Throwback 3D Platformer That Sits In The Vague Nostalgia Memory Zone Between N64 and Dreamcast Presentation is a booming genre these last few years and i'm a 3D platformer sicko so i'm having a great time with all these games, but it's especially gratifying when one is just sick as hell? Just knocking it outta the fuckin park? Which is what Lunistice does.
A tight set of short levels, controls just loose enough to demand a little care in your movements but tight enough to never give trouble, gorgeous soft pallet visuals and great tunes that always enhance the tone, we're doing everything right on the surface level.
I think the actual level design is deceptively good, though. You get a lot of skip opportunities and even in my few hours futzing my way through a couple playthroughs it's easy to see where the speed tech will develop here. The gimmicks unique to each level set do a lot to characterize them and the diversity they offer makes them feel distinct more than visually; all my homies hate level 4 (complimentary), this is natural. My favorite detail though, is the enemy placement, which feels innocuous on a first playthrough but once you unlock a second character (after finishing the game once) who doesn't have a triple jump or an attack and who dies in one hit, suddenly the entire geometry of the game is radically transformed. Where before you almost always had a convenient breather between bits of levels, now almost all of those are populated by seeking enemies you can't do anything but run from, and previously simple gaps and platforms are now occupied by guys who exist only to make your margin for error tiny (and it's not like later levels are TERRIBLY generous; Lunistice offers a pleasantly ramping challenge).
I don't think the writing that's here does much for me, kind of a situation where what's here is pretty thin and there's not actually enough of it to evoke much to begin with, but if you engage with all of it you get the rough sketch of a story that does sort of inform what's going on, and I think more importantly is enriched itself by the game that props it up.
I've put a solid five hours into Lunistice so far, having maxed most of the content on one character, a fair bit for a second, and nothing for a third, so I think I could easily squeeze fifteen hours out of it overall. The spark to make my times better and top off my scores hasn't diminished with completion, which usually happens to me, and I think that's a sign of something that's really clicked with me.
A tight set of short levels, controls just loose enough to demand a little care in your movements but tight enough to never give trouble, gorgeous soft pallet visuals and great tunes that always enhance the tone, we're doing everything right on the surface level.
I think the actual level design is deceptively good, though. You get a lot of skip opportunities and even in my few hours futzing my way through a couple playthroughs it's easy to see where the speed tech will develop here. The gimmicks unique to each level set do a lot to characterize them and the diversity they offer makes them feel distinct more than visually; all my homies hate level 4 (complimentary), this is natural. My favorite detail though, is the enemy placement, which feels innocuous on a first playthrough but once you unlock a second character (after finishing the game once) who doesn't have a triple jump or an attack and who dies in one hit, suddenly the entire geometry of the game is radically transformed. Where before you almost always had a convenient breather between bits of levels, now almost all of those are populated by seeking enemies you can't do anything but run from, and previously simple gaps and platforms are now occupied by guys who exist only to make your margin for error tiny (and it's not like later levels are TERRIBLY generous; Lunistice offers a pleasantly ramping challenge).
I don't think the writing that's here does much for me, kind of a situation where what's here is pretty thin and there's not actually enough of it to evoke much to begin with, but if you engage with all of it you get the rough sketch of a story that does sort of inform what's going on, and I think more importantly is enriched itself by the game that props it up.
I've put a solid five hours into Lunistice so far, having maxed most of the content on one character, a fair bit for a second, and nothing for a third, so I think I could easily squeeze fifteen hours out of it overall. The spark to make my times better and top off my scores hasn't diminished with completion, which usually happens to me, and I think that's a sign of something that's really clicked with me.
2 Comments
I don’t believe so; there are rewards for clearing stages with all the collectibles and without resetting but I’m not sure there’s an in-game reward for speed. It’s clear that the game is built with speedrunning in mind though, with the timers they give you and built in skips. It’s just the kind of game this is and A Grumpy Fox leaned into it a bit
Stew12
1 year ago