

I had a good grinding session yesterday evening with @Baker and am currently at 300/400 marks. One more hour to go and this game should be done  

 

 

 - Warhammer Chaosbane 

 

Finally, coop sessions are again a reality!  I had not been playing much coop lately due to RL situations within our group, but those are a thing of the past. Coop sessions are back! Our first game: Warhammer Chaosbane.

 

I know, I know.. this one does not have the best reviews, it seems to be a generic Diablo-clone (it is.. unfortunately, it is a Diablo III clone, not a Diablo II one), blah blah blah... And sure, you are right, but sometimes a 4-group coop session is best when you the game you are playing is not the most demanding one. Also, there is always the one guy that wants to skip all cutscenes, so they better not be important...   

 

I'm playing this one with @Mori, @Koro249 and @Exhuman1988. Wanna guess who is skipping all dialogue and cutscenes? Hint: It's the same guy that wants to explore every single corner of every single dungeon ?

 

In all honesty, and the game itself and the jokes aside... It's awesome to be playing coop again   And the game itself is actually pretty alright (if you refrain from paying the ridiculous 60€ the game goes for at full price... really?)

 

 

 - It Takes Two

 

Speaking of coop... I bought this one a while back to play with Ms. Arc. We played one session so far (the game is still an F-rank on my profile, we are playing entirely blind, I don't even know what kind of trophies this game has), and it really was a lot of fun. Ms. Arc needs to get used to the controls and the Dual Sense still, but she's doing great   

 

I cannot yet comment on the gameplay itself, other than it feels very responsive and fluid. But after having experienced the first chapter, I think this game will still surprise us quite a bit going forward  

 

The best part... Ms. Arc wrote yesterday from work something along the lines of "I WANT TO PLAY!... ". Any game that can make her, a non-gamer, say that is amazing! Only Overcooked managed thus far ?

 

 

 - Badland

 

Well, I decided it was about time to start this game. I mean, I had already played for an hour or two a couple of months ago, I just had not earned any trophy. This changed a couple of days ago. 

 

Badland is actually the game that started my coop gaming habits. @Mori approached me a couple of years ago (after I had started this checklist) and asked if we wanted to do Badland together. Well, in the meantime we have played a bunch of games together, but this one kept getting postponed ? Until now... ? 

 

I still haven't put a lot of time into this, and Ms. Arc promised to help me with the easier local-coop missions (there is no online-coop), so I thought I'd start getting used to the gameplay since I'll be helping @Mori with his coop missions using Shareplay. We actually already did some of them a couple of months ago and the lag was noticeable, so I'm hoping that I will be able to mitigate it by having more experience with the game. 

 

That being said, I have no aspirations of getting this done quickly. This will be more of a long-term project. It's the perfect game for this, too, since you can quickly fire up the game, attempt a mission or two and quit again after 5-10 minutes if you don't want / have time to continue. 

 

 

 - Super Meat Boy Forever

 

Now, the elephant in the room. 

 

"If a game is fun, it doesn't matter how easy or challenging it is. If a game is hard, however, it better be fun..." - Arcesius, 2021. 

 

Now, you might remember that SMBF was one of the games I was scared to start. Not because of its challenge (it's a SMB game after all... I knew it would be challenging), but because of Edmund not having been involved in the development, the game having been originally announced as a mobile game, it being an auto-runner in its final version, etc... These were all reasons that had me worried I would not enjoy the game as much as the original. And my worries were justified. 

 

Now, I actually was enjoying the game a fair bit. It looks great, it plays great, the different mechanics are pretty clever... However, now that I started attempting the deathless runs in the Dark Worlds, my perspective is shifting. Why? Well, let me try to explain... I'll try to make somewhat sense ?

 

Whenever I start a new game, I like to do a blind playthrough first. There are exceptions whenever I notice some time into a game that I am not enjoying it as much and want to save myself an additional playthrough or whatever (example: Persona 5...). But usually, I won't read anything game- or trophy-related until I'm about to clean up trophies, or need a post-game build for cleaning up stuff, etc... 

This was the same with SMBF. It is also the aspect of the game I had the most fun with. Figuring out my way through the chunks in each level feels like solving a puzzle, and I had my fun with this. But now I am at a point where solving a puzzle is not enough. You need to find the solution, and then you need to execute it flawlessly. This is where the random nature of the game is starting to get to me. 

 

You see, @ExistentialSolid mentioned in his thread that he didn't enjoy the challenge this game had to offer because conquering it didn't mean much given the randomness of the level generation. I didn't really understand that point of view, but I do now. 

Whenever I fail a specific bit in ony of my levels, I feel like "no other runner had to deal with this jump", because they most likely didn't. Of course I'm aware that they probably had other difficult / tight sections to deal with, but there is no meaningful comparison to make here. I am also constantly aware of the fact that, by changing the seed, I could probably make things easier for myself (or harder).

 

You know, while I also played blindly through the original game, once I started grinding the deathless runs I enjoyed comparing my strategies with those of others. Reading up on tips, watching videos, etc... In this case, that option is not there. It's me and my seed in isolation, in my random bubble. Every player and their seed for themselves. One player might get lucky and have an easy time, others will struggle a lot for no other reason than... bad luck in their seed. 

 

That doesn't feel like a meaningful or good challenge.

 

Now, speaking of challenge. Is this game really THAT difficult? Yes, yes it is.The original SMB had a somewhat monotonely increasing challenge curve, which helped in getting better at the game over time without causing frustration at all, since the next challenge was always only a bit more difficult than the last. SMBF has one that looks like this: 

 

(What is this mathematical function explicitly, you nerds?  )

 

All Light Worlds feel more or less equally challenging. From what I've been told, the Dark Worlds also more or less are qeually challenging. But there is no smooth transition in challenge. The change is super abrupt and dramatic. And that is stupid. 

 

Not only that... Each level in SMB was pretty short (10-30 seconds), and even the hardest deathless runs become more manageable by being able to tackle the indificual levels in whatever order you want to. Even for Impossible Boy, there are arguably 4-6 levels that are really tough to get through consistently, but by placing those 4-6 levels first in a run, you make the entire deathless run much easier. 

With SMBF, this strategy doesn't work quite as well. Each world only consists of 6 levels, but each level consists of multiple chunks. I would interpret one chunk to be the equivalent of an entire level in SMB. Now, each level in SMBF might contain 1-2 chunks that are really inconsistent for a total of 6-12 difficult chunks overall. But you cannot simply place all those chunks as the first ones in your run. You can only decide in which order you want to tackle the 6 full levels.

 

You see the difference? If you are really unlucky, the 6 hardest chunks in any Dark World in SMBF might be found one in a different level each. This leads to much more inconsistent runs overall, which is why I believe @Joe Dubz felt like it was more difficult to get a good run going in SMBF as compared to SMB. 

 

 

Anyways... While I will slowly keep at it (I'm almost ready to attempt full runs of my first Dark World), I don't think I want to rush this game, and I don't think I want it as my milestone. I also don't want to put that much thought into a milestone in the first place ? But depending on the trophy list, I think I will go with Solar Ash, which is releasing in two weeks. My hopes are that the game is as good as Hyper Light Drifter, in which case it would be a perfect fit 

 

Sorry for the long update, kudos if you managed to read everything and understand my confusing, convoluted rambling ? 

[Copanele]

Congrats for the Descenders accomplishment That game looks mad fun (and punishing too)

 

Now I saw something that interested me:

9 minutes ago, Arcesius said:

 - Code Vein

 

 

 

Almost there! After three full playthroughs, the only thing left to do is to grind 400 Marks of Honor. The guide states that the quickest method is to run a specific depths map in coop, which should still be a 10 hour grind. 

 

But... that's not true. And luckily we figured this out before starting to grind. Turns out that there is a much quicker method: The Tower of Trials. While running the Depths map after finishing the game is a braindead grind, it still takes 5-6 minutes for measly 3-5 marks (depending on the map you run)... In comparison, the Tower of Trials takes a bit more effort to beat (meaning you need a good build and a good understanding of the game's mechanics), but can also be completed in 5 minutes. The best part... You are guaranteed to earn 10 Marks of Honor, and can earn up to 16 if you are lucky! So at the worst you are looking at 40 runs through the tower, which should take roughly 4 hours (with loading times). That's less than half the time for the method suggested in the gide! 

 

I had a good grinding session yesterday evening with @Baker and am currently at 300/400 marks. One more hour to go and this game should be done  

 

As a person who grinded Proof of Concord Kept / Sunlight Medals / Wolf Grass / whatever dumb stuff that I needed for Covenant +3 to the point where even Umbasa wasn't helping, hearing about the grind in Code Vein really bummed me out, especially since I really want to give this game a go. BUT since it seems you found a quick method, it means there's a chance I won't shoot myself while going after those anime medals when I will start the game that's good news for me

 

Also damn, if SMB was a nightmare for me, SMBF is a Random Nightmare. Best of luck, thoughts and prayers, you can do it for sure!

( I know of few game examples where that function applies and damn it's not fun at all ?)