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Post by Discoalucard on Apr 5, 2017 15:32:01 GMT -5
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Post by wyrdwad on Apr 5, 2017 17:06:08 GMT -5
You really think Alwa's Awakening is difficult? I actually found it kind of easy, for the most part -- "masocore" is definitely pushing it. I can see the Battle Kid inspirations as well, but it feels like Alwa's Awakening took them and refined them into something much more manageable and fun.
I also think I liked the game a lot more than you did, though, too, as it's been one of my favorite titles of the year thus far. It's exactly the kind of game I was "hungry" for, and I found the level designs were pretty masterful, presenting a reasonable challenge that rarely ever got frustrating, but always kept things interesting and made exploration really addictive.
The game's also structured in such a way that sequence-breaking is ridiculously easy to achieve, but hard to master, much as in the 2D Metroid titles -- it's probably the best sequence-break Metroidvania I've ever played outside of an actual Metroid game, in fact.
I agree that the ending was abrupt, though there actually is a hidden extended ending -- if you manage to find all the tablet pieces, you can wait at the The End screen for 3 minutes in order to see the tiniest bit of extra footage. There could've stood to be more, though, for sure, and I think the final boss and ending are probably the only places where the game fell a little flat for me.
There is also an easter egg, though -- a room you can access via teleporter after staring up at the lamp in the graveyard. Again, it's not much, but it's something, and it does have its own unique music.
-Tom
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Post by Discoalucard on Apr 5, 2017 19:34:47 GMT -5
I didn't feel the game was very difficult overall, just that death is a much much more common occurrence in many Metroidvanias. There are very very few of these types of games that have instant deaths. I thought the game was at its best when it was more challenging.
Thought I did die quite a few times at some of the boss fights...not the last one, but the two prior to that.
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Post by wyrdwad on Apr 5, 2017 19:55:40 GMT -5
I didn't feel the game was very difficult overall, just that death is a much much more common occurrence in many Metroidvanias. There are very very few of these types of games that have instant deaths. I thought the game was at its best when it was more challenging. Thought I did die quite a few times at some of the boss fights...not the last one, but the two prior to that. Yeah, those two bosses are definitely the hardest parts of the entire game. -Tom
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Post by Elvin Atombender on Apr 8, 2017 11:46:07 GMT -5
Normally I hate games that keep track of how many times you died but in this case I'll gladly make an exception. I think the best thing about this game is its freeform approach to exploration, which gives the player a lot of opportunities to find secrets without being forced to follow a specific path.
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Post by wyrdwad on Apr 8, 2017 14:37:26 GMT -5
Normally I hate games that keep track of how many times you died but in this case I'll gladly make an exception. I think the best thing about this game is its freeform approach to exploration, which gives the player a lot of opportunities to find secrets without being forced to follow a specific path. Yeah, I felt like kind of a badass when I played this game because I managed to beat the vast majority of it before ever getting the bubble -- and then wound up getting the bubble power-up before getting the bubble itself (which just wound up giving me the bubble too!). Then I watched YouTube videos of people speedrunning the game, and realized how much more I potentially COULD have accomplished if I knew about things like, say, the secret unintended wall-jump mechanic. Sequence-breaking in Alwa's Awakening really is the best I've encountered outside of a Metroid game. -Tom
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Post by evktalo on May 14, 2017 16:02:19 GMT -5
Fair-sounding review of an interesting game. I'm thinking of getting it. Spotted a couple of typos:
"many other Metroidvania" -> Metroidvania should be pluralized
"previously explorer ground" -> explored
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Post by Discoalucard on May 14, 2017 22:13:29 GMT -5
Thanks, fixed those up. Also added something I'd forgotten about originally - there were some glitches that allow you to speed run through the game, and the devs just left them in as a favor to the community, as they realized it adds to the game's longevity. That's pretty cool, compared to, say, Metroid Prime, where each revision "fixed" things like this.
Anyway, it is worth a shot. I wouldn't have played, completed, and reviewed it if I didn't enjoy it, even though the field is so crowded.
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