Silence minigame is not fun at all

[DieTaube_22]

I lose every time to the silence minigame no matter what I do or which character I play with. I am doing everything right. I am in and near the circle but the monster comes closer and closer. For me unplayable right now which is so bad because the game is really amazing.

[The Animeville Horror]

it's my least favorite of the Presence interactions, and they've hideously overtuned it in Episode 4- to the point where I've started backing up my saves because it's essentially impossible for me to win - i have less than a millisecond to respond to less than a millimeter of movement on my screen. insane.

I like the concept in general but it just feels awful to control in either K+M or controller mode, and the HUD icon is so tiny that it's hard to tell when it's shaking or when it's still. I really hope the devs tweak this one - all the others are fine and fun for me. Like, the Requiem in episode 4 has killed me multiple times, but it feels like those deaths were my fault; not so for the Silence, which as far as I can tell I was doing perfectly.

[Cthoolhoo]

Originally posted by NDF DieTaube_22:

I lose every time to the silence minigame no matter what I do or which character I play with. I am doing everything right. I am in and near the circle but the monster comes closer and closer. For me unplayable right now which is so bad because the game is really amazing.

all the minigame sucks in this game

[Basti50]

Dunno, I found the silence mini-game difficult too at times and failed occasionally or got in some close calls but I can't quiet say if this is by design or not. It's mostly difficult for me, at least while playing with a mouse, when the circle becomes really tiny. I can never quiet see then, if I'm doing fine or not.

Overall though, I thought the mini-games blend in well enough with the rest of the game and don't seem impossible, at least not to me. My only complaint there would be, after finishing all four episodes so far, that some of the tension is starting to get lost, the more gamer instincts kick in. The game makes it far too easy to distinguish between those random events that are just there to scare you and those who are actually dangerous. I'm starting to get annoyed by the earthquake event for example. Uncertainty often can make some great horror, especially in a game like this that pretty much conditions you to put an ear on every door you come across.

I guess I would wish for some more lethal, not mini-game related, random events, to spice things up. The 'crying friend' one would be a good example for that.

[Aya]

Originally posted by Basti50:

I'm starting to get annoyed by the earthquake event for example. Uncertainty often can make some great horror, especially in a game like this that pretty much conditions you to put an ear on every door you come across.

I think it would help a lot of if the non-lethal events couldn't repeat in the same episode or even in the same playthrough (although the latter would require significantly more devtime to make new events). Earthquake event especially became a major annoyance in episode 4, I was unlucky enough to have it occur 6 times during the playthrough of the episode and rather than experiencing any uncertainty or fear of the unknown - it was simply "Oh great, this again... I guess I need to wait a minute or two while all the doors are blocked again and nothing happens besides screen shaking"

[DemonicRobots]

Originally posted by m.sch71:

Unfortunately, the game has nothing more exciting to offer than these completely monotonous and much too difficult minigames. Most of the time you move boringly through the area and click the e here and there and learn that there is nothing more to be found here...
then the mini game and another character died and so on and on.
Apart from the nice graphics and the pleasant soundscape, the game is absolutely chicken poop.

With the exception of losing a character by accident, I've never failed a mini-game and I've played through several times. Maybe you should just lower the difficulty? It sounds like you have a flaw, not the game.

[Canary JOY EASY]

Originally posted by Basti50:

Dunno, I found the silence mini-game difficult too at times and failed occasionally or got in some close calls but I can't quiet say if this is by design or not. It's mostly difficult for me, at least while playing with a mouse, when the circle becomes really tiny. I can never quiet see then, if I'm doing fine or not.

Silence mini game in current state is what I'm not good at. I ended up using the keyboard and mouse after episode two just to overcome this mini game, and still not really good at it.

I had a theory that if you playing this with mouse, you are only allowed to move the mouse vertically, moving it diagnostically will cause the circle shaking as well and eventually make the character coughing. But since I still failing this mini game, so I think it's a wrong assumptions. Other things I came about is maybe I accidentally twisted the mouse so the circle started to shake, but I'm too tired to try this theory out.

And for controller, I do think if you didn't sync the LT and RT button with the same pressing level, the circle will starting to shake as well. To compensate that, quickly full release/pressing both button and readjust the size of the circle icon should help, at least I managed to pass several Silence mini game with this method after I try to use the controller again...

[Cthoolhoo]

Originally posted by Silas:

Originally posted by m.sch71:

Unfortunately, the game has nothing more exciting to offer than these completely monotonous and much too difficult minigames. Most of the time you move boringly through the area and click the e here and there and learn that there is nothing more to be found here...
then the mini game and another character died and so on and on.
Apart from the nice graphics and the pleasant soundscape, the game is absolutely chicken poop.

With the exception of losing a character by accident, I've never failed a mini-game and I've played through several times. Maybe you should just lower the difficulty? It sounds like you have a flaw, not the game.

lowering the difficulty means nothing....

[Basti50]

Originally posted by Aya:

Earthquake event especially became a major annoyance in episode 4, I was unlucky enough to have it occur 6 times during the playthrough

Yeesh, that's quiet a lot. My experience in the episode was more "balanced" but still not so thrilling. I got earthquakes two times, freezing two times and that black mist thingie two times in one (admittedly long ~5 hour) playthrough. So you got my vote when it comes to not making those events repeatable in an episode.

Originally posted by Canary JOY EASY:

Silence mini game in current state is what I'm not good at. I ended up using the keyboard and mouse after episode two just to overcome this mini game, and still not really good at it.

I wonder if your character is always suppose to cough and you doing the circle thing only slows it down or if you can prevent the coughing altogether. I only managed to not cough once, during the tutorial segment in episode 2.

[Canary JOY EASY]

Originally posted by Basti50:

Originally posted by Canary JOY EASY:

Silence mini game in current state is what I'm not good at. I ended up using the keyboard and mouse after episode two just to overcome this mini game, and still not really good at it.

I wonder if your character is always suppose to cough and you doing the circle thing only slows it down or if you can prevent the coughing altogether. I only managed to not cough once, during the tutorial segment in episode 2.

I believed you can prevent the character from coughing during the Silence mini game, at least I have few really successful Silence mini game back before episode 3 released, and some YouTuber also have footage of beating the mini game without coughing once.

[DemonicRobots]

Here's a tip: you want your inner circle to follow as close to the outer one unless it is at it's smallest. If it is as small as possible you wanna have a small gap between the outer circle and the inner circle you control. It is weird but after figuring that out I've literally never failed it.

[Canary JOY EASY]

Originally posted by Silas:

Here's a tip: you want your inner circle to follow as close to the outer one unless it is at it's smallest. If it is as small as possible you wanna have a small gap between the outer circle and the inner circle you control. It is weird but after figuring that out I've literally never failed it.

About the smallest circle part, I have a theory about why it works: the gap between the inner and outer circle is in the acceptable range so the game won't count it as a mistake, AND the fact you fully released both LT and RT buttons so the reading from those buttons will be the same, so the game also won't count it as a mistake.

I may try to use input overlay to monitor what actually happened when the character coughed, but first I need to finish episode 4, without dying...

[Darkstride]

Under the Tutorials, they need to allow us to practice the button press in some way. I'm not even asking for a full practice sequence, just some way to see how the button presses interact with the icon. Under the tutorial, all it shows is the white circle swelling and contracting and tells you to press L+R. It doesn't elaborate enough, in my opinion, and in actual practice during the minigame it doesn't act so simply.

So far this is the one minigame that I repeatedly fail on (using a controller). There's no room for practice without potentially sacrificing a character. I'm not asking for the minigame to be easier or to have my hand held, I just think that with permadeath as a consequence, we could use a better setup on exactly how to survive correctly.

[DemonicRobots]

Originally posted by Cthoolhoo:

Originally posted by Silas:

With the exception of losing a character by accident, I've never failed a mini-game and I've played through several times. Maybe you should just lower the difficulty? It sounds like you have a flaw, not the game.

lowering the difficulty means nothing....

It objectively makes them easier. I have done plenty of tests.

[SometimesaTom]

I never used to have problems with the mini game but since the last update it seems that it has become much harder. I'd suggest to the Devs for one to make it more obvious when you're doing it wrong, the shake is really hard to see, I think making it go slightly red would help a lot since its unclear when you're messing up.

I also think the placement at the bottom of the screen is a bad idea, it should be in the middle or next to the creature. At the moment it seems kind of a waste cause you're not even looking at the monster coming towards you, you're too focused on the small circle thus destroying any potential tension. But that may simply be an engine limitation I know nothing of game development.

[The Animeville Horror]

Originally posted by SometimesaTom:

I never used to have problems with the mini game but since the last update it seems that it has become much harder. I'd suggest to the Devs for one to make it more obvious when you're doing it wrong, the shake is really hard to see, I think making it go slightly red would help a lot since its unclear when you're messing up.

I also think the placement at the bottom of the screen is a bad idea, it should be in the middle or next to the creature. At the moment it seems kind of a waste cause you're not even looking at the monster coming towards you, you're too focused on the small circle thus destroying any potential tension. But that may simply be an engine limitation I know nothing of game development.

These are all great ideas that would help make the minigame clearer and more tense since failure would seem less arbitrary, without having to redesign it entirely. I hope the devs consider these suggestions.