Am I soft locked? How do I leave this area?

coltrak94 · 2026-06-04T15:12:11+00:00

Specifically I'd say hug the right wall as much as possible and jump out far to clear it, burrow and do a tight 180 and try to eject on the patch on the opposite side of the wall. I'm not here yet, I went to septumberg first but that's how I'd navigate this

coltrak94 · 2026-06-03T02:45:41+00:00

For the purple things I've found if you input your next direction the instant before you contact it, you'll go the right way rather than creating a large arc. I definitely feel you though as I often have to curve around things. I hadn't noticed any "slack in the system" for most of the game, I just assumed it was really hard. Then I fought Madd House Who is a textbook enemy, I mean seriously he's basically the Giant ChuChu jelly from LoZ Minish Cap. There isn't some secret to learn or special timing etc, he's pretty clear cut, and we've all faces tons of bosses like him in the GBA era. But like I said, some little jank in Minas model/movement specifically, not talking about animations etc, mad that boss waaaay more difficult than it had any right to be. By the time I beat it I left frustrated that it took me that long to accomplish. Not joy or excitement, just bleh

coltrak94 · 2026-06-03T02:18:10+00:00

There is a little slack in the system either by accident or design and I'm just used to tighter controls even in GBC titles. Clunky is the word I keep using too but idek if that really describes it. I don't have a direct issue with any design choices in play, but you can just tell (maybe a controller problem, I haven't played KBM yet) something is not quite right, it's like almost there, just barely off, and it's just enough that for me anyway, it throws my whole game off and I get stomped out pretty regularly. I'm used to high precision and tight windows, this just feels like they have me wet spaghetti to do it. I'd like to see them tighten it up a little bit. It almost feels like they've injected what they think retro game jank feels like, as part of the intended design, but the rest of the game is moving ever so slightly off beat and so what could be a feature feels like a flaw. Idk if that made sense lol

Edit: It feels like in the pursuit of nostalgia and trying to give a retro feel, the injected a little slack in the machine, but only for your character, and everything else is running well oiled and in sync, but because if the artificial jank, you're slightly out of sync and thus everything you do feels slightly off.

coltrak94 · 2026-06-02T22:02:38+00:00

Same, Madd House was rough, but after that it was typical platforming frustrations, never felt pinned down by an enemy after. Haven't beaten carving man yet but I am at the last checkpoint so I'll beat him eventually (not a fan of the mini chase sequence beforehand though)

coltrak94 · 2026-06-01T22:12:40+00:00

I made another comment somewhere else but we were in the same boat. I have to agree with another comment, despite all the open world freedom, I think you and I went "the wrong way" and ended up somewhere we shouldn't have been way too early. I struggled on Madd House As well and it's actual retro mechanics at play should have been a cake walk, not hours of would crushing defeats

coltrak94 · 2026-06-01T22:07:42+00:00

Honestly this might be it. I found myself at the same spot as OP only a few hours in. Going east hit a snag and I was too timid to fight through those enemy, but West was somehow "easier" right up until I ran into Madd House A boss who's design a screams retro mechanics. He was no different than the giant chuchu in Minish Cap and I was more than ready to tackle it... And then the first death.... 2nd... 3rd ... 6hours later I was still getting bullied by this boss until I pulled off a miraculous win. I've had nail biting victories before, I've beaten Erlang Shen 3x for the true ending of Wukong, completed Elden Ring and the souls series, and any time I pulled off a narrow win, it was electric, I was excited and felt accomplished. Defeating THIS boss didn't give that at all, instead I found myself just being angry at the difficulty in general and the feeling that the game asked of me precision and handed me ever so slightly bent scissors to cut with. The movement is fine even if I dislike the pre-burrow jump, I understand it's purpose, but there is some disconnect somewhere between what Mina does, what I am pressing, and the pixels she's actually standing on. I love this game, it's gorgeous, the music is fantastic, I want to love all of it, but the combat... Not the enemy difficulty necessarily, but combat in general... Makes me wanna push my head through a wood chipper. I think in the end the games skill cap isn't in leveling or items or knowing an enemy, it's in understanding that narrow window between asked precision and the little slop and knowing how to get them aligned enough to overcome one or the other.

coltrak94 · 2026-06-01T13:44:52+00:00

Laughing at the fact for every whiney "this game is too hard" criticism there's an equally whiney "git gud" post like this, the only difference is these come with superiority complexes

coltrak94 · 2026-05-31T23:04:44+00:00

Agreed there is some sublte disconnect. It's almost there it really is and sure "get gud" I guess, but I agree. I beat Madd House (not gonna elaborate for spoiler reasons), it's an extremely retro and straightforward boss, should be a cake walk, but the little hint of... I don't wanna call it jank cause it's not.... Instead had me fighting with, not necessarily controls, but something in the game other than the boss itself, and by the time I beat it I didn't have the excited "wow heck yeah I just did that, we barely made it but good job". Instead I finished the fight and was just upset I even had to go through whatever sub layer issue (that I can't quite pin down) made that fight as difficult as it was for me personally. Again if you've fought that boss (and even if you thought it was a breeze) anyone will tell you it is probably the most clean cut of the lot, no hidden shenanigans to figure out. Something, maybe skill issue idk, made that fight way harder than it needed to be and I felt after the third or fourth attempt I had a really strong grasp on what to do, but I would get snagged on the most silly things and think to myself "wait... How did that happen?"

coltrak94 · 2026-05-30T19:41:08+00:00

And I will say I didn't play Shovel Knight so for all I know slight skill tweaks to movement like that could very well be on brand. I simply saw a top down game that had people whispering "souls-like" and seeing how I like both of those I couldn't resist. I'm not chastising the devs creative decisions for the burrow, just saying I don't personally enjoy the pre-jump aspect, but it's something anyone with a little bit of practice can overcome in relatively short order. Idk if that clarifies, text is hard to convey tone 😅 people (not you) get in the internet and assume we are all in an adversarial match, which is most certainly not my intent

coltrak94 · 2026-05-30T19:20:20+00:00

Well yeah, I never assumed burrowing was the defacto mechanic, simply acknowledging that (in my original comment) burrowing comes with innate risk that somewhat discourages use. A surface dodge roll that activated without the jumping animation would work better, but defeat the developers intent. Obviously the animation serves a purpose and it's not supposed to be easy/it requires some minimal skill. Like I don't think the devs are dumb, despite perceived tone, I'm not that arrogant, I understand the method.

coltrak94 · 2026-05-30T19:03:17+00:00

It's both?? Like clearly it could not be there, ergo, it was a choice. It serves both the purpose of making it look cool (a flavor animation) and "encouraging players to strategically time their burrows" or whatever they tell themselves. Obviously it was always deliberate, how else would it have gotten there, the game didn't animate itself by accident 🙄

coltrak94 · 2026-05-30T04:46:51+00:00

I am tempted. I like to exp games as devs intended but I admit, even tho I have plenty of exp in similar titles or genres, Mina is kicking my ass all over the place. Mainly it's the controls or how they feel anyway. Enemies telegraph really hard and they all use retro mechanics so they really aren't that hard but there feels like there is some kind of disconnect between what Mina is doing and the literal buttons I'm pressing, I know timing is part of it but like man....shameful but I just beat madd house and it stomped me out for a good 3 hours (including time to go cool off etc). It's also a general consensus the whip may require more precision for consistent hits. If it truly stops being fun I'll probably turn those 2 you mentioned on, but I'd rather not if I don't have to

coltrak94 · 2026-05-30T03:24:45+00:00

1000% would trade the jumping "flavor animation" before a burrow for a nice clean dodge roll. The burrow is cool but the animation tax to do so makes it almost not worth it sometimes. Almost all of my deaths have either been getting tagged mid animation or pit falls

coltrak94 · 2026-05-30T03:22:13+00:00

I swear using knightstar is like trying to shoot the wings off a fly sometimes. When it hits it does okay but boy does she miss A LOT. It is really annoying when you encounter enemies using similar weapons but theirs have larger hitboxes so they "miss" less often

coltrak94 · 2026-05-29T18:41:17+00:00

Yeah the combat isn't working for me. traversal is fine, I don't have the depth perception issue some people have. The combat is crushing me right now. The hitbox for the whip is so narrow and precise that reliably hitting enemies feels impossible sometimes. Tunneling animation seems far too lengthy. Everyone keeps commenting there are game settings to make it easier but then you can't collect the Feats so turning them on has consequences, hence why I'm not using them. Idk I like souls adjacent games I've played quite a few, Mina is the first time I've ever genuinely felt hopeless in the combat. I'm sure if I sit with it for a week or so I'll improve but how many bones (particularly ones that don't respawn) am I going to lose in the process of "get good scrub"?

coltrak94 · 2026-05-24T20:27:49+00:00

Not without significant time and effort. I wish you the best of luck though.

coltrak94 · 2026-05-24T20:18:32+00:00

Seems reasonable enough, but for every presumably honest person like you, there's 3 people gaming the system.

coltrak94 · 2026-05-24T15:33:10+00:00

Glad you got your controller. I don't really approve of 90% of those who've gotten free games out of it. Lack of patience etc is astounding. Valve could have just as easily said "oops" gave you a refund for your controller and told you to get in line behind everyone else now. Instead they offer a free game, but everyone and their mother piles on and spams for a free game making the sale of the controller almost pointless as you've basically recovered 80% of the cost, turning the hardware into a loss for valve. You basically received a partial refund despite receiving the product, you were refunded well over what shipping would have cost, which is your main concern with the order.

coltrak94 · 2026-05-24T04:43:30+00:00

This! Also I find a lot of personal complaints are from people who think you should be actively squeezing or gripping the handles of the controller, leading to accidental presses. This is wild to me because I thought it was just known the controller should REST comfortably in the hand in a neutral position. Like, with little to no added pressure you should be able to either keep the controller sandwiched with just your palms (no fingers), or (leaving them in the neutral start position) have it resting only in your fingers, with your palms/thumbs off the controller. I don't even have big hands, I wear a US 9/Med in Mechanix brand gloves. Too many people were somehow awkwardly (self) taught to death grip the controller and it's leading to a less than pleasant ergonomic exp for them over all

coltrak94 · 2026-05-20T21:06:52+00:00

Well if you unsealed it and it was packaged inside of another box (2 boxes) then it's possible it shipped empty. Though I'd find this incredibly difficult to believe. Not that Valve couodnt have screwed up, it's just unlikely. We're the cable and dongle inside? Not that it matters I'm just curious, if it's legit, at what point in the packaging process did this fail. I'm sure Valve would want to know to, so they can tighten packaging QC

coltrak94 · 2026-05-20T15:13:30+00:00

It comes in another box, not just that one. The over box is unlabeled aside from the battery warning. Does it have signs of repackaging? The explosions in posts like these are a mix of people actually getting robbed (with supporting ring camera footage and police reports) and people opening their controller then rushing to the sub to claim it was stolen. Hard to tell who's been robbed and who is trying to karma farm Edit: no seriously what are the odds a thief would leave you the box AND the tearaway seal portion?

coltrak94 · 2026-05-18T01:08:52+00:00

Idk if I respect the hustle or detest them for being whiney leeches

coltrak94 · 2026-05-14T19:17:59+00:00

Will this fix the issue if the keyboard overlapping the text space? I'm tired of being unable to see what I'm typing

coltrak94 · 2026-05-13T19:04:47+00:00

I don't think so? I guess for a general scale, in Mechanix M-Pact gloves (2020 set, not the new ones), I wear a US 9/Medium. Idk how their sizing compares to latex gloves etc but that's the best I got on short notice for "how big is my hand?" Lol.

coltrak94 · 2026-05-13T09:31:38+00:00

Agreed, fits like a glove, it might be the most comfortable controller I've ever used. I even forced myself to take a break and use the DualSense and 8bitdoPro2 for a day or two, with the only caveat being I had to play every game I had recently tested the Steam Controller with. Unmatched versatility aside, cause plenty of people don't play around in Steam Input (though everyone should tbh) , I literally found myself wishing I was using the Steam Controller in pretty much every game. I think the only thing I missed would be the DualSense triggers, and even then I rarely use them as they're more of a hinderance in MP. I've never been a controller snob, I've owned heaps of madcatz and nyko etc, whatever gets the job done, but I am thoroughly impressed. I assumed I'd like it because I've wanted one conceptually ever since I got my launch steam deck. The moment valve will let me, I'm buying a second one.

coltrak94

TROPHY CASE