No problem. The second playthrough was recorded too if you didn't catch it. Should come after the first video.
I did eventually find the tardigrade, and I eventually started adding points into health and sanity a little later into the run. My rationale was, if I finish fights quickly, I wouldn't have to worry so much about maintaining health.
I also took all 10 on my second try just to ensure I could make it. Didn't lose a single one. Until I lost them all. For they were not durable toys.
I did wonder about the enemies. But I did feel pretty slick dodging through the child to avoid his attacks while I composed myself.
The audio desync is me and my recording. It just happens sometimes. Not sure why.
On the backtracking I think it was a mixture of all 3. The lack of walls did confuse me a bit. There was a junction of 4 yellow tiles that confused me. I started to wonder if the map was showing the 3D side of the ground or something. But I'd also forgotten about the door after I got the key, so I was probably backtracking a bit while I found the lead. In the second video I think I went around searching for health packs.
Yeah, that was probably panic clicking the wrong slow. The shark definitely gave me pause. XD I wanted to go in with a clear head. I kinda figured about the games. I might have checked if I wasn't recording.
And you're welcome. It's always great to see a playthrough in action.
I dug the intro narration with the spooky art. Deifnitely had a lovecraftian vibe to it with the even toned locatiousness. The sound in general was pretty interesting, though the balancing could use some work. Like the Health creature was way too loud.
Given how spooky the intro was, I did find it a bit weird how quirky the side character like the worm and spider were. The pitched up voices put me in mind of the Worms franchise.
Having the number of people you use as a difficulty slider was a cool idea. Seems to me the early game is where most of the struggle is. Keeping your people alive long enough to up their stats and deck them out with equipment.
With it being auto-battling, obviously a lot of it's in the prep. Picking strong people, but trying to spread out the damage too. It was a little tricky to keep track of all my stats and equipment as the interface was, but I assume that's just a time thing.
Thanks for playing and posting gameplay. Always very helpful.
Sorry it was all a bit awkward. Lots of great points.
I've never seen that menu glitch before. It looks like you tried to access the map while you were in the inventory, so maybe that's what did it. Could be the logic that deals with opening and closing menu flow didn't account for that.
Yeah I saw another review mention that. Maybe I lost so many team-mates I had become desensitized to it. I actually sat on a bunch of XP for a while without realizing, dropped it all in a safe room, and in 4 steps half my team abandoned me, and I was like; given my track record, this might as well happen. 🙃
The way dialogue passively triggers is very effective at making you feel like you're in a group, and makes you wince every time you mess up and get one of them killed.
The combat had great depth and choice making, with the randomness and varying encounters keeping you on your toes, but never being so punishing as to feel put down by it, especially with the comeback mechanic of getting extra dice when a team-mate dies. I found poison and guarding to be the strongest method by the end.
Not sure how much of the art is original (I think the portraits based on the game page), but all the assets are well-utilized, and the level design complexity was well paced with some appreciated shortcuts.
And it all ties together so well. The dying/retiring and recruiting mechanic feeds into the leveling, insanity, themes and story telling. It's so elegantly executed. Awesome entry!
Got to 10,000 and figured I'd go on for a while since I was listening to a podcast.
I stopped after 20,000 because I got buyers remorese. Maybe I'd feel differently if I got to later sections, but the most efficient method for earning money for me was to just buy load upgrades and lots of basic food. I even wonder if upgrading stamina is that worth it ebyond a point, since you still need to refill it regardless.
The thing that takes longest is trudging back to the start, so the second pickaxe upgrade isn't much of a boon. Actually, I found the level 2 pickaxe to be the most fun an easy to use. Something about the power-pickaxe always felt like it was quicker and harder to land. Could just be psycological, but that's how it felt.
Maybe if it upgraded the quality/ammount of ore you mined instead. Then that would also incentivise load upgrades since you wouldn't want to squander a good load if it doesn't divide so evenly into the haul.
Also some movement speed upgrade would be sweet.
And maybe a compass. I managed to keep myslef oriented by having a main tunnel with offshoots, but one time I got spun around and panicked a bit. I dunno if it's better to keep that aspect of self-orientation since it made it more interesting, or let the player buy a compass so they don't get lost as easily.
All in all this is a great game to relax and chill out to. I think it just needs some extra wrinkles and tweaks. I would have played longer if that Pickaxe felt like it was worth the 10,000 sink. The cost needs to really suit the item so it doesn't feel like a mistake/set-back.
(Oh, and this might be a me think, but I'm not a fan of queing to this extent. At least not with this movement speed. I'm perfer a hold down button to keep moving if anything. It'd save my index finger RSI.)
This is a damn fine entry. Obviously there are a few bigs to iron out, but I was actually disappointed it was over so soon. Turning space travel into a dungeon crawler too was a delightful idea. Nice work! Playthrough: Cosmic Abyss Pt1 by Realms&Ruins
It certainly looks very nice. I have no idea how hard it is to make an engine but I'm guessing very, so kudos. I did encounter a bizzare glitch where I couldn't move forward and the game kept flinging me backwards. So I was just flying up and down the corridor for a while. Playthrough:
The movement's a bit slow, and there's a weird snap to every motion. (With the right sound effects, it might actually suit a heavy machine character like Robocop).
But I gotta admit, I was getting quite into the combat system. It seems like you've really gotta stay on top of things to not be in a bad position. Though I generally kept myself out of the red.
I don't know if you made the music or it's an asset, but it certainly set the tone. Especially the Boss music. Nice entry!
For a scramble trying to learn a new software it's not bad. I didn't experience any bugs personally, and the movement felt nice to me. I didn't know how to attack when I started, so I ended up doing a pacifist run. Playthrough:
The game-feel and feel-back of the combat alone carries this entry. It felt great even if most of the time I was just mashing buttons. Didn't manage to finish the dungeon though. If I'd known how big it would be and how long it would take, I would have started with some graph paper.
Playthrough: (Unfortunately most of the playthrough got corrupted.)
Good to know. Initially I wasn't gonna show the fire area until you get to the end, but I didn't want people to get stuck and frustrated so early on. I had a feeling it would be tricky.
The keys do seem to cause trouble. Originally they were meant to be "Key Coins", but I changed them to Yellow Keys when I wanted to add another colour.
I'm definitely gonna have some control options next year. I've had a bit of trouble myself; it messes with me when some games have QE for turning and AD for strafing, but then some have it the other way round.
Thanks. I'm glad people got to see the alternate endings this time around. I've put secret stuff in other jams and it often goes unnoticed. I guess it makes sense.; when you got so many other games to sample, you don't wanna linger too long on one game.
I liked the visual story telling of the cutscenes. Very endearing artwork.
The combat was pretty good. I've been playing so many turn-based it took me a while to realize I could make evasive manoeuvres. 😅
Though I never got the hang of fighting the electric bugs. The timing was too tight to rely on sprinting, so I just brute forced them and healed up.
I also couldn't really find a use for walking. Maybe there wasn't one. And yeah, it could'a used some sound, but you do what you can in the time-frame.
I gave it a few goes. Honestly the hardest part was trying to make it back to your ship. The mini map looked cool, but it would be handy to get an indication of where your ship was. Unless keeping track of your location was an intended challenge.
It was a little confusing how you have 3 days to complete your task, and there are 3 locations to choose from but if you fly back to the agency a 3rd time, you lose.
I actually almost did it on my first try. If I hadn't have bought anything and got some of easy picking from the lab. Is the loot value randomized, because one time I scoured the Derelict pretty extensively and barely broke 100?
The combat was a bit lacking but everyone else has covered that.
It was a pretty cool moment when I realized what was happening with the environment. The perspective throws a bit of a wrench into things. You get too close to walls, and you can't see when your left/right is open.
But I really enjoyed it once I got the hang of it. I went from being lost most of the time to going back and getting the optional sword.
I encountered the attack glitch, and I thought the double enemy ambush in the last room was a bit harsh, but since it was a short game, I didn't mind blitzing back through to finish it up.
Nice VO work, and the ending was sufficiently spooky.
This was pretty good, if a little frustrating at times.
I feel like the game springs some action set pieces on you without giving you much of a chance to change gears. I at least appreciate that you couldn't get a random encounter in real time chase sections. Though once I was accustomed to the chase sequences I quite liked the 3rd one.
The encounter rate was so high ion the last area, it made collecting items almost pointless. Maybe that was the idea. That you have to ignore the items and take a quicker route, but even then you could get very unlucky with a single encounter.
But there a plenty of checkpoints, so it wasn't too bad. I like the variety in biomes, both in look, but also layout. Like some are more open while others are more labyrinthian.
I really enjoyed the combat once I got the hang of it. I only a few nit-picks.
-The direction to 'go down the hall' felt a bit misleading. I thought something had gone wrong or I was doing something wrong because I couldn't find the Wizard's items in the same building.
-For some reason, when my inventory was full, I couldn't pick up and stack certain items until I had dropped an item first.
-It was a little hard to tell when enemies would and wouldn't follow you.
-The movement and general field of view is good, but the doors were so narrow, there was no way to tell if one was to your left/right.
-The interface was mostly intuitive, except for dropping items from your inventory, which I had to look up.
-The last Boss and enemy waves was cool, but it would have been cooler if there was some indication I was doing something. Because there was no indication I was progressing, I started to wonder if the waves were unending, and there was something else I was supposed to be doing, like sealing the portals. So when I did finally win, it was a surprise, and a little anti-climactic.
Because you're always unlocking new personas, that makes the first section the most challenging. Once I got past that the rest was easy.
And it was a little annoying that I couldn't wait to let enemies approach me so they usually got first strike. There was one time two of them overlapped which surprised me. They struck in unison.
Good start. Nice how the flashlight gets weaker as the battery gets low. I guess by virtue of not being able to escape, the game embodies Infinity and Solitude quite well.
Great intro. It really hooked me. The book entering is a great framing device. And seeing all those tally marks on the walls was a great touch.
At first I was a little frustrated cuz I couldn't figure out how to equip my loot. Died to the Minotaur a bunch of times. Should have checked the page sooner.
Sometimes I encountered this glitch where I couldn't open the blue and silver chests. Then on my 3rd or 4th book I got trapped in the house and couldn't interact with anything. Called it quits there... or did I?
As I was writing this review I looked to the side and noticed a room I hadn't seem before. Then I remembered the clue about the Green Book upstairs. I jumped back into the game, and basically blitzed through the rest of it on intuition.
It's a very impressive entry overall. The books are a bit samey. I imagine if you had more time they'd be more varied. Maybe a little more robust with exploring each character more. Though then you'd probably need mid-book saves if that were the case,
Playthrough: Library of Lost Souls by Pt1 DaveLikesPasta (I lost the first 10 minutes when I accidentally recorded my desktop instead of the game. I don't think you're missing much. I patched it up with some additional footage.)
I know all too well the pain of running low on time. Good on you for sticking it out all the same. Still had a decent feel. Even if the steps were too small. I assumed you did that so the wall texture would scroll better Playthrough: Eternal Void by nazgulsenpai
I loved the the lateral approached to the puzzles; great expression of the themes through mechanics. Got some genuine head-scratchers, some good scares, and the general eeriness of the unknown.
And the way the nature of what's happening unfolds with each cycle, as you guide the player with succinct phrases and unaffected NPC characters, which also contribute to the tone.
Thanks for playing. Glad you liked the look and feel even if it was a bit on the tricky side.
I do think that was a bad call with the keys in retrosepct.
I wanted the use of items to be universal, andthe process of equiping and using them to be something ingrained from early on. Also, there were some plans for Keys to be limited, so you'd have to pick which doors you used them on, and the long process was kind of a safe-guard making the player think more about it. And so they wouldn't be used accidentally.
Like in this section, you eventually find the blue key, and that can be used on one of two doors. Depening on which you use it on, you can get an additional piece of armour and another weapon early, wich can help with exploration. (Though since I never made more than two enemies, it ended up being a bit pointless.)
But yeah, I probably would just asign Keys to Up if I were to do it over. Especially since it meant players often went into fights with no weapon equipped because of it.
On the controls, I used to play quite a lot of freeware games that used that layout, so that's why I favour it. Though yeah, I think next time I'll include some alt options like you guys did.
Very cool and atmospheric. It was a little tricky to find that turning on the right after the fire suppressant. I even missed the turning to the air-lock in my panic But it also added to the feel, and the map's not so big that it became a frustration.
EDIT: Got the third. It might be an idea to make BPM death Ending 4 so people know how many endings to shoot for.
Actually, I initially wanted to set off the self destruct, but it wasn't easy to know I should have lead with the Stick. And after you've clicked on the terminal, there's no option to back out of the Air-Lock ending.
On one hand, it's weird that I can't opt into that. On the other, I'm not sure I would have got the Escape ending if I had, and I liked ending on the third ending, so maybe it's fine.
It's not in the playthrough, but on one attempt at the third ending, after activating the terminal to unblock the way to the self-destruct terminal, I tried doubling back to see if any of the other routes had been unblocked.
It's possible. Maybe I double backed on the same location. Or it could just be that it didn't light up, but it would have gone on the pedestal fine, I didn't try it though. This was before I knew each Gem had their own stand, so I thought I needed all 4 of them before I could set them in place. The first video is up. Second shouldn't be much longer.
I had about the same experience as everyone else. The game feel of the hammer and smashing the rocks is very well done and satisfying.
But yeah, trouble navigating the big environment, even after looking up the RUG solution. I'm also not sure if one of the shards bugged out, cuz I picked up two but only one was highlighted,
And I didn't find there was much need for planting bombs as they were too slow to be effective. Main strategy was to lure an enemy and kill it before it finished it's walk cycle. Or rush past before they had a chance to strike.
That was pretty cool. I liked a good parry system, though the attack animations being so slow ironically made it trickier to know when the parry window was. Like others, the Silver Key didn't work for me, though it didn't take me long to figure out the alternative method. On my third go I just made a B-line for the final Boss and did OK on the parrying. Playthrough: DarkSword Pt1 by blazeedge
