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it does seem like the increase in difficulty is pretty severe. I like that the old areas keep changing to reflect what you're doing in the story tho; that's really cool
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Jan 15, 2016 12:53
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| # ? Apr 16, 2024 18:38 |
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Thanks for showing this game off, the difficulty looks a bit harsh for my tastes. Great for watching to see if you'll make it to the next save station before your health runs out  Can't wait to see the secret content for this.
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Jan 15, 2016 15:30
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Choco1980 posted:As good as this game seems, I'm really starting to see what folks are talking about with how it feels like the game tries too hard with the difficulty curve, making you feel more discouraged than encouraged to make progress... Manatee Cannon posted:it does seem like the increase in difficulty is pretty severe. I like that the old areas keep changing to reflect what you're doing in the story tho; that's really cool Keep in mind also, that it's thematically appropriate. You've steadily been learning that the station's AI has gone haywire, eventually confirming that it's gone completely rogue, and is very hostile. You've just turned the main power back on, giving it all the tools necessary to actively start "fighting back" against you, as it were. The kid gloves are off, and the game expects you to use your arsenal and the skills its been teaching you the whole time through. Those security robots are tough, yes, but you can generally bypass them without a fight, especially using the booster dash. Save stations are everywhere for free, full healing, and what with the diminishing returns on health tanks, you should have a strong chunk of the maximum possible health. That said, I also found myself underpowered a bit when it came to dealing damage, leading me more towards evasion rather than actively killing everything. There is an extremely potent solution for attack power, though, and I'd ended up getting that even before figuring out how to get back up to the surface region to acquire the triple shot. 
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Jan 16, 2016 00:27
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I do hope the sequel has more incremental weapon power ups instead of the like 3 that make massive leaps in survivability.
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Jan 16, 2016 00:52
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It is a hard game at this point. It actually calms down a bit later on as we get some very powerful upgrades and become the robot lord. Until then, I would say this middle part is actually one of the hardest sections of the game.
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Jan 16, 2016 01:07
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Smite posted:It is a hard game at this point. It actually calms down a bit later on as we get some very powerful upgrades and become the robot lord. Until then, I would say this middle part is actually one of the hardest sections of the game. What a coincidence -- we're now at the part where I finally quit. I didn't find re-exploring areas I'd already seen, only with harder layouts/enemies, to be interesting enough considering the amount of effort it was taking. It's an interesting experiment, but I think the "reward" of getting to see a genuinely new area is in retrospect a fairly important part of the Metroidvania gameplay. Or at least, the changed layouts weren't novel enough to really engage me; it felt like they mostly just made existing traversals more finicky and error-prone.
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Jan 16, 2016 01:17
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For me the challenge was part of what kept me going, I wanted to beat the game after it had tricked me into thinking it was a more or less chill explorer. Also, some of the harder parts later, which are REALLY hard, god it felt good when I finally cracked those. The difficulty is certainly not for everyone, and I wonder if Hempuli ran into that trap where developers get really really good at their own games and accidentally crank the difficulty. I've heard that is what happened with many NES series games.
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Jan 16, 2016 02:42
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George Melons is the name of a player in Space Station 13 who was so good at combat he got promoted to an admin, and later included in the game's lore. He'd murder the hell out of everyone but was otherwise a chill guy, I played SS13 around the time he did and I'd pass the occasional bomb off to him now and then. I think his name on SA is MelonDude or something.
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Jan 16, 2016 03:52
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If the station's computer had gone REALLY evil it would've hacked the save stations to drain your power instead of restore it.
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Jan 16, 2016 09:09
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We're about to hit the point in the game where I had to drop out. There's some really annoying enemies in an upcoming area immediately following a boss fight, and some rather precise platforming it expects you to perform, in the same rooms as said enemies, I might add, that were just outside of what I was able to pull off. I might try it again, mind, I didn't know about the triple shot at the time. As for backtracking, I wouldn't say it's any worse here than in Metroid Fusion, for instance. It's something that can happen in Metroidvanias. Same with enemy HP bloat, and at least the damage doesn't inflate to the degree it does in some Castlevania games, which can get a bit ridiculous (Harmony of Dissonance for a really, really painful example, where the enemies running around in the late game are significantly more damaging than most of the bosses in the lategame. Not that it had particularly well designed or balanced bosses for the most part, but I'm getting really off topic.)
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Jan 16, 2016 09:20
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I ended up getting and this recently because of this LP and by the end the backtracking was driving me insane. Especially when you get repeated scenarios where you need to get to a teleporter, and there's one two tiles away on the map but you have to wind your way around twelve screens to reach it, and the closest it can send you is twelve more screens away from where you need to be. Eventually I got to the point where I just wasn't willing to spend four hours walking around the station to unlock a tiny bit more content, and quit. Kind of wish I'd just stopped when I was still enjoying the game, before the tedious extra content spoiled it for me.
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Jan 16, 2016 13:35
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Hempuli is streaming sequel development again! http://www.twitch.tv/hempuli
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Jan 17, 2016 21:53
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 #5: Temple ExcavationThe power is fully enabled and that means we can use the drillbots to dig through into the remains of the temple. Allegedly, they stored some fire-proof suits in there.
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Jan 20, 2016 17:04
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Ah, the temple. This is the zone that very nearly made me go gently caress THIS GAME for its unclear walk-thru-wall bullshit. I'm glad I persisted but god drat was that frustrating.
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Jan 20, 2016 19:02
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This next stretch is probably the hardest bit of the regular game, but you are making it look way harder than it is with all these shoddy dodges, haha.
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Jan 20, 2016 21:18
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The answer to 'why George Melons' is because he made a few sprites for SS13 over the years and wanted to throw in a reference to it somewhere. Hempuli: "I've no idea why that of all things but I guess 2012 me just thought, heh, both are space games."Zaggitz posted:This next stretch is probably the hardest bit of the regular game, but you are making it look way harder than it is with all these shoddy dodges, haha. Yeah not doing so hot in some of these areas.
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Jan 21, 2016 01:12
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You're mostly doing better than I would have and I consider myself to be a decent platforming gamer (not amazing, but better than average). These challenges are not easy! And the penchant for throwing turrets at you all the goddamn time doesn't help.
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Jan 21, 2016 01:42
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I am already vastly annoyed at all of the donut turrets around here. Then again I was annoyed at them in Metroid too. Give me back my super missiles! 
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Jan 21, 2016 01:44
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To be fair, you're doing better than I did and I abused the gently caress about the triple shot as soon as I got it (right around the same point you did). I'd have turned that poo poo on before stepping foot into the temple.
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Jan 21, 2016 02:05
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Wow, game's not loving around anymore! SS13 and this game both involve poo poo going wrong horribly on a space station, so it fits that George Melons is to blame somehow.
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Jan 21, 2016 14:30
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Ciaphas posted:To be fair, you're doing better than I did and I abused the gently caress about the triple shot as soon as I got it (right around the same point you did). I'd have turned that poo poo on before stepping foot into the temple. Triple is good but not necessary that early, i think i completed all bosses up to the last one with the regular shot and a max hp of 18. There's a couple that triple would have helped on but its very much doable. After that 2nd to last main boss i finally went around collecting all the other stuff.
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Jan 21, 2016 14:58
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GenericOverusedName posted:it fits that George Melons is to blame somehow. 
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Jan 22, 2016 09:54
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#6: Unlocking the Temple Gates The last orb isn't far away. The temple is unlocked and ready to be cleared out in full. Somewhere in here is a 'heat-resistant suit.' Sounds familiar. my god
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Jan 27, 2016 16:19
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Oh sweet, based on that preview clip you are getting close to when the game gets legit great.
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Jan 27, 2016 21:09
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I kind of wish there was more Norfair run stuff in this game. You burn through the Lava area one way then basically ignore it for most of the game. I have fond memories of sequence breaking Super Metroid to get ice beam before getting Varia, but that mechanic is mostly unused because everything in the hot area is impossible to reach with 30 health and no enemy health drops in the game.
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Jan 28, 2016 01:37
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Smite posted:
The hints you're giving on areas to remember are making me wonder just how much stuff I missed in my playthrough 
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Jan 28, 2016 01:38
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Velius posted:I kind of wish there was more Norfair run stuff in this game. You burn through the Lava area one way then basically ignore it for most of the game. I have fond memories of sequence breaking Super Metroid to get ice beam before getting Varia, but that mechanic is mostly unused because everything in the hot area is impossible to reach with 30 health and no enemy health drops in the game. I have to wonder in general just how much sequence breaking is possible in this game. You could have skipped the underwater swimming thing, right? And maybe the dash tech and charge shot (ha ha ha gently caress skipping the charge shot) if there's ways around the blocks they let you break? But the double jump and grapple both seem pretty vital for doing basic exploration. Teleporter key card seems obviously skippable but why would you inflict that on yourself? Of course we haven't seen all of the upgrades yet so maybe there's some we could get now that we aren't "supposed" to have yet, like with the triple shot.
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Jan 28, 2016 02:08
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:I have to wonder in general just how much sequence breaking is possible in this game. You could have skipped the underwater swimming thing, right? And maybe the dash tech and charge shot (ha ha ha gently caress skipping the charge shot) if there's ways around the blocks they let you break? But the double jump and grapple both seem pretty vital for doing basic exploration. Teleporter key card seems obviously skippable but why would you inflict that on yourself? There's one major sequence break you make at the very start of the game that basically lets you bypass everything after you have it. I'm sure smite will get into it when he gets the power up in question. Also Hempuli just patched the game and says it has even more secrets now. 
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Jan 28, 2016 02:33
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Smite posted:
You would have been able to get back up from that one room, but it's a tricky grapple on the wall between the two fire launchers. Also you could have gotten that health pact too. This was around the time in the game where I had started using the triple as well. Also gently caress that room after those twamp guys. Judging from the preview you got through it so effortlessly too!
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Jan 28, 2016 05:23
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Oh, how did I miss this? I'll come back and watch it when I beat the game myself.
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Jan 28, 2016 13:33
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:I have to wonder in general just how much sequence breaking is possible in this game. You could have skipped the underwater swimming thing, right? And maybe the dash tech and charge shot (ha ha ha gently caress skipping the charge shot) if there's ways around the blocks they let you break? But the double jump and grapple both seem pretty vital for doing basic exploration. Teleporter key card seems obviously skippable but why would you inflict that on yourself? Slick damage-boosting will knock you back into a lot of the ones I deemed impossible. People in the comments keep pointing them out when they see me go after an upgrade and declare it unreachable at present. You can get one of the best ones that I still don't have yet at the very start, yeah. You can also go out of bounds in a few places and accomplish something real neat. I will end the LP by showing off as many of these things as I can do on my own.
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Jan 28, 2016 13:38
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This game is fantastic. I'm glad to see it LP'd. As others have said the main game is lot of difficult fun but the post game stuff is insane. Also the tons of secret areas and Easter eggs are pretty cool.
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Feb 4, 2016 00:50
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#7: The Derelict Ship Exploring the volcanic sector more thoroughly leads us to information about a ship orbiting the station.
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Feb 7, 2016 01:32
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You know you're in for a bad time when the save point is in the room right next to the boss in a game where save points are hardly ever that conveniently located.
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Feb 7, 2016 03:46
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Goddamn this game just hates giving you offensive powerups, doesn't it? Movement abilities, okay, you got a few of those, but the only offensive powerups we've seen (unless you count the dash) are the charge shot and triple shot; the charge shot is immediately nullified by tripling the health of every enemy you face, and the triple shot, while helpful, doesn't actually increase your DPS any. Compare that to most Metroidvanias where 50+% of your powerups are weapons of various kinds. I think that's a big source of my frustration with this game: I'd get a powerup, and immediately realize "no, this doesn't make anything any easier, actually." Where most instances of the genre are built around the player gradually getting more and more powerful, with the environment ramping up to suit, this game has a nearly flat power level for the player and a consistently increasingly dangerous environment. tl;dr I am bad at videogames 
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Feb 7, 2016 04:30
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Goddamn this game just hates giving you offensive powerups, doesn't it? Movement abilities, okay, you got a few of those, but the only offensive powerups we've seen (unless you count the dash) are the charge shot and triple shot; the charge shot is immediately nullified by tripling the health of every enemy you face, and the triple shot, while helpful, doesn't actually increase your DPS any. Compare that to most Metroidvanias where 50+% of your powerups are weapons of various kinds. I think that's a big source of my frustration with this game: I'd get a powerup, and immediately realize "no, this doesn't make anything any easier, actually." Where most instances of the genre are built around the player gradually getting more and more powerful, with the environment ramping up to suit, this game has a nearly flat power level for the player and a consistently increasingly dangerous environment. The dash upgrade is actually a damage move of sorts. That'd be a goofy way to fight, though unless you were real good with it (i'm not)!
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Feb 7, 2016 06:00
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After "next time we're definitely going to beat this boss" I expected the Next Time segment to all be scenes of fighting the boss.
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Feb 7, 2016 06:09
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Next time they get the powerup that radically changes this whole game.
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Feb 7, 2016 08:27
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I really liked the Plague Hive boss since it made you go "Oh you really like that Triple Shot, eh?" Once I figured out to turn triple shot off the boss fight was much more manageable. But man, on the hard difficulty it seems like there is also a lot more enemies.
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Feb 7, 2016 09:15
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| # ? Apr 16, 2024 18:38 |
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I suppose it's easier when the framerate is normal. I'd managed to get as far as I could with occasional patches of slowdown, but Plague Hive is where I called it. The worst part is that the central orb doesn't signal when it fires, so you just have to know the timing and dodge. Much harder with an old computer. 
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Feb 7, 2016 17:14
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