I know making even vaguely targeted statements is looked down upon, but the general consensus of Vividlope here is skewed by takes that frankly either don’t understand the game, refuse to approach it on it’s terms, or want it to be something that it just isn’t. Please don’t take this as personal slights, those who’ve made these statements; I’m just pushing back on what I see as misconceptions of the game.
Before that, my take: It’s cute! Game is really tough, to a brutal degree by the end of the game, but that’s okay! Mechanically, the game has flaws, but aesthetically it shines. I wish I had more to say, but uh. There!
Beyond that, I’ll leave it at a bunch of Statements I’ve seen about the game, here and otherwise, and responses to those statements.
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“Enemies arbitrarily spawn and move semi-randomly. It’s Non-Design.”
Enemies spawn over time, and based on completion of the level. Specific spaces spawn enemies. Furthermore, while there are certain enemies that rely on a degree of random movement, each enemy has rules to them; not too dissimilar to the ghosts in Pac-Man. Learn the rules, and you can handle any one enemy. Don’t, you die. Simple as.
“I want it to be a casual PC platformer / it should be a puzzle game but it’s not!”
Nothing about it reads as casual beyond the first level’s batch of stages – Y’know, where you learn to play the game. It’s a tutorial. It’s by and large an extrapolation of Arcade game design; it’s not a puzzle game, it’s not a platformer, it’s feeding off the same roots as Qix, Dig Dug, Q-Bert, all that shit. The “puzzle twist” extends purely to some of the gimmicks of levels; panels “unpainting” themselves, slight navigational puzzles, the works. This is an arcade game.
“The movement is awkward / I can’t commit to certain movements!”
You can use an analog stick, but if you use the D-Pad (as the game strongly suggests when you launch it), the movement sticks to the grids the game wants you to play without being overly stiff. Furthermore… The game isn’t built around free movement, in a sense. You get precision by playing by their rules. You can jump two spaces, one if you hold back as you jump, and a Chess-like Knight jump if you hold hard left or right, relative to where you’re jumping.
“The developer’s response to difficulty tweaks is condescending!”
You are playing an easier version of a game where half the point is perfecting play to get a high rank. The only difference when playing on Easy is having the highest possible rank locked out. If you want to get the best ranking, play the game as it was originally intended. Sounds fair enough.
“I can fill in every space and only get an S/S+ rank!”
100%ing a board is important, but so is keeping an unbroken chain going. It’s Combos Baby
“It’s just like a Dreamcast game!”
Wrong. PSP Launch Title.
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...And I'm still only giving it a 3.5, like most of the people I think had iffy reads on it here. C'est la vie! ¯\(ツ)/¯
Before that, my take: It’s cute! Game is really tough, to a brutal degree by the end of the game, but that’s okay! Mechanically, the game has flaws, but aesthetically it shines. I wish I had more to say, but uh. There!
Beyond that, I’ll leave it at a bunch of Statements I’ve seen about the game, here and otherwise, and responses to those statements.
--
“Enemies arbitrarily spawn and move semi-randomly. It’s Non-Design.”
Enemies spawn over time, and based on completion of the level. Specific spaces spawn enemies. Furthermore, while there are certain enemies that rely on a degree of random movement, each enemy has rules to them; not too dissimilar to the ghosts in Pac-Man. Learn the rules, and you can handle any one enemy. Don’t, you die. Simple as.
“I want it to be a casual PC platformer / it should be a puzzle game but it’s not!”
Nothing about it reads as casual beyond the first level’s batch of stages – Y’know, where you learn to play the game. It’s a tutorial. It’s by and large an extrapolation of Arcade game design; it’s not a puzzle game, it’s not a platformer, it’s feeding off the same roots as Qix, Dig Dug, Q-Bert, all that shit. The “puzzle twist” extends purely to some of the gimmicks of levels; panels “unpainting” themselves, slight navigational puzzles, the works. This is an arcade game.
“The movement is awkward / I can’t commit to certain movements!”
You can use an analog stick, but if you use the D-Pad (as the game strongly suggests when you launch it), the movement sticks to the grids the game wants you to play without being overly stiff. Furthermore… The game isn’t built around free movement, in a sense. You get precision by playing by their rules. You can jump two spaces, one if you hold back as you jump, and a Chess-like Knight jump if you hold hard left or right, relative to where you’re jumping.
“The developer’s response to difficulty tweaks is condescending!”
You are playing an easier version of a game where half the point is perfecting play to get a high rank. The only difference when playing on Easy is having the highest possible rank locked out. If you want to get the best ranking, play the game as it was originally intended. Sounds fair enough.
“I can fill in every space and only get an S/S+ rank!”
100%ing a board is important, but so is keeping an unbroken chain going. It’s Combos Baby
“It’s just like a Dreamcast game!”
Wrong. PSP Launch Title.
--
...And I'm still only giving it a 3.5, like most of the people I think had iffy reads on it here. C'est la vie! ¯\(ツ)/¯
Bojangles4th
5 months ago
More and more I want to put together a longer piece about this sort of thing, call it something like "Charitability towards Game Design". I dunno, I just think people tend to be very illiterate in regards to mechanical design but instead of admitting they made a bad read on the game they try to gaslight their friends into thinking it was bad all along lol.
But yeah, been meaning to check this out and it's reassuring that you enjoyed it.