That ending.. SOOOOO much wasted potentitial.. Holy damn, I haven't been this let down in ages..

[Invghost]

Ok, to start off: Love the game. Love the explotability of some of the items (Especially that bubble, that was amazing to sequence break and surprisingly easy)

But.. That ending.

I saw the shift to 16 bit graphics and thought "HOLY DAMN.. This will be like Symphony of the Night, one of my favourite games ever, where I can play the game again, but with a modifier (Upside down castle for SOTN)."

Then the credits.. "Oh, ok, sure. I'll watch these, I'm sure these people put a ton of time in, I can't wait to continue"

And title screen. My heart fell.

Sadly, I think this will be the last time I play this game, as there's no NG+, no replayability, short of speedrunning, which I get the feeling was the point of the game.

I feel so let down and that just ruined my experience, because the story doesn't even go anywhere..

I'll be writing a not recommended review sadly, because I simply hate that horrible ending.

[RocketLawnChair]

THE ETERNAL FLAME MUST BE LIT

[Elden Pixels]

Hello, thanks for your feedback.

SPOILERS BELOW.

We spent more than two years making this game and it was a ridiculous amount of work. Everyone in the dev team has another day job so basically we worked two jobs for almost two years. I always wanted a sad ending and it was very much inspired by the ending to Inside from Playdead. But also because we simply didn't have the time and resources to produce a big ending. The original ending was supposed to be a cut scene where Vicar shoots Zoe.

The story was always something I wanted to do more with. There's a whole point with the ending that I was kinda hoping people would comment on or at least ask me about but the game has only been out for three weeks so that hasn't happened yet. If we had more time there would be more hints explaining the ending though. But unfortunately we didn't have time.

When we tested the ending on beta testers everyone loved it and people were almost rushing through the game just to see what everyone was talking about. I don't think Alwa's Awakening is a game that would benefit from a happy ending. It's not really a happy story.

Regarding NG+ it was cancelled due to if we had made a NG+ it would double the amount of work and we'd probably wouldn't be able to release this year. Also a NG+ doesn't feel that NES (Well, Zelda 1 did it but not many other). Lastly I remember reading only 1% of the players finished NG+ on Shovel Knight. It wouldn't make sense to work on something so few people would play.

If you feel Alwa's Awakening deserves a negative review that's up to you. There is a secret ending though but I don't think it'll change your mind about the game. Judging from your text it looks like you had a really pleasant experience up until the ending so at least that's good. :)

Thanks for playing :)

// Mikael, designer.

[Invghost]

Can we expect to see DLC of some kind? A story expansion/new areas? I loved.. and for emphasis.. LOVED the end game challenge, it required some smart thinking and timing but the controls held up perfectly and I didn't feel cheated.

If any kind of expansion/DLC is being planned for/worked on, it will greatly influence my review to the positive side and I will update my review accordingly.

I am partial to all types of endings, as long as it feels as if the story is resolved. The ending I got did not really seem to hint at that. I will attempt to find the secret ending, as I feel I may be missing content by not doing so.

[Dels]

Okay... I'll be the one to say it, I guess. Saying you love a game but then giving it a non-reccomended review, essentially beacuse it left you wanting more... is not cool. That's not a cool thing to do. No offense, I understand you were dissapointed in the ending, but after how hard they worked to make this game and the fact that you genuinely loved it, I think that's really silly.

[Invghost]

Originally posted by Dels:

Okay... I'll be the one to say it, I guess. Saying you love a game but then giving it a non-reccomended review, essentially beacuse it left you wanting more... is not cool. That's not a cool thing to do. No offense, I understand you were dissapointed in the ending, but after how hard they worked to make this game and the fact that you genuinely loved it, I think that's really silly.

Well, the game was through a key, so it won't actually affect the storefront page, so changing my review to positive won't make that much of a difference. However for people who are looking to see what is wrong with a game before purchasing (Which generally revolves around looking at negative reviews), one small thing like the problem I had most likely won't scare people off unless that is something they care about.

So, even by giving it a Not Recommended, it still has the potential to help those who are on the fence about this game and could even push them towards buying the game.

My review is rather positive, apart from the one section that I mention about the ending, which is what made me disappointed and the reason I can't recommend it.

Steam does it weirdly where it's based off recommendations and not if a game is good. I wouldn't recommend this game to people because of the ending, but the game itself is amazing.

If the question asked were "What do you think about the game", it would have gotten a positive review. Blame Steam's bad wording :p


Also, I hate the idea that developers putting in a certain amount of time means that the game deserves a positive review, Duke Nukem Forever went through over 10 years of development and it turned out to be a trainwreck. 2 years is actually rather standard, I think the main applaudable fact was that the dev team managed to do while also working part time.

The best thing that could happen to this game is a SGDQ spot and some DLC, that would make the developers quite popular.

Regardless, I will be watching what the team does closely for future endevours as they made a great game, just not one I can recommend.

[Elden Pixels]

We're not sure about DLC. We have an idea for a DLC but your post actually got us thinking we could do a DLC that would delve more into the story. At the moment though we're primarily focusing on finishing the NES soundtrack cartridges which is a lot of work.

[wyrdwad]

Does the ending really affect your recommendation that much, though? I mean, to quote a tired aphorism, "it's the journey, not the destination." Some of my favorite games have endings that are just a black screen with text, but I don't care because the game itself was its own reward. The ending only lasts for a minute or two, after all, while the game lasts ~10 hours.

I definitely do agree that the ending to Alwa's Awakening could be better, but I had such a good time playing it that ultimately, I don't even care. I would wholeheartedly recommend the game to pretty much anyone within its target audience demographic.

[Raven Diesel]

Actually, this ending gives MORE potential than less, because it's OPEN ENDED, the devs have a FREEDOM to do ANYTHING they'll think will be cool, the game is already challenging but damn good, and I sure do want to see the sequel in that SNES style!

[Reynard the Fox]

I have to agree the Ending was quite a let down... I totally enjoyed the game and looking for everything. I think you should tie a new ending into getting 100% and the word etc though. That way the original fits the whole start over if you don't do everything minus the hidden code of course.

I was hoping that the destroyed village would have been rebuilt and we could explore it on the next play through a bit. Barring that just seeing some sort of story of the changes after you win would be cool even if it drops you off a proverbial cliff at the end with a ending leaving open the possiblity for more because the evil isn't really dead yet etc.

As a note I spent awhile trying to figure out ways to activate the "eternal flame" without getting hit by the light or some alternative method to actually light it on fire as a way to find a secret ending or otherwise lol.

[amerk]

TC, I was thinking the same thing, that I missed something along the way. I was mainly disappointed in that getting all the secrets (especially the artifact pieces) didn't lead to a magic upgrade, a stronger attack, or even some faster means of travel outside of the warp points scattered around.

I felt the game had potential of being a great hybrid between Metroid and Zelda II, but kind of failed on both parts. It failed Metroid because of the lack of weapon upgrades for combat, making it more puzzle focused and enemies just a hindrance. It failed Zelda II for lack of magic upgrades, no extension to health outside of the flask, which is more of a chore getting filled up because how very few wells there were.

And the ending was confusing, like I felt it hinted at something I had missed. There was so much potential here that felt wasted. Maybe I missed something, but that one village Dark something, a person mentioned how getting all the ornaments could help them rebuild. But when we get all the ornaments, nothing happens, and the NPC just says the same thing. Maybe it was lack of time or something.

Back to the ending, I figured her hell was to repeat this mission over and over again. Maybe she was stuck in some sort of loop. There was a clue about the eternal flame needing to be lit, so maybe her sacrifice was to keep repeating this over and over again while the real world continued on. But I couldn't make heads or tails. But I was mostly upset, because I thought we'd get to replay the game in a whole new light, as you also believed, and I was expecting some sort of Ghost N Goblins twist, having to replay the game a second time to get the real ending.

Oh well, I almost never play retro games for their stories, and if you go into like you would most retro games, you can kind of ignore the details behind the story in favor of the gameplay. It's not Zelda II or Metroid, but it's still a fun nod towards older classics. Personally, if they didn't have an ending in mind, concluding it after the final boss would have been better. We wouldn't know what happens next, leaving it up to the player's imagination.

Edit: However, compared to a lot of other similar types I've played, this has been the most fairest in terms of gameplay, being hard at times without being critical. Most boss fights are easy once you figure out the pattern, but they can be a challenge if you don't analyze the boss attack movements.

[Ben Hurr]

I too felt a bit let down by the ending. Stuff was put on the table story-wise with the bosses being all 'why are you doing this', then nothing was done with it. Oh well.

I'm not sure what the significance of the better graphics in the implied 'link the first flame' ending was; did Zoe originally start in a CGA commodore 64 world before the player started? :P

Still, cool game.

[Kohmei]

Mentioning Inside makes me think you were going for the meta-game commentary angle (arguably Inside's "story" was about video game development). Like, most games and sequels just flagrantly rehash each other -- same game but with better graphics, like we've seen with Zelda countless times. Thus the "eternal flame" represents a process that is never truly done.

Though I think you might have been a bit optimistic implying Alwa's will get a sequel ;)

[#yolo #swag #fierce #wow]

Beat this today, loved it. Altar of Echoes was tough, but I cut my teeth on NES games. Not sure I even understood the ending, though.

The graphics "upgraded," obviously, like a console generational shift, but I have no idea what the significance of it was. It looks like the first area, so I thought maybe it was a Groundhog Day thing where Zoe was doomed to repeat the events of the game forever, but I'm pretty sure the dialogue was different. I have no idea what the first flame is.

I agree with Ben Hurr that it seemed like the groundwork was being laid for some kind of "why are you doing this" you're-actually-the-evil-one twist, but nothing ever came of it so I'm not sure if I'm supposed to read it that way or not.

I also have no idea what the point of the tablet was. I collected all the pieces but if it did anything for me I'm not aware of it.

I really did like the game, just not sure what to make of these odds and ends.

[Elden Pixels]

Thank you all for playing our game! It's a blast reading this. :)

[amerk]

Well if you ever add DLC NG+ that continues where it ends by replaying it through the 16-bit style, and offer new dialogue, quests, maybe one or two mechanics or abilities, the possibility of an alternate ending, I'll definitely be game.

If not, it's still a pretty fantastic game overall.