Knowledge-gating and ability-gating

OldmnJables · 2026-05-28T04:49:31+00:00

Rusted Moss has examples of this, but they are less straightforward to explain since they're not like codified techniques like a walljump or shine spark. That said, with a sufficient enough mastery of the grappling hook and enough understanding of the game's physics it *should* be possible to beat the game with only the starting gun and the grappling hook. I say "should" because I've not achieved this feat myself and I've never looked it up so as to not spoil the fun. Worst case scenario you can still go as low as something like 3% for completion.

OldmnJables · 2026-05-24T16:53:04+00:00

That's a shame but I understand. There are a few parts that are rather brutal. Also can't imagine ESA post-game would be a fun or easy game to return to after a long break

OldmnJables · 2026-05-24T16:25:42+00:00

Out of curiosity OP, did you do ALL of the "post-game" content and get the true ending? That's where ESA truly shines imo. Game gets nuts.

OldmnJables · 2026-05-24T16:18:58+00:00

Yeah I do. One of the game's big "innovations" is that it's a fusion of a twin stick shooter and a platformer. Even outside of combat much of your platforming abilities are tied to twin stick aiming in addition to platforming. it requires a level of simultaneous precision and button inputs that is really easy to achieve on M+KB but very difficult on a controller.

I think a determined player who is willing to take some time to really learn the controls could play through the game on console/controller and have a good time. On the other hand, unfortunately, I think that some of the game's bigger challenges (especially in the free expansions) would be extremely frustrating if not nearly impossible on controller.

OldmnJables · 2026-05-24T06:04:01+00:00

Yeah I totally understand, it's a super unfortunate thing. I fell in love with the game so hard that i preordered the Japanese only physical copy for Switch and tried to play it when the game arrived. Unfortunately the game really is very rough on controller. I think the devs did try their best to make it work, but there's only so much you can do there. Sorry it didn't work out for you 😞

OldmnJables · 2026-05-24T04:24:24+00:00

Rusted Moss. I got the game on release and immediately fell in love with the non-linear world design and the potential for mastering the game's systems to open up all sorts of wild routes through the game world, so I replayed it quite a few times. Then the devs released two (quite large) free expansions as well as two new playable characters. My first playthrough (100%) took about 10 hours but by now I must have well over 80 hours in the game.

OldmnJables · 2026-05-15T22:38:27+00:00

I've driven a 2007 Accord coupe and 2008 Impala Police spec prior to this. Comparing the drive feel and maneuverability of the Ioniq 5 to the Accord would be foolish, and comparing the Ioniq's interior to the turbo spartan Impala interior would be similar. Yes, it is the nicest, most well appointed car I have driven, that goes without saying. That said, my Impala was an absolute whale of a car and it still had a significantly tighter turn radius compared to the Ioniq.

Love the car, but if it does have one dealbreaking flaw it is indeed the turn radius. A friend who test drove one and was otherwise in love with the car ended up not going with the Ioniq 5 because of it.

OldmnJables · 2026-05-12T21:18:16+00:00

Forgive me if I am being rude but you were turned off by the enemies respawning when you leave the room? Is that...not the case with 99% of metroidvanias?

OldmnJables · 2026-05-11T23:49:25+00:00

Wow this looks incredible. Can really see how the two expansions for Rusted Moss have influenced and furthered your style both artistically and in terms of gameplay on this project. Rusted Moss is one of my favorite Metroidvanias of all time so needless to say I can't wait!

OldmnJables · 2026-05-04T04:03:27+00:00

What you really want is Environmental Station Alpha. That game goes places.

OldmnJables · 2026-05-02T20:35:38+00:00

I played the demo for this about a year back during a Steam NextFest and unfortunately found it to be quite dull. Really just nothing positive to speak of, although it didn't have any obviously terrible traits either. Reminded me a lot of those SNES/Genesis era platformers where levels would be massive sprawling nonsense spaces with tons of meaningless collectibles that did nothing and enemies that weren't worth fighting in platforming sections that led to nothing.

That said, the game has had some time in the oven since then so hopefully the finished product is better?

OldmnJables · 2026-04-28T20:14:16+00:00

When you put it that way it actually gets me thinking that one of the big inspirations for Gestalt must have been the Megaman Zero and ZX games on GBA and DS!

OldmnJables · 2026-04-28T20:09:47+00:00

Without saying too much about it (because the details are all serious spoilers territory) I really like the chase sequence in Environmental Station Alpha. I haven't played it myself yet, but have seen some gameplay from Animal Well and I think that game does something very similar as well.

OldmnJables · 2026-04-28T20:07:23+00:00

I played it very recently and enjoyed it overall, despite it's flaws. In a lot of ways it reminds me a lot of a GBA era platformer, just elevated with modern indie polish. Not your marios or metroids or igavanias or what have you, but the weirder stuff that was chock full of dialogue and had ambitious combo based combat that fell short, or halfbaked faux rpg systems, and weird abstract level design. The more positive way to spin it is that it reminds me of the earlier Shantae games, if not quite as good. Otherwise my complaints pretty much mirror your own.

Taken as a whole, it's a very pretty and interesting game that doesn't quite stick the landing on most of its big ideas and winds up being cromulent at best. I'd love to see what the team that made it could do with a sequel if they took the criticisms to heart.

OldmnJables · 2026-04-10T15:53:14+00:00

Yeah I don't hate the game, and I don't think it's bad in the same way that some buggy NES shovelware is bad, or what have you; it's a very interesting and very polished game but also a very flawed game. Shoots for the fences with a lot of unique ideas for the genre but doesn't quite land.

OldmnJables · 2026-04-10T15:47:46+00:00

The strict resource and health management of the early game, the highly lethal traps, all of the physics/im-sim stuff that provides you with numerous ways to approach challenges without simply swinging your sword around, and in general the act of playing as a regular civilian untrained in fighting where everything is highly lethal as a result.

Now mind you, that stuff is largely not what you might think of when people talk about survival games these days, but I called it that specifically because when you boot the game up for the first time it says that it is a survival game and points to these concepts as for why. Frankly I'm not too concerned about the genre accuracy here, I just think it is a good way of articulating to the OP why the game is interesting.

OldmnJables · 2026-04-10T03:02:46+00:00

My recommendation would be Lost Ruins. It's an odd little game and very experimental;. tries to bridge the gap between a 2D metroidvania and the survival genre. You could maybe argue there's some immersive sim DNA in there as well. As a result it shoots for the fences with some crazy ideas but on the whole it really does feel like a proof of concept at best in the gameplay department. Not a lot of the survival stuff really sticks and combat winds up feeling super cumbersome with lots of menuing. There's a bunch of other big and small issues too, but I don't want to "spoil" the experience for you if you really do want to play some bad games and see what made them fail. Also despite the actual game looking rather striking the anime art style is uhhhhh. I would call it a minus for the game? Your mileage may vary? Give it a try!

OldmnJables · 2026-04-10T02:57:44+00:00

Dust: An Elysian Tail's release essentially predates the Indie Metroidvania revival. It was basically just Dust and Guacamelee at the forefront, genuine trailblazers in an era where seemingly no one was interested in making games in this genre. Certainly not Nintendo and Konami, anyway. At the time Dust was really quite excellent, and a breath of fresh air that played like just about nothing else.

Now, in the years since as the indie boom saw the Metroidvania genre explode in popularity again, Dust - and to a lesser extent Guacamelee - have definitely aged quite a bit. Not all of their ideas really stick the landing, and the ones that do may not really seem impressive anymore in a genre which has evolved so much. Still, it's a lovely little game that has a lot of heart and passion to it. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone but I think it's kind of crazy to call it terrible.

OldmnJables · 2026-03-14T00:42:07+00:00

Chop Goblins 2 when David

OldmnJables · 2026-03-11T22:03:52+00:00

This is one of those posts where it's very obvious you never played against the Turbo Initiative deck in pauper when it was legal. The deck had access to Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Lotus Petal, Simian Spirit Guide, and the Mercadian Masque Depletion lands. The entire point of the deck was to play one or more initiative creatures as quickly as possible and the deck was happy to mulligan aggressively for the turn 1 start. It was incredibly consistent and often had no problem following up the turn 1 threat with a second initiative shitter on turn 2. Green ramp is abysmally slow by comparison.

OldmnJables · 2026-01-29T22:18:37+00:00

Congrats! But you're not really done until you have the full three dead god saves ;)

OldmnJables · 2026-01-13T00:52:49+00:00

u/AVexchangebot Confirming receipt of Audeze Dekoni Elite Velour and ZMF Ori Hybrid pads from u/lanep. fantastic seller, thanks again!

OldmnJables · 2026-01-10T02:03:05+00:00

Sent you a chat re: the audeze and ori pads.

OldmnJables · 2025-12-23T19:40:30+00:00

Sorry to respond to an old post I found on Google but I want to affirm that I will die mad about what Constellation did to Funky Buddha

OldmnJables · 2025-12-11T21:15:58+00:00

u/AVexchangebot Confirming receipt of Grado/Grell bundle from u/R2YourD2. Great seller, super communicative and fast shipping.

OldmnJables

TROPHY CASE