I just... don't get it...

[EnemyStarship]

Open Critic has this game at an average of 88, based on 12 reviews. The store page reviews are overwhelmingly positive. But I just don't get it... I'm not trying to be inflammatory when I say this, as initially, in the tutorial and first level, I enjoyed what I was playing.

But after I chose my 'first' level (the mines, as it seemed to have the 2 lowest 'ratings', suggesting it might be a good starting level), I started to find a lot of the encounters and traversal to just be annoying. It's not 'difficulty' per se, as it's not like I haven't played and finished hard games, both 2D and 3D, but after fighting the boss multiple times (Crash Circuit, I think? Grappling hook dude that makes rocks fall from the roof), I feel like there are things that just get in the way of my enjoyment - one of the biggest ones for me was the discrepancy between the amount health I'd lose against the amount the boss would lose (losing 3-4 pips of health against 1 pip of damage done on every hit), where it feels like you should either both lose 1 pip per hit, or 3-4. I also found some control inconsistencies with the hookshot and holding the run button button down that really bothered me.

Everyone who seems to play this thing loves it, so what am I missing? I like the 'old-school' style, and have enjoyed plenty of throwback-style games, but I feel there are ways to do this kind of thing without holding on to some of the mechanics that games have maybe moved beyond? I don't know... Maybe it's just me...

[DomAnt]

Can you detail your issues with the hookshot and run button behavior? Perhaps there is something that can be adjusted in a future patch.

[Sokurah]

Well i'm on the final mission ... i guess. I play on normal and dont find to too difficult. It gets much easier as soon you found a few missing bots and get some upgrades.

Wall grab and double jump are the most usefull and tbh aside from "build up mega move energy" or whatever its called i see no reason why i should try others.

I will only play this once but when you are into challange modes this could be quite fun i guess. No chips, no skills, no damage. Stuff like that.

I beat most bosses in a kinda messy way. Trading blows at the end. If you wanna master bosses, that can be fun too. I dont really see it in this game tho. Bosses are not on the same level as lets say hollow knight.

The combat and enemies being rather simple makes it a bit bland fast imo. I never felt compelled to use the special attacks much either.

Its not a bad game but i don't see the point for me personally to play it more than once.

Edit: well it wasnt the last lvl.I beat another boss and a lvl and came to a boss gauntlet that just killed it for me. Bosses are not that much fun that i wanna replay them. I quit.

[EnemyStarship]

Originally posted by DomAnt:

Can you detail your issues with the hookshot and run button behavior? Perhaps there is something that can be adjusted in a future patch.

I find that, when I'm trying to diagonally aim the hookshot, it goes straight up, or vice versa. The run behaviour was largely on the conveyor belts with the blocks on them, that it would take a moment (half a second maybe) to start moving/running again after breaking the blocks, sometimes ending with me falling off the belt. I'm not sure how patchable those 'issues' are, just things that I noticed...

[DomAnt]

Originally posted by EnemyStarship:

I find that, when I'm trying to diagonally aim the hookshot, it goes straight up, or vice versa. The run behaviour was largely on the conveyor belts with the blocks on them, that it would take a moment (half a second maybe) to start moving/running again after breaking the blocks, sometimes ending with me falling off the belt. I'm not sure how patchable those 'issues' are, just things that I noticed...

Assuming that you are playing on an analog stick on a controller, you can adjust the sensitivity in the controls menu. This can help with those diagonal hookshots.

For the conveyor belt situation, you could try using your aerial attacks, as they allow you to move and attack at the same time. It can indeed take a moment to start moving again from a stand-still jab, and depending on how you press your buttons (eg. pressing the attack button twice and then beginning to hold left/right),this may take a bit longer.

[data]

Originally posted by DomAnt:

Can you detail your issues with the hookshot and run button behavior? Perhaps there is something that can be adjusted in a future patch.

hookshot was a bit inconsitent for me too. I constantly found myself pressing up and hookshot when jumping but the hookshot going straight forward. I think there should be some kind of input buffering or something like that, to not required 100% precise input.

[Jean]

I recommend you play Megaman X1, you'll see a lot of the influence in this game there. The speed/movement of the character feels more more like Megaman Zero series, though. Contact damage is VERY bad in these games, but if you have that much trouble with it, seek out the health upgrades and the upgrade from the Nurse that helps block physical health hit damage. It can feel "unfair" at first but the point is to learn not to get hit. The bosses are meant to be hard. There isn't even really a negative to dying in this game, there's no live system, so you can at least retry the boss infinitely without redoing the stage, unlike most Megaman games which will make you re-do it after several deaths.

Even as a Megaman X/Zero fan, it took me over an hour to find my comfortable play control scheme for dashing/hooking. I put dash on R1 and Hookshot on R2, I find that is most comfortable for me for actually doing more fancy manneuvers.

[EnemyStarship]

I think a big part of it is actually holding the trigger down to keep the hookshot out - that, in retrospect, seemed to be my biggest headf***...

[Jean]

Originally posted by EnemyStarship:

I think a big part of it is actually holding the trigger down to keep the hookshot out - that, in retrospect, seemed to be my biggest headf***...

This is why I recommend finding a better custom control scheme.

[shoumoa]

I also have issues with the hookshot going straight instead of diagonal. I think an old school approach ala Bionic commando from the NES would work with this. in that game if yu used the grapple hook without a directional input it would shoot out diagonally. really made platforming easier in a game where you couldn't actually even jump. it was second nature to grapple across long bottomless rooms. wanna grab the ceiling and swing over? just stand there and push the button. I think a control scheme like this would help tremendously with the grappling in this game.

[DomAnt]

Originally posted by shoumoa:

I also have issues with the hookshot going straight instead of diagonal.

In the next update we are adding an optional keybind that sticks your hookshot into vertical upwards angles (diagonal and straight up). It may take some time before the update is ready, but just letting you know that it's in the works.

[T@X]

Originally posted by DomAnt:

Originally posted by shoumoa:

I also have issues with the hookshot going straight instead of diagonal.

In the next update we are adding an optional keybind that sticks your hookshot into vertical upwards angles (diagonal and straight up). It may take some time before the update is ready, but just letting you know that it's in the works.

It is a nice idea.
To get it right consistently i had to rely on a Sanwa microswitch joystick, or either an high-end dpad controller.
Not everyone has one of these around.
Playing the game with standard analog sticks/base console controllers (excluding seriesX DPAD) it's really frustrating atm.

[thegreatzambinimorsu]

You're not alone, I find this to be one of the worst megaman clones I have ever played. Not to mention the complete absence of a blaster... even zero had a blaster back in the X series. The controls especially the hookshot is hard to get diagonally on mouse and keyboard as well.

The lackluster level design that puts emphasis on repeating long hookshot combos as well as a general lack of enemy variety and strategy (where are the minibosses ffs?) make it tiring to play through and kill the replayability for me.

Not to mention the obvious secrets, the completely annoying weapon power up system that doesn't let you change on the fly and use energy like other megaman games, but forces you to grind, or limits you severely.

It's ok to be different, but you have to understand that megaman had those features, because it made it a better game.

Just a boomer take from somebody who has been playing megman since the 80's...

I would urge the developer of this game to play megaman 1-2, and megaman x1-2, especially the first megaman x, which is a masterpiece. Play through the levels and try and understand why those games were able to make so many sequels and why it was fun to play through those and not yours.

I don't wish you ill, but honestly your game should be a lot better.

[DomAnt]

Originally posted by thegreatzambinimorsu:

I would urge the developer of this game to play megaman 1-2, and megaman x1-2, especially the first megaman x, which is a masterpiece. Play through the levels and try and understand why those games were able to make so many sequels and why it was fun to play through those and not yours.

Unsure what to tell you, but Mega Man X was the very first game I ever played on my big brother's SNES - and I still have the exact cartridge on my bookshelf. Not just that, but I've played basically every game in the whole franchise (classic, X, Zero, ZX, Legends, Battle Network & Star Force), barring some obscure titles like Rockman Strategy. Similarly the composer, Dominic Ninmark, has been involved in other fan projects, and there are other fans of Mega Man on the artist duties, too. That is all to say, that there are some big fans of the blue bomber on the team - I particularly enjoyed replaying the Battle Network titles when the collection dropped earlier this year.

It is perfectly fine if you don't like the game, for any given reason, and we appreciate the feedback. We do read all the feedback we can, after all. However, it might be good to refrain from making assumptions about what the development team has or hasn't played.

That said, we did find the review saying that we only watched Lets Plays amusing. No hard feelings there. It did, however, remind us about the potential idea to implement mouse support for keybinds - it has just been a feature that hasn't had much demand.

Edit:
I've now implemented the ability to bind actions to mouse buttons. So, this will be available in the next patch (current patch being 1.0.8 at the moment of this writing).

[error_profilename]

Yeah. I mean I like this game but I feel it's very over hyped. Visually it does everything right but there's a lot of weird design choices.

For context, I'm a huge Mega Man fan and own most the original and X series games. I've also played a lot games influenced by the series (some better than others). I'd put this right in the middle.

The enemies are just so spongey. I don't get why developers try to pad their games by making enemies spongey. It doesn't make things harder. It just wastes time. And more importantly it slows the fast nature of these types of games. There's also some things in levels that are poorly conveyed. Like some background elements look like foreground and vise versa. Or another example, you'll have to jump down a pit even though pits usually hurt you.

It's also very inconsistent when environmental hazards will send you very far back or just a little bit. There's also quite a few times, when death/damage feels unfair (though this one is not uncommon in Mega Man). It's also weird the grappling hook fires forward by default when you use it mostly for swinging. There's a reason Bionic Commando, a game that came out in the 80s, defaulted to diagonally forward and upwards. Maybe it used more for horizontal attacks later in the game?

It's not bad. It's perfectly fine. But I don't get why this got so hyped when others don't. Is it the visuals?

I don't mind the difficulty and I think the boss fights are really good. It's just a lot of smaller things adding up.

[thegreatzambinimorsu]

Originally posted by DomAnt:

Unsure what to tell you, but Mega Man X was the very first game I ever played on my big brother's SNES - and I still have the exact cartridge on my bookshelf. Not just that, but I've played basically every game in the whole franchise (classic, X, Zero, ZX, Legends, Battle Network & Star Force), barring some obscure titles like Rockman Strategy. Similarly the composer, Dominic Ninmark, has been involved in other fan projects, and there are other fans of Mega Man on the artist duties, too. That is all to say, that there are some big fans of the blue bomber on the team - I particularly enjoyed replaying the Battle Network titles when the collection dropped earlier this year.

It is perfectly fine if you don't like the game, for any given reason, and we appreciate the feedback. We do read all the feedback we can, after all. However, it might be good to refrain from making assumptions about what the development team has or hasn't played.

That said, we did find the review saying that we only watched Lets Plays amusing. No hard feelings there. It did, however, remind us about the potential idea to implement mouse support for keybinds - it has just been a feature that hasn't had much demand.

Edit:
I've now implemented the ability to bind actions to mouse buttons. So, this will be available in the next patch (current patch being 1.0.8 at the moment of this writing).

Have no complaints about the graphics or composer by the way, to me gameplay is king and that is where my criticism is directed.

I am going to just remind you how varied and fast the levels felt in megaman X, a game that I played through many, many times.

Think of the penguin stage (although an easy boss fight), you constantly change through scenery with shifting environments, challenges and enemies. Let's compare and contrast that single stage with one I recently completed in this game, the speaker one which repeats the same hazards again and again with the same enemies.... and a questionable boss fight.

How do you tell yourself that it stacks up to that? I know that those capcom developers were the titans of game development in the 90's, but please replay Megaman X, the very first and try to do it blind. Don't look up the armor parts, or the shoryuken, just go in blind and then play a few levels in your game and come back to me.

I will highlight some more stuff, barring enemy variety and repetition in level design, there is also the use of weapons and moves. It felt so much better to get a new weapon from a boss than have to additionally use currency and then pick another move that lacks the iconic changes in functionality and visual design. Not to mention how the moves are penalized when you die to a boss... or are forced to pay currency.

Ok, it does make the game stand out but not in a good way.... there is also the lack of a good charging attack that you can continually use, not to mention a dedicated blaster. Why isn't something that was essentially the most iconic feature of the protagonist and the gameplay not in the game? Having it be mostly melee.. is well... fine, I guess, if the enemies didn't have relatively so much health (that is why they added the charge in the first place).

If you can recall the charging in megaman x got multiple stages... so you wouldn't wear your thumb out for the more challenging enemies.

Don't expect a break because you are a small studio either, small studios have recently produced absolute gold. Just be honest with yourself. Glad for your success regardless, but... yeah, could be better and I think deep down you agree with me, or you wouldn't be reading/responding.