Very good analysis. I agree to almost every points in this video. And I do agree: it does not respect the player's time, but it respects the player's intelligence.
I fully agree that it makes no sense that those save points aren't waypoints, they would have been perfect for that as they already look like something you could teleport out of. But the reason for that is clear, as you have stated: trying to be Hollow Knight, just copy pasted its travel/save systems.
6:21 I personally dislike when the save room is just next to bosses, because in that case I feel way less tension than when the room is a little far away. When I know I will be able to restart the fight instantly right after my death, I don't even care about dying. But I agree with you that Cerebellum is a little bit too far away (nothing forces you to finish this fight that early in your playthrough though). Same thing about save points being waypoints, it would make the backtracking way less interesting and prevent the player from familiarizing with the environment. About "pixel perfect" platforming, I didn't encountered them at any moment. Also I'm pretty sure there is a coyote time in Rebel Transmute. Sometimes I feel some players are not used to challenging platforming (and a lot seem to not even pay attention to level design). Most of players dislike any kind of punishment and difficulty, like falling down a little bit when failing a jump. I think these moments are important for tension, at least when the game deserves we lose a little more time for it (and this game deserves it since it's excellent imo). Honestly, I feel very frustated when I see players focusing more on, for example, combat combo system (uhh) or graphics, than focusing on the level design, because that's what gives us some super boring and bland games like Bloodstained, The Last Faith, Vernal Edge, Frontier Hunter Erza's wheel of fortune, etc etc People always say that there are too many metroidvanias on the market, but imo there's way not enough GOOD metroidvanias with good level design, platforming and good gameplay By the way, when you say Rebel transmute's platforming is on a par with average MVs, I really would like to know what they are ... Because on 9/10 of MVs I've played, level design is mediocre at best (like bland corridor without any platforming challenge, just some randomly placed ennemies) :( 18:00 couldn't agree more haha PS: Sorry for my poor english
I thought your English was fine! For save points being waypoints, I get what you're saying. It's a tough balance to achieve: Forcing the player to interact with the world vs. Quality of Life. I don't have the answer, but my recommendation would be, if you want to force interaction, make traversal as fun as possible. As for pixel-perfect platforming, that was a bit of an exaggeration on my part. I was really talking about how the margin for error in some of the jumps between platforms is slim when you don't have any skills to aid you (air dash, hover, double jump). Once you get the air dash, I think the game's level design comes into its own. When I said Rebel's platforming was on par with average MVs, I was only talking about the early game. I think Rebel's platforming gets very interesting once abilities are unlocked. As for other MVs with mediocre platforming, I think you said it best: there are A LOT of MVs with basic platforming. Those games are usually held up by Combat and Exploration. So, listing out MVs with mediocre platforming would take longer than just listing out MVs with good platforming: Aeterna Noctis, the Ori Games, and the Guacamelee games are just some off the top of my head I think have excellent platforming. I hope I answered all your questions :)
Heck yes! So excited to give this a watch during my lunch break and see if we had similar thoughts. Glad the Deck is working out for you, though- can't wait to see how the channel grows!
Absolutely 100 percent agree with this review. I just beat the game at 93 percent and never once peaked at a guide. Took me damn near 30 hours but it was such a joy to get lost so often. A REAL metroidvania. So many cool AHA moments when I realised how certain abilities had hidden mechanics. Love the lack of handholding. There IS some bs in the game too though for sure. Non respawning enemies in some rooms that needed pogo was a silly oversight for example. Will happily buy dlc for this or sequel.
Got really far and abandoned it for something. I forget what game pulled me away from it but I gotta go back and finish it. I'll probably just start it over. For some reason I can never go back and finish where I left off. I gotta start it and finish it. If I leave it for awhile I'll just start the game over. Even if I'm right at the end. Probably cause I gotta get back into the swing of the game play.
What really killed it for me was when my map showed two direct routes to get back where I needed to go, and both were blocked by movement gates. The only other option was an exceedingly long tour around the entire map. At which point I realized I was not having enough fun to justify the tedium. Also, what was up with the closing doors before the angler boss? And why were they still closing after the boss had been beaten?
I swear Hollow Knight is the sole reason I’ve fallen out of love with the Metroidvania genre lately. Just feels like MV developers have learned all the wrong lessons from that game, and the genre has just become a wave of Hollow Knight clones. I’ve never liked HK much, but its effect on the genre has made me even less accepting of it.
I’m publishing the Metroidvania Chronicles book series. I think an article on balancing in Metroidvanias would be super interesting. Let me know if you’d like to link up and be a part of a future volume!
I really wanted to like this game, I really did. Love the atmosphere and the visuals, the sound and the feeling of it. But after 16 hours barely making any progress I have to realize I don't have enough time for it. Shame, because I really like some parts of it, but the majority of it is not for me. Weird too because I really love the genre. Loved Hollow Knight too, and the classics like Metroid or newer ones like Blasphemous. This just is way too tedious for me and some of the challenges are artificially hard to the extreme without any rhyme or reason in narrative or gameplay.
Not all enemies respawn? Saving the game respawns all enemies. There are some specific annoying af enemies that reappear constantly, but they do so even if you stay in the room, they're just designed that way. One thing I noticed is that most enemies don't respawn, when you reenter the room without saving, but if you didn't kill them, their hp is fully restored, so sometimes I used that trick to heal.
Very good analysis. I agree to almost every points in this video. And I do agree: it does not respect the player's time, but it respects the player's intelligence.
I fully agree that it makes no sense that those save points aren't waypoints, they would have been perfect for that as they already look like something you could teleport out of. But the reason for that is clear, as you have stated: trying to be Hollow Knight, just copy pasted its travel/save systems.
6:21
I personally dislike when the save room is just next to bosses, because in that case I feel way less tension than when the room is a little far away. When I know I will be able to restart the fight instantly right after my death, I don't even care about dying.
But I agree with you that Cerebellum is a little bit too far away (nothing forces you to finish this fight that early in your playthrough though).
Same thing about save points being waypoints, it would make the backtracking way less interesting and prevent the player from familiarizing with the environment.
About "pixel perfect" platforming, I didn't encountered them at any moment. Also I'm pretty sure there is a coyote time in Rebel Transmute. Sometimes I feel some players are not used to challenging platforming (and a lot seem to not even pay attention to level design). Most of players dislike any kind of punishment and difficulty, like falling down a little bit when failing a jump. I think these moments are important for tension, at least when the game deserves we lose a little more time for it (and this game deserves it since it's excellent imo).
Honestly, I feel very frustated when I see players focusing more on, for example, combat combo system (uhh) or graphics, than focusing on the level design, because that's what gives us some super boring and bland games like Bloodstained, The Last Faith, Vernal Edge, Frontier Hunter Erza's wheel of fortune, etc etc
People always say that there are too many metroidvanias on the market, but imo there's way not enough GOOD metroidvanias with good level design, platforming and good gameplay
By the way, when you say Rebel transmute's platforming is on a par with average MVs, I really would like to know what they are ... Because on 9/10 of MVs I've played, level design is mediocre at best (like bland corridor without any platforming challenge, just some randomly placed ennemies) :(
18:00 couldn't agree more haha
PS: Sorry for my poor english
I thought your English was fine!
For save points being waypoints, I get what you're saying. It's a tough balance to achieve: Forcing the player to interact with the world vs. Quality of Life. I don't have the answer, but my recommendation would be, if you want to force interaction, make traversal as fun as possible.
As for pixel-perfect platforming, that was a bit of an exaggeration on my part. I was really talking about how the margin for error in some of the jumps between platforms is slim when you don't have any skills to aid you (air dash, hover, double jump). Once you get the air dash, I think the game's level design comes into its own.
When I said Rebel's platforming was on par with average MVs, I was only talking about the early game. I think Rebel's platforming gets very interesting once abilities are unlocked.
As for other MVs with mediocre platforming, I think you said it best: there are A LOT of MVs with basic platforming. Those games are usually held up by Combat and Exploration. So, listing out MVs with mediocre platforming would take longer than just listing out MVs with good platforming: Aeterna Noctis, the Ori Games, and the Guacamelee games are just some off the top of my head I think have excellent platforming.
I hope I answered all your questions :)
Thanks for your answer ! @@MetroidvaniaGuru
Heck yes! So excited to give this a watch during my lunch break and see if we had similar thoughts. Glad the Deck is working out for you, though- can't wait to see how the channel grows!
Hope you enjoy it! Again, thank you so much!
Absolutely 100 percent agree with this review. I just beat the game at 93 percent and never once peaked at a guide. Took me damn near 30 hours but it was such a joy to get lost so often. A REAL metroidvania. So many cool AHA moments when I realised how certain abilities had hidden mechanics. Love the lack of handholding. There IS some bs in the game too though for sure. Non respawning enemies in some rooms that needed pogo was a silly oversight for example. Will happily buy dlc for this or sequel.
This game needs more reviews. Very entertaining video.
Got really far and abandoned it for something. I forget what game pulled me away from it but I gotta go back and finish it. I'll probably just start it over. For some reason I can never go back and finish where I left off. I gotta start it and finish it. If I leave it for awhile I'll just start the game over. Even if I'm right at the end. Probably cause I gotta get back into the swing of the game play.
What really killed it for me was when my map showed two direct routes to get back where I needed to go, and both were blocked by movement gates. The only other option was an exceedingly long tour around the entire map. At which point I realized I was not having enough fun to justify the tedium. Also, what was up with the closing doors before the angler boss? And why were they still closing after the boss had been beaten?
Yeah, those doors were kinda dumb. Not sure what was being accomplished there other than trolling players.
You really do deserve more views
Thanks! One day...
Just gotta keep grinding.
Love the intro
i just got a new ability, to subscribe🎉
I really enjoyed spin jumping off the bombs
I wish I had known about it when I first played. I'm about to boot it back up just to do it LOL
@MetroidvaniaGuru it's saves soo much trouble early game
I swear Hollow Knight is the sole reason I’ve fallen out of love with the Metroidvania genre lately. Just feels like MV developers have learned all the wrong lessons from that game, and the genre has just become a wave of Hollow Knight clones. I’ve never liked HK much, but its effect on the genre has made me even less accepting of it.
Hollow Knight is a metroidvania for people that don’t actually like metroidvanias
I’m publishing the Metroidvania Chronicles book series. I think an article on balancing in Metroidvanias would be super interesting. Let me know if you’d like to link up and be a part of a future volume!
I’d be honored! Feel free to reach out to me anytime at my email: metroidvaniaguru@gmail.com
Like your videos. Please put in the review information on which platforms the games are available. Ok, thanks.
I really wanted to like this game, I really did. Love the atmosphere and the visuals, the sound and the feeling of it. But after 16 hours barely making any progress I have to realize I don't have enough time for it. Shame, because I really like some parts of it, but the majority of it is not for me. Weird too because I really love the genre. Loved Hollow Knight too, and the classics like Metroid or newer ones like Blasphemous. This just is way too tedious for me and some of the challenges are artificially hard to the extreme without any rhyme or reason in narrative or gameplay.
Not all enemies respawn? Saving the game respawns all enemies. There are some specific annoying af enemies that reappear constantly, but they do so even if you stay in the room, they're just designed that way. One thing I noticed is that most enemies don't respawn, when you reenter the room without saving, but if you didn't kill them, their hp is fully restored, so sometimes I used that trick to heal.
Yeah, all enemies respawn when you hit a save point. I meant not all enemies respawn when you re-enter a room. And I did the same trick to heal LOL
Woooooo
I just suggested you do a review on this game a few days ago lol. I got lucky.lol.
You're the boss. Hope you liked it :)
Metroid mixed with Hollow Knight then?
I feel like you missed opportunity to use mariobros fail soundfect after the zoom
Ah, crap. You're right LOL
"he/him"
Cry
I guess these games still haven't quite got the stake of marika memos on the runbacks yet haha
Oh you literally mentioned that straight after
Most Metroidvania has the courtesy of cutting runbacks long before Elden Ring lol.
LOL
Nice, but hard pass for me
Totally get it. Not everything's made for everyone.
@@MetroidvaniaGuru from your description it sounds somewhat similar to astronite (combat wise) and I really hated that game with all my heart
@@eljapel I does get compared to Astronite a lot
Is there an easy mode?
No easy mode, but there are accessibility options to help you out, like unlimited heals and extra HP.
@@MetroidvaniaGuru Perfect. Thank you
What kind of review is this....? It is full of spoilers....
Daaaaaaaamn, this game is annoying. Traversing the world is so very much stressful… otherwise it’s pretty good.