This is so much fun and it's bite-sized! Perfect for parents. Constant positive reinforcement every 5min. Comfort food!
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"Minishoot' Adventures" debuts with 90 on OpenCritic, 98% positive Steam reviews
- Thread starter stopmrdomino
- Start date
- Indie
I wanted to get all the achievements, but I just started the arena on my normal difficulty playthrough after achieving 100% and yikes... I don't think I can do the arenas. Even if I could beat them, you have to beat all of them with 5 hearts left. I did manage to beat the second arena with 5 hearts. So far I can't even beat the third arena at all. Anyway, just venting. I know it is a skill issue. Maybe I can get better.
Just finished the game this weekend. Had to 100% it and get all achievements. WHAT AN ABSOLUTE GEM OF A GAME.
Loved it. Perfect duration, smooth gameplay, nice lore (with little to no dialog), fun bosses.
I hope there's plans for DLCs and content expansion cuz I'd love to go back to this game in the future.
Loved it. Perfect duration, smooth gameplay, nice lore (with little to no dialog), fun bosses.
I hope there's plans for DLCs and content expansion cuz I'd love to go back to this game in the future.
This is true, except when it isn't. At one point, there is a jungle area you have to enter in order to advance the plot, and the game spawns what are basically bullet hell bushes on you. The first couple waves are doable with one or two bushes, but the last one is five in a tightly enclosed area, and you quickly learn why a game where the ship's hitbox is so large, doesn't work as an actual bullet hell shmup at all.
Worse, the area is both a DPS check, and the only place you can grind enough EXP to get that DPS. I know this, because I went to grind other areas, and quickly discovered that they give you nothing compared to killing those bushes. So the game degenerates into a mindless grind of dying over and over again, until you have enough points in gun damage to make it stop. It basically rubs your face in your inability to get past the area, even though that's clearly by design.
Yes, you can turn down the difficulty to make this slightly more doable. You can even turn on invulnerability if you need to. But I shouldn't need to do all of that. Doing a bullet hell where the ship's hitbox is both large and unclear kind of misses the point of how those shmups work. It also makes clear that having enemies without visible HP bars was a mistake, because it just ends up making every major enemy feel like a damage sponge.
The way the map works also makes it kind of a terrible Metroidvania. As far I can tell, you're supposed to find map fragments for each area. The problem is that, outside of the central area, they don't seem to exist. And since the areas are all large and designed to be confusing, navigation very quickly becomes a slog. This stands in opposition to basically every other Metroidvania that expands the map in real-time as you progress.
I know that this game seems to be universally loved, and that I'm probably the only person who's going to complain about it. But for me, once you get past the first areas, it quickly degenerates into a slog of not knowing where to go next, and getting punished for figuring it out.
None of this happened to me.
I know what fight you're talking about, when I replayed on hard mode I ran into it too early and went and did other stuff. But that's it. I didn't hit any other combat roadblocks. I didn't have any trouble upgrading my firepower on normal or hard difficulty. No grinding.
Yeah, I dont agree about tthe grinding thing either. You can choose to upgrade whatever in any order, I definitely didnt spend time flying around just getting XP at any point... I did get the XP enhancer early on from a shop though which probably helped. That + the gun upgrade (separate to XP upgrades). But the game is super generous with that sort of stuff, I really dont think that most will hit any sort of brick wall where you need to grind.
Then again I also disagree about the map fragment stuff... you dont need to find them until going for the true ending, and almost all of them are found easily by just stumbling across them, I think only one I had to really hunt for. Since the game encourages exploration, the game really isnt impacted by this...
Then again I also disagree about the map fragment stuff... you dont need to find them until going for the true ending, and almost all of them are found easily by just stumbling across them, I think only one I had to really hunt for. Since the game encourages exploration, the game really isnt impacted by this...
I ran into those bushes and got annihilated, I remembered thinking how am I ever going to pass this? So I went and did other things for a bit. Eventually stumbled back onto and beat that bush fight without much trouble before even realizing it was the same one.
Genuinely confused as to why there's any perceived grind in this game. Level ups seemed extremely frequent just by playing it, as well as an easy refund for points.
I mean, I kind of knew that the very first criticism would be "you're doing it wrong," but no, I'm sorry, that was a thing that happened, and the game is designed to make that happen if you're not already using a guide and following the most optimal route.
Yes, I'm well aware that the game pushes you to respec as needed for different areas. The most obvious example are the races, where you have to respec everything into speed and boost just to have a chance at winning (with the exception of the first race). The problem is that the bush fight is a DPS check, because the hitbox on your ship is frankly too large to dodge all the garbage being spit out by five bushes and the large side cannons that divide the arena into tiny quadrants. So the only real option there is to tank hits and increase DPS until you're able to kill the bushes quickly enough, to get their numbers down to where you can dodge their shots, which is around 2-3 of those guys on screen at once.
At the point I had to do that fight, I'd literally been going in circles around the entire map, doing basically everything I could find but that fight. Since all the enemies on the map respawn on death, it was very easy to go to all the other areas, and compare the EXP I was getting there, to the EXP I was getting from the bushes -- and it was no contest. Having fought all the bosses I could find, the bushes were the only enemy that still gave decent EXP at that point, period. But the problem with this is that the bushes are treated as an arena boss fight, where the only options are to win or die. You can't do the thing that's possible in other Metroidvanias, where you dip in and out of harder areas to grind EXP without dying. And because checkpoints are basically nonexistent outside of dungeons, you always respawn at the start, and always have to travel back to the fight, which makes it feel like even more of a slog.
Is it possible that I missed an area I could've done to to level up before that fight? Sure. But the game intends for that to be the case. Having no map outside of the central area, and a large, winding layout that requires you to find secrets to progress means that it's very easy to miss things, even when you think you've seen everything in an area. And since the game refuses to tell you anything about the critical path, it's quite easy to just feel stuck.
I can appreciate that other people did not have this experience, but I'm not going to sit here and pretend I didn't. The entire jungle area, even after the bushes fight, frankly felt like one giant slog until I cleared it. When a game starts to feel like work without positive reinforcement, that's when I dip.
Your the only person saying that the thing is a DPS grind though. I cant speak for other users, but I sure as shit wasnt sitting there playing with a guide in one hand to take an optimal route, I just never ran into any sort of issue your describing. And since your the only one reporting on it... well, its easy to see where Im going with this point...
This is an obviously bad argument when I've already told you it didn't happen to me and, no, I didn't use a guide. I just explored everywhere and killed everything. Level ups were constant in the natural course of play.
All I said was that it didn't happen to me. I don't tell people they're playing games wrong. But you claimed it was by design, implying inevitability so I felt compelled to reply.
Yes, it is, and yet you're doing it anyway.
Like, I probably shouldn't have said anything at all. Game discourse always favors the experiences of the majority over everyone else. It's why sharing experiences that don't match the majority is almost always a dumb idea. I thought, hey maybe this forum might sometimes be better than Steam, but a lot of times that's not the case.
But my point is that I knew about all the game systems, did as much as I could to level up to that point, and it still happened. If you're going to sit there and try to invalidate my experience, that says more about you than about anything else.
You are misreading what I said. I never said that design implies inevitability. What I said was that, because the game goes out of its way to hide the critical path and make you find secrets to progress, it is very easy to miss things that maybe you actually need to find. In fact, I think it's more likely than not that that's what happened. But knowing that doesn't make the experience of being stuck feel any better, nor does it address the issue I ran into.
I didn't follow a guide, and I never respecced either. I did grind for just a little bit to max my boost skill for the last two races. A critical path never crossed my mind, one of the best parts of this game is adventure and discovery and I spent a lot of time revisiting places I had been, killing enemies I had killed before, in search of the next way to progress. I loved it.
So I just swallowed my pride and bumped the difficulty down to easy for the arenas, and I'm glad I did. I was able to get through them all with at least 5 hearts left and was able to see the final ending of the game. My one remaining achievement is to complete the game on hard, I'm going to try but I don't know if I can do it.
I think my final playtime to get everything but the hardest difficulty achievement was about 12-12.5 hours.
So I just swallowed my pride and bumped the difficulty down to easy for the arenas, and I'm glad I did. I was able to get through them all with at least 5 hearts left and was able to see the final ending of the game. My one remaining achievement is to complete the game on hard, I'm going to try but I don't know if I can do it.
I think my final playtime to get everything but the hardest difficulty achievement was about 12-12.5 hours.
Tried it out and works like a charm on my rig. 4K no issues at all! Great game. Wow I've missed this type of shooter. I got a message saying thanks for playing the demo but I'm able to still explore and go to a bunch of new places. Can I actually make more progress?
For me, it's the opposite. I honestly don't care about all the upgrades the game throws at me, when all I really want is an actual proper SOTN-style map -- and that's the one thing the game refuses to give. It didn't bother me, until I realized that the reason the game doesn't have it was because it's actively hiding the critical path. It's not an issue of not being able to find optional collectables, but of withholding progression. It means that I'm constantly having to second guess every decision I make, for fear I missed something crucial.
Like, it's nice that people felt they didn't have to grind by dying in a boss arena, but I only made that choice after I'd been around the map several times, weighing all my options while looking for any other possible way forward. Hearing that literally no one else had this experience makes me think I'm playing the game "wrong," but I extremely do not want to look at a guide to figure out how to play it "right," especially when the game is clearly meant to be an exploration game, and it's being sold in this thread as a cakewalk. And since I don't trust that this won't keep happening, I just do not have any motivation to play any more of it -- but I can't refund it, because this all happened over the 2 hr mark.
Got 100% achievements, great game! I bumped the game difficulty down for the arena fights, no shame! Could beat them just fine on hardest difficulty, but with 5 hearts remaining seemed exceptionally hard to do so, so I was like eh :p
All I can think is you must have missed something. I do know one way you can get further without fighting those bushes but it's a hidden path that would be really hard to find until later. On my replay I knew about and used it to reach the second dungeon without having to fight the chain of bushes. I can give you a hint if you want.
Thanks for the offer. I did clear the bushes after grinding, but the entire jungle area after that (which I also cleared to get back to the main hub) made me think that I wasn't really going to enjoy the rest of it. Not having a map or any sort of way forward when you get stuck, is old school in a way that I just don't want to deal with anymore, and I wouldn't have bought the game if I'd known that was a cornerstone of the design philosophy.
Just finished - 100% on the default (middle?) difficulty in about 8 and a half hours. Got all the achievements except for the one to beat the game on the highest difficulty. Overall, I think the game was pretty solid! Felt just the slightest bit of drag in certain parts, but not bad for the most part. Some of the 100% collectathon in the post game definitely dragged (a couple of the unfinished dungeons boiling down to one of those gold beetles was pretty frustrating, haha). Weirdly enough, favorite stretch might've been the endgame challenge room / boss rush stuff - going for the 5+ hearts achievements in those was probably the most engaging stuff in the game for me.
Anyway, I think it's probably about an 8/10. Solid, fun, didn't drag much, and probably the exact right length. Good stuff!
Anyway, I think it's probably about an 8/10. Solid, fun, didn't drag much, and probably the exact right length. Good stuff!
Well I am holding my own on Hard outside of certain dungeon fights that just move too fast for me. Once again I swallowed my pride and if I change the game speed to around 75% I can then handle these particular fights. Feels like cheating, though. I change the speed back to normal afterward. When I'm playing these on 75% it almost feels like normal speed, I guess I just don't have the ability to play those fights at 100% speed on Hard.
Your mind seems to be made up, but the game doesn't intend for you to remain with no map. You are supposed to find the map for that area, and then it's less confusing and you can see everything. I'm sure you have experienced this already in other areas where you found the map. If you poke around enough you will find the map.
I mean ... if you think about your statement for 2 seconds, you'd understand that it's a total contradiction.
If the designers wanted this game to have a normal Metroidvania-style map, it would have one. But they didn't, and I've been through several areas including a boss dungeon clear, and haven't found any map pieces besides the central one. And given that I'm having enough trouble just finding my way through the game, how exactly am I meant to find anything else without watching a walkthrough video, and probably spoiling things I don't want spoiled?
You could have a map if you were only smart enough to find one is not a nice sentiment! And it is exceptionally not nice in a game where there's so little art design, that the rooms basically all look the same.
Like, there's an entire spectrum of design choices between "watch a YouTube walkthrough" and "Ubisoft map with too many goddamn markers" that the designers could have chosen. For example, they could've included some sort of guidance feature, but made it off by default so that you only use it when you need it. But they didn't, and I'm kind of done wasting my time, when I could actually be having fun in an entirely different game that actually has decent quality-of-life features in it.
The dungeons don't have maps. There is guidance, the next boss dungeon is pointed out on the map, and you can unlock points of interest on the map too. I guess there's nothing else to say, hope you give it another try some day so that you didn't waste your money.
Glad I saved up for the Ancient Astrolabe rather than Gun level 4. Just so more helpful to know what areas are completed and what collectibles are left, and the general game progress. The exploration in this is top-notch. Last time there was this much fun in finding secret areas, hitting against walls, and discovering was in Tunic.
I feel the astrolabe should be saved until you're totally finished exploring. I unlocked it pretty late, but wished I had waited even longer. It sort of kills the exploration by telling you where everything left is located.
I have been able to beat some dungeon bosses on Hard now without changing the game speed. Third dungeon final boss, the beach boss, some others. I am either getting better, or just more powerful. I hope changing the game speed didn't disqualify me from the achievement for beating it on hard.
I have been able to beat some dungeon bosses on Hard now without changing the game speed. Third dungeon final boss, the beach boss, some others. I am either getting better, or just more powerful. I hope changing the game speed didn't disqualify me from the achievement for beating it on hard.
Cleared the normal final boss this morning. I haven't had this much fun with a 2D Zelda-like since... well, probably not since A Link Between Worlds. (The Link's Awakening remake can come too.)
I did very occasionally find myself wandering and not knowing where to go next, but considering I cleared the game with 100% exploration at about 7 hours I definitely never got too lost. Also never really felt I had to grind. I swapped point allocations as needed (mostly to get speed boosts as needed for the sprite races).
The biggest criticism I would have is that towards the late game, there were a handful of moments that required long walkbacks (either stuff involving the instadeath purple bullets or stuff like the later races where you really needed the time-slow ability charged up to have a chance). I'd take a lesson from Celeste here: if you are going to have something that likely will take a few tries from the player, make sure it's easy for them to get back into the action quickly!
I believe I have the path to the true final boss unlocked; I encountered it during the course of my regular playthrough but found myself locked out of the area. Will give that a shot later today.
I did very occasionally find myself wandering and not knowing where to go next, but considering I cleared the game with 100% exploration at about 7 hours I definitely never got too lost. Also never really felt I had to grind. I swapped point allocations as needed (mostly to get speed boosts as needed for the sprite races).
The biggest criticism I would have is that towards the late game, there were a handful of moments that required long walkbacks (either stuff involving the instadeath purple bullets or stuff like the later races where you really needed the time-slow ability charged up to have a chance). I'd take a lesson from Celeste here: if you are going to have something that likely will take a few tries from the player, make sure it's easy for them to get back into the action quickly!
I believe I have the path to the true final boss unlocked; I encountered it during the course of my regular playthrough but found myself locked out of the area. Will give that a shot later today.
Finished the game in advanced mode since I didn't want another playthrough. Even in that 'hard' mode, the game is pretty easy imho. Needed 3-4 trys for the final true boss, but that's it. With max gun upgrade and a decent of stuff (attack power, bullet speed, bullet range et cetera) at max or near max you are pretty much overpowered in this game. Gonna do the arenas next.
Overall a pretty good palate cleanser.
Overall a pretty good palate cleanser.
I just couldn't deal with the speed of the bullets in some encounters on advanced, and had to reduce the game speed.
Played this as well now and it's just excellent. Rarely do games nail exploration as well as this one does, it feels perfectly balanced in terms of the amount there is to do before running out of steam. Also really enjoyed the standard difficulty, it wasn't hard at all but challenging enough to keep it fun and engaging. Got 86% completion and think I might go for 100% and the true final boss, would recommend it to everyone.
The only thing I don't like is the name of the game lol, they could've really had another pass at that. Hope more people will pick this up once it gets a console release, it really is just a delightful game from start to finish.
The only thing I don't like is the name of the game lol, they could've really had another pass at that. Hope more people will pick this up once it gets a console release, it really is just a delightful game from start to finish.
Finished the Arenas in normal difficulty in order to get the 5 hearts achievement. Was pleasantly surprised by a final 'race track' there.
Deleted my save game. If you know you know.
Deleted my save game. If you know you know.
I noticed that the latest update added a map indicator to clarify the route to the second dungeon, maybe that would help some people who had trouble. It also added something to help with locating map pieces.
Change logs v1.03
IMPORTANT CHANGES
MAP DETECTION SYSTEM: map icon now discreetly "beep" and shake as you get closer to a missing map piece. We hope this would alleviate the frustration of not finding the missing maps.
SOFTLOCK ISSUES: All issues linked to being softlock by a boss, a fight, a torch or a button, etc. should be fixed retroactively.
PARKOUR/RACES BALANCING:Starting a race now also restores your energy. Improved races timing that felt odly balanced and were particularly difficult to beat with Keyboard and mouse setups.
SMALLER CHANGES
Added a map marker to clarify the main path to access the second Dungeon
Improved lighthouse puzzle
Fixed supershot camera movement not being affected by screenshake settings
Scarab can't get stuck behind the torch in Desert Temple anymore
French localization dialogs improved
Fixed out of bound visual issue in dungeon 2
Nice, that map detection update will be very helpful. I've not had trouble finding them anyway, by just exploring organically.
I cannot get to the final energy tank for the life of me. It's in the woods, just north of a dead end cul de sac that has a little mini battle arena.
It's my final item before 100% completion I think.
Does anyone know what I'm referring to?
Edit: Disregard lol
It's my final item before 100% completion I think.
Does anyone know what I'm referring to?
Edit: Disregard lol
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Such an amazing game! I can't even remember the last time I had so much genuine fun! It will probably end up being my GOTY 2024, and I really hope it gets considered for the end-of-year awards. A few random thoughts:
- The game is perfect for the Steam Deck and runs amazingly well despite not being "verified".
- The last challenges were a bitch, I finished the game on hard mode, including the real final boss, but I dropped to normal difficulty to beat each of them with 5 hearts left.
- I want more! Give me an expansion, a full fledged sequel, anything really, but please give me more. Next time, just add a little more variety, both in terms of enemies and environments.
Finished it this week and goddamn, what a fantastic game. just so... fun and well designed. everything is fun. moving is fun. shooting is fun. exploring is fun. extremely cool rewards for exploration. it's gorgeous. damn.
Such an amazing game! I can't even remember the last time I had so much genuine fun! It will probably end up being my GOTY 2024, and I really hope it gets considered for the end-of-year awards. A few random thoughts:
- The game is perfect for the Steam Deck and runs amazingly well despite not being "verified".
- The last challenges were a bitch, I finished the game on hard mode, including the real final boss, but I dropped to normal difficulty to beat each of them with 5 hearts left.
- I want more! Give me an expansion, a full fledged sequel, anything really, but please give me more. Next time, just add a little more variety, both in terms of enemies and environments.
Yeah, I was hoping the area with the true boss was like a Dark World and that there would be a lot more content š
Okay, now I must add this to the wishlist! Hopefully it'll come to Xbox or Switch.
