Phenomenal game, obviously ran out of money. [Spoilers?]

[Soli]

I feel like everyone who played the game felt like, the people who worked on it had some form of a vision -- not every game gets animated clips to feature important moments -- but it was also obvious exactly where they started to completely run out of money: When Puppy was kidnapped.


You teleport to the birds' city, walk around, get extremely short interactions, and all of them are action packed and intense, but also very condensed and short.
We were never introduced to the Cat (forgot the band's name), but apparently Laika knows her, and we then go to assassinate the chicken that just so happens to have Puppy, conveniently a short walk away from the bar.
We then get a "chase scene" as a cutscene, instead of a full on level where birds chase Laika, while guarding Puppy (either ran out of money, or couldn't think of how to implement respawn that'd include Puppy). You just teleport out, back to base.
The entire: "Puppy was kidnapped" arc was so obviously the writers' baby, they did not want to get rid of it -- but they also had no money to properly integrate it into the game, either, and it ended up rushed and disjointed at key parts.

The ending, too, was incredibly abrupt and wonky. You get on a giant arse ship to pad out the mission by doing essentially nothing, you float up to the final boss which dies with a few rocket shots, and then you shoot a bomb, get an animation, and then puppy kindles some candles and CREDITS, END.
We didn't learn at all why the birds did anything they did, what was up with the "mutations" they they gained, we didn't even get to talk to a single scientist that's working on all of these modifications, or a single general...We didn't get to learn enough about the world, in such a way that we can imagine how the world looks like "after the end".
And during the final boss, it was also very abrupt how they caught "the rebel leader"...It was very much: "OKAY, GAME OVER, YOU CAN LEAVE NOW."
Like, what the ♥♥♥♥ were we even fighting for? Without Laika in the picture, there's nothing...

TLDR: The game so obviously ran out of money at key moments, and in particular, the ending. The main reason the ending sucked, is because they've just killed off Laika, while heavily focusing on her the entire time.
All questions about "the future", were about what Laika was going to do, without her immortality, without the war.
There were no questions for the tribe, the world, for Puppy. There's nothing. With Laika dead, there is no future, there's nothing to connect to.
In the last arc, it should've heavily focused on "The world without Laika", if they wanted to kill of Laika! This is why it feels like they ran out of money, so much. They just "wanted to get it over with", even if it lessens the experience....

I feel like this game is a pretty good metroidvania, it's a no brainer to recommend other people to play it....But I'd also heavily recommend them to play it for 10~15 hours, and not the 20 I did, where I tried to get all the quests, and weapon upgrades, because I'm really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ stupid like that.

[Soli]

Another point that really bothered me, after finishing the game, is just how much the quests are, largely, a pointless waste of time. The writers did a good enough job, to make me feel like: "If I'd help out the town, it'd have some sort of meaning to it!" -- I.E: It surely will carry over into the story, or I'll get a better ending, or something.
NOPE. All side-quests are seemingly 100% optional, and since the rewards are pathetic, they are also completely redundant. This is an indie game through and through.
The only good "side-quest" I'd recommend doing, is Closure, if it's even considered a side-quest, since it's so story-heavy.
EDIT: Forgot about Maya's subquests, they are story-heavy and are indeed worth getting into.

Overall, I feel awfully disappointed with this game <_< It felt like it wanted to be so much more, but it just couldn't, or didn't want to. And the end result is like a prototype, a glimpse of "what could be", when it just isn't.
And as I wrote, I still think this is a game worth playing, but with huge asterisks to not expect anything much from it. It's "play to finish" type of a thing, not: "If you uncover everything you can, you'd be rewarded immensely" type of a thing (i.e: Hollow-Knight-esque).

EDIT EDIT:
Now that I think about it, I actually resent the devs, a lot, for the sidequest ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.
Maya's side-quest arc is really good, so it also gives you the expectations that you'd find more side-quests like that -- the game teaches you: "There is good story in these side quests!"
But 99% of them are just fetch quest garbage to waste your time.

Devs, if you're reading this, do NOT ever do that ♥♥♥♥ ever again. Don't teach your players to expect greatness, and then just dump wastes of time. At least mark pointless fetch quests with an icon, or something.

[MortonPI]

In case any of the devs are on here, and interested in improving on some of the game's weaker points for a sequel, I'll tack on some of my gripes here:

* The combat and driving mechanics are great, Make them the game. Do away with the cozy texty rpg. The open world was unnecessary, and I think the game would flow better had it been linear.

* Should you choose to go the openworld route - fast travel points need to be more plentiful. You can only drive through the same areas so many times before it starts getting annoying.
* The music wasn't my jam, and I ended up muting it halfway through the game. Some cutscenes like the boat ride and the drive back from the bird slums are just the music. Should be skippable.

* Quest entries in the journal are not clear enough. If you go to the highest spot in the cemetery with the radio transmitter and oxide, but have not yet killed kidgutter, nothing will happen. Confusing af. Also, after saving puppy, there's nothing in the journal pointing you to talk to the computer man to progress the plot. People weave in and out of games, and don't always pay attention to the text bubbles, and this makes it needlessly difficult for them to get back in the game.

* I'll also second what's been said about the sidequests. I thought I'd at least get an achievement for getting the band back together and tracking down their junk, but you get basically nothing for any of the sidequests.

[Meat Man (Alfons)]

I find the biker metroidvania to be an unique idea that's fairly well executed and it'd be a shame to cut that idea entirely in favor over making it linear (apparently in development there were points it were linear). If that'd be the case I'd rather scale down on the map size and amount of quests but the fact that they made an entire world thats traversable with the bike I think is executed well
I can agree that theres little reward for many sidequests. I kind of wish they would sprinkle in more bike upgrades across, even if they are minor stat upgrades

[Soli]

I personally think the game works quite well as a metroidvania, as a game where you revisit old locations a few times.
But, indeed, if they wanted to make "revisit the same locations" well, they should not have made the side-quests so insultingly pointless.
You want to re-use your levels? Okay, add actual substance to it across the game, like how Hollow Knight's maps change throughout the game, and characters come and go, doing their own thing, and you can be a part of it, perhaps.
Add mutations to the levels, change them up a bit as time progresses, craft a full story into them. Don't bother with fetch quests and pointless garbage like that.

In that sense, I feel like a linear-game would be much more forgiving in that sense -- since you only visit a level once (max reused again once) -- so the devs are also not encouraged to seed the bare-minimum of content (side-quests) to encourage you to roam about.
In a linear game, you just go, and every stage is unique, and controlled.

Granted, it'd make for a very different game, but I don't think it'd be a negative change, really.
They just need to make sure not to waste the player's time.

@Meat man
If there's anything I hate more than dumb side-quests, is the idea of collectables.
I hate them with every fiber of my being, because I'm the type of an idiot to actually want to go get all of them, and then hate the game for "making me go get them".


Rather than getting semi-pointless bike-upgrades, you should either get really important upgrades (alla-Metroid) that "unlock the next zones", or have really good side-quests with actual good side-stories.

P.S: I'm pretty sleep-deprived as I am writing this, so if it sounds weird, yeah.

P.P.S: Another point I forgot to add to my original thread:
It's so obvious they ran out of money / time, they added the bombs for a single level, and never used it ever again. The rope was barely used as well, it's a gimmick at best.
Actually, the rope / bombs issue is so awkward, that it's more of a design problem than a time/money problem, which may be worse. I'd actually like to see someone interview them about that.

[SaulD]

Originally posted by MortonPI:

In case any of the devs are on here, and interested in improving on some of the game's weaker points for a sequel, I'll tack on some of my gripes here:

* The combat and driving mechanics are great, Make them the game. Do away with the cozy texty rpg. The open world was unnecessary, and I think the game would flow better had it been linear.

I really wish they went this route. Great moment-to-moment gameplay that is ruined by a labyrinthine metroidvania level design and an Hollow Knight-ish punishment that makes you lose resources for dying, in a game where everything kills you in one hit.

Props to the devs though for providing a demo that's extensive enough that I could realize that the game wouldn't do it for me. Too bad, with its great gameplay, great music and great presentation, it really ticked all the right boxes otherwise.