Tower of Anxiety broke me.

[Ean Alias]

I really liked this game and hope there is more in the future, but holy crap! the tower of anxiety is trying it's best to destroy every one of those good memories.

I think the best phrase that underscores the advanced mechanics in the game is most of the time your homing attack locks on to the bounce pad properly most of the time, you'll grab on to the ledge after the charge most of the time, Even tho you were slightly off center on that target the game will fudge it to put you in the right spot... You know what I was gonna say.

Granted they are A LOT more consistent than most of the games from the time CK is taking inspiration from, (looking at you Chameleon Twist) and indeed many of its modern contemporaries. But when you take a bunch of mechanics that are mostly working, and string it with stuff like the back and forth wall bounce pads, that barely work. In a high pressure scenario with limited chances, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ do you have a recipe for controller snapping frustration.

Don't get me wrong this was an insanely charming game and I can't wait to see what's coming next.(hopefully some of the jumping gets tweaked) I wouldn't have pushed myself so hard on the tower if I wasn't having fun to that point lol.

But I gotta bow out of this. If I lose another round cause the homing attack that was supposed to hit the spring bird missed and sends me backwards onto a floor full of laser traps... I might sell all my gaming stuff and get into a less frustrating hobby. Like Growing Orchids, or making sand art.

[TheSKLTN2000]

I feel that frustration tbh. After you beat it, it kinda becomes easier if you know what you're looking for in terms of mechanics.
For the jump pads, I can only recommend you shift your camera to be close up, and try to land on the edges of the pads while sternly holding right corner and left corner on your joystick when you jump. One of the BIG issues with the game I've had constantly was lock-on (which was fixed in a recent patch) and a lack of visual depth when jumping. The only way around it I've found to work is to TRUST the jumps which does seem to work.
My advice would be to take a break, get a drink or a snack and try again in a few hours. Frustration isn't fun in any sense, but the tower IS supposed to be a challenge.

[bogo47]

Tbh, this level was supposed to be even tougher than it is. An optional post-game challenge for the few elite players who found the rest too easy. But I underestimate the pressure for people to 100% games such as this.

I'd say technically you don't have to finish Anxiety Tower for 100%, just reach lv6 and get all 5 caps and you are there. Maybe I will add the results screen to the normal ending as well (minus the character images) so it can be confirmed.

Bounce pads don't actually have lock-on at all, btw. Also grabbing a ledge after headbutting (without hitting the wall) was intended not to work, though it will if you fall a little ways first, so try to look for a different strategy where you are attempting that.

[Ean Alias]

Lol it's sort of a vicious cycle I found myself in. I finished with the game proper and I'm itching for more content. So I go 'F it, I'll give it a shot. I made it pretty far on my first try, I bet I'll have this beat in a couple tries.' Then hours later I slink away from my living room, shattered and questioning my sense of self...

Originally posted by bogo47:

Bounce pads don't actually have lock-on at all, btw. Also grabbing a ledge after headbutting (without hitting the wall) was intended not to work,

That actually explains a lot of my struggles. I guess I never noticed cause Ill aim the analog sticks sometimes on impulse even when I'm counting on the attack to lock on. Maybe I'll give it a shot again when the pad on my thumb heals.

[gurizuri]

You can do it! Once you really get a hang of all the little nuances the engine has to offer, yo will feel like you're on cloud 9 while fighting for your life. If you're like me, maybe you'll be left wishing it was even harder, haha. ;P

[gagobear]

helps to play Celeste first to build up your endurance to platforming hell

[buddy]

Does anyone know what to do when you get here?
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3067127444
it looks like a dead end to me

edit: nevermind I'm dumb

[Greyvine]

I got to the very end of the tower but got hit by the final blue sphere orbiting the column and died

[CosmikOtter]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOUvB2s1vDk&t=2s

Haven't seen much about this level on youtube, so here is my (not perfect) run the first time I got through it. It took maybe 1.5 to 2 hours on its own. Maybe it'll help some people out.

The only part that I feel is one hundred percent ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ is the bit at the very end where you need to bounce off some spring pads and across a trio of bubbles. There really, really *really* should have been a vending machine there or at least shortly before it. It really is weird how there is only one at the beginning at maybe a quarter of the way through in a spot that isn't all that difficult.

[buddy]

you were air dashing way too soon after jumping off the bubbles

[intrawvert]

This game should be considered soulslike cause of the tower

[Stiv_64]

I just lost two runs in a row because of the final challenge with these bounce pads. On the first run, I still had two attempts worth of health. One time the camera screwed me over and the second time I didn't use all the momentum of the bounce pad before dashing towards the first bubble.

Second run, almost full health at the final bounce pad thingy. At least three times, the third bounce pad sended me DOWNWARDS and the other failed attempts were again because of the camera misplacing my dashes and/ or angles towards the bounce pads. Might as well play Sonic the Hedgehog instead...

[scrunt]

Anxiety Tower glaringly showcases the game's mechanical and gameplay flaws and jankiness that otherwise you would not feel too bad about (although the Tower was also frustrating for this reason)
Stuff happening like the jump targets not registering when you can clearly see you hit it or the utter janky inconsistency of the diamond jump pads makes it incredibly frustrating
having finnickiness in a precious platformer is bad. I wouldn't go as far as say the game is bad or I didn't enjoy it, I liked it a lot for the most part, but the game really shows its flaws near the end. In my attempts at Anxiety Tower a lot of it didn't feel like my fault and more the game not working so it got more frustrating.

[Lore]

I don't think the game is janky, personally. The first time I went through Anxiety Tower certain sections felt impossible but after I beat it once every subsequent playthrough felt very consistent and doable, that to me shows that there's no randomness or unpredictability involved, it's hard but it's consistent, once you fully master the game's controls and physics nothing that happens through your input really feels arbitrary. The only part of Anxiety Tower I don't like is the one with the vertical jump pad where you're required to awkwardly wrangle the camera to properly orient yourself while bouncing off the pad in a very precise way

[LegoRobot]

I agree fully. I have all kinds of feelings about this but it'll be faster just to paste my review:

"I'm recommending this based on the first 50% of the game, about 15 hours of polished, expertly crafted collectathon gameplay up there with the best of 90s Rare. However I'm psychologically scarred by the remaining 50%. Either in an attempt to pad out the game (the dev test map is included as a challenge level) or because Bogosoft consists of sadistic degenerate miscreants who hate life, love and all things pure & beautiful, the other 15 hours consists of having nails pounded through your ♥♥♥♥. I'm a big, tall, hairy man but I cried bitter, salty tears struggling my way up Anxiety Tower onstream over the course of a full week.

...Only to then discover I don't get the real ending unless I find EVERY SINGLE cube, and the Void Screws (yet another set of macguffins). Anxiety Tower alone destroyed all goodwill I felt towards this wretched, cursed game, but learning I also needed void screws TO USE IN A SECRET AREA BEHIND AN UNMARKED DESTRUCTIBLE WALL was like climbing my way up through 9 layers of hell, stepping on an entire lego death star with my bare penis every step of the way, only to burrow up into purgatory. Is this meant to be a Kaizo game? I know that was in fashion years back with VVVVV, Super Meat Boy & the like, but this feels like a direct, vicious attack on the very concept of happiness. It was enough to make me bitterly, desperately hate the game, myself, my life, etc. and only now, with the nightmare receding in my rear view mirror, can I once again appreciate the good qualities.

Having said all that, and once again I mean unrelenting harm of infinite scope, duration & severity to all members of Bogosoft, I will offer some constructive crits. First, 2 levels aren't nearly enough. Padding it out with CBT challenge maps ala Super Mario Sunshine doesn't cut it. This game needed, at minimum, four levels the same size as Wolloh's Hollow. Monster Park is a tutorial level that doesn't count. Forcing us to find absolutely every cube was also needlessly brutal and not fun. There's a balance to be struck.

I will also attempt to say some kind things about this game through gritted teeth, boiling blood still pouring out my eyes. The humor is very charming. The aesthetic is kino before you learn it's the window dressing to virtual Gitmo. It really captures that late 90s, early 2000s funky edgelordism, like a game Gaz would play in Invader Zim. Until it started forcing bamboo underneath the fingernails of my soul, it brought back pleasant nostalgia of being a know-nothing teenager picking up jalapeno cheesybread from 7-11, wallet chain swinging, on my way home from middleschool to eat while smoking a bowl and playing N64 on a 13 inch TV/VCR combo shaped like Spongebob in my bedroom with my black light posters.

I was happy, briefly. Why couldn't the whole game have been that? What would possess an ensouled person to inflict the latter half of this game on anyone? I hope you're terribly pleased with this monsterpiece of torture porn you've wrought. After everything, I didn't even get those nachos. I would suggest burning in hell, were you not its architects."

[Leonhard Euler]

I used to be critical of the sheer secrecy of the secret area entrance, until I realized it's actually telegraphed by the floor on the top of the anxiety tower