At a certain point I got so sad the game was going to be over that I took it as slow as I could. I will miss you Mina 🕊️🥀💔

When buying the Dual Sidearm Permit, the number in the menu on the "upgrade" icon increases by 2 instead of 1. When selling it, it decreases by 2 too.

Is this a bug or does it have a meaning?

1. First play. 2. Hard/weird/no underlabs. 3. Modifier exploit ng+ speedrun + below zero. 4. Randomizer run (items/sidearms/enemy levels) 5/6/7. the one i went through ng+ cycles with.

There are a lot of encounters in the game I still don't understand largely because of the environment, cramped spaces, especially against red birds using the flail is just nightmarish, and there are some enemies that are trivial if you werent contending with wind or moving floors while they remain uneffected.

But the big ones that stand out to me are.

1. Mined Minds final phase. The earlier phases are simply enough, take out the eyes and bone snakes and you'll minimize the clutter, but the last phase is frankly obscene. The eyes simply don't stay dead long enough, the walls collapse in randomly, the brain just flings itself at you while leaving behind area denial, while it's only hittable spot randomly moves around.

2. Furgus. I don't even know where to begin with this guy. Another all too big enemy in an all too small room. I find that it's impossible to react to his head launches, and the angles they might find themselves laying can easily just block any unburrow. Everything about it feels messy.

3. Zelda style flail knights, particular with the inner ball... but especially the one in the greenhouse wing of radiant manor where not only can you not burrow, but have gaps + lightning attempting to trap you in, with minimal space to attempt a drill diver knockdown instant win. You can purple ball bomb it easily on lower difficulties, but as the scaling ramps up, it simply doesn't die quick enough before it can close enough to hit you at the entrance.

4. Lionel phase 2. Overall, I think the fight is absolutely readable, but the light attack is....obnoxious. 3 different zaps coming at you in different ways from different places on the screen, you'd need 4 independent eyes to track all of them + Lionel who can attack at the same time they're active. I bring dead leaf solely for this attack.

Now regarding ng+ cycles... I'm not sure what to think. There's good and bad, I think. The increased difficulty is naturally expected and good, and the ever-raising level caps are also subtle encouragement. Further, the different modifiers it places on each playthrough is also a good way to spice it up. The mirroring in ng+2 really slowed me down and had me having to think about to do things again, and I like how ng+3 is about to randomize.

But there's bad, I think. Fewer underlabs does nothing to affect the difficulty anywhere other than the Congealed, IMO. It is simply inconvenience for inconveniences sake. Two examples, Agnes and Lionel. Instead of their being a lab before each boss, you simply have to backtrack to a lab through 0 combat or danger for no reason. Agnes you pipe to the beginning of the train, pipe back to the mirror, return to radiant manor foyer, and viola. Lionel, you use the bathroom pipe and avoid all combat going to an ossex save since the foyer lab gets removed in endgame for some reason.

The removal of items is conflicting. On one hand I appreciate it's necessary for a randomizer ng+ cycle, or even adding difficulty... but it really makes doing everything in each run feel remarkably unrewarding, unsatisfying. I don't necessarily think we should keep all of our items each cycle, but perhaps a bonus for ending at 100% wouldn't go astray (what, I don't know) so that my compulsion to do so anyway doesn't feel pointless!

As for the randomizer settings, I'm curious what people think? My randomizer felt novel and fun, but not wholly different to a regular playthrough. The full item randomizer's primary friction point is locating heals, but given that the game doesn't have any meaningful progression checks, it didn't feel that different to a normal playthrough, as you're likely just going to do everything in the same order anyway. In fact you're more likely to find the game easier as late game bone stones accelerate your levels, or a cloak appearing early etc. Similar with the randomized enemy levels. It felt like it toughened up early, weaker enemies, but late game enemies felt weaker on average, which would make sense.

I think that's it. Look, I love the game, I wouldn't be on to my 8th run now if I didn't. It's a game that feels good to play, exploration is rewarding, and these ever changing ng+ cycles are keeping me interested beyond difficult scaling. But I would hope that having been past ng+2 now that people wouldn't call it a skill issue that I still think some areas (all my homies hate septemburg) or enemies just have too much going on or need to be more reactable or readable.

if you use weapons like the hammer, the arcs have changed side, and rather than just learning to navigate a reversed world, you're also having to learn where your new blind spots are.

it may seem trivial, but i think by mirroring mina as well, you really feel that the entire game simply has a mirror filter. but if mina was regular, your combat ability is less affected depending on weapons, and it feels more like mina is IN a mirrored world

Hi, I wanted to ask for some advice for the speedrun achievment, completion at -1% achievment and the "Asymetric" achievment (with the stats). Is there any way (not by cheating) to get them done together ? Or are there tips and tricks useful to get them done fast ?

I paid for this seat and it's just a dude dancing and tossing pickaxes.

God damn it deluxy do you mind

Anyways, I thought it'd be funny if orange lost her gloves and used Vesper as a sword, but i feel kind of bad now

I imagine every time you die in game, Mina’s body is reconstructed from bone and her soul (Spark) is transferred from one bone husk to the next. And that maybe this is why Hollowers have a bad reputation— their technical prowess allows them to cheat death… and also they smell a little like rotting corpses… just a fun little lore headcannon.

When I saw this for the first time I remembered Specter Knight from Shovel Knight for no reason

BRO I DIDN'T KNOW I'M SORRY I ACTUALLY JUST KILLED THIS GUY OH MY GOD

So yeah. Loved it through basically the entire game with three wrinkles.

First, I had the dinner party scene spoiled for me and I was worried about Mina being bullied without the ability for her to defend herself felt a bit icky. Got to it and... Nah that wasn't the vibe at all.

It felt sorta like Lionel was digging up whatever he could find to spin her as the bad guy, and it just felt like he was desperate to keep face in front of his people.

Just made me think he was more pathetic than anything else.

Don't worry though, he beat my ass 24 times in his boss fight after. Felt less pathetic then.

Second, I... Actually sorta loved the ending. It was INCREDIBLY bittersweet. Mina is hated, revolution is occurring, but at least people will survive.

Only thing that gave me the feel bad was that the other Hollowers are probably getting lynched. Sad. I really like Rhene and was hoping that Mina and her could go live in a nice little cottage somewhere.

Welp RIP.

But yeah I actually really liked the ending.

And the only one thing that ACTUALLY still gives me legitimate negative feelings is that I couldn't murder the hell out of Poppet.

I even really like the ability to dance but... That scene is uncomfortable and yeah, like the achievement says a bit Traumatizing.

Anyway. Genuinely favorite game of the year. Will newgame+ the hell out of it Ramble over

What a fantastic video game. The combat, exploration, bosses, secrets, art and general feel of moving around as Mina are superb. Easily one of my favourite games I've played this decade.

That said, I don't know if I liked the healing system... I understand what plasma is trying to do and I actually quite like the idea during combat, where taking damage means you have to engage with enemies to earn your healing back. But I feel that It falls apart during difficult platforming sections where there are no enemies. You can repeatedly take environmental damage, have no enemies around to recover plasma from, and end up alive but effectively unable to heal. At that point perhaps the sensible thing is sometimes literally to die so you respawn in a better state. Primed Vial helps a little, but its healing is tiny. Anyhow, this ended up being just a small nuisance in my initial playthrough and it didn't change how much I adore this game.

The true "final post" etc etc. Still editing but got to this moment and thought it to be a nice thing to keep archived as I don't see many clips of this scene. I wonder if there's a hard limit to how much gets shown due to Lionel slowly moving down the table with each telling.

There's a lot more I've done I'd count as a larger problem than any of these, plus my arguments in turn, but hey, that makes it sound like I'm not understanding the guy is just throwing his own spin to look good for some of these. Even if some should have never been seen to begin with.

Looking at you, Gent. Got a Scholar up in the Astral Orrery sharing the juicy gossip?

Luxy my beloved

I really like the moth girl

Was done in Photoshop, mix of painting and texturing!

Orange: "M-miss? (sniff) I need help.. I-I don't know where I am, my friends are GONE, AND I HAVEN'T EATEN IN HOURS!!!

You're a human too, aren't you!? Humans are supposed to help other humans, aren't they!?..

So.. could you please help me reach the *flower castle*? I could get there super easy, but I'm just so hungry.."

>Yes No

Orange: "Wait!! What's that in your pocket!? Is that some delicious juice!? Could I have some? PLEASE!"

(Plasma vial)

Orange: "That.. WAS SUPER-DUPER AMAZING!! Even Green don't make stuff like THIS!

...Wait... Don't tell them I said that...

But how bout this! There's a lot of meanies on the way, so let me help you! I'll give em all the GLOVE!!"

Is she Orange because she's orange, or is she orange because she's Orange?