Totally unplayable?

[DankWestern]

Hi everyone, I randomly came across this title, and was about to purchase it, but I noticed practically all the discussions are about game breaking bugs.

"Uhhh.... practically softlocked, be careful backtracking in Area 6
GrimikusPrime
2Apr 11 @ 8:42am

Disappearing Door in Area 9
AzureStriker14
3Mar 26 @ 2:31pm

Mute when alt-tab
Salieri
1Jan 22 @ 11:17pm

Softlocked Underwater
cpyap
1Jan 12 @ 11:57am

Why are some rooms so dark? It's that a BUG?
DarkBlue
1Dec 23, 2022 @ 6:36pm"

It's really put me off of purchasing the game. It looks nostalgic and awesome, but it seems like everyone is constantly hitting walls and bugs and glitches and getting softlocked constantly. Anyone know if it's worth it to even try to play? Also, what's the deal with Shantae being in the game? Is there some story element, or is she just thrown in there for a goof and a gaff?

[Lancer]

To be blunt, there are softlocks. The mechanism of moving away from your tank allows this to happen. However, most across the trilogy have long since been patched out. So long as you only leave the tank behind when absolutely necessary (you are weak and pathetic without it anyway, outside the pilot exclusive zones of course) you'll be fine.

I'd wager most if not all "softlocks" in your example are just people being lost. Again, not saying it can't happen, it's happened to me too, but still it's exceptionally rare. (And tbh responding to people to help with these is kinda tiring, it's probably more helpful to just look up a playthrough instead anyway.) Additionally, if you do get softlocked it's only a few hours of progress lost.

Dark rooms are a mechanic. I forget if the hint system tells you or not but there's a weapon that lights those up. Not a bug. That door is also a mechanic.

Audio in Inti's games can be... Fickle. It's unfortunate but the game saves all the time, so if the audio dies you can just reset and jump back in. You might lose maybe 5 minutes of progress if it causes the game to hang. Audio bugs are caused by the audio being interrupted by like sleep mode and the like, don't sleep your PC and no bugs. Audio problems are PC exclusive, on consoles you'll never encounter these issues.

Shantae is a DLC character that's a replacement for the tank pilot. The tank plays the same, there's I think only one exclusive upgrade for her, but she's somewhat capable outside the tank unlike the normal pilot. No story. Kinda something for if you like the character or are desperate for more game.

I highly recommend the trilogy, personally.

[DankWestern]

Thank you for the thoughtful explanation. The overwhelming majority of people complaining about being unable to progress was fairly offputting!

I'm an oldschool gamer, I remember the days where you had to find lanterns in order to illuminate dark areas, so I'm sure even if I was stumped, I could probably just Google it to progress, but I realize we live in a world of newer gamers who didn't go through the trials the old games put us through... I still remember standing behind that waterfall in Earthbound to progress the game even before many homes even had internet because the ingame context and clues subtly hinted at it...

Anyways, thanks so much again, I will absolutely grab this one with this new light shone on it.

[Zalugar]

Just played through the entire game blind and never got softlocked. Couple inconvenient backtracking, particularly in area 8, but that was it.

I'm sure I could have gotten softlocked by screwing around outside the tank on foot, but it was also much more likely I'd die from a 3 foot fall well before I managed that.