A little stuck, just want a little hint

[Marscaleb]

Okay, I'm a little stuck as to how I can progress. I've tried everything obvious and gone back to every place where I know I've left some obstacle I can now clear. I've travelled across to every part of the map where I have a path I haven't explored and none of them are areas I can get past.

I did recently find a guy who was trapped (and I got an acheivement for it) and he said he would help me out for rescuing him, so maybe if I go back to one of those spots I couldn't get past he will suddenly be there to help me. Or maybe there is something else I am forgetting about, but either way at this point I basically would have to walk back through every single room in the game looking for something I missed.

Now please, PLEASE don't tell me outright where I need to go or what I need to do. Finding out for yourself is half the fun. But I would appreciate it if someone could just point me in a general direction so I know where to focus my searches.

I've defeated the first three bosses and the old lady near the shrine tells me that I need to see what other cannot see in order to defeat the fourth one. I guess that means there's an item that lets me see invisible blocks or something. I would guess that's what I need next, unless there's an item that lets me swim, because just about every place I can't get past involves some large body of water that I cannot jump across. (And in one spot, green flames that I can't jump across.)
I have three magic powers, a coin, a flask, and the map. And one key, although I cna't seem to reach any of the locked doors I can find.

[Elden Pixels]

Hello.

This is the part in the game where we don't give the players many clues. You aren't really given any directions at all. What you want to do is to upgrade your magic powers and there are new items you can find. Both areas where these are located are shown on the map and should be accessible from two directions.

Have you found any green looking dungeons?

[Marscaleb]

I can see a green dungeon, but I can't cross the water to get to it.

BTW, I have mad respect for not giving the player explicit directions.

[Elden Pixels]

Then you need to find the object that lets you pass water filled areas. You should be able to see a room you most likely haven't visited on the map. Let us know if you need more hints :)

[Marscaleb]

Hrrmmm, I found what I was missing. There was a spot where I could get past if I just decided to jump on some spikes, take damage, and keep going.
That's pretty cheap, really. This seems like the kind of game you could finish without ever taking damage; I really expected there to be a way to cross that without getting hurt.

[Elden Pixels]

That's not how it should work. You can finish this game without taking any damage. Which room was this? If you press R in a room a small popup should appear showing the room name.

[Marscaleb]

12-E02

[Elden Pixels]

Oh, that room. Yeah, it's a bit tricky but there's a passage in the ceiling that lets you put a block on those spikes. Glad to see you're on the right path! :)

[Marscaleb]

...I see. For my money, that's a bit *too* well hidden. After all, this is a game where you explore and obtain new abilities, so it's not hard to write that one off as another "I have to come back here later." Especially since there had been nothing yet to cue a player to go UP into a fake wall. Maybe if you decorated the tile a little bit to get the player thinking of the ceiling?

But, maybe it was just me.

[Shonikado]

Stumbled across this thread looking for guidance for a later part, just wanted to share that it wasn't just you - I had pretty much the same experience while playing on Switch. I found that room, determined I should come back to it later, and after a long while of wandering came back and realized I could just take a hit to cross. Shortly after I'd decided that I was definitely supposed to go this way and there was no way damage was mandatory to do so, so I went back and figured out the hidden wall trick. (That said, I was aware there was a hidden wall before I left initially, but I think I had written it off as a way down from something or hadn't found where the it actually was.)

All things considered, this part - and other parts I got stuck on later - felt very "it was clear what the game wanted me to do and I should have poked more" in hindsight. I also think it's interesting that the game gives you the option to bypass the puzzle in exchange for taking damage. I don't know if that was intentional or not, but either way it's an interesting bit of game design weirdness. Normally "you get to proceed but at a cost" is reserved for messing up during platforming/combat, while puzzles stop all progress.

Anyway, that's enough posting in a six-year-old thread to respond to a person who will probably never see it. Back to searching for the part I'm actually stuck on so I can go "oh that makes sense I should have seen that coming" and continue onward...