Reached 4 Flames ending.
-This is closer to Metriod (1986) than a Metroidvania.
-Design emphasizes playful discovery of items' hidden mechanics and how they interact. Reminded me of Starseed Pilgrim in that sense but more inviting.
-Loved the aesthetics, specifically I appreciated the GameBoy Color inspiration.
-Surprisingly scary! I often vocalized joy or shock while playing.
A brief aside: I want to look into how the endgame works. I get the sense it may suffer from the Fez effect--when a game's deepest puzzles are hidden under a layer of complexity intended for community solutioning. The knowledge and growing prominence of these escape rooms leads me to situations where I'm inclined to shrug at larger puzzles. I'm not going to extract and analyze waveform data to chase a hypothesis. I think these overarching escape room style puzzles are cool, but I do wish more were achievable within the game.
-This is closer to Metriod (1986) than a Metroidvania.
-Design emphasizes playful discovery of items' hidden mechanics and how they interact. Reminded me of Starseed Pilgrim in that sense but more inviting.
-Loved the aesthetics, specifically I appreciated the GameBoy Color inspiration.
-Surprisingly scary! I often vocalized joy or shock while playing.
A brief aside: I want to look into how the endgame works. I get the sense it may suffer from the Fez effect--when a game's deepest puzzles are hidden under a layer of complexity intended for community solutioning. The knowledge and growing prominence of these escape rooms leads me to situations where I'm inclined to shrug at larger puzzles. I'm not going to extract and analyze waveform data to chase a hypothesis. I think these overarching escape room style puzzles are cool, but I do wish more were achievable within the game.