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Anodyne
Dec 4, 2016 14:39:05 GMT -5
Post by Discoalucard on Dec 4, 2016 14:39:05 GMT -5
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Anodyne
Dec 4, 2016 17:04:22 GMT -5
Post by edgethelucas on Dec 4, 2016 17:04:22 GMT -5
An interesting thing about this game is that the creators themselves uploaded it onto The Pirate Bay. This means you don't have to pay for the game if you don't want to.
I do still plan on getting on Steam this Christmas, just to show my support. Cool-looking little game, right here.
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Anodyne
Dec 4, 2016 20:32:33 GMT -5
Post by Arale on Dec 4, 2016 20:32:33 GMT -5
This is one of my favorite games. Severely underappreciated. A beautiful exploration game.
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Anodyne
Dec 5, 2016 17:59:41 GMT -5
Post by Woody Alien on Dec 5, 2016 17:59:41 GMT -5
This game is great! I fell in love with Anodyne after watching some promos, and spent a lot of time on it when I bought it 3 years ago. The article doesn't really explain everything, but it's justified since it's pretty much impossible to do so; as for me, i'm still undecided if it's an artsy game, a parody of them (with all those seemingly profound discussions) or even both. I would have put more emphasis on the various environments Young finds himself in, such as the beach, the run-down hotel (which is apparently an inn between the various worlds), the surreal geometric world or the half-frozen, half-burning metaphoric world at the end. Or the characters such as th weird statue that always mocks the sage, the girl and her bike, and all the strange and mostly unexplained but creepy apparitions... and since Zelda was a pretty big influence (some even called it "Zelda + Yume Nikki" IIRC), you could have also put something about the Link parody that appears at one point, which also hides a political subtext: Also there's no mention at all of the most interesting feature, that is the ability of swap all graphical tiles with the broom at the end of the adventure, to explore each and every square of the world and let Young essentially glitch his own reality! sorry I can't do the spoiler tag I don't remember seeing this in any other game. Sorry for the rant (I still enjoyed the article BTW) but at the time I really was attached to this game to the point I followed Sean's music page and the news to their second project, which doesn't interest me as much though. Also I take credit for being the first to discover this easter egg of Mega Man hidden in the background of one screen
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Anodyne
Dec 5, 2016 20:46:06 GMT -5
Post by Discoalucard on Dec 5, 2016 20:46:06 GMT -5
If you'd like to add something to the article to accompany it, I can put it in!
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Post by windfisch on Dec 6, 2016 9:20:43 GMT -5
I've played this a while ago, but never finished it. This article inspired me to start anew. Good job in that regard!
However, instead of calling the graphical style "16 Bit", a Game Boy Color comparison seems more accurate to me. Granted, there are some SNES-esque effects like transparencies and pseudo Mode 7 and there are a few more colors on display than what would be possible on a GBC. But otherwise the resolution, aspect ratio (especially if you subtract the status bar) and color palettes all resemble the GBC Zeldas. The sound effects are also much closer to those, than to something like A Link to the Past.
Rather than a general Zelda-clone, this is a direct love letter to Link's Awakening DX specificially. This becomes apparent in the way the game plays an feels, the way dungeons and visuals are designed. The overall dream-like nature and the quirkiness and self awareness of some characters also feel like a nod to Link's Awakening.
I also believe that calling it "a must" for Zelda and Soul Blazer fans does not necessarily do this title a favour: In my opinion it's a neat little game, certainly worth a look. But it cannot (and maybe should not) compete with those titles - it is simply too unpolished: Controls don't feel as tight, scrolling (Edit: by that I mean the screen transitions) and character movement are not as smooth, the visual design is not as coherent, the actual gameplay is rather derivative and the story seems to lean slightly too much towards meta-commentary (albeit not as heavily as other old-school-inspired titles like Ittle Dew or Axiom Verge). But then again, it has it's own charme, which in part might even stem from its roughness.
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Anodyne
Dec 7, 2016 20:18:56 GMT -5
Post by windfisch on Dec 7, 2016 20:18:56 GMT -5
So, I've almost beaten the final boss. But because I was too annoyed by the controls by then, I just watched the ending on Youtube, instead of trying again and again. It took me a little more than 7 hours to get there and at this point I feel that I've been a little too generous, even with my moderate praise in the previous comment (There was a reason why I had stopped playing it the first time): The controls are clunky. And it's not only the jumping, it's also the general movement, which is somewhat jerky. And hit detection when being hit by enemies or when you are being "sucked" or pushed into holes can be downright awful. Oftentimes this game requires a level of precision, be it puzzles or combat, that the controls just cannot offer. This results in the player needlessly taking damage or having to repeat seemingly easy puzzles over and over. It also gets quite tedious, there is very little variety in the way puzzles work for example. To its credit: some dungeons have some interesting parts, but overall they mostly consist of a lot of repetition. And there is little to be found in those that Zelda games have not already done (and done more competently, I might add). I also encountered some amount of aimlessly wandering around in good old fetch-quest tradition, especially towards the end. Aditionally the story and the different visual "styles" are all over the place - to me it felt ike the creators of this game had many ideas, but did not know when to better cut some of those. There are some good concepts there in terms of both, story and presentation. But they are buried with a lot of random clutter. Regarding my prevoius comment I have to admit that the colors of this game only sometimes are in a Game Boy Color-style. At times the amount of colors and the resolution of some effects/filters/gradients go even beyond the capabilities of a SNES. But I still stand by my point that the main source of visual inspiration are the GBC Zeldas. In the end Anodyne is ambitious and it offers some cool and beautiful moments. But these have been too rare for me to justify all the hours I've spent with it. As someone who loves games like Link's Awakening and Soul Blazer, I have to keep respectfully disagreeing with the author of the article: To me Anodyne does not come even close to those titles. My advice would be to think twice before getting this one. Sure, it apparently has its fans and I can see why. But if you prefer to also have a solid gameplay foundation in addition to the game's intriguing atmosphere, this might not be the postmodern Zelda you're looking for. Even the Ocean by the same team looks good though. It seems more focused and more original than Anodyne. At least it's really, really pretty. EDIT: There is a short but insightful interview with one of the game's developers on Youtube in which he confirms that Link's Awakening was indeed Anodyne's main inspiration (along with Yume Nikki): www.youtube.com/watch?v=UR8kb8rLBC8And there also is a public demo for those who are curious: www.mediafire.com/file/gxhczaqx7coz01h/AnodyneDemo_Public_1_502.air
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Anodyne
Dec 8, 2016 17:48:07 GMT -5
Post by Woody Alien on Dec 8, 2016 17:48:07 GMT -5
If you'd like to add something to the article to accompany it, I can put it in! It can be done, but in a few days since I'm a bit busy at the moment. I will PM you with a couple things.
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Anodyne
Aug 11, 2018 18:45:46 GMT -5
Post by Woody Alien on Aug 11, 2018 18:45:46 GMT -5
It looks like it will be one of these "sequels" that don't have much or anything to do with the original game, but I could be wrong. This time though it is no longer a 2D pixelated game but a 3D low-poly exploration title. Can't say I'm much interested in it though.
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