(Major Spoilers) A few pieces of feedback

[Gitaxian]

I've just finished this game, and I love it so much I'm going to list all the things I don't love about it.

1. The first visit to dustbound village is probably my favorite part of the game, but it also has a couple weirdly paced and just plain weird moments. The first is when you get multiple major new concepts thrown at you in the space of a minute. You see the dust-birth, then immediately get told about dust-channeling. I feel like this part would flow a lot better if you learned about dust-channeling in an earlier part of the dustbound village sequence so the player has more of a chance to reflect on the implications of the dust-birth.

The other moment that stood out to me was when Nova blows up the Handfruit Haven. The text says she "bares her powers" and then we get a cutscene of her spinning while it explodes. What exactly did she do there? It's not really clear and she never does anything like that again.

2. This is probably the pettiest of my gripes, but I really wish the game explained what was up with the nano-assassins. They just sort of stop showing up and it's never clear where they're coming from. Does dust have some sort of sapience and actively tries to destroy the center? Are they just militant dustbound trying to ensure the center can't take control over them again?

3. In the second visit to dustbound village, you should either be able to explore after finding Palisade's card or there should be a confirmation prompt so you know picking it up will kick you out permanently. I missed a bunch of dialogue because I found it right away and the only way to get back there would be to start a new save file and complete most of the game again.

4. Why isn't the game called Anodyne: Return 2 Dust.

[Aumires]

After completing it, I will give mine too:

1. I totally agree with Dustbound Village throwing concepts at you in a big twist kind of way... and not doing a lot with it. Actually, what irked me more was how the wrestling parts hinted at an expansion of the 2D gameplay with timings involved and when "Dust channeling" was introduced I thought Nova was being taught that in the fights there and then get used by spending some Dust meter from the one she collected to do like tiny explosions and such. Or small QTEs in bosses too, even. It disappointed me quite a bit, even if the "pico" stuff was cute later. Specially due to that sequence indeed of blowing up the fruit, Nova doesn't have such destructive weaponry in all game but in that sudden outburst.


2. The Center lore indeed plummets after Dustbound due to Palisade's guidance disappeared and Psalmist and Visionary being couch potatoes (couch crystals? levitating crystals?) aside the small "Anodyne" explanation. It's not until the "true" end sequence that again the lore picks up. I guess the experimental/Anodyne 1 style remix makes the player center themselves more in gameplay but indeed the narrative/gameplay balance suffers indeed a big change there. And indeed, no more Nano-Assassins after Dustbound Village. What's up with that? Would it have caused Nova doubts and tried to ask them things after what happened in Dustbound Village? Are they a group of rebels against The Center? What IS The Center? What IS the Dust? Postgame also just mentions the Dust as something that appeared and that's that. It felt like it left things to mystery for a sequel perhaps.


3. Related to that, I was expecting a 2nd final dungeon and a climax against The Center. Nova still has her Glandilock Seed, Elegy only avoided The Center due to blinking at the same time Dustbound Village got changed and Nova got both headaches and then subliminal messages when trying to confront The Center... so I expected her to have some kind of shock against Kronenberg-Visionary manipulating The Center's energies and need to unlock herself from the seed as she wasn't a newborn like Zera. Her inner world could have looked like Zera's but darker and full of tendrils like her 2D UI has. And THEN have a final showdown against C Visionary and have C Psalmist help with pushing Dust crystals. Though that might have been too hard as it's a two people team.


4. Postgame was cute but.... too short? Metacoin hunt aside, The Land felt more like an Easter egg than an "Extra Zone". I will add here too that the Unzones, as nice as it is to see behind the scenes stuff, without collectibles in them felt unneeded, unlike the Archives in Anodyne 1 that had a lil function. Why have teleporters when you have a Teleporter Unzone too? The extra content seems, in short, pretty barebones. I did enjoy exploring all of that though, so the intended purpose IS covered.


5. The game gives a bit of, not wanting to sound disrespectful, lazyness in the 3d scenarios due to how exploitable is with the physic tricks and intended glitches. Someone that doesn't come from Anodyne 1 and knows of the increasingly breakable world there might be... put off when they start to see floating mountains and falling through scenarios. Again, I think it's great and how it has evolved taking and improving into that kind of style after All Our Asias, it's just the "exploring the world limits" theme might pass over the head of some people as other topics critizicing the game seem to hint at.


I really liked the game though. Even if I still prefer Anodyne 1, this was a great standalone game by itself mixing the 3D exploration and 2D dungeoneering with a quite expansive narrative to boot. I played it with a friend and we both enjoyed it quite a lot... and he might get Anodyne 1 too for himself as he didn't play it back then!

[godotwashere]

I would add to all this that I don't feel the narrative was even necessary to the game. I played All Our Asias and felt that the story in that game got overbearing pretty fast nearer the end with some poorly paced sections, and that problem is repeated in Anodyne 2 somewhat. I really wasn't compelled by anything going on in the story, especially Dustbound and Palisade, which felt like hollow motivations for Nova to have some manufactured problem that was never properly established or resolved. Anodyne 1's strength was in exploration and the bizarre setting, which is still present in Anodyne 2, just not to the same degree. Nora was the best part of the entire thing, hands down. I didn't play Even the Ocean, and I'm not sure I will, but I always felt that the best aspect of these kinds of works was in embracing how out there they were and rolling with it, not trying to set a grounded narrative. You can absolutely have one, but that wasn't (obviously) a contributing reason for how much I liked Anodyne 1. This is still a good game, just not the kind of game that I was looking for in a few respects.

[awesomenicc]

I'm really curious about the nano assassins too. Also, what even happened to Palisade? In the Anodyne ending C Psalmist is pretty sure that it was the Center, but what does that even mean? Like, if the Center could just kill dissenters whenever, wherever, then why is Nova allowed to pull off the true ending?

[Pango²]

Originally posted by AwesomeNick:

Also, what even happened to Palisade? In the Anodyne ending C Psalmist is pretty sure that it was the Center, but what does that even mean? Like, if the Center could just kill dissenters whenever, wherever, then why is Nova allowed to pull off the true ending?

This. I just don't get the reason behind her ... disintegration? It's not even like she dissented, all she did was treat Nova like a person, in addition to guiding her towards fulfilling her duty. Even the Dustbound weren't killed off upon discovery, and they actively rebelled against The Center.

Originally posted by Aumires:

Are they a group of rebels against The Center? What IS The Center? What IS the Dust? Postgame also just mentions the Dust as something that appeared and that's that. It felt like it left things to mystery for a sequel perhaps.

If my interpretation of postgame content is to be trusted, the Sage from Anodyne seems to be the creator/colonizer of New Theland. I see The Center as Sage's will, something forcefully imposed on all those living in his world. It would kinda fit the pushy, condescending nature we saw in his previous incarnation. The Dust, on the other hand, just seems to be an allegory for mortality and inevitable decay. That would mean the Dustbound are merely a group of people who have embraced mortality and change not only as a fact of life, but something that enriches one's very existence – which is something Sage cannot accept (especially after witnessing the decay of The Land). The Center's will is stagnation – a frozen, unchanged world without suffering (or potential). The Dustbound's will is self-determination and the acceptance of change as the catalyst for personal growth.

[ErsatzDragon]

Worth adding that death is the absence of change, save for remittance to decay.

[Ninja_Potato_Lorf]

During the ending where Nova rebels against The Center, C Psalmist has an odd bit of dialogue, where she says to C Visionary that she just assumed Palisade's death was her own fault, or simply an accident of sorts, before coming to terms with the fact that she's gone and asking C Visionary if it was really an accident.
I think this implies that C Visionary was somehow behind Palisade's death, likely as a means to remove anything that might distract Nova from bringing about The Anodyne. How exactly was he able to kill her so easily? I honestly have no clue.

[Ninja_Potato_Lorf]

As for the Dust Assassins, I have a theory that they were placed by The Center in order to make The Dust seem like a greater threat than it actually was.
The only Dust Assassins encountered is the one that "infiltrated" The Center and the many ones found in the people of Cenote, a city which conveniently borders The Center. In other words, these Dust Assassins could have sought out people infected with Dust and simply waited for a Cleaner to show up for them to challenge. If they lost, it would further cement to the cleaner that Dust is dangerous. On the other hand, if they somehow managed to kill a cleaner, it would simply show to The Center that said cleaner was too weak to complete their mission, and a new one will be made to take their place.
If the Dust Assassins were made by The Center for this explicit purpose, it might also explain why they are all near-identical copies of each other and act like they are under a hive mind. Were they true Dustbound, the Assassins would have had loads of time to differentiate themselves and discover their own identities. But instead, they act like factory-made drones, working towards a single purpose.

Keep in mind, everything I have typed is purely speculative and shouldn't be taken in as canon.

[BlackStripe]

Originally posted by Ninja_Potato_Lorf:

As for the Dust Assassins, [...] they act like factory-made drones, working towards a single purpose.

Honestly I've had the same thought at some point in the second half of the game. Why were the Dust Assassins so different from everything encountered outside of CCC? The logical conclusion I've come to after finishing the game, was that they were planted by the Center, exactly like you described, although I couldn't find anything to back that claim in the game itself.