FOMO buy

[Mitch Mayers]

I don't have high expectations after playing the demo's, but I'm too (little) big a fan NOT to buy it.

Conclusion? FOMO made me buy it.

I think the dev's were spread too thin trying to both appeal to a new audience and re-work what LBA originally was. I expect they became super serious about doing this LBA-remake RIGHT, but became so micro-focused on details that they forgot what LBA was: FUN.

LBA used to be FUN and FUNNY. This remake -up until what I saw from it today- isn't anymore.

WHY NOT?
- They REMOVED what made LBA FUN(NY): all the SFX from the stances: sporty, aggressive, sneaking (dum-dum-dum...), and the BOING when jumping. Twinsen is now: boring.
- The magic ball isn't magic anymore (it sounds like rubber and doesn't use any magic)
- Twinsen can adjust his jump trajectory mid-flight. This is way too easy. I remember mentally holding my breath while Twinsen jumped (boinnggg) and hoping he would make the jump. Now it's just laughably easy.

[Digus]

Originally posted by Mitch Mayers:

WHY NOT?
- They REMOVED what made LBA FUN(NY): all the SFX from the stances: sporty, aggressive, sneaking (dum-dum-dum...), and the BOING when jumping. Twinsen is now: boring.
- The magic ball isn't magic anymore (it sounds like rubber and doesn't use any magic)
- Twinsen can adjust his jump trajectory mid-flight. This is way too easy. I remember mentally holding my breath while Twinsen jumped (boinnggg) and hoping he would make the jump. Now it's just laughably easy.

I agree with the first two, but the last one just No.
Temple of Bú was frustrated as **** because every jump needed to be too precise. That is not fun. You dropped, you needed to go all the way back to try again. LBA should not be a hardcore platform game. The second game was less frustrating because gaps were not so tight. But even so, the free camera angle and difference in altitude made it frustrating in some outdoor parts. If what they need to adapt is bigger jumps with more maneuverability, let it be.
Seriolly, when you fisnish the remake, I doubt you will think. "This was cool, but I really missed those **** controlled palaform parts."

[Mitch Mayers]

Originally posted by Digus:

I agree with the first two, but the last one just No.
Temple of Bú was frustrated as **** because every jump needed to be too precise. That is not fun. You dropped, you needed to go all the way back to try again. LBA should not be a hardcore platform game. The second game was less frustrating because gaps were not so tight. But even so, the free camera angle and difference in altitude made it frustrating in some outdoor parts. If what they need to adapt is bigger jumps with more maneuverability, let it be.
Seriolly, when you fisnish the remake, I doubt you will think. "This was cool, but I really missed those **** controlled palaform parts."

I admit I was only thinking of LBA2 for that last bullet point.
But isn't the Temple of Bú more of a RT-saving issue? In LBA2 you could try hard jumps again by saving just in front of them. In LBA1 it would load Twinsen back to the beginning of the scene/screen.
I guess you're right that I wouldn't miss any frustrating platform parts, but I think I would miss a bit of challenging platform parts. Let's hope they can still add platforming challenges WITH the current jumping mechanics.

[Digus]

Originally posted by Mitch Mayers:

I admit I was only thinking of LBA2 for that last bullet point.
But isn't the Temple of Bú more of a RT-saving issue? In LBA2 you could try hard jumps again by saving just in front of them. In LBA1 it would load Twinsen back to the beginning of the scene/screen.
I guess you're right that I wouldn't miss any frustrating platform parts, but I think I would miss a bit of challenging platform parts. Let's hope they can still add platforming challenges WITH the current jumping mechanics.

I don't think it's just a real time saving issue. If you could just save anywhere you could just miss, reload, adjust 1inch and jump again. That is not hard, just tedious.
The temple of bú has some maze plataformas that are just challenging enough, also some moving platforms that timing is the challenge. It was really frustrating to get the time right and miss it by one pixel. And sometimes it was really one more forward key press and you would fall from the platform, one less and you would miss the jump, if you were using regular walk. So you would need to use the discrete instance to adjust, but with the initial delay to start the movement, it was also troublesome.

[ErrantBlimp]

I agree that the magic ball is kinda underwhelming now. It should bounce a bit more, in my opinion. As for the magic bar, isn't it tied to Sendell's medallion? Twinsen doesn't have it at the beginning of the adventure. Or maybe they decided to omit it in the demo, I don't know. Its absence is unfortunate, indeed.

[cli_]

Originally posted by ErrantBlimp:

I agree that the magic ball is kinda underwhelming now. It should bounce a bit more, in my opinion. As for the magic bar, isn't it tied to Sendell's medallion? Twinsen doesn't have it at the beginning of the adventure. Or maybe they decided to omit it in the demo, I don't know. It's absence is unfortunate, indeed.

I had the last live stream running in the background and I think I remember hearing that the magic ball will go through four levels, having one additional bounce per level. So more reach over time.

I think the seemingly shorted range is due to the 16:9 screens the game will most certainly be optimized to. The old 4:3 CRT were more squarish and the magic ball bounced a more even distance no matter if you threw it up/down the screen or left/right.

Now on 16:9 the longest bounce without leaving the edge of the screen is limited by the 9-parts of the vertical much more than the 16-parts of the horizontal. Add to that that the fact we have only seen level one of four of the balls range and throwing the ball left and right seems kinda short and crippled.

With the old 4:3 the ball seemed to reach further and it took more careful positioning and aiming, I have to agree.

The new ball still is fun though.