Combo Chain: Well-Designed or Poorly Thought Out

[NoiziHonni]

I saw a thread on Reddit regarding this mode, so I wanna see if people share similar sentiments or not. Original link to the thread here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ANTONBLAST/comments/1hbd80w/feelings_on_combo_chain/

Anywho, what are your thoughts on the Combo Chain mode? Is it well-thought out or a mess? (Keep in mind the mode was apparently a late addition too, so judge it based on that as well.)

I'm... personally mixed on the mode. Concept-wise, it's a great expansion on the whole "destruction" aspect of the entire game. And on some levels, it's... fine. Levels like Bomb Candy Mines and Concrete Jungle feel alright to play on and manage.

But other levels weren't built with the concept in mind. Cinnamon Springs is a prime offender here, though really, any long level can count. Cinnamon Springs, as a whole, is based around timing-based platforming, what with the in-and-out platforms and the dragon statues shooting projectiles at you. Mess up just once, and there goes your chance at beating the level, since you won't have enough time to grab enough pick-ups to keep your combo timer in check. Doesn't help that a majority of the problems in the level show up in the last third of the stage, where you also might be hurting for health. And not to mention sometimes the dragons shoot off-screen, resulting in attacks you can't see coming.

Keep in mind as well, I'm not trying to do CRACKED or anything, I'm just trying to get past the mode normally. I get it's trying to make you learn the levels in and out, but other levels don't punish you as harshly for minor mistakes. Not just Cinnamon Springs, either. Crimson Factory is another contender, with its length and punishing last section (Mecha Satan definitely needs to be tweaked.) I haven't even attempted Glasshouse or Deviled Gardens (though it's mainly the Moonits dialogue taking forever to go through that's putting me off.)

Keep in mind, I'm fine with hard difficulty, Hell Manor took a long time for me to complete, but I find it fine to go through! It's a level that bases its difficulty on your skill level, rather than mechanics sometimes playing against you. Meanwhile, some of the problems on this mode feel more intrinsic than anything, and can screw you over without much fault of your own. The two main problems I have are as follows:

1. The damage animation when you're damaged from the combo timer. It interrupts any momentum you have. Picture you're in a level that has a big jump with hazard below, and the combo timer goes off in the middle of the jump. You lose momentum, and end up falling into the hazard. Anton/Annie's hurt momentum is slow, so you can't get out of the hazard. You then proceed to lose all your health and have to restart, due to the combo timer screwing you. Simple fix here: just make it so the damage is registered, but it doesn't disrupt your movement.

2. The health limitation. It seems arbitrary, and feels like it was put in to make the mode difficult without thought on WHAT it'd do as a whole. It synergizes with the first problem to make levels far more difficult than they need to be, especially, again, the longer levels where mistakes are far more costly. Finding solutions for this while still keeping a sense of difficulty is far more difficult, so I've come up with two.
-Remove the restriction on permanent heart containers, allowing you to bring them into the stage.
-Keep the restriction, but allow health crates to spawn. Maybe at a lesser rate than the other two modes.

This should make going through long levels far more tolerable instead of feeling like an endurance test, and should make the mode feel a tad more cohesive.

I'm not a hyper-casual player, keep in mind. I'm at 99%, with all collectibles, a third of the par times, two thirds of the Combo Chain levels done, as well as having completed Skeletons in the Closet and unlocked Paul. I don't consider myself a pro at the game, but I've at least got some experience.

Anyways... any other thoughts on the mode?

[rllyrg]

Originally posted by Toastman:

If I had to guess, the greased transformation was probably replaced by the sticky walls. (Most likely serving the same function.) Probably made the level flow better and made it stand out more from pizza tower's "sticky cheese" transformation.

I'm pretty sure it was more or less the ball transformation, there is a video that directly shows it at 25 minutes and 20 seconds:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJZ-1pznOLE

So yeah, was cut because it was pretty boring and the Ball transformation filled the role of Greased. But I personally would like to see it come back in a reworked form as a little bow on the game. Concrete Jungle is the only normal level in between the tutorial level (Boiler City) and finale level (Hell Manor) without a transformation, so its kinda just a why not moment? Only 1 level is missing out a transformation to itself out of 8 not counting Boiler City and Hell Manor so it would be easy to just squeeze it in there somewhere.

Originally posted by Toastman:

I don't think anyone's expecting the dev team to actually look at the forums and implement every idea that gets brought up here. That's like expecting a chef to change their recipes because of a few reviews. We're just sharing our perspective. It's fun (and a good way to procrastinate) for people like me.

Pretty much, the only reason I post here is because I'm bored half the time and I like the game a lot to give suggestions.

Originally posted by Toastman:

Besides, it's not like it's impossible to mod the game and add some of the changes ourselves. If modders are passionate enough about they game it'll happen naturally. (I mean someone already made this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVxZeXzM-_4 and this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAheBH5oeU0 from an older demo. A custom level and a boss.)

Just give it time and the greatest concern this fandom will have is anthropomorphized versions of the spirits. (Or whatever meaningless controversy people invent to satiate their boredom.)

If not many mods get made for this game and development for Antonblast ends, then I can't wait for DantonFix, The Last Blast™ where Danton needs to stop God from toying with his life because God hates him. Oh and Anton hates him too because he's the lamest guy ever according to him.

[Eva :3]

This mode has been poorly thought out, and I agree. Only one level really works with Combo Chain and that would be The Big Bath due to how forgiving it is, but barely. I could see Happy Hour becoming an issue really quick.

I'm not going to bother with Combo Chain because it isn't fun to do. Needs a whole lot of tweaking and re-balancing to be made playable. I don't care how long it takes Summitsphere to do.

[Someone]

So far beaten some levels in combo chain and cracked some other ones but im not going to talk about levels (mainly due to them being covered to death on this discussion), but the mode itself.

Main problem I have with this mode are limited lives, since they make this mode into a paradox. You are going too fast, limited lives make your mistakes more dangerous, you are going to slow, lack of maintaining the combo kills you.

This makes combo chain unfun to play (in my opinion), as the game wants you to play two diffrent playstyles that are polar opposites to each other at the same time

(also there are some factors outside of the player control like eel sections in glasshouse that work off screen but thats just a diffrent issue)

Only thing i want in combo chain to change is just this live limit, just lets say put some extra lives in places where checkpoints would normaly be, yea this would make some levels easier but this is for me the best solusion so far

(also sorry if you find some gramatical errors, english was not my first language)

[The Doise]

I was only able to CRACKED rank Slow Roast Sewers