Beans
[Hiveswap Act 2 spoilers] So I played through the entire thing in.... seven and a half hours
Beans
overall it's.... fine
Beans
I just played through act 1 again and the difference text-wise between acts 1 and 2 is.... very noticeable
Beans
but it really picked up for me in the end
Beans
I'll need to go back and try to get the best scenarios because I did most things in the worst way
Beans
god I don't blame joey for being so angry though
Beans
kid's getting a crash course in trolls
Beans
anyways, here's hoping act 3 doesn't take as long ahhaa....
Beans
also apparently there's no credits for this because a lot of people that What Pumpkin fired worked on it and lmfao we can't show that THEY contributed I guess
Beans
Also probably my largest complaint: There is a serious lack of flavor text in the game
Beans
especially when you try to use items on things
Beans
that was one of the best parts of act 1!
Beans
slightly less serious complaint: Joey doesn't seem to hate pogs now?
Beans
slightly more serious complaint: she seems to think ballet mixed with tap dancing is stupid now???
Beans
idek
Rama
Hm
Rama
Didn't notice that last one
Rama
You can definitely see the seams where this thing got trashed and restarted two or three times
Rama
But the end product on its own is damn solid
Rama
Tons of great character work, and it looks gorgeous
Beans
Yeah it's still solid, don't get me wrong, and totally a bridging point for the next part
Beans
but like....... ah....
Beans
Those seams are big and noticeable
Rama
Yeah
Rama
RIP Charun and Zebede
Beans
Rama
: if you try to use the tap dancing with the ballet it says something like "you're not doing a mashups"
Beans
at least that's what happened when I tried it at the end
Beans
oh RIP
Beans
I'm almost certain they were meant to show up at the beginning??
Beans
like that cave and farm look made for them
Rama
The cave is 100% identical to Charun's in Friendsim
Rama
The farm I don't remember as well but I'm pretty sure it was a thing
Beans
poor joey
poor joey
Rama
Joey is
Rama
Very slowly
Rama
Learning things
Rama
Also I'm glad I was just about 100% IC when I played her in murdergames
Beans
very very slowly
Beans
with elwurd and xefros's help
Rama
Joey's reaction to getting hit on by a woman for the first time was everything I ever dreamed it would be.
Beans
that part is perfect
Beans
poor little kid from the 90s working through her internalized homophobia
Beans
I'm gonna assume at least some of the trolls survived the train derailing
Rama
I would kinda be hyper-pissed if the whole act was pointless because everyone just died
Rama
This isn't Homestuck, you can't just kill off every named character for shiggles
pixie lovemail
I’d be willing to bet that everyone who was front and center during the scene at the end made it.
Rama
Yeah, at least
Beans
Yeah I hope so, it seemed to hit the lowblood car
Rama
Marvus will tell you during the murder shenanigans that "no one important to the plot" is going to die
Beans
and I still need to get skylla's lucus some medecine
Rama
I'm assuming that was foreshadowing
Rama
God
Rama
Ladyy better be okay
pixie lovemail
Honestly, like...
pixie lovemail
Failing in act 1 didn’t feel like failing because you’d still get really funny flavor text out of it.
pixie lovemail
Without that, the puzzles just feel like bashing your head against the wall over and over if you don’t get them right.
Beans
TheDoomkitten: yeah, exactly
Beans
I thought about it a bit and, like. I guess you could make the argument that act 1 was 90% Joey wandering around on her own, so it needed flavor text and act 2 is very different
Beans
but like. the flavor text was so good
Beans
even if you lost at something
Beans
clowns run the government https://dingodad.tumblr.com/...
pixie lovemail
god yeah
pixie lovemail
now that i'm not desperately trying to find a reason to like it and justify my eight hours of playtime in the game act 2 just kinda fucking. sucks actually
pixie lovemail
it feels exactly like the failed kickstarter adventure game that everybody was expecting act 1 to be
Beans
I don't think I'm going to say it goes as far as to suck outright
Beans
but
Beans
it's an entirely different wheelhouse from Act 1
pixie lovemail
that's fair
pixie lovemail
the thing is normally i wouldn't judge a game by what it's not except when the thing that came before it had features that fixed the glaring flaws of this game
Beans
Maybe once my feelings have settled, or I go back to replay it for some achievements, I'll really nail how I feel
Beans
but yeah I get you
Beans
when you go into a game and your first thought is "where's this thing I liked from the last one?"
Beans
Heir of Separate Fandom Blogs - another batch of wor...
at least one person worked on this game
Beans
James Roach on Twitter
Rama
Bee Dance is ok because there's no incentive to FC it
Rama
If there's a cheevo, at least it's at the beginning of the game
Rama
I think my thoughts on Act 2 is that no, it's not a very good game gameplay-wise, but I do like the art and story enough not to feel ripped off.
Rama
Honestly Act 1 wasn't the greatest point and click game, although I do admit it was more of one
Rama
I think WP just doesn't have experienced game designers and it shows. They've got writers and artists and programmers, but no one to really bring the gameplay together.
Beans
I actually thought of it when I went to bed and I think my thoughts are
Beans
Act 1 was world-driven, and act 2 is character-driven
Beans
you could interact with almost literally anything in act 1 and that gave you a wide variety of possibilities that also gave you character lore in the meanwhile
Beans
act 2 lets you interact more exclusively with characters so most of the work is put into them and things being explained through them
Rama
Pretty much yeah
Beans
you can get so fucking much out of just using Joey's pogs on literally anything, including character depth
Beans
and then in act 2 they're just kind of. there, until you trade them to elwurd
Lightning Bolt
I do have a game to rec if you like flavor text for every possible interaction though I don't know how proper that is to do in a plurk about another game
Beans
Lightning Bolt
: well it's my plurk so by all means
Lightning Bolt
Star Seeker in: the Secret of the Sorcerous Standoff...
My friends worked on this and I've helped playtest it!
Lightning Bolt
There's also a free demo with the same mechanics but a separate intro story
Beans
oooooh