Any more games like this and animal well? Why are they so rare (and unpopular)?
La mulana
>>741937475That one was bad and I refunded it.
>>741937475Because apart from a couple of clever puzzles it’s just boring platformer-slop. If you played one - you’ve played them all.
>>741937595way too much combat (and classic bosses)
>>741937683Still it's probably the closest one
>>741937672Doesn't stop new classic metroidvanias coming out in droves. I think it might be the nature of puzzles, you can't unlearn a solution, so people who are into these games will avoid watching youtube playthroughs/reviews to not spoil themselves, with classic ones you can watch a boss fight no problem, as you will still have to do the fight yourself once you reach it. This probably kills the view counts of metroidbranias on YT
>>741937653only got a bit frustrated with it in this area, all previous ones were fine, but the wolfjumps are a bit too jank
>>741937934No, it is just that while good adventure always contains exploration, exploration through combat is usually preferred to exploration through puzzles - and even the part of audience, who likes puzzles, would more likely play point-and-clicks, which in addition to higher variety of puzzles often contain better writing/humor/characters etc.Also from action game you usually expect action - and this is covered by combat in normal castleroids, while puzzles are integrated (if) on a scale of "just enough to not be too irritating while still bringing some variety in exploration process".Hence Noita.
>>741938314hmm I guess Noita counts (even though heavy combat oriented and RL based), guess both noita/la mulana are precursors to fully non-combat branias (which are not really action games in my opinion, the light platforming hardly counts as action)
>>741937475I hear void stranger is good
>>741938772thanks, will check it out
>>741938618>the light platforming hardly counts as actionIt is not about the amount of it nor difficulty neither complexity. It is about it being a core mechanics. If you have free realtime horizontal + gravity-induced vertical movement - you have platformer. Remove gravity - top-down shooter or schmup. Make it pseudo3d in xy axis with vertical gravity-induced wity a static camera - beat'em'up. Make it full 3d with jumps - 3d platformer. And so on. Remove freedom of movement - and it is action no longer, turning into a rhytm game. Remove realtime - roguelike/tactical RPG.Platformer movement makes the game a platformer in the eyes of a player - therefore automatically setting expectations to those of a platformer, which include combat almost always. Fucking Mario have combat.
>>741939534Yeah mario is a stone-cold killer with the flower power. Still don't think the stylistic choice makes it an action game. OG zelda was an action game, sokoban with the exact same perspective wasn't. Same with 2d sideways perspective, it can be an action game, but it might as well be Braid
>>741938282yeah, jank is a big problem.the bosses are absolutely horrid, the not-apple physics just absolutely dumpster this game from a 8.5 to a 7.it could easily brought up to a 9 if the dev-added a grab button so that you don't have to headbutt apples-made the astral projection activate in 1-2 seconds of sleep after the first time-resetting the game brought you directly to the main menu instead of having to reselect your controls AND skip the intro
>>741940776Again - it is not about being action, it is about being percepted as one because one of the core mechanics is tied THAT deeply to action - and thus a disappointment and a feel of being decepted when it isn't what is expected.
>>741941315idk if someone picked it up hearing it's a metroidvania then maybe, but the devs and all YT reviews I've seen are pretty clear from the get go it's a: >nonviolent creature-scanning exploration gameor straight up call it puzzle game (which is also bit deceptive I guess it's normal with niche/new genres people don't know what exactly to expect)
>>741937475They are rare because its a hard niche genre to get right. Most people don't have patience to solve extremely cryptic puzzlesBest games similar to it i can think are>La Mulana>Void Stranger>Tunic
>>741941521"I see thing moving like in a platformer - i see some beams shooting out - i know it is about exploration - i expect metroidvania. I might or might not confirm my guesses by reading the description, but subconsciously i now expect a metroidvania."Roughly this. Disappointment might appear on reading description stage - like when you see cool-looking pictures of a game only to notice in the next few moments, that it is "deck-builder-roguelike". Not on THAT much scale of disappointment, but still in that direction.
>>741941664how good is La Mulana 2? I never hear anyone talk about it. I doubt it's as memorable or good as 1, but is it still decent?
just beat this, what did I think of it?
>>741942732they made some QoL improvements, but still ball-busting hard from what I've heard
>>741941664is Tunic puzzle heavy? Always assumed it's mostly zelda-like
>>741947108The endgame puzzle is literal kino of the highest magnitude.Easily better than Animal Well in its entirety
>>741937475When you say "games like this" what do you mean exactly?
>>741947108it starts out kind of combat focused but it shifts towards autism cryptic puzzles once you figure out one of the key features.frankly, the truly endgame puzzle is grade-A autism and there's a lot of annoying fluff in between that seems to be designed to waste time in the form of overly long input sequencesit's still a very, very good game even discounting that tho, i'd recommend it
>>741947578exploration focused with environmental puzzles, metroid-branias?(originally thought about metroid-type powerup progression, but EMUU manages just fine with pushing snails and riding turtles)
>>741948183Hmmm, well Rain World is SUPER exploration-focused but it has no real puzzles other than having to figure out how objects work on the fly.
>>741949075for 2$, sure, though from a quick look it's probably too brutal (then again a real simulated ecosystem sounds great and thematically on point with the 2 games from OP)
It's not as ballbusting as La Mulana but I liked Queen of Treasure Isle. Everything in the game is pictograms which was fun to figure out.
>>741951403thx looks pretty good
>>741942732I see, but how are the stages, music and puzzles? about the same quality/caliber? Thinking of getting it on the summer sale
>>741953747ment for>>741944690
>>741941664Adding Blue Prince to this. Some of it's secrets and hidden optional content are insanely cryptic and require autism of the highest caliber. It's not quite the same style of game since you don't need those to progress or beat the game, but might be worth to people who are into it.
>>741953747it's a very well executed sequel by the same devs that made the remake, if you liked the first one you'll be golden
>>741947108If you go for the normal ending aside from figuring out what the in-game manual, which is mainly written in a fictional language, is trying to teach you you don't have to use your noggin too much but the true ending plus a bunch of optional puzzles absolutely require you to use your brain.
>>741937475Rain World
>>741953747The soundtrack is on par if not even better
>>741954290I REALLY wish I could put more time into Blue Prince but the rng just completely kills any drive I have to solve puzzles. I know you can mitigate it if you git gud, but I just don't want to have chances at solving a puzzle fail because I failed at rolling a dice. I hit the credits and felt like that was it for me.
>>741937475Outer wildsGrunn?
I'd say Öoo is pretty good
>>741954517>>741955683Excellent, thank you anons!
>>741957248>Öoo
>>741958134literally me
>>741947108It's just a souls clone with a meta puzzle postgame
>>741958338that's a maliciously reductive description
>>741958696I mean, it's what it is.The manual is cute but it's not like you are constantly using it to solve puzzles until the "postgame".
>>741958928Rolling and stamina management are the only things it really has in common with Souls games and I suppose the shrines you can rest at are vaguely analog to bonfires. The money you leave behind when dying doesn't really count in my opinion since it's just a small fraction of what you have.
>>741959646>stamina based sword and shield combat with dodgerolls>bonfires>estus flasks>dropping money on death>more combat-focused than puzzle-focused(until the postgame)Not even trying to insult the game, it just is a souls game with puzzle postgame, just like ESA is just a normal metroidvania with a puzzle postgame.
>>741958928>>741959646Also sure you only start using the manual to solve larger puzzles near the end but it's still handy throughout the whole game since a decent amount of mechanics are small puzzles in themselves.
>>741960392It's handy for sure, but beyond giving you a rough guideline on where you should go, the fact that you can pray to activate pillars/fast travel and that you can upgrade your stats(at bonfires) you don't need to check up on it much for the normal playthrough, certainly not enough to make it a puzzle heavy/zelda-like game like the original poster asked.The postgame is really cool and the highlight of the game but even then I still wouldn't call it a puzzle heavy game for most of it's playtime.
>>741960334Ok the healing system totally slipped my mind so you got me there but I just feel that it'd need actual RPG mechanics to really qualify as a souls-like, items essentially work like they do in Zelda and the stats require upgrade items (which are finite) instead of merely currency. There are also no equipments outside of weapons and ability cards, although the latter are definitely based on the rings from Dark Souls.
>>741962583It may have no weapons/RPG stats but I think that at it's core it has enough souls mechanic that it tips things over, it's not really a stretch to describe the gameplay as "souls" when it borrows so much.And really, the "Zelda" items are >a lantern that you mostly use for one single dungeon(Dark souls also had this as a helmet)>a gas mask that is only useful in a single area>a few mostly optional ranged weaponsBeyond the grappling hook that is used a lot through the game the rest of the items felt like a complete afterthought.The upgrade system is not far off, souls estus healing upgrades/estus count upgrades and weapon upgrades are also limited and gated behind items that you have to find.Either way this was just a clarification for an anon asking if it was a puzzle-heavy game, and I think it's fair to say "no, not until the postgame".
>>741957248thanks, from the trailer it seemed to be a classic puzzle game, looks good
