Alright this game inspired in me some feelings
I went very high to very very low to high again in my enjoyment here. First off: I have to admit that no matter my thoughts on the design philosophy here, this is an incredible realization of a great concept. The whole package is lovely from the get-go; the style, music, gameplay are all lovely and super cohesive. You can tell an absolute shit-ton of time went into refining the entire experience, and it's most of the reason my score is so high. I loved the first two levels a lot, and having a couple harder bonus stages in each level was a welcome addition
I think Level 3 is where I started feeling the pain. This is where I realized that the "Difficulty: Easy" shown below the stage wasn't a statement letting you know how hard that particular stage was, it was a slider, and I had been playing on Easy the whole time. I switched to Hard and it was a nightmare. I beat one stage and the next one was just a catastrophe. Frankly, I don't understand how someone could enjoy the whole game being like that, but that's beside the point
Even leaving it on Easy, by the time I got to Level 5 I was getting irate. Peeved. Some of the stages just felt ridiculous, owing mostly to the fact that I would reset every time I died. I was going for a personal goal of A+ or higher because that's the rank where I felt like I did a good job of properly conquering the level. I genuinely don't know if I would have been happier just taking the deaths and moving on with a B, C, or even D rank. This is the part of the game where I started wondering, "Is this unfair? Am I bad? Should I care about my ranks this much? What is the platonic ideal gameplay I should be going for here?" It may sound silly but I generally try to play a game closest to how the developer imagines a competent person would play. I really like to get the experience that they wanted to impart on me, the gamer. So when I'm presented with a situation like this where I'm faced with the choice of continuing to "conquer" each stage or lower my expectations of myself and move on, it starts to generate the bad feelings
I'm sure if I asked the dev personally, they would simply want me to do whatever gives me the most enriching experience in my eyes, and not to worry about how good or bad my ranks are. But I definitely care about how competent I am at a game like this, especially when I've already completed multiple hours of the game while achieving my personal goal. So, I kept on with what I was doing, and I got angry, and I continued anyways
Level 6 felt like a breaking point, but I powered through to 7, and halfway through it, I kind of had my eureka moment. I was really seeing the vision. The stages were flowing one after another, everything felt cohesive but like in a new way, a more meta-gamey way. I was enjoying myself fully again. In Level 9 I had a few gamer rage moments again, but then the Finale was really cool and honestly felt like the only place in the game where I was okay with taking a death and continuing
And then it was over, and I had to sit there and accept the fact that even though the day before I was rumbling and grumbling about the game, I felt way more positive about this game than negative. I may have issues with stage layouts, mechanics, enemies, general difficulty, and whatever else, but in the end I can properly see the vision here. I don't think I share the vision, but that's not what a game is for. A game is a chance to experience someone else's vision and see if it clicks in your reality. This was overall a very cool experience, especially after following its development for quite a while, and I look forward to Jaklub's future works
I went very high to very very low to high again in my enjoyment here. First off: I have to admit that no matter my thoughts on the design philosophy here, this is an incredible realization of a great concept. The whole package is lovely from the get-go; the style, music, gameplay are all lovely and super cohesive. You can tell an absolute shit-ton of time went into refining the entire experience, and it's most of the reason my score is so high. I loved the first two levels a lot, and having a couple harder bonus stages in each level was a welcome addition
I think Level 3 is where I started feeling the pain. This is where I realized that the "Difficulty: Easy" shown below the stage wasn't a statement letting you know how hard that particular stage was, it was a slider, and I had been playing on Easy the whole time. I switched to Hard and it was a nightmare. I beat one stage and the next one was just a catastrophe. Frankly, I don't understand how someone could enjoy the whole game being like that, but that's beside the point
Even leaving it on Easy, by the time I got to Level 5 I was getting irate. Peeved. Some of the stages just felt ridiculous, owing mostly to the fact that I would reset every time I died. I was going for a personal goal of A+ or higher because that's the rank where I felt like I did a good job of properly conquering the level. I genuinely don't know if I would have been happier just taking the deaths and moving on with a B, C, or even D rank. This is the part of the game where I started wondering, "Is this unfair? Am I bad? Should I care about my ranks this much? What is the platonic ideal gameplay I should be going for here?" It may sound silly but I generally try to play a game closest to how the developer imagines a competent person would play. I really like to get the experience that they wanted to impart on me, the gamer. So when I'm presented with a situation like this where I'm faced with the choice of continuing to "conquer" each stage or lower my expectations of myself and move on, it starts to generate the bad feelings
I'm sure if I asked the dev personally, they would simply want me to do whatever gives me the most enriching experience in my eyes, and not to worry about how good or bad my ranks are. But I definitely care about how competent I am at a game like this, especially when I've already completed multiple hours of the game while achieving my personal goal. So, I kept on with what I was doing, and I got angry, and I continued anyways
Level 6 felt like a breaking point, but I powered through to 7, and halfway through it, I kind of had my eureka moment. I was really seeing the vision. The stages were flowing one after another, everything felt cohesive but like in a new way, a more meta-gamey way. I was enjoying myself fully again. In Level 9 I had a few gamer rage moments again, but then the Finale was really cool and honestly felt like the only place in the game where I was okay with taking a death and continuing
And then it was over, and I had to sit there and accept the fact that even though the day before I was rumbling and grumbling about the game, I felt way more positive about this game than negative. I may have issues with stage layouts, mechanics, enemies, general difficulty, and whatever else, but in the end I can properly see the vision here. I don't think I share the vision, but that's not what a game is for. A game is a chance to experience someone else's vision and see if it clicks in your reality. This was overall a very cool experience, especially after following its development for quite a while, and I look forward to Jaklub's future works