Delicious FruitCthaere's Profile
Send a PMJoined on: May 25, 2020
Bio:
I play fangames or stuff.
I try rating game compared to what they are trying to achieve rather than compared to fangames as a whole, and with knowledge of what you're getting into; If I rate a corridor needle game, I assume the person reading the review wants to play corridor needle, as if they don't they shouldn't bother playing it anyway. With that said, I tend to be very generous on needle ratings while being very skimpy on avoidances (although you likely won't see it as if I'd give it less than a 7 I just won't clear it instead).
with extremely rare exceptions, 9/10+ is reserved to games that have left deep emotional impact, while 10/10 is reserved for games I love unconditionally.
If I reviewed it and the review doesn't say otherwise, it's safe to assume I cleared it. I try adding my clears to df but I never really cared to keep track, so some might be missing.
don't expect diff ratings to be very accurate.
I've submitted:
236 Ratings!
157 Reviews!
9 Screenshots!
236 Games
157 Reviews
Cthaere
For: Prismatic Needle
For: Prismatic Needle
I generally agree with cLOUD's review, with a few notable differences. I suggest reading it first (although do not reduce it down to the rating), as I will mostly focus on our disagreements.
With that said, assuming you have read it, this is where I would diverge:
- In general, I had a much more pleasant experience than portrayed in cLOUD's review. Partially due to being a hof tier player, partially due to not minding the song too much, and partially due to coming at it with lower expectations (it is a debut after all). With that said, I 100% agree that there are definitely places that could have used a bit more refinement, but nothing felt egregiously bad, and I struggle to see the rest of the criticisms leveled at the gameplay.
- I actually don't like white screen that much. It felt like some effort went missing; For a "everyone come back together for the final screen" trope, it does not feel nearly as grandiose or as satisfying of a conclusion to the game as it should be. I would have much preferred a descending thin tower with camera following player, an additional layer of visuals, or a combination of previous elements in an ingenious way. There are also a couple jumps I dislike in it which hurt the diffcurve quite a bit imo.
- I do fully agree on visuals & song criticism.
In general, this debut showcases good making skill & understanding of general needle principles, and I hope to see a more ambitious project by this maker in the future. If you want a solid chill needle game to play as someone who is at the skill level to beat consistency HoF games or blaze through 70 diff modern gimmick needle games, definitely check this out.
[2] Likes
With that said, assuming you have read it, this is where I would diverge:
- In general, I had a much more pleasant experience than portrayed in cLOUD's review. Partially due to being a hof tier player, partially due to not minding the song too much, and partially due to coming at it with lower expectations (it is a debut after all). With that said, I 100% agree that there are definitely places that could have used a bit more refinement, but nothing felt egregiously bad, and I struggle to see the rest of the criticisms leveled at the gameplay.
- I actually don't like white screen that much. It felt like some effort went missing; For a "everyone come back together for the final screen" trope, it does not feel nearly as grandiose or as satisfying of a conclusion to the game as it should be. I would have much preferred a descending thin tower with camera following player, an additional layer of visuals, or a combination of previous elements in an ingenious way. There are also a couple jumps I dislike in it which hurt the diffcurve quite a bit imo.
- I do fully agree on visuals & song criticism.
In general, this debut showcases good making skill & understanding of general needle principles, and I hope to see a more ambitious project by this maker in the future. If you want a solid chill needle game to play as someone who is at the skill level to beat consistency HoF games or blaze through 70 diff modern gimmick needle games, definitely check this out.
Rating: 8.5 85
Difficulty: 75 75
Aug 6, 2022
Cthaere
For: Eppur Si Muove
For: Eppur Si Muove
I will divide this review into 2 parts. The first is going to be a more player oriented review, dissecting the game into its individual parts (yes this means spoilers for everything) and being a bit more in line with a traditional review, while the second part is going to be about things that generally bothered me when I was thinking about the game as a whole.
3 stages of adventure-y needle, each with their own theme.
The first of these is a space-themed stage with gravity flippers and a focus on symmetrical screen design. Said focus is clearly prioritized over gameplay quality in several sections, in a way that feels detrimental to the stage as a whole; Aside from that, it is your usual voraciousreader needle except without cycles.
The second is split into 3 sub hubs, being pushblocks, block cycles, and laser/buttons. Pushblocks has minor puzzley elements, however they both boil down into 2 tools you have at your disposal and are already forced to figure out from the very start; From then on, these become obvious and unsatisfying to solve. Thankfully, gameplay is introduced early enough on that this is not a problem, but not after putting an end of save trap in a pure puzzle save that is no fun to replay. Block cycles has a few really bad cycles, but is otherwise not notable as a stage. Laser/buttons has timed sections and more interesting cycles and is the best of the 3. The stage ends on a screen combining all gimmicks with a new one, which was hectic, fun to execute, and a good finale to the stage.
The third has a massive visual & thematic overhaul, and introduces new killer objects and has a much, much heavier focus on cycles. While some of these still are not well tuned and require waiting at start of save, these also contain much more fun & developed ideas than the previous cycle stage (although still not immune to "filler" ones either) and even throws some RNG into the mix sometimes.
The third stage ends with the final boss, which is a pretty big mixed bag, between "kinda annoying and can give awkward/uncomfortable situations" (green/trans pride flag/(to a lesser extent) orange), "it's decent I guess but barely noticeable unless it gets too close to you" (orange/purple) and "actually really fun to dodge" (yellow/black(final)).
As for production, it is the usual spritework, in a style which I find a bit off-putting; Something about these feels a bit artificial to me, if it makes sense, however I won't hold it against the game. If anything, the save sprite could have used reskinning based on stage. I cannot say I remember the music choices, for better or for worse, however that may have to do with the conditions I was playing under.
Initially, I did not mention the story. While it does exist, I cannot say it is incredibly well developed unless I missed some hidden lore, but it's a cute little addition and I know others may appreciate the touch a lot more.
All in all this is a good needle game with a decent amount cycle elements that starts a bit rough but gets better as it goes along. I cannot say I would feel like I was missing out on too much were I not to play it, but it is fun, big enough to pass a good hour or two, and well made, so if you're looking for a chill winding down experience you should still play it.
Now that the dry part is over, we can get to the part I want to talk about more.
To cut to the chase, there are quite a few things I simply... do not understand about this game. This is something that I share with SOTN, and I fear that I may have judged that game harshly due to this ignorance. I am going to list what I consider to be the root cause of these.
First, while I do see quite a few themes that repeat themselves in gameplay, I fail to see how they connect together to form a consistent & coherent design philosophy that would also make sense from the average player's/my own perspective. For example, the first stage has a screen that is split into top path and bottom path, which is visited twice; once for each path. However, these paths themselves contain needle that is only marginally better than straight up corridor needle. The mistimed cycles also come into play here, alongside the final save of the orange pinwheel screen where you are forced to spam low jumps in water for 10 seconds and a decent chunk of the overall jumps in stage 1 that just felt awkward to execute. It's stuff that I can't see much justification for beyond "this is kinda cool", and while I do 100% think playability can be justifiably sacrificed for another cause, I did not feel like it was the case here.
The second is identity. This game doesn't tread much new ground (especially with SOTN being there to compare to), and while it is definitely good at what it does, it is not outstanding either. However, it also doesn't really give off any specific or personalized feeling; I do not look at this and say "Only Voraciousreader could have made it" or look at a screen and say "Wow this must have come from Eppur" the way I look at games like Chatran needle, at Synthasmagoria adventures, at Eruna avoidances. This is not to say that production is the main factor in these; Hiddow has his own unique touch despite using only very basic visuals, and Carnival's bosses are legendary regardless of being MS Paint doodles. For this game, I can only really say that some of the cycle patterns as well as general easing function cycle abuse (in a good way) are things I can say stand out in the design. In this, it's hard for me to think of this in any term beyond a pretty generic "enjoyable cycle needle(venture) game".
It is important to recognize that I do not ask these questions from a place of disrespect: I definitely assume answers exist for them, if only partially, and I believe there is insight to be gained here both for me in getting these answers and any prospective makers in starting to think in similar terms. Still, due to this, I will refrain from rating the game. I would likely have given it an aggregate score somewhere in the range 7.2-7.6 though as things stand, but do not give this number much weight.
[0] Likes
3 stages of adventure-y needle, each with their own theme.
The first of these is a space-themed stage with gravity flippers and a focus on symmetrical screen design. Said focus is clearly prioritized over gameplay quality in several sections, in a way that feels detrimental to the stage as a whole; Aside from that, it is your usual voraciousreader needle except without cycles.
The second is split into 3 sub hubs, being pushblocks, block cycles, and laser/buttons. Pushblocks has minor puzzley elements, however they both boil down into 2 tools you have at your disposal and are already forced to figure out from the very start; From then on, these become obvious and unsatisfying to solve. Thankfully, gameplay is introduced early enough on that this is not a problem, but not after putting an end of save trap in a pure puzzle save that is no fun to replay. Block cycles has a few really bad cycles, but is otherwise not notable as a stage. Laser/buttons has timed sections and more interesting cycles and is the best of the 3. The stage ends on a screen combining all gimmicks with a new one, which was hectic, fun to execute, and a good finale to the stage.
The third has a massive visual & thematic overhaul, and introduces new killer objects and has a much, much heavier focus on cycles. While some of these still are not well tuned and require waiting at start of save, these also contain much more fun & developed ideas than the previous cycle stage (although still not immune to "filler" ones either) and even throws some RNG into the mix sometimes.
The third stage ends with the final boss, which is a pretty big mixed bag, between "kinda annoying and can give awkward/uncomfortable situations" (green/trans pride flag/(to a lesser extent) orange), "it's decent I guess but barely noticeable unless it gets too close to you" (orange/purple) and "actually really fun to dodge" (yellow/black(final)).
As for production, it is the usual spritework, in a style which I find a bit off-putting; Something about these feels a bit artificial to me, if it makes sense, however I won't hold it against the game. If anything, the save sprite could have used reskinning based on stage. I cannot say I remember the music choices, for better or for worse, however that may have to do with the conditions I was playing under.
Initially, I did not mention the story. While it does exist, I cannot say it is incredibly well developed unless I missed some hidden lore, but it's a cute little addition and I know others may appreciate the touch a lot more.
All in all this is a good needle game with a decent amount cycle elements that starts a bit rough but gets better as it goes along. I cannot say I would feel like I was missing out on too much were I not to play it, but it is fun, big enough to pass a good hour or two, and well made, so if you're looking for a chill winding down experience you should still play it.
Now that the dry part is over, we can get to the part I want to talk about more.
To cut to the chase, there are quite a few things I simply... do not understand about this game. This is something that I share with SOTN, and I fear that I may have judged that game harshly due to this ignorance. I am going to list what I consider to be the root cause of these.
First, while I do see quite a few themes that repeat themselves in gameplay, I fail to see how they connect together to form a consistent & coherent design philosophy that would also make sense from the average player's/my own perspective. For example, the first stage has a screen that is split into top path and bottom path, which is visited twice; once for each path. However, these paths themselves contain needle that is only marginally better than straight up corridor needle. The mistimed cycles also come into play here, alongside the final save of the orange pinwheel screen where you are forced to spam low jumps in water for 10 seconds and a decent chunk of the overall jumps in stage 1 that just felt awkward to execute. It's stuff that I can't see much justification for beyond "this is kinda cool", and while I do 100% think playability can be justifiably sacrificed for another cause, I did not feel like it was the case here.
The second is identity. This game doesn't tread much new ground (especially with SOTN being there to compare to), and while it is definitely good at what it does, it is not outstanding either. However, it also doesn't really give off any specific or personalized feeling; I do not look at this and say "Only Voraciousreader could have made it" or look at a screen and say "Wow this must have come from Eppur" the way I look at games like Chatran needle, at Synthasmagoria adventures, at Eruna avoidances. This is not to say that production is the main factor in these; Hiddow has his own unique touch despite using only very basic visuals, and Carnival's bosses are legendary regardless of being MS Paint doodles. For this game, I can only really say that some of the cycle patterns as well as general easing function cycle abuse (in a good way) are things I can say stand out in the design. In this, it's hard for me to think of this in any term beyond a pretty generic "enjoyable cycle needle(venture) game".
It is important to recognize that I do not ask these questions from a place of disrespect: I definitely assume answers exist for them, if only partially, and I believe there is insight to be gained here both for me in getting these answers and any prospective makers in starting to think in similar terms. Still, due to this, I will refrain from rating the game. I would likely have given it an aggregate score somewhere in the range 7.2-7.6 though as things stand, but do not give this number much weight.
Rating: N/A
Difficulty: 55 55
Jul 22, 2022
Cthaere
For: RNG Dungeon
For: RNG Dungeon
Do not expect anything sort of resembling a traditional review; These are just some of my thoughts as a developer that I wanted to put out publicly.
This was meant to be the final game of the I wanna tourney. Luckily, it wasn't.
To put it bluntly, this game is both hard, and was never meant to be a grind. We knew it from the very beginning, and we have decided to make it for ourselves. A game where the mask is half on, half off, where we can be ourselves while also making a show out of it. Furthermore, the final boss took up most of the development cycle since the IWT, and so did many balance changes; Both the game and the tourney would have likely been much worse were it to be its final boss.
This extends further though. The readme states it plainly, I have already made that point, but it still bears repeating: This game was made with a specific audience in mind, and is likely too abrasive for most outside that audience. It was thoroughly tested, balanced and reiterated upon, until the final release was deemed not merely satisfactory, but excellent in delivering the experience we want to the audience we wanted to deliver it to, being released with the maker's full intent behind it. In that, the game fulfills its purpose; If you end up disliking it, it is much more likely it wasn't aimed at you rather than it was aimed at you but fell flat. If you choose to make yourself play it still, after discovering it isn't for you, don't expect much sympathy.
For those of you who I did make this for? I hope you enjoy. I put a lot of work into it, and had some fun (and some rage). It was a journey, and in the end, that is what matters the most. This release has definitely had me do some thinking, though. You'll hopefully see what comes of it.
There's a lot more I could say about this game, however this platform is inadequate for that. To put it simply, this game and the development team have gone through a LOT during the time of making it, and there is simply too much missing information for the outside player to understand where we were coming from sometimes. The stories are nearly as good as the content that was generated by them. This goes a bit beyond, in that the dev team has a general perspective about avoidances that is not shared by many outside it yet allows us to reach the levels of avoidance making we have, and while this specific project was about messing around, having fun, and showing off, it is also clear that for some parts in this as well as many of our other projects (and upcoming ones), people are unable to grasp where our perspectives come from (as evidenced by anyone who thinks milky ways is more than the bare minimum for mediocrity (yes I got razzor's permission and approval to say that)). I will ask that you trust us when we make takes based on these views when it comes to our own games.
[14] Likes
This was meant to be the final game of the I wanna tourney. Luckily, it wasn't.
To put it bluntly, this game is both hard, and was never meant to be a grind. We knew it from the very beginning, and we have decided to make it for ourselves. A game where the mask is half on, half off, where we can be ourselves while also making a show out of it. Furthermore, the final boss took up most of the development cycle since the IWT, and so did many balance changes; Both the game and the tourney would have likely been much worse were it to be its final boss.
This extends further though. The readme states it plainly, I have already made that point, but it still bears repeating: This game was made with a specific audience in mind, and is likely too abrasive for most outside that audience. It was thoroughly tested, balanced and reiterated upon, until the final release was deemed not merely satisfactory, but excellent in delivering the experience we want to the audience we wanted to deliver it to, being released with the maker's full intent behind it. In that, the game fulfills its purpose; If you end up disliking it, it is much more likely it wasn't aimed at you rather than it was aimed at you but fell flat. If you choose to make yourself play it still, after discovering it isn't for you, don't expect much sympathy.
For those of you who I did make this for? I hope you enjoy. I put a lot of work into it, and had some fun (and some rage). It was a journey, and in the end, that is what matters the most. This release has definitely had me do some thinking, though. You'll hopefully see what comes of it.
There's a lot more I could say about this game, however this platform is inadequate for that. To put it simply, this game and the development team have gone through a LOT during the time of making it, and there is simply too much missing information for the outside player to understand where we were coming from sometimes. The stories are nearly as good as the content that was generated by them. This goes a bit beyond, in that the dev team has a general perspective about avoidances that is not shared by many outside it yet allows us to reach the levels of avoidance making we have, and while this specific project was about messing around, having fun, and showing off, it is also clear that for some parts in this as well as many of our other projects (and upcoming ones), people are unable to grasp where our perspectives come from (as evidenced by anyone who thinks milky ways is more than the bare minimum for mediocrity (yes I got razzor's permission and approval to say that)). I will ask that you trust us when we make takes based on these views when it comes to our own games.
Rating: N/A
Difficulty: N/A
Jul 18, 2022
Cthaere
For: I wanna best the 100 floors
For: I wanna best the 100 floors
Best the 100 floors is a 100 floors jtool needle game which seems to come from the late CN2 era of needle, where needle started to become refined in both visuals and gameplay, slowly incorporated the standard jtool gimmicks more, and has moved on to incorporate more open space and less corridors in the design.
I would like to say that this game is akin to a lunch at a local mom n pop restaurant. Something that doesn't try to be fancy or shoot for the stars, but rather a solid, overall enjoyable experience that clearly has some heart poured into it. The amount of jump heights, maneuver complexity, and save length are all positively varied, without any particular effort to make any of these elements pronounced. The music and visuals are also simple yet charming. Unfortunately, I am unable to make the initial comparison, as a result of something that will cause me to violate Kale's commandments: Difficulty balance.
While I am a firm believer in difficulty diversity, and that difficulty is meant to serve the game rather than the player, here it manages only to annoy and frustrate. It is not just the difficulty either; Many jumps in the harder saves are awkward or overly precise, and difficulty seems to be the result of these deviations from the more lenient, natural style most of the game goes by. The usage of 8px grid in gross ways (squished/altered normal jumps, jumps that are a bit higher or lower than you expect initially, 4.25 jumps), forced low jumps, and drops that have very little leniency all contribute to this.
As a result, while I did enjoy a decent amount of this game, I find it hard to recommend it. Play only if you don't care about clearing/grinding it but rather about just having a good time, and are ready to drop the session whenever you stop having fun.
[0] Likes
I would like to say that this game is akin to a lunch at a local mom n pop restaurant. Something that doesn't try to be fancy or shoot for the stars, but rather a solid, overall enjoyable experience that clearly has some heart poured into it. The amount of jump heights, maneuver complexity, and save length are all positively varied, without any particular effort to make any of these elements pronounced. The music and visuals are also simple yet charming. Unfortunately, I am unable to make the initial comparison, as a result of something that will cause me to violate Kale's commandments: Difficulty balance.
While I am a firm believer in difficulty diversity, and that difficulty is meant to serve the game rather than the player, here it manages only to annoy and frustrate. It is not just the difficulty either; Many jumps in the harder saves are awkward or overly precise, and difficulty seems to be the result of these deviations from the more lenient, natural style most of the game goes by. The usage of 8px grid in gross ways (squished/altered normal jumps, jumps that are a bit higher or lower than you expect initially, 4.25 jumps), forced low jumps, and drops that have very little leniency all contribute to this.
As a result, while I did enjoy a decent amount of this game, I find it hard to recommend it. Play only if you don't care about clearing/grinding it but rather about just having a good time, and are ready to drop the session whenever you stop having fun.
Rating: 6.5 65
Difficulty: N/A
Jun 8, 2022
Cthaere
For: The Majestic Kid
For: The Majestic Kid
The majestic kid is a new medley in a similar spirit and structure to the classics of old, with a few modern screenpicks and lower diffcurve to freshen the experience a bit.
The screen picks feature a few many traps for my taste, especially considering how easy they are otherwise. However, aside from that, there isn't really room to complain about the individual screens chosen. The blend of modern and old classics does not really work for me, since the old trapventures clash jarringly with modern gimmick needle, and it would likely be better had there been a neater organization of screen picks. The fact that there are multiple stages can allow for stages to be focused on style rather than difficulty, which I think would have done the game a service. Still, it was decently enjoyable overall.
The bosses, on the other hand, are some of the worst I've played in a medley. Maybe that's due to the fact that in every single other medley I've tried, I either had a video to assist me or was playing it online, however they still felt much more learny than the usual medley boss (in a bad way) while having a much less engaging core experience. The boss pacing seems to have a knack for starting and ending the boss with really awkward segments while having the space inbetween filled with much easier/simpler content with a smattering of instagibs. Boss 1 ending was a constant worry about not getting got by the janky-looking hitboxes, while boss 2 ended in one of the most boring and annoying patterns to execute in the fight followed by an avoidance that's full of instagibs, after which I have decided that this is not worth my time.
If you think the idea of a modern easier medley sounds good, just play Kill the AWSL instead. I would not recommend this blind, and would be cautious to recommend it even with video.
[2] Likes
The screen picks feature a few many traps for my taste, especially considering how easy they are otherwise. However, aside from that, there isn't really room to complain about the individual screens chosen. The blend of modern and old classics does not really work for me, since the old trapventures clash jarringly with modern gimmick needle, and it would likely be better had there been a neater organization of screen picks. The fact that there are multiple stages can allow for stages to be focused on style rather than difficulty, which I think would have done the game a service. Still, it was decently enjoyable overall.
The bosses, on the other hand, are some of the worst I've played in a medley. Maybe that's due to the fact that in every single other medley I've tried, I either had a video to assist me or was playing it online, however they still felt much more learny than the usual medley boss (in a bad way) while having a much less engaging core experience. The boss pacing seems to have a knack for starting and ending the boss with really awkward segments while having the space inbetween filled with much easier/simpler content with a smattering of instagibs. Boss 1 ending was a constant worry about not getting got by the janky-looking hitboxes, while boss 2 ended in one of the most boring and annoying patterns to execute in the fight followed by an avoidance that's full of instagibs, after which I have decided that this is not worth my time.
If you think the idea of a modern easier medley sounds good, just play Kill the AWSL instead. I would not recommend this blind, and would be cautious to recommend it even with video.
Rating: 5.5 55
Difficulty: N/A
May 17, 2022
2 Games
| Game | Difficulty | Average Rating | # of Ratings |
|---|---|---|---|
| I wanna Musiclock | 74.7 | 9.4 | 18 |
| I wanna Xanadu | 59.4 | 8.2 | 6 |
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