Games that are Locked Behind Knowledge
Вставка
- Опубліковано 25 лип 2024
- Life feels a little emptier after knowing that the first playthrough of a Knowledge-Based Game is gone forever.
--
Typically, games rely on skill-based challenges with strategic decision making in real time. Progress is tied to defeating enemies or overcoming physical obstacles.
But there's another way to progress, that's less about new tools and more about new ideas. Instead of obtaining an item or ability to interact with the world differently, the game reveals possibilities you didn't even know existed.
00:00 Experiment and Engage
00:51 Knowledge-Based Games
02:34 A Mysterious Well
04:51 A Clockwork Universe
08:51 Game Literacy
10:21 A Cruel Ecosystem
13:17 The Recipe Book
14:36 Multiple Layers
16:40 A Forgotten Civilization
20:46 You Can Only Play Once
23:04 The Hidden Layers
25:06 Life is Emptier Now
Potential Spoilers
At no point in this video do I give away the solution to a puzzle. There are examples of outcomes and the setup, but the "Epiphany" moment will never be shown. Most footage is from the first hour of each game.
Outer Wilds: First 22 minutes of the game are spoiled.
Animal Well: Mid-game and Late-game areas are shown. Outcomes of late-game puzzles are discussed, but how to solve them is not.
Tunic: Early game and first boss.
Rain World: Some late game areas are shown, but no details on their enemies or environments and how to traverse them.
Footage shown: Animal Well, Outer Wilds, Tunic, Rain World, Hollow Knight, Planet of Lana, Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree, Super Mario Wonder, The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild & Tears of the Kingdom, Risk of Rain 2, Dredge, Subnautica, Soma, Signalis, Baba is You, Chants of Sennaar, Minecraft.
Copyright Disclaimer: Under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. All video/image content is edited under fair use rights for reasons of commentary.
I do not own the images, music, or footage used in this video. All rights and credit goes to the original owners.
♫ Music Used - pastebin.com/tZTYZdaw
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0
creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Thumbnail design: x.com/BatNick02
#CosmicHour #Horror #Worldbuilding - Ігри
Ngl I clicked on the video because I thought the thumbnail said „there are monkeys“, but the video still kept me engaged, even when I realized that there weren't going to be any monkeys
The best kind of unintentional clickbait
Half hour video about the games with monkey would be hilarious though lol.
3:23
@@rainy8113 The possibility of more more monkeys is what kept me engaged
Nah but yeah, coulda worded my comment better
Same 😭
I laughed when you described the tutorial of Outer Wilds so well, knowing that you completely ignored it in your first playthrough 😂
You're not _truly_ an Outer Wilds explorer until you've forgotten to put your suit on before exiting the ship (the lockout timer on the door is _exactly_ long enough to ensure you can't get back in before you suffocate). Even NerdCubed, who landed perfectly on Hollow's Lantern first try, ended his loop not in lava, but in lack of air...
I jusy ignored that part of the video because I really want to go fresh into that gane
I didn't ignore it but I kept crashing my ship anyways.
not me, I spent an entire hour before jumping into my ship.
Rain World have a hidden knowledge that a lot of people miss entirely when playing it for the first time.
"The movement system" is just that insane, it's just like that one Hollow Knight exemple to climb the ledge.
It unlock new ways to see and interact with the environement and creatures.
You need to see my face when I discovered I can throw a bar below me to increase height
Me and a friend were playing rainworld at some point, and got, . . . Kinda lost- And ended up in SUBTERRANEAN Before we ever got to Moon or Pebbles, that was A terrifying realization-
I think it's easier to list stuff that isn't hidden knowledge in that game. Besides the most basic shit, the tutorial tells you almost nothing, you need to experiment on your own.
You mentioned three of my favorite games! Rain World, Outer Wilds, and Animal Well. If I could go back to the confusion, wonder, and frustration I felt on my first play through of Rain World, I would. And the ending of Outer Wilds made me cry, it was so sad and beautiful and hopeful all at the same time. Animal well is purely vibes.
The first game that came to my mind upon reading the title is Noita. Noita is a 2D roguelike where every pixel in the world is simulated. The game begins with you waking up in front of a cave entrance and there are some rocks that show you the basic controls. That's all the help the game gives you. At first it looks like your goal is to go down through all the levels until you reach the bottom, but if you decide to explore outside of the intended path, you quickly realize there is SO much more to the world then what first meets the eye. The game is all about exploration, experimentation and gathering knowledge. There's basically no meta progression, as everything can be obtained on your very first run if you know where to go and what to do. You don't become stronger because you played a lot and unlocked a bunch of stuff. You become stronger because you learned the world's secrets and intricacies. You understand spells and how to build powerful wands. You know the strenghts and weaknesses of the enemies you encounter. Once you know enough about the game, it goes from an extremely challenging roguelike to a wizard sandbox. In my opinion Noita is the textbook example of "Games that are Locked Behind Knowledge".
I love how everytime I think I've know the limits of Noita, I discover a new lens to see the world through. Like, there's a case to be made for being able to beat a 33 orb boss without ever stepping into a holy mountain.
You can play the game as a base builder, pixel art included.
You can make all types of farms, you can make freakin fish engines.
I am now convinced the limits of noita far surpass those of minecraft, but it's just not handholdy and a bit too unforgiving to break into mass appeal.
But the thumbnail says there are no keys, and Noita has green keys. Checkmate athiests.
Im going to search it
I would argue Noita is fundementally different.
Noita isn't built for a single player to explore and learn the world through natural exploration, not in the same vein that Outer wilds and Animal well (at least at the beggining) are.
Noita is built for a community to do so.
This is evident from how unlike Outerwilds and Animal well which frequently use level design to hint at mechanics, Noita doesn't infact many of Noita's secrets are so hidden you won't expect the average player to find them. That's because they aren't for the average player to find but for one of many players to do so and let the word of mouth spread through a community.
Take for example the means to create Lively Concoction, there isn't a means to discover this at all except by trial and error. Something that could very well not happen in a noticable manner to lone player at all.
Personally that's why I ended up disliking Noita and the latter end of Animal well compared to the other games.
Even if I had searched out the community when I found them to get involved with the community scale puzzles, most of them had already been solved (though Noita still has a few ongoing ones) and I've missed out on the experience by the time I bought the game.
Sometimes Noita is locked behind a hiisi that grabbed a random nuke wand
That's because your cat is an NPC! mine is a main protag, he have multiple line of dialogue. ha have a meow that say "gimme food", another that say "gimme food IMMEDIATELY !" , another that ask for me to open the window and another that say "Yes ,i'm actually standing on your keyboard".
Gotta love that Animal Well is item progression labeled as knowledge progression for some reason
Rain World is one of the most profound games I've ever played, from both a gameplay and narrative standpoint.
3:06 "understanding these creatures is crucial for navigating the environment and making your way to the OTTER side of a room"
i want to mention The Witness because it also has a deeper layer that you can only find by exploring the world
Void Stranger. Enough said.
came here to say this
cannot recommend it enough
Yep
Yessss
It totally deserves more recognition. It's a hidden gem that passes over most people's heads simply because of the initial gameplay style
Fantastic video and really grateful at how you managed to avoid spoilers for the most part, but very disappointed that you straight up played that special secret in Animal Well that I had no idea even existed. It's one thing to talk about its existence and even hint at how it might be discoverable, but another entirely to just play the video of it. Robbed of that surprise forever. :(
Yeah when it comes to games you don't want spoiled. I recomend any videos and discussion video including it.
Zero Escape : Zero TIme Dilemma also has something almost similar to this concept.
The true end only unlocked by Typing in the real name of real mastermind.
And only way to do that is get most of another endings
Hmm, then AI:Somnium Files NA would count as one too?
i love that you mentioned tunic its actually so good
I was extremely happy the game manages to surprise you with the manual in both the first hour and the 10th hour, but to keep it as spoiler free as possible I didn't want to mention any specifics
@@CosmicHours I think my favorite aspect of Tunic is how, through sheer experimentation, one could theoretically beat the entire game without collecting even a single page of the manual. In my own playthrough, I actually learned about the "Golden Cross" *significantly* earlier than the game expected, simply based on which manual pages I was _missing._ I did my best to avoid sequence breaking too hard, but as is the case in these kinds of games, once you learn the rules, you start to see the places you can apply it *everywhere.*
@@firekirby123I saw some other streamer who got that forbidden knowledge too early by some guy watching that stream. It was painful, but he was still surprised by other secrets tunic held.
Heaven’s Vault is an information game I really love! You’re a linguist archaeologist trying to puzzle through the truth about your civilisation by translating ancient scripts and knowing how to talk to people to get the info you need.
it's the job of every heaven's vault player to show the amazing game to every people they meet 🙌 , I love that game so much!
Yessss more people need to talk about this game!!
You should use spoiler warnings man, like before the hollow knight trick
@@stevesan nothing I said is a spoiler, it's literally the premise of the game
7:30 As a member of the Outer Wilds Cult of Esoteric Knowledge, I was really worried you were about to divulge the first big mystery.
But you didn't. Thank you.
Animal well seems so interesting
It really really iiiiiiis!
It's sooooo good
It definitely is. I honestly think it deserves game of the year, though I know it probably won’t get it.
i refunded it its flaws outweigh its potential
@@riri-hj9byWhat did you think was flawed? I don’t think I’ll get the game as I suck at the genre but it does look really good.
For a second i thought the thumbnail said" THERE ARE MONKEYS" thinking it's a gameplay video of rain world 😂
Omg I just commented the same thing, lol.
same
This has to be by far my favorite genre. I like to call it metroidbtania and it can imclude all genres of game which are very fun to explore
I love these type of games but I tried to avoid calling them Metroidbrainias in this video because it would appropriately describe Animal Well, but a game like Outer Wilds has no upgrades, no progression system, no combat, etc. to make it fit under the same umbrella.
metro what now
@@AugustRx typo it was supposed to be metroidbrainia
@@CosmicHourshuh, I feel oppositely, I think Animal Well does not fit the Metroidbrainia label because it has upgrades to the player and a set progression system, whereas Outer Wilds does fit it
@katie-ampersand Animal Well has layers. I'd say that while it's first layer of collecting the core items and flames, the remaining three layers of post-game material better fit this metroidbrainia tag
The by far purest example of this I have seen is Toki Tori 2 (*not* 1): The only "upgrade" you ever receive is your reward for 100% the game. Everything else is pure knowledge gain.
A game that truly encapsulates the phrase "Knowledge is Power" is that of a game called *Noita*
To keep it short, cuz I could go on gor an hour about this game, this game is a journey from feeling overwhelmed and scared, to coming closer to being a god than in any other game.
And the only difference between the two is understanding.
This game, its secrets and interactions are so vast that even after 700 hours and having 100% the game a while ago, im still learning new things every other run.
I tried to get into the game but couldn’t. I made it as far down as the ice lab area but can’t get further. I’ve been to the pyramids and to the edges of the world but still haven’t learned much. I think I’m not getting something but I don’t know what that would be
@@matthewanderson7824 youre most likely just not being patient and taking your time, and trying to test spells and interactions.
Yessss Noita!
@@matthewanderson7824 curiosity is Noita's strongest driving point, and understanding things goes hand in hand with your chances of success.
You could find every location, but without experimenting and understanding, so many tools and useful things will lie just out of reach, or even sit in your hand waiting for a good use that may never happen, even if all it might take is holding the item and going near something or dropping it at something
Many things can be understood when you piece together bits of info you find. Even Wand-Building is the same, every bit of info you learn when experimenting all adds up and later will help you know what to look for, and how to piece together the parts of a good tool you want.
I hope we'll get more Knowledge based games like Tunic (Legend of Secrets), Outer Wilds and Animal Well.
Fear and Hunger very much embodies knowledge is key(it has very serious and adult content in it as a warning), it is brutal and unforgiving to a new player. But, to someone like Frapollo94 who has mastered the mechanics and lore the dungeon becomes a playground even in the most difficult challenges.
THANK YOU FOR MENTIONING RAINWORLD!!
I feel like Tunic may perfectly capture the feeling from my childhood of playing games in language you don't know. I remember playing Pokemon Firered in english (there was no official Polish translation available) and struggling...a lot. But it was still fun and exciting to actually figure out a mechanic without clear instructions.
Lmao I did that with animal crossing. I would annoy my parents by asking to translate everything X3
This video really is an upgrade from the last ones, good job!
I love these games but I hate that they can only truly be experienced once.
The Spelunky games may also fit into this genre. Of course nearly all the secrets have been found in the first game, but it took years for people to figure out how deep it went. I believe Spelunky 2 has some secrets still uncovered by the community
Yo this video is incredibly well made, nice job!
This really reminds me of my first time experiencing The Witness. There was no "game guide" or a person telling you the basics of each new mechanic. But instead, each new symbol you would come across which had its own rule would slowly reveal its mechanic through experimenting and studying what solved each puzzle. Soon the puzzles not only show you how to solve the game, but they give you a brand new perspective as a whole new part of the game is revealed.
One of the best in this genre is Toki Tori 2. The graphics make it seem like it's for kids but the puzzles are super complex and make you think outside the box with tools you learn along the way.
LOVE toki tori 2 !!
Wanted to thank you for having captions! I know they can be difficult and time-consuming to include especially for smaller channels but they’re a great help to people like me that need them!
Tunic reminds me of the experience of playing games as a non-native english speaker. When I was young every gameplay was like Tunic's. It's kind of nostalgic, in a way.
i noticed a severe lack of Myst.
i love these types of games, and i love seeing them speedrunned. The one thing that bothers me about Animal Well that you didn't cover was how it was inherently designed with population in mind. Imagine playing such a game for the first time, and having potentially limited or no use of the internet. You would be left with a puzzle that can only be solved with "brute force."
Myst is just a badly aged puzzle game. Nothing knowledge based about it, apart from the shortcut straight to the end.
@@Kaytsey Its sequel Riven might have been a better example (Though not the remake unfortunately)
What do yiu mean population and internet. You mean outside guides or an online mechanic
Lingo and Antichamber are two of my favorites in this genre!
One of my favorite examples of this is Prey 2017. A very important late-game item is quite literally on top of a shelf in the first room where you'd never actually care to look.
Very good video concept and execution 👍🏼 All the games you mentioned are some of my favorite games, but I never noticed a connecting pattern until watching this. I'll definitely be using the Term "Knowledge-Based Games" from now on 😁
Another game which kinda does this is Space Station 13/14. It's based on a round system of 1hr or more. Each round restarts progress, but the more knowledge you have the more you can do in those rounds.
All hail lord singulo!
This gives me something to think about as I try to make my first game.
These are things that drew me to many of these games that I never really put into words before.
This is the kind of game design insight that I needed to hear.
2:06 riebeck on GD is so cursed
Right? I had to rewind to make sure I hadn't blinked and missed a cut.
lol I wonder where that footage is from
@@noahpilarski that's from the trailer.
Just found your channel, and I love it!!❤ keep up the good work😁
So glad I found you!
Just what I needed
I knew it was you Snnuy
Now I'm subbing
Good vids!
Was so lost at how i recognized this voice for so long man, glad you're branching out!
Very lovely video! Personally, I’ve always called them ‘Eureka’ style games after the feeing of euphoria that you get when you realize a new aspect of the game.
I think they’re called MedtroidBrainias
Great video not snnuy man. As a diehard rain world fan it's good to seeing it here. I'm curious about the next video
HE SAID THE THING 7:58
It's not a Cosmic Hour video with at least 1 mention of Cosmic Horror
Oh shit, snnuy! I did't know anything about this channel, so hearing you here was such a pleasant surprise, loving this channel, keep it up dude.
Celeste has movement tricks that dramatically affect the game that are possible from the beginning but only "taught" in the post game that was add later in as free dlc
Great insight on game design! Enjoyed vid a lot, a food for thought
Also, Animal Well is a nice discovery for me personal, gonna try it out soon
All point and click adventures are knowledge gated essentially, where if ou know what to do it only takes an hour or two, and five times that when you play it for the first time. They don't have the procedural element and moving pieces for emergent gameplay so you can only really play them once, but that one time is usually all about figuring out you already have the "key". In Loom there is a really great moment when you figure out you have more magic available to you than you first throught, it feels pretty amazing.
This video perfectly encapsulates my feelings about games like these. Theres something truly magical about not knowing the bounds of something, and when you complete a game, it seems to become infinitely smaller, less but the same. I dont know how to finish this comment. Sorry
Im leaving a list here with games that implement this mechanic:
-Outer wilds
-Return of the Obra Dinn
-Tunic
-Animal Well
-Rain World
-The Witness
-Heaven's Vault
-Noita
Thank you you Snnuy for a great video
Great video! I love how detailed you go into what for most people are probably just a passing thought. I can't wait to watch more of your videos!!
P.S. I absolutely love your voice!
Your voice sound just like Snnuy, it's uncanny.
Wild… they’ve got to be related
Nah you must be imagining things
I'm glad I'm not the only one
Sometimes I think its an AI generated voice tbh...
I hope not, this is not meant as a diss ^^'
God bless you for putting the list of games shown in the description.
Thanks for the video!
1) really good video about something I've been poking at for a while, and why this subgenre of games is something I like the most. thank you for it.
2) in the music pastebin doc, I think you wrote in "Signalis - Bittersweet" instead of "Kevin MacLeod - Bittersweet"
I’ve always considered showing creatures and environments as spoilers. Long before souls games ever existed. That’s part of the joy of discovery for me. I try to learn as little about a game as possible. Just enough to know I might enjoy it. Then I want to go in as blind as possible. There are so many games that I’ve enjoyed way more as a result.
Watched all of your videos. I'm not satisfied. I DEMAND MORE! ...please?
If you like games of this kind, I suggest you play through
Antichamber (the are some items there, but the knowledge is the main thing)
else Heart.Break() - it's a game that starts like a point'n'click adventure game with some frustrating elements, but later it turns out that the genre is different - it's closer to an immersive sim where there are multiple ways of doing the same thing and the more you know about the world, the closer you get to beginning a god
This was a beautiful video of a beautiful game.
I can't believe I haven't seen your channel till now! This video was amazing. The game that I have the most fond memories of is Portal. It actually taught me how to look at things in terms of the laws of physics.
17:07 as a kid that grew up where, at the time, finding games in english was more accesible than in my native language, this is something I experience through my childhood, 90% of the games I played I couldn't understand a word, and I had to figure things on my own, even as far to read instruction manuals that I couldn't understand, I know tunic may be a new experience to people who are native to english, but playing a game in a language I can't understand were my first experiences playing games, and the "I didn't know I could upgrade my stats" where a common occurence through my childhood and I don't even know how I played an entire pokemon game without understanding a single word
i gotta say, no other game series gives me that "idk whats happening but i will figure it out" more than the sokpop games
they arent always great, but some are truly special
i would reccomend *soko loco deluxe* , *bobo robot* , *helionaut* , *pyramida* and *kochu's dream* the most though
I'd like to give a mention to The Swapper, which is like, it's a level based puzzle game so it's not really open world or anything. And it does have locks in that you have to solve a number of puzzles to move on to the next area, but you do have to *travel* between levels, and at some point, you run out of levels you think you can reach. But you know where the rest are. You just have to figure out how to go... up. Doesn't tell you how you can possibly do that but it feels so awesome to learn what ends up becoming one of the most important techniques in the game just by experimentation.
this video really makes me want to play Tunic and Animal Well now. and Outer Wilds
I don't remember the route I took exactly, but today I learned I did some sort of skip to get the bubble wand. I came in from the other direction, then was confused how to get to the boss because it was blocked off haha. (talking about animal well I should clarify)
Quickly looking into this video and seeing no new games made me sad, was hoping I'd find a new knowledge game! Oh well, I look forward to watching this later
someone else mentioned it but highly recommend Void Stranger for this kind of game, it is a sokoban puzzle game first so it not for everyone but if the gameplay clicks with you even a little its an amazing game
Noita is one of the first games I thought about when I read your title
I think La Mulana would fit here. Because a big part of the difficulty there (and the game is really hard) is just piecing together what the hell you are supposed to do.
I like tunic because you can reveal hidden knowledge intuitivelly, I found out know to level up before I found the manual page for it.
Note that my fiancé struggled with Mario Wonder. I had to keep explaining to her that her character jumps higher if she holds down the jump button.
She's shown me how much I've taken advantage of my gaming literacy
[Cosmo yelling picture] *_Tunic isn't made of voxels, those are a specific thing and the game is just low-poly_*
forgot this was Snnuy until like halfway through
Man I KNEW this was his voice
Stumbled across this video and was like, this guy sounds exactly like snnuy
@@chumimintv9052yeah I immediately was like "holy shit, this is snnuy??? Right???" if not, it's someone with the exact same voice and speech. I had no idea he did other content like this!
>success isn't about in-game achievements
*me hysterically laughing after getting 100% in yet another grindfest*
First of all, i really appreciate this channel. I think it is very underrated, but there is one thing that would make your videos Even more inzeresting for me. I really enjoy videos that are about the design of games or smth like that. I feel Your videos are more like a presentation about games that fit into one category, which is not Bad ofc, but FOR ME it would be more interesting if the topic would be „the beauty of not telling anything“ or „the problem of not telling anything“. So that its more about the games Design than about the game in generell. I Hope you get my point, that i would rather have a special focus in the topic instead of „just“ presenting games that fit into this category. Pls understand this as an improvement Suggestion, although i am totally aware of the fact, that this is only my feeling and at the end of the Day, you must enjoy this channel. But I still Hope that you consider my suggestion ❤.
The Witness is pretty much the epitome of knowledge-based games. You have explore different areas of the island you’re in, not to gather items or tools, but to learn the rules and mechanics of how each panel type works. The open world of The Witness is one of the most dense and well designed of any game I’ve played.
And with enough knowledge you can get the true ending in extremely short order!
as a person who played rain world and haven't beaten it I believe that having it in the thumbnail is perfect
Fez was this game for me. I need to go back and play that and actually learn and use the language without spoiling anything about it to explore the rest of the world
I really wanna watch this but I keep pausing in fear of spoilers. so ima dip and come back in a year
I clicked on this video hoping to learn some things about game design, only to skip 80% because each game is still on my wishlist.. I'll come back in a year
That video sure was dynamic
21:04 Need some way to procedurally generate discoverable stuff.
Imagine if Minecraft's crafting recipies could vary a little depending on world seed, for example.
I remember in Outer Wilds I decided I wanted to slam as hard as I could against the water planet and after (kind of a lot) of trying, I got it! Was craaaazy cool. Had to leave because I didn't know why I would want to be in there, but man. I still remember the feeling.
One of the best games that uses this is noita! Its a rougelike, well, some may call it a rougelite just because of how much you can do if you know you can do it! The puzzles are absurdly hard, and require hours of guessing or a wiki, crafting wands is stupidly complex alchemy is also complicated, enemies are puzzles themselves! (Fire guy) basically, this game only lets you progress inbetween runs with your previous experience. Its awesome!
Having played 20 hours of Sekiro, I would disagree with treating bosses as puzzles.
For example, I know the entirety of boss' moves, and what each requires to overcome.
But it happens so fast and so varied, that my knowledge does not matter - I can not access it fast enough to actually do the thing that is necessary exactly when it is necessary (like pressing a button that is otherwise not used during combat in order to avoid losing 70% of your health to a single attack).
hol' up, at 2:04, why is Riebeck at Giant's Deep?
Will recommend Knytt Underground here to anyone that liked animal well!
giving you everything leaves you with nothing but to use what is given
Definitely need to play The Witness - it falls precisely in the set of knowledge-based games.
Knowledge Checkpoint!!
Also if you enjoy rule discovery, check out puzzle books like ABDEC, LOK, Lineon (all by letibus design) and HOUSE
Wanted to save this for after I beat rain world but after 20 hours of smashing my head against a wall, finally getting through shadow citadel only to softlock on a spot on the bridge Ive lost all patience for the game.
EDIT: Great video. Being relatively spoiler free was nice I got to vent and Was reminded about whats deeply fascinating about this game amd Im ready to give it another shot
22:58 - "spoilers in this genre are detrimental to the experience"
5 seconds later - plays the most hidden piece of sound in all of animal well.
LoL.
That all aside, these games are great, and I have to play more of them. I solved Tunic's big in-game puzzle in one try, and got the meta puzzle done... a ways after that. I still gotta play Rain World and Outer Wilds. Looks like they'll be great experiences.
To me, it sounds like you'd enjoy Leap Year or Sokobond & Linelight, I've only found them during this steam sale and haven't played them, but they both look promising, Leap Year for one is a platformer with fall damage so you have to learn tricks to circumvent it or other ways to get to the other side, meanwhile stuff like Sokobond and Linelight are simple puzzle games, they don't seem to give you as much freedom as Leap Year, but I have high hopes for them, but the game I think you'd enjoy most is "Refind Self: The Personality Test Game" it's a short game but it really surprised me how much the game had beyond the "test", and it kinda has a mechanic like Outer Wilds where each action you do is counted, and once your heart meter reaches 100% from your actions, the test ends, but you can replay it twice more to try to get a different outcome or to find out more about the story that's going on in the background (you can replay more, but it's not the same due to reasons I won't elaborate on)
PS: I saw those ~2s Risk of Rain 2 background footage, it's my favourite game to replay
I'm a little sad Toki Tori 2, The Witness and Fez were'nt featured in the video at all. They all are great examples.
- Toki Tori 2 is a puzzle based metroidvania that, unlike Animal Well, never gives you new tools requiered for puzzles. You can only learn more about it's mechanics and then put them together in new brilliant solutions that were there all along.
- The Witness is a game about learning it's own rules too. The deeper you go, the more kind of puzzles you'll be able to solve... And there's even a secret layer 2 to it!
- Fez, I don't think needs an introduction. It's one of the first games of this kind where you start with the tool and learn more about it as you go. It also has a language to piece together if you are into that.
Lol the shade jump doesn't work on steel soul, obviously. no shade to pogo on.