I can’t wait to finally play this one this weekend. Looks fantastic!
I will once the physical version is released.
Are the additions/tweaks coming to the other versions?
I’m also waiting on the physical version.
I won’t bother with it because I have it on Steam already.
Physical, as usual lol
I’ve been holding out on this game because I want a physical copy and my prayers have been answered. I see no mention of XB1 physical, so switch it is. Plus the DF video shows it’s identical in terms of performance, so i’m on board!
My XB1 is the forgotten middle child of my current gen systems, so doesn’t get as much love, so I would actually buy it for the Xbox versus switch mainly due to me feeling bad. PS4 gets most of the love in my house.
I will get it. Seems perfect for handheld.
So… this game is pretty darn hard. It’s not really like Metal Slug or Contra. It’s more like Mega Man X or even Alien Soldier on Genesis.
I dig the art and LOVE the music (I’m a huge jazz person and the big band stuff in here is really phenomenal) but I’m finding the gameplay to be pretty… okay? Maybe even less than okay?
There’s something about the rapid fire aspect of bathing the enemy in bullets that lacks impact. It feels very bullet spongy in ways that a good shooter doesn’t. Like, in Mega Man or Metal Slug, landing a big hit caused a boss to stagger or appear damaged. That doesnt happen here until you kill one of the major phases of the boss. But using the standard gun, that takes forever even though it’s machine gun-like.
In something like Gunstar heroes or Alien Soldier, the enemies don’t really “flinch” but have visible HP and each phase of the fight takes far less time than this.
So, I think this game has decent fundamentals and serious style, but really doesn’t feel like it executed on making the gameplay feel balanced and rewarding. It’s a shame too, because the enemy design is so creative. It’s just…, they don’t really feel pain when you shoot them until you slowly wittle down an invisible HP bar that takes forever.
1 Like
I picked it up and really like it.
Great summary, I’ll still buy it physical but that kind of game design issue is the difference between good and great.
Many undiscerning players can’t notice such things explicitly, but it leaves a funny feeling in the back of their mind. To quote Mr Plinkett “you may not have noticed… but your brain did…”
1 Like
Kind of where I’m at right now, @Peltz. Finishing up World 2. For me, the game really boils down to dying repeatedly until you’ve memorized all of a boss’ patterns. That idea is hardly unique to this game, but it’s really at the centre of this game’s gameplay loop. Its presentation is amazing across the board (visuals, music, UI, world map, character designs, etc.), but I agree that the actual gameplay doesn’t quite reach its aesthetic heights.
I’ve been playing it with 8BitDo’s M30 for what it’s worth. Not sure if that’s helping or detracting from the experience.
I wonder if all the frames of animation made it harder to adjust and balance the gameplay later in development. It’s kind of a shame just how close this comes to being a stone cold classic with the phenomenal art style.
I love that this game got made and you can tell that the devs poured their souls into it. So I do really appreciate it. But I can’t help but feel like it could have been so much better.
1 Like
I wanted to revisit this thread since, on a whim, I picked up this game again. I think the excitement surrounding the recent announcement that it was ported to PS4 made me want to give it another shot on my Switch.
And I’m glad I did. I’m enjoying it far FAR more this time around. The difficulty is super high, the gameplay requires a ton of trial and error, and all of the hitboxes/timing windows for surviving are super tight.
If you go into it not expecting Metal Slug or Contra, and instead, expecting something more along the lines of the tightness of Mega Man X and Alien Soldier (fake edit: looking up at my previous post I had the same thought a year ago lol) it keeps expectations in check.
What we have here is a lovely little boss-rush game where you face off against enemies that seem insurmountable at first attempt, and by attempt number 20 or so, you finally have the ability to beat them after learning all the patterns for each phase of the boss.
While I originally thought this was a “cheap” form of game design, I’ve now come to appreciate it. When you do finally manage to take down the boss, it feels very satisfying, like you mastered the encounter. It reminds me a bit of Hollow Knight in that regard.
I do think that the platforming sections, however, come across as an afterthought - included simply because they’re a staple of the genre. This was clearly a boss rush game first, and those were added in midway through development due to feedback from people online. Not linking them at all to the boss battles is just… okay. Not bad though. Just decent.
The game is still very clearly not up there with the most cohesive games in the genre. Even the overworld map to select levels, despite purporting to have a few “secrets”, is still, in my humble opinion, very much behind something like Super Mario World or even SMB 3 which invented the mechanic in the first place. It strikes me as extremely static and more of an afterthought.
It’s clear that the attention to detail was not evenly distributed among all elements of the game here. But the bosses are pretty cool, and it’s a solid 8/10 experience that I’m digging. The art and music elevate the game tremendously as well. I’m going to attempt to beat it.
1 Like
It’s really fucking hard. I gotta get back to it. I got to the third area.
I’m still waiting on that physical version they said was coming too.