Git gud

I replayed Shadow Complex last year, it genuinely isn't that great.

Not that I've played many Metroids or Castlevanias.

I loved them.  I probably died just as often as you lot, but whenever I snuffed it I cursed myself rather than the design.  They definitely ramped up the evil, but you get infinite tries so every attempt just felt like practice.  I like stuff like that in 2D games anyway. 

Like this one (skip to 1min 15secs):

Dark Soldier wrote:

I replayed Shadow Complex last year, it genuinely isn't that great.

I did this too - kind of underwhelmed. Remember it being a banger too

I just don't recall shadow complex being as clever about comboing the new abilities.

Some of these later sections are fucking awesome. Anti grav. Wind. Etc.

Mayber. I'd need to play it again, and that's not happening.

This continues to crack on beautifully.

You can do it.  The launch-from-wall mechanic is the only move in the whole game that feels ever-so-slightly iffy.

So yeah, in slightly more depth, this was a freakin lovely game. Highly recommended for those that haven't yet, especially at the xmas special price. perfect length, great difficulty curve, beautiful graphics, well told story (keep it simple, stupid, and go with big tropes/obvious emotions etc works so well).

I think Tempy should have another bash.  Describing the movement as imprecise* is one of the few things he's ever typed about games on here that made me think 'lol nope'.  

*can't recall the exact words

Moot_Geeza wrote:

I think Tempy should have another bash.  Describing the movement as imprecise* is one of the few things he's ever typed about games on here that made me think 'lol nope'.  

*can't recall the exact words

Playing it this week had really reminded me of C64 etc platformers where your movements have to be ultra precise. The game lets you be as precise as you need to be, but fucking hell have I repeated a lot of sections.

Finished it.  Although I missed Blackroot Burrows so I need to do that, and then do the final escape again.

Overall, a good game that outstayed its welcome and just became irritating as it got harder.  I think the 2nd escape was when I lost interest in it.  That was just trial and error unlike the first escape which flowed and I enjoyed.

The final escape was even worse than the second.  Whoever designed the last two needs to be shot.

I found the game good when there was room in the levels but some sections required precision which Ori just didn't have.  He's too small, there is too much going on on screen, and it's quite easy to not be able to jump because Ori is doing some other animation because he is not quite on a platform - which is hard to see because of the pretty particle effects.

Couldn't work out the skills fully.  Some skills you unlock but you don't get them until the Tree gives that skill at a certain point in the game.  It's not like you need to do both either as I tested not unlocking a skill and I still got it from the Tree itself.  Stupid.

DS4 (dinput) controller support was messed up.  They allow you to edit a text file to remap the buttons which is good.  But the dpad doesn't work.  I have software that can make DS4 controllers behave as a 360 controller, as well as Steam's Big Picture controller setup.  Neither could override the game's partial attempt so I could not use the DS4.  Actually, I could use the DS4s dpad via Steam but then the buttons were completely messed up and I couldn't redefine them.
I had to play with the 360 analogue sticks as the 360 dpad sucks and that didn't help at times, and just added to the frustration.

Unlike Guacamelee which was relatively short and left me wanting more, this was a lot longer but added annoying fiddliness towards the end that means I won't be looking out for the sequel.

I had framerate issues to start with but some fiddling on advice from Gog got it working relatively ok.  It's Unity so it will never be perfect and from a build that doesn't allow forcing of exclusive fullscreen.  Odd framerate blips don't help when the screen is shaking and you are trying to line up a jump.  Overall, it wasn't that bad in the end.

I'll get Blackroot Burrows done, swear a lot more at the final escape, and then play something that is consistent.

Funnily enough, Guacamelee was the first game I played after going through the 2d Metroids and realising I liked that genre very much.

With hindsight l still think it's better than Ori.

Of the 3 hrs I've played Hollow Knight I think that might be the winner.  I had nothing to moan about - at all.

Guacamelee certainly has more clearly marked barriers with the blocks but you recognise similar 'barriers' in Ori (and other Metroidvanias) quite quickly as well.  You just know there's going to be a double jump skill sooner or later so you learn to move on and come back later.

I always explore everywhere in these games but I preferred Guacamelee because it had more solid controls and more flexibility with the moveset.  It was clear in Guacamelee if it was possible to make it to a certain point on the screen after a few attempts, whereas Ori's more fiddly controls made me try more and then give up. 

Overall, there is more to explore in Ori as it's a bigger game and has more backtracking when you have new abiliities - but that's mostly to get all the skill points, health, etc and not necessarily required for the game.  Guacamelee has fewer of these so is more streamlined.

Ori is certainly better looking and has a more joined up world - you can run around the majority of it without load zones.  And it feels better to explore.  I just wish it stopped around 2/3rd of the way through as the end levels have a mismatch between the difficulty and the precision of controlling Ori.  I'd have had a higher opinion of it that way.

FWIW, I found Ori fairly simplistic too, but it was pretty enough to keep me going.