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by Lurker 23094 01/13/2015, 3:49am PST |
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The beginning is delightful, but after the first 2 stages, you'll soon realize that the difficulty curve is basically flat. I did that Mega Man X binge a few months ago, so I'd like to think that I know what's up.
Music:
The music is excellent! For the first few levels. Then it drops from bombastic, 8-bit ballads to fairly generic dungeon medleys.
Death:
The clever little death gimmick is that you drop about 10-20% of your gold upon death. This spawns 3 floating bags that you have to recover if you want to get all of your money back (getting all three gives you back everything). Good, fine, that's fun. Unfortunately, there's no reason to fret about gold since by the time you've passed the halfway point, you'll have bought everything. This means that for the second half of the game, the death penalty is essentially null and void unless you're adamant about going for the 50k gold achievement (still not hard). On top of this, the health system is COMPLETELY fucked. It takes about 20 solid hits for you to die at max health. This, compounded with the fact that there's full health pickups all over the place; full health and mana potions are available for free from the start and are constantly refilled mid-level; and checkpoints every 3-4 screens, means death is never really an issue. Oh sure, you can play with the risk/reward system and bust open the checkpoints for gold at the cost of disabling said checkpoint, but by the time you get to a really hairpulling, death-prone section, you won't need any more gold!
Difficulty:
Now here's the thing. All of the above death complaints apply solely to normal mode. On hard, half of the checkpoints have been removed, you take double damage, and almost all of the health pickups have been replaced by booby traps. It would be PERFECT, but you can only access hard after pushing through the whole game, so you HAVE to enter with all of your upgrades from normal and there's no way to pick hard mode form the get go.
I fucking hate this new trend of hiding a well-balanced game behind a mess of casual friendly mechanics. Dark Souls 2, Transistor, Bastion, Patrick Stewart's Castlevania, Binding of Isaac Rebirth, and Outland all have a problem with the default (and only initial choice) difficulty being waaaaaaaaaay to easy. It's not enough to make them unplayable, but for me there's not nearly as much joy as Heavy Bullets or Crypt of the Necrodancer where the game says, "Fuck you, LEARN," from level 1. I suspect it really started to kick off with Super Meatboy's philosophy of small, bite-sized challenges.
I'm sure that for speedrunners and achievement whores, none of this is really a problem since normal mode is just training for a no-deaths, no-checkpoints, no-magic, 60-minute run, but for me, the whole thing was just underwhelming, which is a shame because almost EVERY aspect of the game is charming. |
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Day 3 of the Christmas sale and not a single temptation yet by fabio 12/20/2014, 12:56pm PST 
It's been a dry year for pc games outside of moba bullshit by Last 12/20/2014, 2:13pm PST
You hate Assassins Creed but you enjoy the formulaic Arkham series by WITTGENSTEIN 12/20/2014, 6:52pm PST
Oh god stay away from Bioshock Infinite by fabio 12/21/2014, 6:05am PST
I hated it so much, you got further with it than me by Roop 12/21/2014, 6:36am PST
Yeah I played Arkham Origins for about ten minutes. by WITTGENSTEIN 01/02/2015, 7:18am PST
'Hate' is stronger than I'd put it but yes. by Last 01/03/2015, 7:28am PST
Black Flag was the best. by WITTGENSTEIN 01/03/2015, 10:31am PST
I could never get over the game inside a game thing either. by Worm 01/03/2015, 10:36am PST
The whole franchise seems like a giant joke to me by Eurotrash 01/03/2015, 1:38pm PST
Alt-F4 worked on the gog version... NT by M Squared 01/03/2015, 1:49pm PST
Just pull the PC's power cord duh. by Eurotrash 01/03/2015, 11:46pm PST
I see you purchased the Tom Waits edition. NT by very good, sir 01/12/2015, 9:56pm PST
Re: The whole franchise seems like a giant joke to me by fabio 01/03/2015, 3:29pm PST
And it's even worse now, somehow all the assassins through the ages are required by Eurotrash 01/04/2015, 12:04am PST
Charles worked on it. Trash franchise. NT by Souffle of Pain 01/04/2015, 8:23am PST
Who's this Charles you're referring to? Tell me who to hate. NT by serial malcontent 01/04/2015, 1:28pm PST
Charles really is the worst. He's a horrible human being, he revels in it by WITTGENSTEIN 01/04/2015, 1:48pm PST
Oh right, the Charles who got trolled to pieces. I have no idea what he did at NT by Ubisoft 01/04/2015, 10:32pm PST
Wait, is this their creative director? NT by Ubisoft 01/04/2015, 10:33pm PST
Quoting myself like a Paul by Entropy Stew 01/04/2015, 1:35pm PST
I haven't heard anything about Vanishing that makes me think it isn't just your by Worm 12/20/2014, 3:12pm PST
Bought a 4-pack of Speedrunners, it was worth 2 bucks to play LAN-style. NT by FoK 12/20/2014, 4:09pm PST
Well that was the worst Christmas sale yet by fabio 01/01/2015, 9:01pm PST
This winter sale fucking sucked, guys. NT by Kate Leth 01/01/2015, 11:11pm PST
Games are terrible now. I blame social justice because why the fuck not? by Just sayin 01/02/2015, 12:09am PST
I picked up Shovel Knight and the Shadowrun combo pack by Entropy Stew 01/02/2015, 1:38am PST
Freedom Planet is better than Shovel Knight! by M Squared 01/02/2015, 5:55am PST
Shovel Knight peters out pretty quickly by Lurker 23094 01/13/2015, 3:49am PST
Dragonfall is easily the best RPG release of last year. by Worm 01/02/2015, 6:52am PST
Dragonfall is definitely a steal by WITTGENSTEIN 01/02/2015, 7:14am PST
Yeah I picked it up for $5 by fabio 01/02/2015, 8:53am PST
I would pass over Shadowrun Returns and go straight to Dragonfall by Mysterio 01/03/2015, 10:48am PST
They didn't do a Shadowrun Returns director's cut, just Dragonfall NT by Worm 01/04/2015, 8:44pm PST
Thank you, The Happiness Engine, for Spacebase. by Ice Cream Jonsey 02/09/2015, 9:59am PST
Steam somehow gave it to me free when I bought Hack n' Slash. by The Happiness Engine 02/09/2015, 4:10pm PST
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