SomeFish 最近的评测

I like how the later movement abilities interact. I'm surprised the speedruns for this game are so quick

My childhood

Ultros movement is top tier

+ Super Metroid-style walk and run acceleration, but better because you maintain momentum on falls
+ automatic waveland on platforms
+ dropdown platforms

Ultros pathing is top tier

+ interconnected zones from the start
+ the story takes you through different paths in a very unique way that I can’t describe without spoiling it

I think the gardening could be more high-octane, but it is relatively optional. I believe you can speedrun this game without engaging much with the gardening mechanic. I do think seed placement randomizers would be a cool category for replays and bingo speedruns.

I recommend this game to anyone who enjoys art by the likes of Moebius, Kilian Eng, and James Jean

You decide your journey

Clear Time: 1:21:21
Completion: 75%
# of Times KO’d: 16 (5 at the boss)

I am glad to say that Whirlwind Magician reminds me of one of my favorite games, The Swapper. In fact, it is the only game highlighted on my Steam Profile. Whirlwind Magician and The Swapper have great platforming, cool upgrades, and tense stories. I’m all for it! I’d recommend Whirlwind Magician to anyone who loves dashing in metroidvanias.

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+ solid platforming
+ solid script, great characterization. Each character had a distinct voice
+ Great pixel art. The death animation is stellar, which is a good thing because I died a lot. This is a pretty tough game; I had to lean forward. The first area’s platforming is already medium difficulty and requires a good amount of two-handed coordination
+ fun combat. The arena battles are difficult. Usually those can be a snoozefest in some games but the varied enemy types guide the player to master the movement and combat abilities
+ great graphic design. It was so smart to make the green pixie gate match the green poison cloud. And the visual cue of hair changing color like Celeste. Love it!

- the last area did not make good use of such a dynamic movement system
- A couple sound effects are missing, like a jump sfx, a teleport sfx, heart piece collection sfx, and a hp/strength increased sfx. And the boss’s roar sfx is waaaay too loud
- some dissonance between the youthful narrative and the rather difficult platforming. I would not give this to an easily-frustrated cozy adult. But would 100% recommend to an adroit tween. I would recommend this game to someone like me (indie metroidvania stan)

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First thing I want to mention is level design. Overall I thought the areas were all distinct and memorable; I basically never needed to use the map because the art and varied platform puzzles meant I could rely on my mental model.

It was extremely smooth sailing, except for one small hiccup at the very start. The game asks you to fall down a pit between thorns before the first power-up, something that I wasn’t expecting so it took me a while to find it, so I ended up backtracking to the start area before trying to go down the pit, which took a lot of time. My gamer brain told me, “jumping in a narrow pit between two thorns isn’t the main path before the first upgrade”, which led me astray. Later in the first area, the mechanic of “red dots in the area means that down is a pit” was introduced, and I thought “ooooh so that is why the pit was okay, even though initially presumed otherwise.”

All in all, there is good progression-based backtracking in a tight map, and I enjoyed platforming and scouting for collectibles. The third area however, is very much separated from the first and second area. Which is the second thing I want to mention—that the game REALLY shifts in the last arc. I like the first upgrade and the second upgrade. The intensity really ramps up once you get both of them. Unfortunately, all that momentum goes away when the third upgrade goes in a completely different direction. The reason why I have beef with the third upgrade is because I play an mv for the platforming and movement abilities. I love the general good feeling of movement, broken up by puzzles or arena fights. That is why backtracking is OK in metroidvanias, because it is just fun to platform.

The familiar control does the opposite of fun platforming; it locks you into place. To make matters worse, the accompanying area eschews all muscle memory gained from the first two upgrades and asks you to navigate a 2D maze with orthogonal controls. And of course, there is precedence for alternative movement upgrades in mvs, like the Morph Ball in Metroid, but those often gain extra upgrades to make them feel good again, like a bomb, a jump, or new traversal options like clinging to ceilings. All this to say is that I enjoyed every area except for the last act.

Luckily, the boss brings it back to form and does a great job asking you to dodge by jumping, shifting, all while you try to weave in attacks. I had a great time with the boss and I died enough times where I could try different strategies (snipe from afar, get up close and spam explodes, hatbounce on the lunge, or just dodge it, etc) and I was naturally beginning to memorize the attack patterns. I think this was a gamer’s boss and rewards. It would be difficult for a cozy gamer to beat the boss.

P.S. In the base movement kit, you can perform rapid-fire bunnyhops by throwing the hat downwards on an enemy. Which is SUPER COOL. I love dynamic aerial abilities. I would have loved to see challenges using the hat-throwing bunnyhop physics, or even sequence breaks. For example, a hat-throwing bunnyhop upgrade could work on thorns to cross chasms in conjunction with the shift ability. Or add in an upgrade to allow you to charge up a super explode if you perform two bunnyhops in a row, etc.

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In conclusion, I liked the game. I mainly play metroidvanias to have stellar platforming, discover high-octane movement abilities, and experience a new story. I got all of those.

I can't tell if this game is too French for me but I am unsatisfied with the puzzles and the story.

The positives:

+ The first area is so interesting with puzzles that ramp up in difficulty
+ The second area has interesting perspectives and the characterization of these people were cute. the climax of the second area was well executed.
+ environmental art is well executed
+ the languages made sense. you could 'see' the nouns, verbs, and objects in the glyphs

The negatives (ending spoilers below):

- Puzzle quality decreases as the game goes on. The last area, Exile, is barebones, has weak puzzles that are all the same difficulty, and none of the other men "inhabit" the space after completion
- The ending climax sucked. It has pisspoor music and resorts to 'spot the difference' puzzles. It does nothing with the accumulation of the player's puzzling prowess. Even the sneak sections suck, there's no use of the 'distraction bell'. This is a targeted example that is emblematic with my experience throughout the game

I will qualify my statements and say that 54.5% of Steam players have reached the true ending, which means that the developers have created a game that offers high motivation to finish and is easy for people to finish. Accessibility should be lauded, esp. for a niche topic like conlangs.

tldr; Unsatisfying puzzle game about discovering language. Homicipher does it better.

At first I thought it was too easy but then I jumped from 300 rating to 1000 rating from a really great 5-star Durian combo and I do believe the game is balanced around 1000 rating. The early-game common cards make sense at that rating since you are barely eke'ing out the payment

I like unlockable plants and it is a good ramp up of complexity. The game reminds me a lot of Balatro and honestly, in a parallel universe could have gone as viral as that game.

Platformer with movement abilities. Fun if you like collectathons and space OSTs

If you like ascii rougelites where you bash your lil chara @ at unknown enemies and slowly learn what they do over time, this is the game for you. Lots of hero abilities to try different runs. Reminds me of the frantic nature of Crypt of the Necrodancer

In lieu of a dollar amount for Slider, I have decided to leave a review. This is a great Minit-like game. I hope boomo shops his next ideas around to game publishers but honestly boomo doesn't need to do that since everything is so polished, I just think a publisher has the risk tolerance for bigger marketing and getting the game out in front of more eyeballs! Kinda like what happened with Balatro

The game is good and exactly what I wanted. If you have played Minit, it is like that but polished and with a great soundtrack.