for real. i just bought the game a few days ago and love it so much and was trying to find videos about it and found this gem. very much appreciated @kirbyster - excellent work
This looks amazing dude. I'm impressed you managed to finish such an enormous project, and I hope that this catches the algorithm since you deserve attention for this.
Really cool video! My only criticism would be that a lot of the interview questions felt like "I think this is a problem, can you fix it?" just more phrased to get an opinion on the supposed problem. It felt less like an interview and more like commonly requested changes were being put right in front of a developer which I didn't find enjoyable to watch. Other than that issue, really well put together video and a crime that this isn't more viewed, really hope to see more of this in the future!
First of all, thanks for the comment, I'm glad you enjoyed the video! And I agree, looking back, I honestly cringe at the first several questions of the interview segment 😅. I should have had the foresight to know that some aspects of the game that I take issue with were left that way due to time constraints or a difference in opinions. If I could change the questions I asked in the interview, I'd have cut most of the questions in the first ~15 minutes. I was also *really* nervous at the start, so some of my words came out very awkwardly. Overall though, I'm still happy with the majority of the interview and I'm very glad I had the opportunity to ask Kilburn some questions for this video! :D
@@Kirbyster Thanks for replying! Improvement comes fastest from mistakes and recognizing what went wrong so don't feel too bad about it. Sorry if I came across as too harsh in my original comment, you did a really good job despite being so nervous.
@@KirbysterHi, first of all, awesome video, I'm so glad it popped up for me! I can totally see the criticisms here, but I'd like to say that while you can ask about anything in an interview, these questions were something I was very invested in hearing Kilburns take on, and I think they were an appropriate continuation of the subjects of this video. You appreciated his perspectives, and all of this enriched, not just the conversation, but also the review aspect.
The algorithm truely did you dirty. This is very well done and exactly what I was looking to digest since I’ve become completely obsessed with this game. Great work mate.
Listened to this a while back during my shift, just remembered to come back and leave appreciation. I enjoyed this a lot; I didn't think I'd care for the interview portion but I was intrigued the whole time. Thank you for sharing such a project with us. I as well hope this sees more an more attention soon, it certainly deserves it.
YOU DID IT!!! Awesome job dude, this was an amazing video!! As someone who stopped playing a while ago, it was nice to see that you've addressed the majority of concerns that I had with the game personally. I was expecting this to be a "This is the best game and if you have a problem with that, that's on you", but you gave a very thoughtful and detailed breakdown of everything good and bad that you could think of, coming to the conclusion if why it is your favourite and why you've stayed with it for so long. Nice to hear your perspective, and it seems like it resonates with a lot of the community and it's structured very well!
Thanks so much! Despite my efforts, I wasn't sure how this video would sound to someone who isn't an Isaac superfan like myself, but I'm glad to hear that I kept it largely accessible.
Of all video essays that ive seen on youtube, this one may unironically and honestly be the greatest one, you've given points and critiques that I would never have considered due to being blinded by my love of the game. A year well spent I'd say.
Holy shit what a killer vid. I’ve been looking for a long form piece of analysis for Isaac for a while now. It can sometimes seem that Isaac has a bit of a reputation for being a roguelike that’s totally dependent on RNG. In truth, I think it’s one of the most complex titles in the genre. The game has insane variety and is largely driven by player choice in a way that’s immensely satisfying once you’ve mastered it. I really appreciate you paying respect to its depth while also highlighting some of the negative aspects of the game such as curses.
This video was unreal, i watched half of it due to time constraints, nostalgia kicked in...I learned more about the game than I previously knew..quite entertaining. Hats off to you for the hard work you put in to put out such a lengthy and comprehensive look at this game.
Absolutely amazing! I'm happy you were finally able to finish this beast of a project and it turned out so well! I honestly can't believe you've never done video editing before this. Also, this is actually one of the only analysis videos over an hour long that actually spends its time well--it feels like everything you say is important and contributes to an actual analysis of Isaac rather than just rambling aimlessly :)
Great video :)! I'm so happy you finally finished your project and it came out so well! :) I hope your future videos are just as good if not better :)!
I am commenting super late on this, but it was awesome seeing your progress making this video years ago and I appreciate the breadth and depth this video reaches about Isaac's many intricacies without going too far into tangents or giving excessive examples. It's been awesome seeing this video gain traction over the past two years and I look forward to more and more people getting to see this kickass review!!!
Came here from your reddit post. Haven't watched the whole video yet but it looks amazing. With content of this quality you'll surely blow up soon. You earned yourself a subscriber my friend
When I saw this guy has less than 2k subs I died inside. This is incredible! I have so much respect for people who put this much care into games and its development especially, and the person behind it. I love both the gameplay and the lore aspects so deeply. Great job!
Damn i can't believe i haven't seen this video until now with how much im into issac. This was an amazing video and the kilburn interview was actually very interesting listening to. Great job my man
the history of Binding of Isaac is absolutely absurd. a game dev jam that caused the 'roguelite' genre to explode. a game thats been in development for an entire decade. it's almost like this game haunts edmund, considering how 'controversial' the expansions have been. i loved super meat boy. and i loved the flash version of binding of isaac... despite the performance issues. i initially didnt pick up rebirth since i played so much of the flash version. but, it seemed like a nice overhaul. honestly, repentance is the first time ive seriously wanted to go back to the game. ive heard there will be a 'final patch, for real for real' coming out by the end of the year. hopefully some of the issues youve talked about still looming are addressed. i agree with how the fun aspect of a rogue-lite is being able to surpass the challenges provided to you even if you're given 'sub-optimal' items. trying to figure out synergies even with a weak loadout is the most fun aspect of the genre. i suppose what makes binding of isaac so unique is with how unique items are. a problem with alot games in general is having very weak incremental based upgrades (+5% more attack etc.... ), which is always so boring. having 'upgrades' & items in isaac be so unique in their properties, ofc it makes it hellish to balance, but it gives the chance for each run to provide something different. recently, Balatro is another great example of that philosophy. but hey, im very curious on how Mewgenics ends up.
I love listening to video essays while I do things, and something so comprehensive and attuned to an audience of people who are and aren’t in the know of everything in Isaac makes me genuinely happy to see. Thank you for your work, and I really enjoyed the video.
Fantastic video, can't believe it's only just popped up on my UA-cam! Interesting to hear your take on curses - personally, I like all of them and think they all affect the game in some meaningful way. To mention a couple, Curse of the Lost I think is a fun mental exercise to memorise the floor layout (especially challenging to find secret rooms), and Curse of Darkness makes you need to play more carefully in certain rooms. I'd love to see an extension to the curse mechanic to add some variety, and I like your ideas! Some other ideas I've had are: - Curse of Lead - character loses flight and lower speed stat to 1 if above 1 - Curse of the Broken - picking up passives removes your oldest passive - Curse of the Dauntless - red heart drain effect down to 2 hearts (not draining soul hearts) - Curse of the Capricious - rerolls 1 random passive each time you're hit (only for the floor, they return to normal afterwards) It would also be cool for these curses to be locked behind thresholds in the game, e.g. tainted character related ones unlocking at the same time as the character.
Just wanted to say, this is by far one of the most in depth and well done videos reviewing Issac and it’s BAFFLING you don’t have more views on this video! Keep it up!
This is a banger review on one of the best games out there. It’s a good thing you posted it in the Binding of Isaac discord because I probably never would have seen this. While I have nothing to say about the gameplay and what not, I’ll just say that this game changed my life from a creative prospective. I think the first connection I formed from this game started with the enemy designs. I’ve always been a bit afraid to put a bit of myself into my character designs and worlds but seeing Edmunds weird psyche thrown into a game while still getting a mostly enjoyable experience out of it made me realize “Damn, maybe I can do that too”. This games commentary on religion also brought me closer to it as a person who use to fear God as a child and currently just fears being shunned by my Christian family because I disassociated with the religion. So uh yeah, thanks Edmund for changing my life lmao.
Man, Mr. Algorhyhm is such a weird thing. It's criminal that this high quality and effort video has been floating around with so little views. Great job dude.
I think the "filler" challenges often serve well as an introduction or appetiser for new players to a newly unlocked character, or isaac's world of items and interactions in general. They're not that interesting for experiences players, but I found them to be interesting enough when I was newly introduced to the game.
I genuinely loved listening to the interview, it helped me really see what their thoughts on things are and why certain things were implemented. As a relatively new isaac player with only 61 hours, this was an awesome listen.
The binding of isaac is my favorite game. It's how I made my best friend and has been with me for nearly a decade. This video does it justice and makes me appreciate it even more. Thank you.
A genuine masterpiece of a video essay about a game I absolutely love. Thank you for your efforts and I look forward to viewing your past videos and those to come!
Glad to see I'm not the only one who hates Lumps! Lol jokes aside this was incredibly well done. I'm very impressed with how many topics you covered and how well constructed your critiques were. Looking forward to whatever you make next!
What a monumental piece of work! As someone who loves this game I'm happy that there are people willing to deconstruct and critique it on such an intricate level. Looking forward to your future videos❤️
this is legendary! 3.5K in isaac since flash version and i never noticed vampire isaac not having a reflection :D one more thing i like about isaac is that you can still discover something new even after years of playing it
1 year ago: “Item descriptions shouldn’t be in the game, you shouldn’t give that to every player” 1 year later: “The next thing we’re adding is item descriptions in game” Lmao
just got recommended your video. very nice video essay. playing the game on and of since i bought it on release. it just doesnt get stale and all the subtext and the story makes it for me the best and to be honest only rogue like i ever stuck with
I agree with Kilburn against the Hush gives Eden's Blessing thing. I could see people playing easy characters to get it, then swapping to a hard character, and if they die they will play the easy ones again. It would encourage you to not learn the hard character, and to play other characters instead.
Very underrated video essay masterpiece. As a player who has over 2000 hours in all DLCs combined, I must say I side with devs more than the community what comes to game balance and overall decisions how stuff works. For example what comes to item nerfs, the game is not even that hard currently, you can win every run excluding going for Delirium with like Tainted Lost. Also I don't use any mods, the vanilla experience is good (enough). Of course every time they nerfed gamebreaks specifically I complained and I complained about Repentance difficulty when it came out. But in retrospect, it was just not liking change. Nowadays I would like more changes in all games I play.
Nice video man. Mods are so important as they help people to mold their own experiences. Pocket actives and overcoming curses for example will never be implemented but with mods we have that option. Anyways, keep up the good work man.
Protip for getting Greedier Mode unlocks, hit the following keys in the following order: ~ debug 10 debug 8 g c84 Seriously, heck greed mode. I’d get a T-Lost streak of 34 before playing Greed Mode 34 times. It’s just not fun.
I feel the same about challenges and greed mode. While I like them to some degree, it's inconvenient to have incentive to finish them to experience the main game to the fullest. They'd do better as separate content. The lack of polish leading to some items trivialising these special challenges I too find counterproductive. However, I still feel that rarely finding a crazy build or item, and totally steam rolling the game to be in Isaac's very DNA. I remember how amazing it was to find those, especially when I was less confident and felt like I just couldn't get through them in any other way. It doesn't appeal as much to experienced players who seek constant testing, but to me, even after getting 1000000% before repentance, it's still a major good tension and excitement to gamble for that god run each time I play. If you would only play them once, this doesn't hold as well to greed mode and the challenges, but I don't think I could bring myself to delete broken interactions. I think replayability would be the most apt answer.
2:36:20 "People optimize the fun out of the Game" would sum that up pretty good. Great Video, some Interview Questions were really weird tho. I would have asked more about the Interation and the Idea getting
Wow, look at this nerd making a three hour long video about Binding of Isaac. Amazing video, crazy how polished and well structured it is. My only real complaint is how the interview part drags on more than it should. What you probably should have done, although it would have been somewhat tedious and time consuming, is go through and manually cut out all of the silence and pauses while people were thinking about what to say.
I'm glad you liked the video! And tbh I agree the interview takes up more time than I'd like it to. I considered increasing the speed of it to something like 1.15x speed, but decided against it because some people may be annoyed by the unnatural cadence and pitch. You're right that cutting out pauses in the interview would have made it better but I had to get this video out eventually man 😂. I think prompting the viewer to skip to the conclusion if they aren't interested in the hour long interview was a good compromise.
Im gona comment my thoughts on the video after I finish it but man I just got to say that it's great to see another monolith fan! Can't wait for the new dlc!
While there are certainly things I disagree with (i.e. I like T. Jacob but dislike T. Lazarus) this video is overall very informative and extremely well put together. Definitely deserves more views than it has.
No hate im just five minutes in and gotta say, I dont think isaac overheard god saying anything, I think it just said isaacs mother heard a voice and then Isaac saw her going at him with the knife, I think this distinction is necessary for a couple reasons but mainly to show how she might have been delusional or something? like I said no hate still gonna watch the whole video Isaac appreciators need appreciation too
Incredible review ! You really sumarized all these infos really well ! I'm a player that switched from rebirth to repetance directly so some of the review doesn't really affect me but imo repentance overall did such a great job at balancing and improving replayability. I especially agree with your view on gameplay, my main enjoyment in the game is winning despite the hazards thrown at me, gamebreak and resets mostly annoy me... I don't agree with you about some points tho (maybe biased since the video is now pretty old) : - curses (except of the lost) are really minor annoyances that balance the overall gameplay better (would be too easy if no curses of the blind would appear throwing your plans down the gutter once a run), and although curse of the lost REALLY is annoying, I think it would be too easy to just remove it, a rework on it would be nice - I am part of the playerbase that enjoy greed mode quite a lot imo. Surethe gamebreak might be more common and runs might feel redondant but I really like the contrasts in gameplay : * you need to manage your ressources to overcome two objectives being overcoming waves and preparing the ultra greed fight, seen like this it doesn't feel as repeatitive as it would in a normal run context to get mediocre items. * charges management is really interesting to play around, between stackable active effect, or just managing the waves to use charges optimally * your view of many mechanics is shifted completely, like powerful items losing meaning (holy mantle becomes way less useful), trash items becoming overpowered (like box of friend or brown nugget for example in waves), and new approach to trinckets / consumable * in contrast to classic mode runs where it's become daunting for me to maximize every floor, just to lose at the late stages being dozens of minutes in the run, greed mode never really feel bad to lose, becose it's much faster and dynamic, so for me losing a run in greed mode is barely frustating in contrast to losing at delirium after 1h10 of tedious planing only to get skill/random issues :/ * I'd say the main issue of green mode is how contrasting the begining is from characters, those with low health and / or no stackable active can really suffer a lot from hard waves stacking each other early game which makes the luck factor too revelant, and other can really profit too much from their gameplay in my opinion (hello T.Magdalene and Lilith). The 2x1 room makes for a lot of offscreen unfair damages too, especially in sheol and ultra greed phase 1, but again greed runs don't need as much effort and involvement as classic runs so it's bearable. Anyway, enough of my rambling, really enjoyed this video and the interview part was also very cool ! You earned a sub from me !
Im glad, and at the same time pissed, that this masterpiece showed itself to me after 1 year of release. Algorithm doesn't like quality, well polished and almost scientific content i guess. Im at 1/3 of the video and loved every second of it! Gladly it seems like it gets recommended to more and more people like me who love Isaac, and rougelike(lite?) games. Peace & love!
Really cool video, I think the only thing that I felt was a little out of place was the use of mods on an analisis video about the vanilla game, you didnt really take them into account when giving your thoughts, which is great, but they were still on screen which was a little distracting. Otherwise, impressive video, really indepth!
Thanks for the comment! And yeah, I initially wanted to include mods to show that they can seamlessly expand the gameplay experience, but after getting a large amount of this video done I realized that it could be confusing to people that aren't familiar with Repentance or Isaac in general. If I were to make this video again I would have kept mods on in just the section I reference them.
![The Complete Story of Destiny! From origins to Shadowkeep [Timeline and Lore explained]](/img/n.gif)
why did a video of this quality go unnoticed by everyone for this long? he even interviewed the dev, youtube screwed this guy over so hard
youtube has no way to no of what "video quality" means. its word of mouth. subs. and likes. not enough of people who watched. liked
His voice is effeminate and inorganic sounding, that's what sent me away immediately.
for real. i just bought the game a few days ago and love it so much and was trying to find videos about it and found this gem. very much appreciated @kirbyster - excellent work
This looks amazing dude. I'm impressed you managed to finish such an enormous project, and I hope that this catches the algorithm since you deserve attention for this.
Thanks so much! I really hope so too lol
@@Kirbyster 2 years ago!? Goddamn it youtube you had one fing job!! I love this game how come I not come across this earlier, awesome !
Really cool video! My only criticism would be that a lot of the interview questions felt like "I think this is a problem, can you fix it?" just more phrased to get an opinion on the supposed problem. It felt less like an interview and more like commonly requested changes were being put right in front of a developer which I didn't find enjoyable to watch.
Other than that issue, really well put together video and a crime that this isn't more viewed, really hope to see more of this in the future!
First of all, thanks for the comment, I'm glad you enjoyed the video!
And I agree, looking back, I honestly cringe at the first several questions of the interview segment 😅. I should have had the foresight to know that some aspects of the game that I take issue with were left that way due to time constraints or a difference in opinions. If I could change the questions I asked in the interview, I'd have cut most of the questions in the first ~15 minutes. I was also *really* nervous at the start, so some of my words came out very awkwardly. Overall though, I'm still happy with the majority of the interview and I'm very glad I had the opportunity to ask Kilburn some questions for this video! :D
@@Kirbyster Thanks for replying! Improvement comes fastest from mistakes and recognizing what went wrong so don't feel too bad about it. Sorry if I came across as too harsh in my original comment, you did a really good job despite being so nervous.
@@KirbysterHi, first of all, awesome video, I'm so glad it popped up for me!
I can totally see the criticisms here, but I'd like to say that while you can ask about anything in an interview, these questions were something I was very invested in hearing Kilburns take on, and I think they were an appropriate continuation of the subjects of this video. You appreciated his perspectives, and all of this enriched, not just the conversation, but also the review aspect.
The algorithm truely did you dirty. This is very well done and exactly what I was looking to digest since I’ve become completely obsessed with this game.
Great work mate.
Thanks for your comment 😃!
My lord, where do I begin?? This is a masterful overview of Isaac, and I’m only half an hour in. Well done!!
Why does this not have 1 million views UA-cam? This has had an absurd amount of effort put into it.
Listened to this a while back during my shift, just remembered to come back and leave appreciation. I enjoyed this a lot; I didn't think I'd care for the interview portion but I was intrigued the whole time. Thank you for sharing such a project with us. I as well hope this sees more an more attention soon, it certainly deserves it.
amazing work dude
i am honestly amazed at how little recognition this video is getting
especially since it is very well made , organised and detailed
bro this this is incredible how is there only 32k views and this man deserves more than 755 subs like he even got an interview
YOU DID IT!!! Awesome job dude, this was an amazing video!!
As someone who stopped playing a while ago, it was nice to see that you've addressed the majority of concerns that I had with the game personally. I was expecting this to be a "This is the best game and if you have a problem with that, that's on you", but you gave a very thoughtful and detailed breakdown of everything good and bad that you could think of, coming to the conclusion if why it is your favourite and why you've stayed with it for so long.
Nice to hear your perspective, and it seems like it resonates with a lot of the community and it's structured very well!
Though I have never played the binding of isaac once, the way this video was structured kept me engaged for the most part. good job!
Thanks so much! Despite my efforts, I wasn't sure how this video would sound to someone who isn't an Isaac superfan like myself, but I'm glad to hear that I kept it largely accessible.
Of all video essays that ive seen on youtube, this one may unironically and honestly be the greatest one, you've given points and critiques that I would never have considered due to being blinded by my love of the game. A year well spent I'd say.
Holy shit what a killer vid. I’ve been looking for a long form piece of analysis for Isaac for a while now.
It can sometimes seem that Isaac has a bit of a reputation for being a roguelike that’s totally dependent on RNG. In truth, I think it’s one of the most complex titles in the genre. The game has insane variety and is largely driven by player choice in a way that’s immensely satisfying once you’ve mastered it. I really appreciate you paying respect to its depth while also highlighting some of the negative aspects of the game such as curses.
This video was unreal, i watched half of it due to time constraints, nostalgia kicked in...I learned more about the game than I previously knew..quite entertaining. Hats off to you for the hard work you put in to put out such a lengthy and comprehensive look at this game.
68k views is criminal. I'm hoping that this will be one of those videos that in a few years will get recommended like crazy and get millions of views.
Absolutely amazing! I'm happy you were finally able to finish this beast of a project and it turned out so well! I honestly can't believe you've never done video editing before this. Also, this is actually one of the only analysis videos over an hour long that actually spends its time well--it feels like everything you say is important and contributes to an actual analysis of Isaac rather than just rambling aimlessly :)
Great video :)! I'm so happy you finally finished your project and it came out so well! :) I hope your future videos are just as good if not better :)!
Just got this recommended. Hope this video explodes by the random blessing of the algorithm!
I am commenting super late on this, but it was awesome seeing your progress making this video years ago and I appreciate the breadth and depth this video reaches about Isaac's many intricacies without going too far into tangents or giving excessive examples. It's been awesome seeing this video gain traction over the past two years and I look forward to more and more people getting to see this kickass review!!!
such an incredible video, hope it blows up!
Came here from your reddit post. Haven't watched the whole video yet but it looks amazing. With content of this quality you'll surely blow up soon. You earned yourself a subscriber my friend
When I saw this guy has less than 2k subs I died inside. This is incredible! I have so much respect for people who put this much care into games and its development especially, and the person behind it. I love both the gameplay and the lore aspects so deeply. Great job!
Been waiting for this, glad I turned on the notifications! Too bad im at work right now :(
Damn i can't believe i haven't seen this video until now with how much im into issac. This was an amazing video and the kilburn interview was actually very interesting listening to. Great job my man
the history of Binding of Isaac is absolutely absurd. a game dev jam that caused the 'roguelite' genre to explode. a game thats been in development for an entire decade. it's almost like this game haunts edmund, considering how 'controversial' the expansions have been.
i loved super meat boy. and i loved the flash version of binding of isaac... despite the performance issues. i initially didnt pick up rebirth since i played so much of the flash version. but, it seemed like a nice overhaul.
honestly, repentance is the first time ive seriously wanted to go back to the game. ive heard there will be a 'final patch, for real for real' coming out by the end of the year. hopefully some of the issues youve talked about still looming are addressed.
i agree with how the fun aspect of a rogue-lite is being able to surpass the challenges provided to you even if you're given 'sub-optimal' items. trying to figure out synergies even with a weak loadout is the most fun aspect of the genre.
i suppose what makes binding of isaac so unique is with how unique items are. a problem with alot games in general is having very weak incremental based upgrades (+5% more attack etc.... ), which is always so boring. having 'upgrades' & items in isaac be so unique in their properties, ofc it makes it hellish to balance, but it gives the chance for each run to provide something different.
recently, Balatro is another great example of that philosophy. but hey, im very curious on how Mewgenics ends up.
I love listening to video essays while I do things, and something so comprehensive and attuned to an audience of people who are and aren’t in the know of everything in Isaac makes me genuinely happy to see. Thank you for your work, and I really enjoyed the video.
Just randomly found the video but you are def saved to the playlist, car rides just got better!
Fantastic video, can't believe it's only just popped up on my UA-cam!
Interesting to hear your take on curses - personally, I like all of them and think they all affect the game in some meaningful way. To mention a couple, Curse of the Lost I think is a fun mental exercise to memorise the floor layout (especially challenging to find secret rooms), and Curse of Darkness makes you need to play more carefully in certain rooms.
I'd love to see an extension to the curse mechanic to add some variety, and I like your ideas! Some other ideas I've had are:
- Curse of Lead - character loses flight and lower speed stat to 1 if above 1
- Curse of the Broken - picking up passives removes your oldest passive
- Curse of the Dauntless - red heart drain effect down to 2 hearts (not draining soul hearts)
- Curse of the Capricious - rerolls 1 random passive each time you're hit (only for the floor, they return to normal afterwards)
It would also be cool for these curses to be locked behind thresholds in the game, e.g. tainted character related ones unlocking at the same time as the character.
This is cool as hell:)
Ive nearly got 400 hours in isaac and ive barely filled out two characters completion marks
Its fantastic
Great video!!
I loved listening to this while playing games, good video essay
This video is incredibly well made, you sure got my sub for that. You're massively underviewed
The mad lad did it! Great Review! All the love and passion can be felt, keep it up King!
Thanks man, thats great to hear!
It's unfathomable how this hasn't gained traction yet, amazing work dude.
Just wanted to say, this is by far one of the most in depth and well done videos reviewing Issac and it’s BAFFLING you don’t have more views on this video! Keep it up!
Thank you for introducing me to some nice mods and the alt soundtrack in addition to an already awesome breakdown of this wonderful title.
Best review I’ve seen of Isaac! I totally think you should stream Isaac and recite this entire analysis on a Twitch stream :)
This is a banger review on one of the best games out there. It’s a good thing you posted it in the Binding of Isaac discord because I probably never would have seen this.
While I have nothing to say about the gameplay and what not, I’ll just say that this game changed my life from a creative prospective. I think the first connection I formed from this game started with the enemy designs. I’ve always been a bit afraid to put a bit of myself into my character designs and worlds but seeing Edmunds weird psyche thrown into a game while still getting a mostly enjoyable experience out of it made me realize “Damn, maybe I can do that too”.
This games commentary on religion also brought me closer to it as a person who use to fear God as a child and currently just fears being shunned by my Christian family because I disassociated with the religion.
So uh yeah, thanks Edmund for changing my life lmao.
Man, Mr. Algorhyhm is such a weird thing.
It's criminal that this high quality and effort video has been floating around with so little views.
Great job dude.
I think the "filler" challenges often serve well as an introduction or appetiser for new players to a newly unlocked character, or isaac's world of items and interactions in general. They're not that interesting for experiences players, but I found them to be interesting enough when I was newly introduced to the game.
I genuinely loved listening to the interview, it helped me really see what their thoughts on things are and why certain things were implemented. As a relatively new isaac player with only 61 hours, this was an awesome listen.
The binding of isaac is my favorite game. It's how I made my best friend and has been with me for nearly a decade. This video does it justice and makes me appreciate it even more. Thank you.
A genuine masterpiece of a video essay about a game I absolutely love. Thank you for your efforts and I look forward to viewing your past videos and those to come!
Finally dedicated a day to watch this. This truly is an inspiration to go play The Binding of Isaac and appreciate it as much as you do.
Thanks for taking the time to watch it!
Love hearing the Beats to Repent To soundtrack. Awesome review!
Glad to see this project come to fruition :D Also nice vine booms :)
Thanks man! I really appreciate you checking it out
I cant even put into words how much i enjoyed this video. Thank you for making this.
Glad to see I'm not the only one who hates Lumps! Lol jokes aside this was incredibly well done. I'm very impressed with how many topics you covered and how well constructed your critiques were. Looking forward to whatever you make next!
im a tad late but this was insanely well made for a channel of your size. so glad its came up on my reccomended
This is a really solid video, great work. It's a shame more people haven't seen it
Hope this blows up. Excellent video.
Truly appreciate the rescored music!!! I love this video so much, thank you
This is an amazing video
I can't even imagine the amount of effort went into this
nothing but respect man great video ♥️
Very high quality video from someone with no subs ! Great work you’re gonna Make it with hard work like this.
What a monumental piece of work! As someone who loves this game I'm happy that there are people willing to deconstruct and critique it on such an intricate level. Looking forward to your future videos❤️
I’ve watched this video twice now it’s so good thank you!!!
Excellent video! Proud to be able to give you the thousandth like
So happy to find a long form essay of Isaac, and this item is definitely quality 4😊 Going to rewatch right away.
Omg quality 4 UA-cam review 😆 thanks for the kind words!
i woke up to this after leaving my phone and falling asleep
lol same
this is legendary! 3.5K in isaac since flash version and i never noticed vampire isaac not having a reflection :D one more thing i like about isaac is that you can still discover something new even after years of playing it
3 hour long essay on Isaac? Exactly what my ape brain needs
super underrated video and channel, really nice video
1 year ago: “Item descriptions shouldn’t be in the game, you shouldn’t give that to every player”
1 year later: “The next thing we’re adding is item descriptions in game”
Lmao
just got recommended your video. very nice video essay.
playing the game on and of since i bought it on release. it just doesnt get stale and all the subtext and the story makes it for me the best and to be honest only rogue like i ever stuck with
I agree with Kilburn against the Hush gives Eden's Blessing thing. I could see people playing easy characters to get it, then swapping to a hard character, and if they die they will play the easy ones again. It would encourage you to not learn the hard character, and to play other characters instead.
Very underrated video essay masterpiece.
As a player who has over 2000 hours in all DLCs combined, I must say I side with devs more than the community what comes to game balance and overall decisions how stuff works. For example what comes to item nerfs, the game is not even that hard currently, you can win every run excluding going for Delirium with like Tainted Lost. Also I don't use any mods, the vanilla experience is good (enough).
Of course every time they nerfed gamebreaks specifically I complained and I complained about Repentance difficulty when it came out. But in retrospect, it was just not liking change. Nowadays I would like more changes in all games I play.
i appreciate the big mod list, great video overall, truly underrated!
absolutely amazing video, severly underated
Nice video man. Mods are so important as they help people to mold their own experiences. Pocket actives and overcoming curses for example will never be implemented but with mods we have that option.
Anyways, keep up the good work man.
I'm a simple man. I hear a distinction being made between roguelikes and roguelites within the first 4 minutes of video, I drop a like.
I think that this is probably one of if not the best Isaac Video on this website, thank you so much mwah mwah mwah
Underrated amazing video
Protip for getting Greedier Mode unlocks, hit the following keys in the following order:
~
debug 10
debug 8
g c84
Seriously, heck greed mode. I’d get a T-Lost streak of 34 before playing Greed Mode 34 times. It’s just not fun.
Based and funpilled
What a really cool game concepts. Games have certain challenges, and test players skill and can learn from them.
Mario Party with Shots!
its genuinely just weird how youtube didnt push this video out
A VIDEO ESSAY OF MY FAVORITE VIDEO GAME THATS HOURS LONG!? gee I'm so heckin happy!
Isaac fan says heckin. Never thought I’d see the day!
I woke up to this autoplaying and spent the rest of the day listening and just being like "yea"
I feel the same about challenges and greed mode. While I like them to some degree, it's inconvenient to have incentive to finish them to experience the main game to the fullest. They'd do better as separate content.
The lack of polish leading to some items trivialising these special challenges I too find counterproductive.
However, I still feel that rarely finding a crazy build or item, and totally steam rolling the game to be in Isaac's very DNA. I remember how amazing it was to find those, especially when I was less confident and felt like I just couldn't get through them in any other way. It doesn't appeal as much to experienced players who seek constant testing, but to me, even after getting 1000000% before repentance, it's still a major good tension and excitement to gamble for that god run each time I play.
If you would only play them once, this doesn't hold as well to greed mode and the challenges, but I don't think I could bring myself to delete broken interactions. I think replayability would be the most apt answer.
2:36:20 "People optimize the fun out of the Game" would sum that up pretty good.
Great Video, some Interview Questions were really weird tho. I would have asked more about the Interation and the Idea getting
Wow, look at this nerd making a three hour long video about Binding of Isaac.
Amazing video, crazy how polished and well structured it is. My only real complaint is how the interview part drags on more than it should. What you probably should have done, although it would have been somewhat tedious and time consuming, is go through and manually cut out all of the silence and pauses while people were thinking about what to say.
I'm glad you liked the video! And tbh I agree the interview takes up more time than I'd like it to. I considered increasing the speed of it to something like 1.15x speed, but decided against it because some people may be annoyed by the unnatural cadence and pitch. You're right that cutting out pauses in the interview would have made it better but I had to get this video out eventually man 😂. I think prompting the viewer to skip to the conclusion if they aren't interested in the hour long interview was a good compromise.
you deserve hundreds of thousands of subscribers
Im gona comment my thoughts on the video after I finish it but man I just got to say that it's great to see another monolith fan! Can't wait for the new dlc!
This video is really really well made
This video is amazing!!!!
While there are certainly things I disagree with (i.e. I like T. Jacob but dislike T. Lazarus) this video is overall very informative and extremely well put together. Definitely deserves more views than it has.
This is an amazing vid dude
This deserves so many more views! Great video, and you present your points well even if I disagree.
just watched the critique. very very nice analysis!
No hate im just five minutes in and gotta say, I dont think isaac overheard god saying anything, I think it just said isaacs mother heard a voice and then Isaac saw her going at him with the knife, I think this distinction is necessary for a couple reasons but mainly to show how she might have been delusional or something? like I said no hate still gonna watch the whole video Isaac appreciators need appreciation too
Incredible review ! You really sumarized all these infos really well ! I'm a player that switched from rebirth to repetance directly so some of the review doesn't really affect me but imo repentance overall did such a great job at balancing and improving replayability. I especially agree with your view on gameplay, my main enjoyment in the game is winning despite the hazards thrown at me, gamebreak and resets mostly annoy me...
I don't agree with you about some points tho (maybe biased since the video is now pretty old) :
- curses (except of the lost) are really minor annoyances that balance the overall gameplay better (would be too easy if no curses of the blind would appear throwing your plans down the gutter once a run), and although curse of the lost REALLY is annoying, I think it would be too easy to just remove it, a rework on it would be nice
- I am part of the playerbase that enjoy greed mode quite a lot imo. Surethe gamebreak might be more common and runs might feel redondant but I really like the contrasts in gameplay :
* you need to manage your ressources to overcome two objectives being overcoming waves and preparing the ultra greed fight, seen like this it doesn't feel as repeatitive as it would in a normal run context to get mediocre items.
* charges management is really interesting to play around, between stackable active effect, or just managing the waves to use charges optimally
* your view of many mechanics is shifted completely, like powerful items losing meaning (holy mantle becomes way less useful), trash items becoming overpowered (like box of friend or brown nugget for example in waves), and new approach to trinckets / consumable
* in contrast to classic mode runs where it's become daunting for me to maximize every floor, just to lose at the late stages being dozens of minutes in the run, greed mode never really feel bad to lose, becose it's much faster and dynamic, so for me losing a run in greed mode is barely frustating in contrast to losing at delirium after 1h10 of tedious planing only to get skill/random issues :/
* I'd say the main issue of green mode is how contrasting the begining is from characters, those with low health and / or no stackable active can really suffer a lot from hard waves stacking each other early game which makes the luck factor too revelant, and other can really profit too much from their gameplay in my opinion (hello T.Magdalene and Lilith). The 2x1 room makes for a lot of offscreen unfair damages too, especially in sheol and ultra greed phase 1, but again greed runs don't need as much effort and involvement as classic runs so it's bearable.
Anyway, enough of my rambling, really enjoyed this video and the interview part was also very cool ! You earned a sub from me !
2:01:30 would have LOVED to hear his thoughts on glitched crown after this
1:37:13 Hey I actually ported this mod to repentance and I was watching this while improving sprites for it funnily enough
I’m looking forward to playing with it! 🙏
I love videogames, and this is an awesome video of an awesome videogame :D
I will now go back to playing tainted cain for 17 hours straight
Im glad, and at the same time pissed, that this masterpiece showed itself to me after 1 year of release. Algorithm doesn't like quality, well polished and almost scientific content i guess. Im at 1/3 of the video and loved every second of it! Gladly it seems like it gets recommended to more and more people like me who love Isaac, and rougelike(lite?) games. Peace & love!
Excellent video! Shame it only has 4k views
Incredible video, wow
Really cool video, I think the only thing that I felt was a little out of place was the use of mods on an analisis video about the vanilla game, you didnt really take them into account when giving your thoughts, which is great, but they were still on screen which was a little distracting. Otherwise, impressive video, really indepth!
Thanks for the comment! And yeah, I initially wanted to include mods to show that they can seamlessly expand the gameplay experience, but after getting a large amount of this video done I realized that it could be confusing to people that aren't familiar with Repentance or Isaac in general. If I were to make this video again I would have kept mods on in just the section I reference them.
Commenting for the algo. Good job bro
@@RematodeRanger thanks man, I appreciate it 😁
hell yeah video essay in my recommended on a game i started in july and already put 600 hours in
Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Pikmin and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door shown in the intro? Good taste!
My algorithm found you!