8 Reviews:
Cthaere
I wanna be the Pinacol is a fairly lengthy, mostly-pattern avoidance making use of rapid fire transitions and arena changes to create a constant rhythm of movement achieved in no small part by masterful manipulation of surfaces. The avoidance itself is very much mapped to the song (which is also very good) in terms of pacing and perceived attack intensity for the most part, and so the slow parts make space for a bit of slow-paced rng to spice things up a bit. The fast parts, however, will teleport the player all over the arena, rearrange the platform layout at lightning speed forcing the player to move with it, and throw patterned apple constructions at you as rapidly as a machinegun.
Visually, the avoidance is very clean, with monochromatic projectiles and backgrounds, one dominant type of particle trail, a few simple particle effects aside from that, and instances of nonintrusive flashes & view manipulation. However, the beauty comes just as much from the attack design as it does from the production value, with extremely fluid attacks, elegant symmetrical patterns, and of course the surfaces capturing the most hectic transitions and putting them side to side.
As for the downsides, there are a few instances of rng attacks that can and will "kill" you without warning. The HP nature of the fight allows you to survive them relatively unscathed, but when you get to the point where a good attempt will be able to mostly tank through the last minute to win, every unnecessary hit matters. Another issue I had was the pacing and difficulty balance. While I'm sure a big part of the perceived difficulty imbalances comes from the fact that it is not required to master the attacks 3 minutes into the fight, they still felt much harder than their earlier counterparts. While I did not mind replaying the period of time from 30 seconds to 3 minutes in despite seeming very easy in comparison to the last minute, the first 30 seconds are insanely boring to do, something that I would usually loathe but since every attempt gets very far in anyway due to the nature of HP and the accelerated learning pace that comes with it, it was tolerable, although I would still rather see the first part of the fight be improved, especially since it is the only instance of "stay in the corner and stand at designated safespots from time to time" attack.
A final note about difficulty: Due to the HP nature of the avoidance, it would seem exponentially easier the better you are, and putting an exact difficulty on it is extremely hard. Do not let the difficulty rating deceive you, as this would take much, much longer than you might suspect if you've never cleared an avoidance of this difficulty rating.
All in all this was a blast to learn and very fun to execute, although I feel like with a few more hours it might have overstayed its welcome. Would wholeheartedly recommend to experienced pattern avoidance players.
Visually, the avoidance is very clean, with monochromatic projectiles and backgrounds, one dominant type of particle trail, a few simple particle effects aside from that, and instances of nonintrusive flashes & view manipulation. However, the beauty comes just as much from the attack design as it does from the production value, with extremely fluid attacks, elegant symmetrical patterns, and of course the surfaces capturing the most hectic transitions and putting them side to side.
As for the downsides, there are a few instances of rng attacks that can and will "kill" you without warning. The HP nature of the fight allows you to survive them relatively unscathed, but when you get to the point where a good attempt will be able to mostly tank through the last minute to win, every unnecessary hit matters. Another issue I had was the pacing and difficulty balance. While I'm sure a big part of the perceived difficulty imbalances comes from the fact that it is not required to master the attacks 3 minutes into the fight, they still felt much harder than their earlier counterparts. While I did not mind replaying the period of time from 30 seconds to 3 minutes in despite seeming very easy in comparison to the last minute, the first 30 seconds are insanely boring to do, something that I would usually loathe but since every attempt gets very far in anyway due to the nature of HP and the accelerated learning pace that comes with it, it was tolerable, although I would still rather see the first part of the fight be improved, especially since it is the only instance of "stay in the corner and stand at designated safespots from time to time" attack.
A final note about difficulty: Due to the HP nature of the avoidance, it would seem exponentially easier the better you are, and putting an exact difficulty on it is extremely hard. Do not let the difficulty rating deceive you, as this would take much, much longer than you might suspect if you've never cleared an avoidance of this difficulty rating.
All in all this was a blast to learn and very fun to execute, although I feel like with a few more hours it might have overstayed its welcome. Would wholeheartedly recommend to experienced pattern avoidance players.
Tagged as: Avoidance
[1] Like
Rating: 9.3 93
Difficulty: 68 68
Feb 11, 2021
TTBB
An absolutely brilliant pattern avoidance. I rarely see innovation like this in any other avoidance. Every single segment is completely unique and has stunning visuals. The HP also makes this much more enjoyable to grind. I found the entire avoidance to be fun, and I didn't mind the slow intro at the start.
The only reason I can't give this a perfect score is because of 3 reasons:
1. The RNG is extremely unbalanced, which seems okay when you have HP, but a lot of the time you just get walled and have to restart which is quite annoying.
2. Some red cherries on red background/ orange cherries on orange background sections. It's not like they're completely camouflaging but I prefer keeping the colours more clear.
3. It lags on lower-end PCs/laptops, so a toggle to lower the effects will be beneficial.
But overall, a must-play if you're into flashy pattern avoidances.
[0] Likes
The only reason I can't give this a perfect score is because of 3 reasons:
1. The RNG is extremely unbalanced, which seems okay when you have HP, but a lot of the time you just get walled and have to restart which is quite annoying.
2. Some red cherries on red background/ orange cherries on orange background sections. It's not like they're completely camouflaging but I prefer keeping the colours more clear.
3. It lags on lower-end PCs/laptops, so a toggle to lower the effects will be beneficial.
But overall, a must-play if you're into flashy pattern avoidances.
Rating: 9.6 96
Difficulty: 71 71
Sep 3, 2021