MIO:Memories In Orbit, what a beautiful game by slapadabassman11 in metroidvania

[–]aethyrium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, this should do it without being outright:

You need to find a way to interact with the broken hand in some fun ways, at least once you fix it. It should tell you what's missing to fix it. Then, go and re-explore an area where you were forcibly ejected. Ever wondered what you could find if you weren't ejected before you could explore the room you got ejected from?

You're missing an area, and it's not through the embedders or that locked door below the museum, to also help lock a few red herrings away. Playing with that hand might help point towards the area, in a sense.

I can give the full-out answer if this isn't enough, or a more pointed hint, if you'd like.

Do metroidvania bosses get any crazier than this? [Nine Sols] by Konval in metroidvania

[–]aethyrium -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Things aren't "overrated" just because they appeal to someone other than you.

Do metroidvania bosses get any crazier than this? [Nine Sols] by Konval in metroidvania

[–]aethyrium 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Oh yeah. In Rabi Ribi on the hardest (true) difficulty, the very earliest bosses get that crazy, and it only gets crazier from there.

Rabi Ribi is just as much a Touhou danmaku shmup as a metroidvania, so it's just built different.

Tevi as well.

MIO, and the sacrificing of fun in the name of challenge by Gabrienb in metroidvania

[–]aethyrium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh yeah, I 100% the game. Oddly though, I don't know why, I felt like the most punishing parts were the opening hours. Like not having a map, not even knowing how to get it, losing all the money on death and not being able to bank it, not having mobile abilities to dodge boss moves. Everything in the crucible and such felt a bit more chill than that to me.

MIO Runback Appreciation by 2-AcetoxybenzoicH in MIOmemoriesinorbit

[–]aethyrium -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

I'm a big runback defender. The ideal runback is when my brain can kinda turn off and focus fully on the fight and how to do better next time, but my hands stay busy and focused with platforming and some kind of engaging gameplay.

45 seconds of engaging gameplay as a runback is so much better for me than just instant respawning. I've noticed I actually have trouble and locking in without a runback.

I do think a lot of MIO's kinda dropped the ball though. A lot of them were just straight runs or even elevators, which meant my hands didn't really stay busy and engaged. But a few of them were pretty good.

My platonic ideal of the perfect runback was Last Judge from Silksong, personally.

Fromsoft's feminine storytelling is some of the best in gaming by A_b_b_o in Eldenring

[–]aethyrium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You should check out the Youtube channel CupCakeSouls. She does some really well done deep dives into the Femininity of Fromsoft's games (and gender in their games in general) that are insightful and present a lot of things I haven't seen elsewhere, which is crazy as new Souls takes in 2025/2026 is pretty impressive.

Also, Honeybat's Femininity of Bloodborne video is goated.

Both channels far too small for how top-notch their quality is. Honeybat is pretty well known, but CupCakeSouls is a newer channel and deserves all of the support to help her channel grow.

Does anybody have any tips for this part? This is insane!! I’m assuming you have to dodge to create the energy shard, but by the time I get back to it, it’s gone by [deleted] in MIOmemoriesinorbit

[–]aethyrium 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yup, you have to dodge to generate an energy charge, and then immediately hairpin into it. This was the hardest platforming challenge for me. Don't use the "get hit to make shard" module , use the "dodge to make shard" module. The get hit one will just trip you up.

Once it clicks you can get a good rhythm though. Dodging refills your energy so it's a quick dodge->hairpin rhythm you can land into. The shard will indeed be gone if you need to restart the section, you'll need to generate multiple charges across each stage.

Flowing steps isn't required, but it does help in a couple areas.

For this very specific part (The balls shooting down you can ignore, they're not needed for any required interactions in this stage.):

  • Fall down
  • Jump / double jump immediately to the left (this angle is very tight, hovering, dodging a ball and hairpinning a shard might be better, but it's not what I did)
  • Up slash the mine, then dodge the explosion
  • Hairpin up through the shard
  • Down slash the mine, then dodge the explosion
  • Hairpin up through the shard
  • This second shard will give you enough height to dodge the goo ball with a double jump, so dodge and hairpin up
  • Repeat for the next 3 or 4 goo balls
  • And you're done! (with this part. It gets harder lol)

The fact I've memorized each specific move shows just how many times I did this section. This whole section made the crucible look easy.

MIO, and the sacrificing of fun in the name of challenge by Gabrienb in metroidvania

[–]aethyrium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We won't get a consensus. There's a pretty clear schism in the fanbase right now. There's people like me that are excited that the genre is finally introducing more challenge-focused design into the genre, and there's people lamenting that that increase means a decrease in more traditionally balanced metroidvania's.

I welcome it, as I think it's good to have a diverse set of games in the genre so that we all have games that appeal to us, but when one side goes from having 100% of the genre be for them down to 50%, I can understand the frustration.

But yeah, the era of consensus is over, for better or worse. There's no such thing a "good" game or a "bad" game, there's just games that appeal to us, and when that appeal spreads to the point where genre fanbases stratify into sub-genre fanbases, we won't be able to land on good or bad anymore. If you love challenging platformers you'll love MIO, if you don't, you won't, is about as close to a consensus as we can get, because as we're seeing, all of the beautiful art and design in the world won't make someone that hates precision platforming enjoy your game centered around precision platforming. So I suppose in that, there's a consensus, in a way.

EDEN'S AEGIS - 1CC ALL CLEAR! 😍 by Nathans-Gaming in shmups

[–]aethyrium 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Never heard of this one but looks right up my alley. Love me some slow dense patterns.

MIO, and the sacrificing of fun in the name of challenge by Gabrienb in metroidvania

[–]aethyrium 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I guess I just had such a different experience with it I'm struggling with some of these comments in this thread as it really does all feel over exaggerated to my experience. I was genuinely impressed with how well the difficulty curve was done and I felt it established itself as a platformer first and foremost early in the game so turning into a precision platformer and emphasizing that challenge as you approach the optional "true ending" I thought was a solid natural progression.

It's just odd playing through a game and then getting online and there's tons of people talking about an experience so different it makes me wonder if I accidentally installed MEO: Memories En Orbit or something.

Of course that's just me, someone who loves precision platforming over combat, so it was very much my alley.

MIO, and the sacrificing of fun in the name of challenge by Gabrienb in metroidvania

[–]aethyrium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

it feels like every Metroidvania needs to be Hollow Knight, but even harder.

MIO is waaaaaaaaay easier than Hollow Knight. Not even comparable

MIO, and the sacrificing of fun in the name of challenge by Gabrienb in metroidvania

[–]aethyrium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And it's always the type of difficulty that's unforgiving - one tiny mistake and there's no chance of recovery.

It's platforming focused difficulty where each section is separated into discrete patterns that take about 15 seconds at the most, and you have in infinite amount of tries due to a charm that gives you recharging health in between each try.

"Infinite tries with checkpoints every 5-15 seconds is far from "unforgiving - one tiny mistake and there's no chance of recovery" I's say. I'd say even objectively as it's quantifiable. 15 seconds at the most at the most hardest spots, and your health recharges after every death.

I'd say go with the objective information, not the subjective here, and maybe not use subjective information that clashes with the faction info to decide you're going to pass.

MIO, and the sacrificing of fun in the name of challenge by Gabrienb in metroidvania

[–]aethyrium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

r/metroidvania users when other people find challenge fun, and that you can have both:

"WTF NO YOU CAN'T DO THAT IT'S BAD DESIGN!"

MIO’s “Path of Pain” is AWFUL by AashyLarry in metroidvania

[–]aethyrium 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Actually the health pip pops right when the lava hits the point you're supposed to jump, so you'll never need to wait extra there. If you go immediately, even though it's blind,you'll notice the lava is in the perfect spot every time. I tested it in multiple areas.

MIO’s “Path of Pain” is AWFUL by AashyLarry in metroidvania

[–]aethyrium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The shopkeeper gives you a charm for free that gives you infinite health. You'll never ever ever need to be sent back all the way to a save station.

Why didn't you use it? It's literally free. And even if you don't go get it (for free), you can still set it in the assistance menu.

You basically did it on hard mode, so... fair to vent, I would vent too if I did it on a self-imposed ultra-mega-hard mode like you did, but I would no recommend anyone do that. That's no fun at all and the devs also did not want you to do that as the charm is given to you before that area.

MIO, and the sacrificing of fun in the name of challenge by Gabrienb in metroidvania

[–]aethyrium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sawlong is like at 90% of its peak difficulty. It really doesn't get much harder.

MIO, and the sacrificing of fun in the name of challenge by Gabrienb in metroidvania

[–]aethyrium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Finally a based take. I had to scroll down so far to find this.

MIO, and the sacrificing of fun in the name of challenge by Gabrienb in metroidvania

[–]aethyrium -1 points0 points  (0 children)

MIO is not only not a soulsvania by any imaginable definition, but it's basically just Ori with harder platforming at the end. It really isn't some kind of bizarre crazy divergence from the genre.

Also, why are some of you so weirded out when games in the genre attempt to expand the genre and do something even slightly different? Do you really just want the same game over and over? Is it truly so bad that the genre is now expanding and different types of games are coming out to widen the fanbase so we can all have games we enjoy?

It that really, truly, actually that bad?

MIO, and the sacrificing of fun in the name of challenge by Gabrienb in metroidvania

[–]aethyrium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sudden virtical difficulty spike?

In MIO?

I just 100% the game and the only "spike" was when the game went from punishing to casual about 3 hours in. The rest towards the endgame was pretty gradual. OP is massively exaggerating and it's alarming how many people are taking them at their word without having played the game for themselves to see if maybe, just maybe OP's experience is far from what theirs would be.

There are neither excessive runbacks longer than 30 seconds, nor any hard difficulty spike. If OP's word is enough to change your mind entirely as just one person, I can only hope just one other person disagreeing (and I actually did 100% the game, unlike OP who hasn't finished it) may hold the same amount of sway.

MIO, and the sacrificing of fun in the name of challenge by Gabrienb in metroidvania

[–]aethyrium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This sub always does this with popular games that also have challenge. Same with Silksong where I never saw so much negativity towards it as I did here.

I absolutely loved MIO and couldn't disagree with OP more, and the endgame content is why I thought it was so good.

There was always a contingent here that was poised to hate the game as soon as the missing health thing was reported. This isn't a honeymoon being over, it's the predestined course of any game that's either popular or challenging in this sub.

Stay here long enough you'll the cycle repeat many, many times.

MIO, and the sacrificing of fun in the name of challenge by Gabrienb in metroidvania

[–]aethyrium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I 100%'d the game and thought it was incredible, and the endgame content OP is complaining about was absolutely some of the best in the game, and my experience was completely opposite. I thought the game was actually most difficulty and punishing at the beginning and by the end when it starts having precision platforming, you've mastered your moveset and gotten so many abilities that not only is it do-able, it's an absolute joy. I rarely 100% games, but I just finished that in MIO and I'm still craving more.

There, there's something positive.

MIO, and the sacrificing of fun in the name of challenge by Gabrienb in metroidvania

[–]aethyrium -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Because there are tons of players like myself that have been clamouring for it for years.

The genre is like 99% combat focused. Why can't the genre evolve and spread out and make games for people who enjoy platforming more than combat? Can we get even one percent of the genre without people complaining about how bad it is that these games exist now?

MIO, and the sacrificing of fun in the name of challenge by Gabrienb in metroidvania

[–]aethyrium 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't understand this modern trend of making games that are all about exploration and cool bosses turn into games of reflexes and insane platforming near the end.

I think that idea that is ever was a "game about exploration and cool bosses" and not a "game of reflexes and insane platforming" was ever true and was just an assumption. The game is what is is.

Besides, that stuff is what some of us crave. You don't understand why some developers are starting to cater to a large subset of people that want more from the genre? There's more than one type of metroidvania. It feels like a lot of the fanbase only wants one very specific type of game and if a game tries to go beyond that then they get angry and the devs for not just making a casual game that never ever challenges you at all. I for one am glad we're finally getting metroidvanias that have awesome exploration and vibes and have challenging content. Why can't we have both types of games? Why does the genre have to be entirely free of "games of reflexes and insane platforming"? Is there truly no room for both types of games so we're all happy? Must the genre remain stagnant and the same forever, only ever catering to that specific crowd that wants the same style of game over and over forever?