@devs: Please have mercy! [finale spoilers]

[Cahalith]

Hiya, I've been having a blast with the GOG version of Smelter, but I've hit kind of a roadblock right towards the end now (not a bug, more of an issue with my personal skill level).
Since the GOG version is still 1.0.4, I'm not sure if this has already been adressed in a patch on Steam, but I figured I'd try to explain the situation here anyways (by the way: please don't forget about updating the GOG version - I realise it's a hassle to update the game on multiple storefronts and I'm OK with taking your time to bring the patches to GOG, but surely I can't be the only one who bought the game there, right?)

So here's the deal:
I started the finale, fought the first miniboss, went through the long platforming bit with the bombs and came to the final boss. Like with all bosses, it took me a while to learn his patterns, but I managed to get him to his powered-up phase and eventually, I managed to defeat him. Then, the boss switched to his final (?) form, with completely different attack patterns. He beat me - and the game then sent me back to the very start of the boss fight.

I realise it's the final boss and thus, the fight should be hard, but I still feel it's maybe a bit unreasonable to not put a checkpoint before the final form of the boss. I mean: The final form requires you to learn a whole new set of attack patterns and if you fail, you'll have to go through the first form over and over again, just trying to get to the final form to learn its patterns. So at this point, I kinda feel like I'm repeatedly running head-first into a wall and I'm not sure I'll ever be able to work my way through this boss in one go.

So please have mercy and put a checkpoint before the final form? Pretty please?

P.S.: Otherwise, the game is absolutely awesome, kudos to the devs!

[Chocos Ramabotti]

Haven't reached the final boss so far (don't have so much time for gaming) so I can't say anything about this yet. But isn't it so that your health stays unchanged? Because then you pretty much don't have to mind clearing the first phase as good as possible which can be a legit intention.
Generally i'm not a fan of checkpoints in bossfights and it feels unsatisfying beating the boss after several tries, each in different phases, always disliked this on God of War. Final Bosses with several phases where you always start on the first one are a common trope, highering up the stakes, I often times played games where I thought "how the f*ck am I supposed to beat that" only to pull it out quite easily afterwards, Hollow Knight is such an example.

After all at least I would like to play through the game first, would suck if there was inbetween a patch which rendered the game easier then it was. Maybe the checkpoint would be something for an second, easier difficulty if something like this is planned.

[Synasyna]

Originally posted by Cahalith:

Hiya, I've been having a blast with the GOG version of Smelter, but I've hit kind of a roadblock right towards the end now (not a bug, more of an issue with my personal skill level).
Since the GOG version is still 1.0.4, I'm not sure if this has already been adressed in a patch on Steam, but I figured I'd try to explain the situation here anyways (by the way: please don't forget about updating the GOG version - I realise it's a hassle to update the game on multiple storefronts and I'm OK with taking your time to bring the patches to GOG, but surely I can't be the only one who bought the game there, right?)

So here's the deal:
I started the finale, fought the first miniboss, went through the long platforming bit with the bombs and came to the final boss. Like with all bosses, it took me a while to learn his patterns, but I managed to get him to his powered-up phase and eventually, I managed to defeat him. Then, the boss switched to his final (?) form, with completely different attack patterns. He beat me - and the game then sent me back to the very start of the boss fight.

I realise it's the final boss and thus, the fight should be hard, but I still feel it's maybe a bit unreasonable to not put a checkpoint before the final form of the boss. I mean: The final form requires you to learn a whole new set of attack patterns and if you fail, you'll have to go through the first form over and over again, just trying to get to the final form to learn its patterns. So at this point, I kinda feel like I'm repeatedly running head-first into a wall and I'm not sure I'll ever be able to work my way through this boss in one go.

So please have mercy and put a checkpoint before the final form? Pretty please?

P.S.: Otherwise, the game is absolutely awesome, kudos to the devs!

Yeah, thank you for the feedback. We are aware, and you are not alone. We're going to improve things for our future patches.

[Cahalith]

Thanks for the reply! I hope you don't feel like I am being whiny and demanding. If you decide to not put in an additional checkpoint so the fight won't get trivial for people who are really good at these kinds of games (Chocos Ramabotti does have a point there), I'm totally fine with that.

I still really enjoyed every aspect of your game and I'm hoping I will eventually find the time (and gain the skill) to actually finish it :D

[fred]

It`s a pain in the butt to restart, but I`m guessing that you didn`t work towards increasing Eve`s health to be struggling that bad... The final Final form is a total pushover when you`re at 140% health or more...

You basically become a 6+ hit kill instead of a 4 or 5 hit kill. If you went nuts and got 200% health, I don`t think the boss can even get enough patterns in to kill you...

If you don`t know how to max out Eve`s Health, destroy every empty zirm house and replace them with barracks and call your zirms in. You need a total of 350 soldiers to be at 200% health. You`re basically god at 200%

(for the record, I beat the final boss at 120% health... it`s a pain, but it works. )

[Relle]

Definitely should be a checkpoint at the final phase, though to be fair, the final phase is actually really easy. You get an apple tossed to you to refill your health, and his patterns are really easy to avoid (the ground laser is the hardest and all you have to do there is jump as it passes by, since it just hurts if you're on the ground).

[Zesc]

I'd like to add to this that an opportunity to save before the boss would probably suffice for this purpose. (E.g. being able to open the save menu and write a new save.)

I'm absolutely enjoying the final level so far, but sadly, my time for gamign sessions is limited. I spend about 100 minutes in it currently (Steam tells me 180, but including a short break, doing a certain challenge level and maximizing my empire's Zirms, i'll discount 80), including my boss attempts.

Now, sadly, i seldomly have time to play this long uninterupted, and i assume many casual gamers too. Having to leave and knowing that i can do an entire miniboss, a couple of difficult time-critical challenges and a whole lotta cut-scenes again just to continue with the boss is... demotivating, to say atleast.

Could the final level be split into two, one normal stage and one boss stage? The Portal Ms. Zirm sends Eve through already looks like an "end of stage" portal anyway, and i think having the boss a seperate stage would make many people not mind the two phases.

[Synasyna]

Hey Zesc, thanks for the feedback. You’re right and we are trying to improve things in our future update.

[Relle]

I'd agree a continue point after the platforming section of the final stage would be pretty helpful, considering what you have to go through before that.

[Zesc]

Okay, now after beating the game, i have to admit that the final boss's last phase appeared more difficult to me than he actually is. (Let's just say he doesn't require as much endurance as stupid me at first thought he did.)

However, given the stuff that comes afterwards, I still think there should be a place to saveprogress in between - afterall, the final stage as a whole Contains One 4-phased boss, 5 or so time critical challenges in tight sequence, one biphasic boss who transitions into another boss, and then finally another time-critical escape sequence.
This is quite a lot upon inital blind playthrough.

Think of this like Turian in Super Metroid: when you enter it, you have to fight through a long challenging passage without pause, but then there is a single save station before the Mother Brain bossfight and the subsequent escape sequence.