FMW Posted September 21, 2018 Report Share Posted September 21, 2018 How do we feel about The Messenger here? I'm at about the halfway point. After you play through all the basic stages in linear Ninja Gaiden mode, things open up and you get to tool around finding secrets and playing a more open ended game. The problem I'm running into is that the game is HARD. It took more than 200 deaths for me to clear the core path linear version of the game. So these aren't really spaces I want to Metroidvania around in so much? Metroidvanias normally keep the difficulty relatively low between specific new levels on account of it being SUPER FRUSTRATING to be exploring only to die all the time and have to re traverse. This game has death pits and damage bounceback and limited air control for 100% of the experience. So the questions are: 1. Is anyone else playing this? 2. Is anyone else having the same difficulty issues? I'm normally able to deal with hard games. Hollow Knight? I beat that. True ending. But this game feels harder than that by default just based on punitive level design. Low health, instant death everywhere, constant enemy respawns... it might be too much for me. I hate the idea of not getting my value out of a game based on it being too hard. That's just throwing money away. But I'm NOT super encouraged to play the rest of this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted September 21, 2018 Report Share Posted September 21, 2018 I have never even heard of it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFlyingGerbil Posted September 21, 2018 Report Share Posted September 21, 2018 I've never heard of it either and after reading that it will not be on my to-buy list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxicitizen Posted September 21, 2018 Report Share Posted September 21, 2018 It's one of those games that I really want to play but that had terrible release timing, so I haven't gotten around to buying it yet. I'm surprised people here haven't even heard of it, though. I thought there was a reasonable amount of buzz around the initial announcement trailer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FMW Posted September 22, 2018 Author Report Share Posted September 22, 2018 Well, and I wrote this post right after getting mad at the game. I should clarify that it is actually good. Great modern pixel art, great focused level design, pretty good music (the bar for modern chiptune is REALLY high), and the controls are exactly as tight as the developer intended. The stiffness is a feature, not a bug. That's kinda why I was asking around. Because I feel like if my reflexes were just a LITTLE bit better then this game could be an absolute banger. But instead I die a lot and nothing takes the joy out of great pixel art, music, level design etc like retraversing it over and over and over trying to hit that one super tight jump over a death pit. Still, it's not like there's a shortage of Metroidvania competition. More than once I've wished I had gone with Iconoclasts instead just because it almost certainly has a more friendly difficulty curve. Anyone here played that one? It's probably next on my list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFlyingGerbil Posted September 22, 2018 Report Share Posted September 22, 2018 I'm not good enough to play difficult games, whether or not they're good. Retro inspired games in general seem to be difficult so I tend to discount them out of hand unless something really catches my eye. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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