Thoughts After 100%ing

[Chris]

Overall fantastic game, and I loved it a lot. There's lots of creative level locations, enhanced by the beautiful expressive pixel art, and fun soundtrack. Some tracks are a bit forgettable, but there's several I've had stuck in my head, in a good way. And I found every single level fun, if only too easy.

The boss fights are all good and fun, but none of them really made that big of an impression on me. I don't think there are any bad bosses, but there's nothing really super interesting happening here either.

I'm old enough to have had a NES in my household growing up, so I recognize all the ways where the devs took influence from games like Mega Man and Kirby's Adventure (also some Wario Land), while still making the game entirely their own thing.

I also appreciate all the ways the devs went the extra mile, with secret levels, mini game levels, games within the game, lots of playable characters, alternate character portraits, optional upgrades (that can also be turned off! Bonus points), and an enormous cast of quirky characters. Really shows how much the devs enjoyed making their dream game.

However some criticisms:

Overall the game is too easy for me. That's fine, not every game needs to be super difficult, but I would have enjoyed it a lot if there were a few more optional difficult levels. You can also eventually hold up to 4 healing items, which can be used at any time, but I never once needed to use one.

There's a huge number of playable characters, but little balance overall. Leaf, despite being the titular character is outclassed by pretty much every other character in every way. Some characters are simply better versions of other characters, like Zunts is a better DBR15, who is a better version of Leaf. Pawla is basically a better Thorn, but you get Pawla first. In fact Pawla is the obvious best character in the game due to her faster speed, high DPS, and the fact her double jump attacks upwards. And you get her in world 1! Umbra and Howie might be better, but they appear late, and take more skill to use. Many characters feel like they could do with a buff to get them on Pawla's level, especially Leaf.

Most Peamen aren't well hidden. I found maybe 90% of them on my first play of a level. There's one in the final world of level 3 that's literally just sitting directly in the path, it's impossible to miss. Maybe the game is supposed to be easy, but it feels like many of these should take a bit more effort to find.

Despite the criticisms I did love the game a lot, and am going to keep playing it. I'm surprised the game isn't more popular. Last I checked there's less than a hundred reviews on steam. IMO I could see this being as popular as games like Shovel Knight or the Messenger. I hope it gets a surge of popularity, I think the devs really deserve it.

[Zulgarr]

Agreed an virtually every point. Great game! Could of been more challenging throughout (or at least later on) although I did use all characters for at least a handful of levels so that increased the difficulty a bit in spurts as I adjusted to each character. 90% of secrets on first go, only one level took a 3rd go >> World 5, early-ish... hidden map in same area as pea-man which I didn't even check on 2nd go as they HAD no other levels with multiple hidden collectables I can remember - so they did get me on that ONE.

[Binori 🌳🐤🌳]

@Chris, "Pawla is basically a better Thorn". Pawla doesnt have some powerful thing which Thorn has. During Thorn roll attack ability animation you are immortal. Very useful during Boss fights, I dont care anymore about their missiles and other projectiles, just roll through them and 0 damage.

But I agree there is for sure something in chars balance which would be better to improve though I think its hard concept. I think authors of game instead to balance the power of chars aimed to give for players the scope of different techniques and styles to be used to progress through the game. THE STYLE ;) not actually power. Personally I'm semi-hardcore action game player so I prefer chars like Thorn & Pawla as I do a lot of close and fast fights, jumps but I saw on YT videos of full-game-playthrough that a LOT of guys use entire game (sorry I dont remember even her name :D) this char girl who has shooting bird included all the time. She is "weak" and "slow" for me but huge amount of people choose her for entire game because they prefer this STYLE and dont care how fast they will finish level, they feel comfortable and happy with her slow but very safe playstyle.

About Peamen's I love most of them are not super hidden as I'm more fast-action than classic metroidvania lover, so having each Peamans very hidden would be exhausting and irritating for me.

My current remarks/doubts at this moment are only that looks like World 4 was the much harder than World 5. I was really sweating on W4 but on W5 I just go on breeze a little bit like on auto-pilot on W5 until 1st Mini-Boss. I had a feeling the chars which I was using and upgraded their Powers to Max (Thorn and Robot guy) are already OP there. But again, its really hard to balance all pieces with such amount of chars, abilities, power and skill upgrades and still keep casual and "hardcore" players in gameplay. In my final thought devs delivered very good on content for both these groups which is not easy. So far I love this game :)

@Chris " IMO I could see this being as popular as games like Shovel Knight or the Messenger. I hope it gets a surge of popularity, I think the devs really deserve it." - yea, me too, this game is "gold" like Shovel Knight, Shantae and Pirates Curse, BZZZT, Volgarr. I think once reach "overhlemed positive" reviews (so 500 reviews and 95% positive) then could be a snow-ball effect in popularity, I hope it would be like that. This game is a retro-GEM and I wish the best to its authors.

P.S. @Zulgarr, lmao, we have almost 1:1 taste on action games :D I went to your profile, checked your game reviews and then added 95% of them to my wishlist :D Thanks ;)