don't really know where else to put it but figured i may as well share here lol. sorry about the awful quality, though, nothing i can do about it XP

a bunch of really rambly general thoughts, both on the run and game in general:

after my prior thread on playing with a controller from my first day playing i eventually just got used to keyboard controls instead because playing with a controller was unfortunately too finicky and unreliable 😔 i feel like i'm still occasionally getting stuck looking up/ducking or having dropped inputs while playing on keyboard, but no one else seems to have mentioned this problem as far as i can tell, so i don't know if it's just a me thing O_O; while this is probably the biggest issue i have with the game, these control snags aren't to an unplayable extent by any means, though... if this video didn't already make that obvious lmao

i would hesitate to call this a speedrun because i'm still really rather not very good at this game, but to some extent it IS kinda that. in order to play all the levels in a row without menuing + not have any upgrades, i had to start on a fresh save file on each attempt. while i totally understand if not, it'd be very cool if at some point we could get a speedrun mode that lets us replay the campaign levels in a row with an rta timer, and perhaps options to disable shop upgrades.

i play at 1024x576 resolution so i can actually see the platforms in cloud run without stopping to look... you can definitely tell it's a little funky though - esp the end cutscene cgs dont like this res LOL. as a side note in general the visibility in cloud run is kind of rough, it'd be nice if it had more contrast between foreground and background. aside from the visibility issues though it's definitely one of my favorite levels, i'm a sucker for hopping across distant 1 tile large platforms SKLDJGSLDGK

burning ashes i would say is the only part of the run that gave me real trouble learning, it gets a little vicious at times. honestly it's funny to me how easy desert dust afterwards is XD regardless despite the hell burning ashes put me through, it is honestly one of my favorite levels in the game, alongside castle heights and cloud run. as much as i absolutely suck at the rope jump bit at the end it's VERY cool and feels so good when you actually pull it off. that saaaaid... i suck at it so much that i was too much of a coward to get all diamonds for it legit on my main save file and instead abused checkpoint restarts 😔 (...is it... intended for you to be able to cheese diamond collection goals with checkpoints, by the way?)

ancient shrine is an odd level and it's the main reason why i decided i should keep this run deathless. because of the way it's structured and how the igt works, the easiest way to get a fast time on it is to press the button to unlock the door that blocks the end of the level, then die to reset your timer and sprint to the end. i actually did that, by ACCIDENT, the first time i beat the level, and now i'm cursed for my main save to forever have a sub 1 minute time on the shrine that i know i could never get without cheesing XD

lastly... the m. alificence fight is interesting... the first few times i fought them i was like "GOD THIS SUCKS. THIS IS BULLSHIT, HOW DO YOU DO THIS WITHOUT JUST CAMPING IN A SAFE SPOT WITH A GUN" however i'm glad i gave myself time to actually puzzle it out because the method i found is actually pretty fun to execute, albeit still taking a while. i kinda feel like the amount of health m. alificence has is a bit too spongy for claws, but i'm guessing they're balanced with the idea you'd have like, literally any other weapon by now, so i get why. howeverrrrr if anyone knows a faster consistent way to melee the final boss, that would be much appreciated because its definitely the longest part of this run LOL. (the main thing is i'm wondering if it's possible to deal any damage during the bullet rings - i know you can parry the red and white bullets, but they spawn fast enough and densely enough that i don't feel like you could get close enough to melee without just getting stun-juggled out of like half your health instantly?)

i like minori :3

...

generally i've had a lot of fun with this game, despite some of the rough edges! makes me wish there was more of it - all of you people need to really get on that whole custom level making thing so i can play more immediately /silly (sadly there's only two custom levels on gamebanana right now and i couldn't even get either of them to work </3 feel like i'm missing something obvious here...) probably i should try to learn modding for the game myself but it feels a little bit unfathomable to me at the moment

i'm also honestly impressed with how much multiplayer content there appears to be. unfortunate that i haven't been able to properly try any of it in action, though i did at least peek at the maps and stuff with a second computer to host. ultimately though there isn't much i can do if no one's online, a sad consequence of this game's current obscurity. If there was any actual justice in this world you'd be able to open the server listings and be faced with like seven roleplay servers, four of which being warrior cats and two of which describing themselves as literate only despite the low message character limit /silly

a couple notes on multiplayer, though - when i publicly listed my server on my other computer, i got a crash on joining it through the public listing, but was able to join directly through the ip address just fine. i don't know if that's a general issue or something i did wrong. also, there appears to be no way to scroll up and read past chat messages (unless i'm missing something?) and seems only the host gets a chat log file saved, not the client. as someone who likes hanging onto and revisiting old chat logs with friends and gets anxious about how many logs i've lost completely, that does trouble me a little (entire roleplays and character development discussions with my sibling from years ago have been permanently lost because we held them through steam chat x_x)

i feel like i should also note i haven't 100%'d the game yet. i don't have all the trinkets - i'm at 17/27, but i'm thinking i'll need to look up a guide for the rest because i am TERRIBLE at secret hunting - and i haven't killed all enemies in all levels, though i'm kind of dreading doing that since there's a lot of opportunities for enemies to go somewhere inaccessible offscreen through no fault of my own o_e; also i'm probably not even gonna worry about unbeatable/the last character, since i think it's not possible to get that on my main save file and it also frankly doesn't sound like something i'd enjoy doing anyway, i suck too much for that XD

...i think that's all i have to say in this grotesquely long post? sorry i have too much to say about games i play lol.

have a doodle of catto blepping as thanks for scrolling this far. ok thats all