The costume modes seem pretty unfair.

[Echo]

So, I took a gander at Ninja and Beach mode, which both have very interesting mechanics, but I noticed something pretty horrid about both.

Both modes have Shantae with only 3 hearts, but a ton of attacks deal about 2 to 4 points of damage. That isn't too bad, except this particular game has a thing for enemies jumping at you out of nowhere or firing projectiles.
Hell, stage 1 of a clean game has this, with the torch throwing Tinkerbats. They're always perfectly positioned to get at least one cheap shot on you. To make matters worse, the flames they leave behind move around, which effectively denies you access to that area.
And yet, the soldier dudes from later in the game throw grenades without any special properties. They're still a pain in the ass, but not as much

With Beach mode, you can never get the sun screen without getting hit.
In Ninja mode, you can never hold onto your gems in order to level up. (Also, I just hate that when you do level up, you can lose that level, which inevitably puts you in a limbo of gaining and losing the same level until you either mess up enough or push through, which is horrible when enemies keep getting unfair hits on you.)

Hell, Risky doesn't even announce her pistol shots during the first boss! She always says "locked and loaded" AFTER she shoots! And given how fast the bullets move, it's just insulting.



I can forgive all this in the base game because healing items exist, but the outfit modes don't have that luxury, for some reason.

Like, when I read that gems would improve my skills, I assumed it'd be like Risky mode where you can spend collectibles on upgrades. But NOPE! Apparently the entire menu just removed the inventory system altogether!

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

[Melodia]

It's the same as Friends mode. And yes, it's horrible. It's bad enough to really sour me on WF in general. Risky Mode was fun despite feelings lazy because it was different enough....the Friends mode and Costume modes are just utter tedium -- lack of healing items is bad enough but not even beinfg able to get more health by the end of the game is just complete and utter crap.

[๊]

I dunno, I liked it. The base game was way too easy. I guess this was their way of making the game harder... bit of lazy way to do so, but I find it works. Still with the hearts missing though, you just get hearts back every 5 seconds from the enemies. And with the stage select you can grind gems, when your low on level. I think with the heart containers still there you would find the game a bit boring.

[Patitasmon]

Odd. I played all three costume modes and while is true there are enemies everywhere, I didn't feel it that frustrating. It is just matter to get the hang of it.

For example, on Ninja mode you have the teleport technique which can save you from getting hit and even is useful to reach for certain platforms.

On the swimsuit mode, if the sunscreen is too high just press D on keyboard or the equivalent button on a gamepad to get Shantae inside of a bubble that will allow her to float. That is pretty useful too to avoid attacks.

Finally on the officer mode, use the siren in your favor. if you press the siren button in the right moment, you even can kill enemies with the platforms that the siren make appear and disappear.

I already passed world 1 (main street, the second part of main street, you know the part that is kinda on night time and on fire? and the first boss) and the first part of world 2 (the falls) and getting all the dream squids/space hooligans of those stages (not interested yet on the speedrun records XD).

Guess playing Friends to the End first have its perks, switching between characters sure helps you to improve your speed and reflexes XD

[Melodia]

Originally posted by RingoToBudo:

I dunno, I liked it. The base game was way too easy. I guess this was their way of making the game harder... bit of lazy way to do so, but I find it works. Still with the hearts missing though, you just get hearts back every 5 seconds from the enemies. And with the stage select you can grind gems, when your low on level. I think with the heart containers still there you would find the game a bit boring.

Yeah but they already added hard mode to the base game, and it was actually (outside a couple bosses) was pretty good. The BS they made coastume mode is certainly not what any sane person would expect from "replay the adventure with rebalanced stats and special moves" (as described in the Kickstarter stretch goal). One would expect it to be like Magic Mode in Risky's Revenge.

[galdon2004]

I'd call beach mode basically unplayable once you hit the airship level. The "you will burst into flames and die if you don't get sunscreen every two seconds" mechanic does NOT work together with the "wait for openings to advance or take damage, and start the ENTIRE LEVEL OVER if you run out of life" mechanic.

[Miraglyth]

Believe me OP, I gave extensive beta feedback on pretty much everything you mentioned. Apparently it's been forwarded, but no signs of tweaks so far.

[♡ ディズィー ♡]

You do know that ninja Shantae has a teleport that lets her zip past those and ambush them from the other side. And beach Shantae has a bubble she can use the fly OVER them or did you just skip the start where she reads the controls for you?

[⎛⎝RabeDennis⎠⎞]

Originally posted by Echo:

So, I took a gander at Ninja and Beach mode, which both have very interesting mechanics, but I noticed something pretty horrid about both.

Both modes have Shantae with only 3 hearts, but a ton of attacks deal about 2 to 4 points of damage. That isn't too bad, except this particular game has a thing for enemies jumping at you out of nowhere or firing projectiles.
Hell, stage 1 of a clean game has this, with the torch throwing Tinkerbats. They're always perfectly positioned to get at least one cheap shot on you. To make matters worse, the flames they leave behind move around, which effectively denies you access to that area.
And yet, the soldier dudes from later in the game throw grenades without any special properties. They're still a pain in the ♥♥♥, but not as much

With Beach mode, you can never get the sun screen without getting hit.
In Ninja mode, you can never hold onto your gems in order to level up. (Also, I just hate that when you do level up, you can lose that level, which inevitably puts you in a limbo of gaining and losing the same level until you either mess up enough or push through, which is horrible when enemies keep getting unfair hits on you.)

Hell, Risky doesn't even announce her pistol shots during the first boss! She always says "locked and loaded" AFTER she shoots! And given how fast the bullets move, it's just insulting.



I can forgive all this in the base game because healing items exist, but the outfit modes don't have that luxury, for some reason.

Like, when I read that gems would improve my skills, I assumed it'd be like Risky mode where you can spend collectibles on upgrades. But NOPE! Apparently the entire menu just removed the inventory system altogether!

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

mimimimi CASUAL mimimimimimi

[Blackshadow]

I dunno I kinda just saw the 'beach' part and ignored the difficulty part. I still love the 'beach' part better if you know what i mean.

[Scripter]

I will admit that I did not enjoy the sunscreen collecting.

But in regards to the health complaint... same holds true for the enemies. They have WAY less hitpoints.

[Miraglyth]

A reminder that you also cannot get bikini armor in the costume modes, and while enemies have had their health lowered they have not had their damage lowered in any way.

So essentially from 2-1 onwards the costume modes are the regular game with quirky dialogue and just 1 and a half hearts and no collectable healing items.

[Scripter]

Originally posted by Miraglyth:

So essentially from 2-1 onwards the costume modes are the regular game with quirky dialogue and just 1 and a half hearts and no collectable healing items.

Well to balance thius out, there are a lot more health drops.

[Miraglyth]

Health when you probably don't want it, or health when you definitely want it... I wonder which is preferable?

[jabberwok]

I actually don't mind the difficulty spike too much, or I didn't until I tried to play the desert tower as the ninja. The ninja's wall jump is horrible. Unlike the monkey, I have to hold the thumbstick in the direction of the wall or I'll fall off. But if I want to jump off the wall in the opposite direction, I need to hold THAT direction as I jump. Which means waiting until after jumping to press in the direction I want to go, which means basically just falling instead of gaining any height.

Which is a killer when trying to go through those flame traps that were designed with the monkey in mind. Under time pressure. With only three hearts.

EDIT: And now that I've played more, I've realized that you can teleport up or down, and not just to the side. I still think the wall jump control could've been better...