Thoughts on Mew Game Modes

[Star Sage]

Not bad. All the options of Cat Quest 2 and with a few switched out since the game IS different in some ways. That being said, disappointed with the fact that, unless it unlocks if I complete ALL Mew Game Meowdifiers(I still haven't done a no leveling run), there is no Mew Game +, we're back to CQ1's version which unlocks them in normal mode. That works, to be fair, but I miss super speed, and since you can't carry anything forward(and are limited to Level 99 for everything), your power is fairly limited in Mew Game, making it less fun for a min-maxer.

That said, it's not purr-fect yet, so I want to list some issues I had with it.

1) Time up makes a few more attacks stun lock causing. The boar spin especially was never a problem for me previously, but even a higher level cat if ganged up on by 3 or more boars(like say in the maze) can sometimes have no way to attack or escape, and since they might happen on different timers with no way to get between, it just stinks. Some of the others, like Orion or the Meowtallika Pirates' lightning trap attacks are even more likely to cause it, making them far more dangerous than I think they were supposed to be. Same with Antares purr-isms of arcane.

2) Some odd glitch with the dodges. I had the Gentlebros wand equipped, but for some reason it would stop doing the teleport dash, which is a problem when you don't realize you don't have it until you need it. This would be fixed by just going in and reequipping it, even though it was ALREADY equipped and visible. Not sure what's up with that.

3) Ruffer Enemies mode has some fun stuff. Some quest bosses can now be found as respawning ones in the world, and some enemies and bosses got new attacks. No new bosses mind, as they are still the same at the end of every quest(this isn't a bad thing, just mentioning it since Cat Quest II's version swapped them out in some cases for OTHER bosses, I actually think changing how they work is the superior version myself, but that's a taste thing).

That being said, Furrgy Island is kinda trash. I get what's being sought, the undead mice are replaced with mini versions of those things from one of the LovePurr mazes. Thing is, they're STILL invincible to all none stage hazards, so you have no options with them save run away, which works, except it makes interacting with ANYTHING on the island annoying, as you basically have to bait the things away. I died several times trying to get the undead fish in the net, and both of the standing chests on the island, or even getting into the gate just don't work without either luring them to Twilight, or doing a dance around them to force them to de-agro in a certain direction so you can rush back before they take their marks again.

4) The no ship damage one makes Cathulu impossible to beat, as there's no land close enough to launch ANY attacks on it. Most ship bosses(Undying, Meowtallicurse, Duck O Doom, etc) are also far more difficult unless you're also on pure magic mode, as they like to move away too fast, and some guns and wands just have trouble doing enough damage before they de-agro, especially bosses with homing attacks which the ship can avoid by boosting, but is FAR harder on paw so you tend to need to find cover instead. I do think it's PAWSIBLE to fight Macho Dog with it, as there is some land to stand on by him, but I can't do it without dying, even with Dratcula's gear giving me some regen.

5) To go with two points above, the hardest part in the Sunset area was the Purr-maid's area, three squids together, if they all do their Ruffer Enemy adding machine gun blasts at the same time, even a level 60+ ship goes down in seconds, and both times my purrivateer fell a second later since the attack was still going. This isn't a problem, more a frustration, but just mentioning it.

Overall, this is a cute addition, and I do like that the new gear, instead of being stat-OP like the First King and Old Master sets in CQ2 or the stone looking set in CQ1 instead goes for a more dynamic thing. Each piece does something to enhance basic gameplay in some way, allowing you to try new strategies with them, especially the helmet/hat and armor sets which boost magic and guns respectively.

That said, since it's now worth it to leave guns on all the time...can we just make the magic dodge something our Seeker does naturally? Or maybe an upgrade they gain, rather than something attached to the wands specifically? As it is, there's only one dungeon that requires the phase mechanic, the Fire Pi-rats' den, and I'd say you could also just make it so the challenges are timing based instead, with maybe a sin-wave pattern to the Captain's attacks to make them dodgeable. As it is, it's a small thing, but if I'm using a gun normally, but have to swap for one dungeon, I get annoyed and feel like I should just be using the wand instead all the time, since one of the dungeons and its boss require that one.

[Picotrain]

I might be stupid here, but I can't figure out how to break barrier walls with the "ship does one damage" modifier. I got one cannon shot and it never refilled. and melee/magic attacks won't break them for me.

[Star Sage]

Originally posted by Picotrain:

I might be stupid here, but I can't figure out how to break barrier walls with the "ship does one damage" modifier. I got one cannon shot and it never refilled. and melee/magic attacks won't break them for me.

That's definitely a bug then, as when I did that one, it functioned normally, and just did one damage, and the barriers take a certain number of shots from the ship gun, they do not have HP. Have you quit out completely and then started the game again? Or maybe uninstall and reinstall with the saves backed up somewhere?

[Picotrain]

Originally posted by Star Sage:

Originally posted by Picotrain:

I might be stupid here, but I can't figure out how to break barrier walls with the "ship does one damage" modifier. I got one cannon shot and it never refilled. and melee/magic attacks won't break them for me.

That's definitely a bug then, as when I did that one, it functioned normally, and just did one damage, and the barriers take a certain number of shots from the ship gun, they do not have HP. Have you quit out completely and then started the game again? Or maybe uninstall and reinstall with the saves backed up somewhere?

I did quit and restart. I'll have to try uninstalling/reinstalling.

[Star Sage]

If it still is messed up try just restarting on a new file, and if that doesn't work be sure to submit a bug report, and give them your info here on the forum. Also include version number and any relevant info you can think of.

[The Gentlebros]

This is great feedback for us, thank you! :)

Our reasoning for not including MG+ was because we wanted NG+ to be the main thing that players kept going back to and having an MG+ would have detracted from that. We also wanted the rewards to be earned on an even playing field where the difficulty was the same for every player.
That being said, we're constantly monitoring feedback from you guys, and if it seems that MG+ is a commonly requested thing, we might think of a way to include it back without breaking the current balance. :D

Give us some time to also look into some of the things mentioned!
- By right the Oinker spin attacks should not cause more or less stun locks than the base game because we're simply increasing the time scale. There is less reaction time from players though, which could account for that... but let us look into this to see if there is a bug.

- Sounds like a bug for the Gentlebros wand! Could you let us know what your full equipment set is so we can investigate the issue?

- Noted on Furggy Island! The intention was always to make this area surprise the player and turn it into a 'run for your life' situation, but let us see if we can tune the balance a bit more so it is more manageable.

- As for the Friendly Ship meowdifier, it was always the intention to have certain boss fights/quests not possible because of it. If those boss fights were impossible, then it would also not be possible to earn the rewards from them so planning your route around these limitations would be the game in itself. Remember, the goal of Mew Game is to just reach the end as doing anything extra would not increase the rewards you get!

Originally posted by Picotrain:

I might be stupid here, but I can't figure out how to break barrier walls with the "ship does one damage" modifier. I got one cannon shot and it never refilled. and melee/magic attacks won't break them for me.

As for this issue, it sounds like you're trying to use the Super Cannonpaws attack rather than the regular cannon fire. To shoot regular cannonballs, you can press the Attack button. Hope this helps!

[kaki_gamet]

When in CQ2 I realized that reward from Mew Game + can be assigned to any existing save, even itself, I simply deleted the regular save and kept MG+ only. I never understood why you took this decision, it killed normal save, but I don't see it neither good nor bad, just odd.

Surely I was not going to max two separate saves; please never allow this to be a thing : /

[Star Sage]

Originally posted by The Gentlebros:

This is great feedback for us, thank you! :)

Our reasoning for not including MG+ was because we wanted NG+ to be the main thing that players kept going back to and having an MG+ would have detracted from that. We also wanted the rewards to be earned on an even playing field where the difficulty was the same for every player.
That being said, we're constantly monitoring feedback from you guys, and if it seems that MG+ is a commonly requested thing, we might think of a way to include it back without breaking the current balance. :D

Give us some time to also look into some of the things mentioned!
- By right the Oinker spin attacks should not cause more or less stun locks than the base game because we're simply increasing the time scale. There is less reaction time from players though, which could account for that... but let us look into this to see if there is a bug.

- Sounds like a bug for the Gentlebros wand! Could you let us know what your full equipment set is so we can investigate the issue?

- Noted on Furggy Island! The intention was always to make this area surprise the player and turn it into a 'run for your life' situation, but let us see if we can tune the balance a bit more so it is more manageable.

- As for the Friendly Ship meowdifier, it was always the intention to have certain boss fights/quests not possible because of it. If those boss fights were impossible, then it would also not be possible to earn the rewards from them so planning your route around these limitations would be the game in itself. Remember, the goal of Mew Game is to just reach the end as doing anything extra would not increase the rewards you get!

Originally posted by Picotrain:

I might be stupid here, but I can't figure out how to break barrier walls with the "ship does one damage" modifier. I got one cannon shot and it never refilled. and melee/magic attacks won't break them for me.

As for this issue, it sounds like you're trying to use the Super Cannonpaws attack rather than the regular cannon fire. To shoot regular cannonballs, you can press the Attack button. Hope this helps!

1) It feels like it gives me less time to react, I've been 'stunlocked' by the pigs in the maze only once since I said this, and even then, it wasn't to death. However that was because I was being aggressive and instantly killing the three at the bottom 2 controls. Still, it is just a timing issue, and it might just be me.

2) I have been able to replicate this with several clothing items, wands, and swords, as well as accessories equipped. It seems to be something to do with the 'Pure Magic' meowdefier. While you can equip things, it doesn't allow them to act, but when you die, or something(it seems random honestly) it causes them to register as unequipped without going back in to do it, even when the model SHOWS them on it.

3) My only suggestion would be to slow them down, and maybe remove a spawn or two, especially directly in front of interactibles(and maybe a few around the fish). Or just add an environmental hazard we can trick them into running into to the island. It's an interesting idea, as I said, but there's just a few too many, and if they're RIGHT in front of what you want, like a chest or the gate, they force you to do a lot more work than I think was intended.

4) Good to know, it's why I mentioned the Fire Pi-rats, since that one is also unable to be completed with Bare Paws on. And I can see it, it just didn't happen in the prior two games where everything was possible with all Meowdifiers. This is a different take, and one with a more action bent as there are fewer puzzles, so it makes sense(note I LIKE that it's more actiony, with the only lengthy puzzles being attached to the Purrlove quest line)

5) I'm me, and I made this suggestion before, but hey, if you read this, I might as well make it again just because. I would still like an addition to the shops where you can buy stats, specifically Magic from Bonny in the Magic Shop with magic stones, and attack from Kidd in the Smithy with gold, both once you have maxed out spells and equipment upgrades specifically. This would give a point to those once you've maxed your stuff...especially the stones which I have a bundle sitting around in my inventory. Mind, I get that this is a balance issue, and you might still have more content planned you are trying to keep from outmodding right now, but it's something to keep in mind for this great pi-rat filled adventure.

Oh, and for the bug, to be clear, I'm playing on PS5, software version 1.3.0.

[The Gentlebros]

Originally posted by Star Sage:

2) I have been able to replicate this with several clothing items, wands, and swords, as well as accessories equipped. It seems to be something to do with the 'Pure Magic' meowdefier. While you can equip things, it doesn't allow them to act, but when you die, or something(it seems random honestly) it causes them to register as unequipped without going back in to do it, even when the model SHOWS them on it.

Thank you for the added information!
We're investigating this but have not been able to reproduce this issue no matter how hard we've tried.
If this happens again, could we trouble you to record a video of the issue and send it to [e-mail]

Thank you so much!

[Zanmorn]

Regarding your first point, I think Fast Furwards is just exacerbating an issue that has always been there. Specifically, those attacks have always been unusually punishing, but you're likely just noticing it now due to getting hit by them more often. Honestly, I hated them even before Mew Game, because they take away control of the character and do a disproportionately large amount of damage; I play with my 5 year old nephew, so I get a pretty good view of how the game plays when one isn't very good at it. (Not that I haven't fallen victim to them often enough myself.) The fireballs in the FIre Pi-rat Hideout are another brutal source of damage that becomes worse with Fast Furwards. Mess up once and one might as well put the controller down, because there are no usable I-frames and the fireballs usually bounce the player into another fireball, or even the same fireball. Combined with their proportional damage, a single mistake leads to a quick death. That particular dungeon is too frustrating for my nephew, and I've come to hate it myself when playing with Fastfurwards. I'd love to see longer I-frames and/or stronger directional influence to make getting hit by these attacks a less frustrating experience, because the attacks having hit stun without giving the player a way to remedy their mistake makes them difficult in a way that feels incongruent with the rest of the game.

Regarding the spike balls on Furgy Island, most of them are reasonably behaved, albeit a bit too speedy, but the one by Bonehead seems to play by its own rules. When I was trying to get things on the island, I'd gather up a bunch of them, lead them to the south of the island, then make a break for the fence by the Pi-rat King. Invariably, a single spike ball would follow me all the way there, while the others would return to their spawn point and disappear. By using the ship to get far enough away for the remaining spike ball to also disengage and return to its spawn point, I was able to identify it as the one by Bonehead. This happened multiple times, despite it not even being the closest enemy to the gate. When I started making sure not to catch its attention, I had a pretty easy time opening the gate. (I never was successful at getting the treasure guarded by two spike balls, though, so my Ruffer Enemies/Fast Furwards file is at 179/180 treasures.)


(This isn't really related to anything in the thread, but since I mentioned playing with my nephew: co-op with a 5-year-old makes the ship battles the worst part of the game, because one player just has to sit and do nothing, since trying to control the ship in tandem does not go well. Some of that comes with playing with a small child—I get to watch him sail in circles as he "dodges" cannonballs that he usually ends up then sailing into, so battles take a lot longer—but it would have been nice if one player steered and the other aimed the cannon, or something like that which kept both players engaged.)

[CaptainKoba]

100% agree on the super speed option for ng+. Going from super speed in mewgame back to 1x speed in ng+ felt like the whole game was lagging. I had to take a break to reset my perception of how fast the game should play

[kaki_gamet]

^ felt the same after completing CQ2 and then going back to check something on CQ1, super slow motion : D

[DigitalThespian]

Originally posted by Zanmorn:

. . . .Fast Furwards is just exacerbating an issue that has always been there. . . . Specifically, those attacks have always been unusually punishing. . . .they take away control of the character and do a disproportionately large amount of damage[.]

Hard agree. The boars are the bane of my existence; more generally, in a game like this, anything that stunlocks is gonna feel bad. I'd honestly prefer if it was one huge hit at that point. I get what the enemy is going for, but it really feels like the ONLY option is to run until they stop, because they can't be hit out of it. Even if it doesn't kill you, trying to do anything besides ranged attacks results in getting hit, and they're fast enough that using ranged attacks isn't super feasible except for the ice wand because of the slow. (Unless you always use kiting tactics, then you might not notice this problem at all.) The problem then is places like the maze where one can get cornered, because then one has NO options other than "don't get cornered", which is a much more demanding ask than "dodge out of the way of their attack/combo and then go back to hitting them". (i know getting cornered and dying in the maze is the whole point of that dungeon, so that's kinda okay in my book, even if it makes that dungeon annoying to play for me personally.) I HAVE been killed by a single boar out in the open before, though, even on normal speed; it was much higher level than I was, but If they're moving fast enough they hit you again before you regain control--that or you only have control for a handful of frames, but I wasn't seeing my character turn around to start running despite holding the stick in that direction, so it really seemed like I was fully stunlocked. It doesn't happen all the time, but I definitely recall a couple times that really made me go "really? REALLY?"

Originally posted by Zanmorn:

The fireballs in the FIre Pi-rat Hideout are another brutal source of damage that becomes worse with Fast Furwards. Mess up once and one might as well put the controller down, because there are no usable I-frames and the fireballs usually bounce the player into another fireball, or even the same fireball. Combined with their proportional damage, a single mistake leads to a quick death. That particular dungeon is too frustrating for my nephew, and I've come to hate it myself when playing with Fastfurwards. I'd love to see longer I-frames and/or stronger directional influence to make getting hit by these attacks a less frustrating experience, because the attacks having hit stun without giving the player a way to remedy their mistake makes them difficult in a way that feels incongruent with the rest of the game.

I feel like this is better than I could have put it, but I'd like to add that this dungeon kicked my butt even without Fast Furwards. The proportional damage is understandable if you want to guarantee the player has to care about the hazards, but there's zero indication that it's going to be a quarter of your health (or however much it is, I've never been able to get a good look due to the double-tap issue mentioned in the quote), especially if you're using a higher HP/Defense setup. You go from being able to tank pretty much anything to dead in four hits, which just feels bad; on the same note, if you screw up in that dungeon without going back to save, you have to watch the cutscenes and be given the ice wand again, which is a mild annoyance, but I thought I'd point it out. Same goes for the fire mage hat chest; if you forget to go back and save, and then mess up a fireball dodge on the way to the boss, you have to do the fire mage hat chest again. (Side note, I'm usually good at timing-based games, but that chest is BRUTAL. Either I'm missing something, or the window to not get hit is really small, even on normal speed.)

Originally posted by Zanmorn:

(I never was successful at getting the treasure guarded by two spike balls, though, so my Ruffer Enemies/Fast Furwards file is at 179/180 treasures.)

I can at least say I've gotten this one with those modifiers, so it's POSSIBLE, but it took a very precise kiting maneuver to get them far enough away that they would deaggro right as I got to the chest. I agree that there could stand to be an obstacle or something, though, because as it stands I was only able to get the fish by being really high level so I had a ton of ship HP. That or don't have the enemies on the Furggy Island spiral section be the spikeballs; it doesn't make the fish feel like a fun kind of hard to me, it feels like a mean kind of hard.

On the subject of speed, though, I would greatly appreciate if the Dragon Boar cutscene was fast-forwardable, or better still, if it had a flag to make it only play the first time. That enemy is inherently supposed to be really hard, so it's going to require multiple attempts, and early on when learning its attacks you're spending more time listening to the "you died" jingle and then watching the slow fade out/in, before finally hopping up... to watch the dialogue and the ten-second enemy cutscene again. It's about a minute of waiting every time, all told, and it's INCREDIBLY frustrating to make a small mistake and die and then just have to WAIT, rather then go right back in for another try. I have no idea if this would be doable at this stage, but I think that fight would really benefit from having the dialogue and stuff play right outside the gate that pops up; that way the player can go back and save after the cutscene, and on subsequent attempts they can just run straight in and the fight starts. I have the same issue with the Twin Manors boss, but that one at least fast-forwards, and having to do it repeatedly is more of a me problem for going in underleveled. You have to fight the Dragon Boar underleveled, though, even if it's only by 1 in a normal file. (With Ruffer Enemies, though, it's a lot underlevel, which is why I feel like this is a necessary suggestion to make; I just got too frustrated to keep trying when it's possible to get nearly-oneshot, and a lot of its attacks can hit multiple times. I don't have an issue with it being hard, it's obviously supposed to be, but making the player wait between attempts doesn't add anything to the experience, imo.)