I just finished the game about a month ago. the end was sad. The slight difficulty spike at the last boss fights is really fun and I wish the game had more of that

I absolutely loved the sound effects in the game on top of the music. The sound of jumping and hitting enemies is super satisfying especially when you hit multiple in a row. The sound really helps you time the right rhythm of the double jumps

Can't find just the music but my favorite is when you are decoding the mis and the music plays speeding up gradually as you run out of time

https://youtu.be/RNf9LmqNq70?feature=shared&t=2786

at 46:30ish

>>11282440
As much as Pierrot was made out to be the villain, I found it hard not to sympathize with him. Anyone would go insane after learning that they were born and are destined to vanish in a single night as a transient creation of a goddess who doesn't even realize she is one. It's a miracle he didn't end up worse, to be honest. I also think that the train boss fight and the last boss fight were comparable in difficulty, the first one even had more phases.

>>11282452
Yup, it always happens around the 30 second mark and really brings up tension when you can't find that last one.

>>11282465
The train fight was my favorite that's why I was saying the last few bosses. It was fun when the game turned into a bullet hell momentarily. I didn't really see the twist coming because of the happy nature of the game. The entire world being a dream is obvious now but definitely fucked up

Oops forgot to spoiler. I think Pierrot being the villain was nicely foreshadowed. He does a bunch of 4th wall breaking early on in the tutorial that can retroactively be explained by him gaining awareness of the dream world. His theme was always pretty villainous sounding too

>>11282473
I expected Pierrot to be an alter-ego of Porch of some sort because he always hides his face behind a mask until the final boss fight and his height and stature matches hers pretty well. I knew that SOME sort of twist was coming, I just imagined it'd be something else.

>>11282482
I never thought about that but you might still be right. That last fight when you fight Pierrot unmasked it more like an illusion or transformation. Could Pierrot be Porch's seasonal counterpart? I don't remember if you ever coming across her mirror so that's a nice theory.

Soundtrack of this game carried it for me, amazing stuff

>>11282438
I need to give it a proper go, the stiff platforming and the endless yapping filtered my zoom zoom mindset

>>11282741
if you found the platforming stiff I'm not sure you would like it. I found the controls incredibly smooth for a 2.5D platformer. I liked how you could switch between analog and d-pad for precision. My biggest problem with the game play is that it's too easy and only really fun in the few difficult spots.

File: Internet_20240928_104048.png (3.5 MB, 1433x2007)

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I played it a few years ago and found it too clunky to want to finish it but I should go back to it because I absolutely loved the character design and music too. I love dream like wizard of oz alice in wonderland shit like this so much you have no idea

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>>11282503
>>11282482
Pierrot seems to have been female in concept art at one point so maybe you guys are right. And it turns into something with leaves near the end like a flower in the final game.

>>11282859
It makes even more sense when you consider Pierrot is the only character who you run into the real version in the seasons rather than a shadow/counterpart version. Seems to suggest he or she is the counterpart all along

>>11282841
I almost gave up on it pretty early myself. It's really not clunky at all when you get the hang of the controls and really easy to cruise through the game. Just double jump and spin attack 99% of enemies.

The worst part of the game is early on when it's a little hard to figure out where to go and you just have to search every single house in the town multiple times. But after that it's pretty straight forward and the gameplay gets better as the game progresses. The paffets really introduce some fun gimmicks to experiment with but you don't even need them to beat the game except like 1.

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>>11282884
You know what I think I did get lost which discouraged me more than anything else gameplay wise. And I assume Paffets were needed or something. So you've given me the motivation to replay it. Is there an actual guide out there now?

Its funny I remember even the music being hard to find. I bought 2 cds which just don't have all the music on it for reasons beyond me. Not even Folly Fall, one of the best songs. You really need to work to even find this game now.

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>>11282935
Posting more unused characters cause these are great

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Last one

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>>11282942
>>11282859
I just realized some things going though this art I was posting

>Twin tails become jester hat in concept art?
>Four petal dress becomes four leaves in finished designs?

>>11282935
I tried to look up guides a few times and they seemed like really autistic gamefaqs tier stuff. I was trying to figure out how to make certain paffets and you really don't need to. You might notice yourself passing some chests early on that are unreachable without certain guys like booster but if it's necessary for the progression of the story the game will lead you into making it. Just learn the layout of the town and when you are stuck start talking to everyone starting with the section of the season you are currently going through.

The mis and decoding stuff is pretty straight forward. It's a pixel hunt on 3D objects spinning them around with 3 different lens you can switch to and see. There will be 1-4 boxes you have to find by moving the object and switching between the 3 lens. There's some logic to it, they are usually hidden on notable places on the 3D models. After you find the mis on an item 1 time you can automatically break them down in the future without doing the mini-game again.

I would recommend saving your mis materials for the paffets that give you access to more chests (booster and the 1 that builds bridges specifically) because if you use up what you have early on it might take a while to get them.

I think the only paffet required to beat the game is booster and a couple others that the game spoonfeeds you into creating. I only had about 1/3 of them unlocked when I finished the game.

>>11282942
>>11282938
damn these unused designs make me sad. it seems like the game initially planned to dive into more fairy tales than just the alice in wonderland references. It's a shame there wasn't a fairy tale equivalent to alice for each season. Little red riding hood would have been great.

It's interesting how this game was made by a team of female artists and writers, and only a couple of male programmers. A bunch of young women just decided to get together and make a cute game they'd like to play, then scattered off and vanished. The way the game itself plays was also mostly decided by them as, I understand it.
The original website where players could post questions and praises about the game is still running, somehow. It kinda looks like an imageboard.

>>11282741
>>11282841
Here's my advice: you should use the D-pad in 2.5D sections. Most levels have things laid out in straight line(s) with coins meant to guide you along. I thought some actions like grabbing onto those flying hooks felt clunky too until I understood that. And yeah, use the double jump spin attack. It's the strongest attack Porch has because it allows her to make a full jump to a platform and attack the enemy who's standing there immediately. It's also really good for dealing with those pameras with hammers and shields who block your attacks. Just try to jump on top of them or slightly behind them while spinning.

>>11282884
>The worst part of the game is early on when it's a little hard to figure out where to go and you just have to search every single house in the town multiple times.
I don't remember having to do that. I only really had to visit the houses of people whose seasonal counterparts I found inside the levels to progress the story. The game also gives the player a lot of hints. I figured out what to do with Alice on my own and unlocked Wonderbed before I went to Wild Wind. This game is pretty intuitive, I finished it without looking up a guide once. One thing I struggled with and evetually gave up on was Gomez's escaped petal. At first they tell you it went down Cherry Front Street, then Winky tells you she's seen it but also tells you that her husband saw a similar one when he was still alive and that it "spun around." So I wasn't sure if I had to search Spring or if that was a red herring and it was in Autumn instead. Couldn't find it in either, but it turned out to be just a side quest unnecessary for finishing the game.

>>11282979
That Little Red Riding Hood just looks like Cecille in a different outfit and maybe with a diffrrent personality desu.

>>11282473
Now that I've rewatched the intro, it really foreshadows a lot of things in of itself. One of Porch's friends who looks just like Cecille, the Arab salesman who looks just like Mele and Porch's friends scaring her by wearing clown masks which foreshadows everyone turning into Pierrots in Napple Town near the end. But what's weird is that we see 13 Ice in the real world in the intro, while in the outro it gets replaced with 30 Ice. Another thing I realized is that both Pierrot and one early pamera boss talk in rhymes and that Tree Spirit Treant was messed with by a "masked man" whose real identity is never directly revealed.

>>11283282
it was early on and I was just confused about where to look. I just remember getting lost for a while during the first season when I couldn't figure out how to progress.

Only happened to me once so maybe I just hadn't figured out the town layout yet and how the houses correspond to the seasons they show up in

>>11283306
I noticed that rhyming during the first playthrough and thought maybe the translators just gave up on it. It definitely made him seem more villainous

Gonna give this thread one last bump to see if anyone else that has played has any thoughts on it. Thanks for sharing your theories. I was dying to talk about the ending with someone after I finished.

>>11284823
I wish I had more to say but thank you for reminding me to beat this game.

Also if you ever find the music cds the cd booklet is full of schizophrenic doodles that look nothing like the game its amazing.

>>11282992
fascinating

>>11282452
Is it here?
https://downloads.khinsider.com/game-soundtracks/album/napple-tale-arsia-in-daydream-2000-dreamcast-gamerip

>>11287801
yeah it's march of toys

my other favorites are pooch, wild wind, and guitars rhythm

>>11287823
The problem with Yoko Kanno's music is that there are so many special moments that it's hard to pick your favorites. I remember Wild Wind, Green Wings, and Ball Jar/Playing Tamaire being on my list.