Post by Toma in Mable & The Wood comments

Viewing post in Mable & The Wood comments

Reading the negative reviews of this game feels a bit like bizarro land. This is a game that does something truly unique with its combat/movement mechanics and everybody complains its weird to navigate because they are not used to it. Yes, thats the point of doing something new. You initially unlock a power that allows you to "fly" away from your sword and then command your sword back to you, which works as movement mechanic, as well as combat option as everything your sword touches takes damage. In the beginning you are trying to play this game as another platformer, which is a bit jarring, but once you let the games mechanics take over, it really feels cool to explore this world within the boundaries set by the game. You unlock a variety of new forms and can even go for the ultimative challenge of a peaceful run. Every new area becomes a bit of a puzzle how you can traverse it efficiently with the different movement/power options given to you. Really enjoying this. 4/5

More Racial Justice bundle impressions and ranking:
https://itch.io/c/915453/quick-impressions-bundle-for-racial-justice

mickrodot3 years ago(+1)

Thanks for the efforts you put on bundle for racial justice reviews. There are so many I think I will spend a life to try it all.

About Mable in the woods, I don't think people don't like it because mechanics are new. But more because they are new and multiple. Which make it complex to master.

This is making a gameplay ambitious.

Why does people may not click? That's very simple answer: the level design does not hold the gameplay enough to give a nice learning curve.

Next to this we have good physics, a good looking game, well animated pixel art, nice music and sounds.

So as player you can be curious to play through. But I bet that majority of the players will not because of the complex gameplay.

Toma3 years ago

I can absolutely see how it might bounce off some players, but I was really surprised to see so many negative reviews on bigger and smaller gaming sites complaining about the same thing. I reviewed and looked at Indie games for many many years and I kinda expect people to do that for websites to be able to look past "This is different, I dont want it". Really jarring in this case.

Its a bit janky here and there, sure, but I absolutely applaud it for trying something new and with its unique mechanics even simple level obstacles feel like an entirely different challenge than most platformers. Super cool.