Delicious Fruit
Download Game Creator's Comments:
Razzor_iw [Creator]
The TGCC Team's debut. Good luck!
Read Cthaere's review as a continuation of this review.
[2] Likes
Read Cthaere's review as a continuation of this review.
Rating: N/A
Difficulty: 82
Jul 18, 2022
38 Reviews:
Cthaere
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
Chrisay
Review currently based on up to final boss.
Cool wacky adventure game that is very varied in its content. A lot of it is based on rng and that central gimmick gets used in a lot of creative ways. Visually great with a clean art style and some nice touches here and there to make everything look and feel great. I appreciate the attention to sound design displayed here as it helps establish a unique identity with a bunch of different trigger sounds that help communicate what is going on.
Music choices in the platforming were generally pretty great, they fit well with their individual sections.
Despite the clear effort put into every single save in this game, the amount of enjoyment I had varied quite a bit. A lot of the saves are long, challenging and sometimes very learny. The game has no consistent difficulty curve which can make your experience incredibly rough if you choose one of the harder paths first. Once you get out of the tutorial area, you're thrown into some of the harder platforming segments in the game immediately, which can be very overwhelming and discourage less skilled players who might otherwise find enjoyment in some of the easier stuff later into the game.
At the end of every path you'll find a short avoidance. These are mostly good with a few really funny ones here and there. They're short enough to not be a major hurdle, but they will greatly challenge players who are less skilled at avoidance. A lot of them are based on memes or references, so they can get very tiring to grind due to not having a song that works well for avoidance. I personally didn't struggle much with any of them, but I can see some of them being incredibly annoying to play for extended periods of time.
There's also a few minibosses in the game and they generally play better than the end avoidances and are actually really fun. Good job on those.
Have yet to finish final boss, it's pretty hard. Maybe an option for hp would smooth over the difficulty for players who are less interested in longer grinds. The boss has a lot of cool attacks and is very visually pleasing. Can't really judge the true difficulty of it, since I've yet to clear it, but it's a step up from the rest of the game.
Overall I had a somewhat rocky experience with the game at first, but I came to enjoy it a lot more later on due to me finding the more enjoyable content later into the game. I think the presentation is excellent and does a lot to make the game stand apart from other fangames, it's very obvious that a lot of love was put into this. I respect it a lot.
Below is a list of specific spots that I found annoying, anything not mentioned I either enjoyed or was not enough of an issue warrant mentioning (Spoilers):
Reveal Spoiler
[12] Likes
Cool wacky adventure game that is very varied in its content. A lot of it is based on rng and that central gimmick gets used in a lot of creative ways. Visually great with a clean art style and some nice touches here and there to make everything look and feel great. I appreciate the attention to sound design displayed here as it helps establish a unique identity with a bunch of different trigger sounds that help communicate what is going on.
Music choices in the platforming were generally pretty great, they fit well with their individual sections.
Despite the clear effort put into every single save in this game, the amount of enjoyment I had varied quite a bit. A lot of the saves are long, challenging and sometimes very learny. The game has no consistent difficulty curve which can make your experience incredibly rough if you choose one of the harder paths first. Once you get out of the tutorial area, you're thrown into some of the harder platforming segments in the game immediately, which can be very overwhelming and discourage less skilled players who might otherwise find enjoyment in some of the easier stuff later into the game.
At the end of every path you'll find a short avoidance. These are mostly good with a few really funny ones here and there. They're short enough to not be a major hurdle, but they will greatly challenge players who are less skilled at avoidance. A lot of them are based on memes or references, so they can get very tiring to grind due to not having a song that works well for avoidance. I personally didn't struggle much with any of them, but I can see some of them being incredibly annoying to play for extended periods of time.
There's also a few minibosses in the game and they generally play better than the end avoidances and are actually really fun. Good job on those.
Have yet to finish final boss, it's pretty hard. Maybe an option for hp would smooth over the difficulty for players who are less interested in longer grinds. The boss has a lot of cool attacks and is very visually pleasing. Can't really judge the true difficulty of it, since I've yet to clear it, but it's a step up from the rest of the game.
Overall I had a somewhat rocky experience with the game at first, but I came to enjoy it a lot more later on due to me finding the more enjoyable content later into the game. I think the presentation is excellent and does a lot to make the game stand apart from other fangames, it's very obvious that a lot of love was put into this. I respect it a lot.
Below is a list of specific spots that I found annoying, anything not mentioned I either enjoyed or was not enough of an issue warrant mentioning (Spoilers):
Reveal Spoiler
Rating: 8.6
Difficulty: N/A
Jul 19, 2022
maxg26
Phenomenal adventure game utilizing powerful visual effects and intriguing level design that challenges the norm you'd expect, the final boss of the game is one of the best thing I've ever seen, I highly recommend playing the game if you aren't afraid of having a bit of challenge and twists thrown at you, as in the end I believe it will be worth playing no matter what.
[8] Likes
Rating: 10.0
Difficulty: 82
Jul 18, 2022
BoshyGo11
Edit 24.11.2022: Finished the game, didn't take as much, as I expected, but it was still quite tough. Thoughts are below under a spoilertag, rating before the final boss was 7.6.
Reveal Spoiler
I'm currently at the final boss and the first impression (two hours of playtime) says that it might be a while before I proceed further, so I might as well write a review for the first portion of the game before I forget everything. Also I'll put the entirety of the review under a spoilertag so I don't have to worry about accidentally saying something that would damage the experience of a player looking to avoid being spoiled. The first portion will be more general stuff, then I'll go through each area and note my thoughts.
Reveal Spoiler
Reveal Spoiler
[7] Likes
Reveal Spoiler
I'm currently at the final boss and the first impression (two hours of playtime) says that it might be a while before I proceed further, so I might as well write a review for the first portion of the game before I forget everything. Also I'll put the entirety of the review under a spoilertag so I don't have to worry about accidentally saying something that would damage the experience of a player looking to avoid being spoiled. The first portion will be more general stuff, then I'll go through each area and note my thoughts.
Reveal Spoiler
Reveal Spoiler
Rating: 8.9
Difficulty: 78
Jul 22, 2022
PlutoTheThing
I'm incredibly conflicted on this game for one reason, but I'll get to that. At it's core RNG Dungeon is one of the most unique fangames ever made, with creative ideas at every turn, there's just so much to like about it. There's a sense of humor which is quite charming and also makes it exciting to see what's next, just to see what wacky and zany ideas there are. The platforming is just so different and cool, it's gimmicky but unlike what you'd find in other gimmick based adventure games. The areas are so distinct as well, it's impressive. This is punctuated with great bosses, and the final boss phase 1 especially is a masterpiece in my opinion, absolutely phenomenal work.
This sounds like an easy 10/10, the easiest 10/10, I mean the game is perfect right. Well there's final boss phase 2. As of writing this a review this is my least favorite avoidance. The avoidance has this annoying sensory overload vibe constantly permeating throughout, which is genuinely just uncomfortable to me? The mess of song, noisy visuals, complex attacks with specific visual cues or tons of visual information that needs to be taken in, it's so much that it's just frustrating to play to me, not to mention the eye melting visual mess of one part which genuinely hurts my eyes. Some attacks feel so annoying as well, it's a gimmick avoidance so there's some wacky ideas and weird reading, but some of it just feels like luck or like you need to learn the specific mechanic or gimmick and then it's easy except when you forget something or get hard RNG. It's just not fun to me at all. I don't think it's bad, I respect what it is, but Jesus Christ, you could not make an avoidance I dislike more. It's also the hardest thing by far, and increased my difficulty rating by around 10-15 points. Of my 7 hours of playtime, it took up 3.
When 3/7ths of the experience was a genuine 0/10 I think is well made but just not for me, it's hard to know what to rate when the other 4/7ths was 10/10 perfect content to me. I settled on this. From an objective standpoint I think this is a 10/10, from a personal one I see it as a 5-6, so I'm compromising with myself, but it also hurts a lot. To love a game so much just to have one of the most catastrophically "not for me" endings of all time is a huge blow, and the fact I enjoyed it so much leading up to that hurts so much more. Incredibly sad about this one, but there's still a lot to love. Play it.
[6] Likes
This sounds like an easy 10/10, the easiest 10/10, I mean the game is perfect right. Well there's final boss phase 2. As of writing this a review this is my least favorite avoidance. The avoidance has this annoying sensory overload vibe constantly permeating throughout, which is genuinely just uncomfortable to me? The mess of song, noisy visuals, complex attacks with specific visual cues or tons of visual information that needs to be taken in, it's so much that it's just frustrating to play to me, not to mention the eye melting visual mess of one part which genuinely hurts my eyes. Some attacks feel so annoying as well, it's a gimmick avoidance so there's some wacky ideas and weird reading, but some of it just feels like luck or like you need to learn the specific mechanic or gimmick and then it's easy except when you forget something or get hard RNG. It's just not fun to me at all. I don't think it's bad, I respect what it is, but Jesus Christ, you could not make an avoidance I dislike more. It's also the hardest thing by far, and increased my difficulty rating by around 10-15 points. Of my 7 hours of playtime, it took up 3.
When 3/7ths of the experience was a genuine 0/10 I think is well made but just not for me, it's hard to know what to rate when the other 4/7ths was 10/10 perfect content to me. I settled on this. From an objective standpoint I think this is a 10/10, from a personal one I see it as a 5-6, so I'm compromising with myself, but it also hurts a lot. To love a game so much just to have one of the most catastrophically "not for me" endings of all time is a huge blow, and the fact I enjoyed it so much leading up to that hurts so much more. Incredibly sad about this one, but there's still a lot to love. Play it.
Rating: 7.5 75
Difficulty: 84 84
Apr 16, 2023
Shinobu
Reposting from the advice.txt in the zip file.
If you're not a fan of:
- Avoidance,
- Gimmicks,
- Bullshit,
- Bullshit Gimmick Avoidance,
we would not recommend playing this.
Also, if you are colorblind, you will probably run into some issues. We apologise.
[4] Likes
If you're not a fan of:
- Avoidance,
- Gimmicks,
- Bullshit,
- Bullshit Gimmick Avoidance,
we would not recommend playing this.
Also, if you are colorblind, you will probably run into some issues. We apologise.
Rating: N/A
Difficulty: N/A
Jul 18, 2022
Nearigami
Alright. I keep putting off this review but I should actually write something while the game is still relatively fresh on my mind.
I don't know how to talk about RNG Dungeon. I am a filthy needle player. I don't *dislike* adventure/avoidance, in fact I would say I like them, but I know my comfort zone and until recently I mostly stuck to it. I'm definitely not the target audience for this game. Now, normally that isn't really a problem for me, but with this game in particular it feels almost wrong to talk about. RNG Dungeon is so clearly designed for a specific type of person that it almost just tells you to fuck off and die if you don't fit that mold.
It doesn't do that, but it is absolutely in character for the developers, and I would be laughing my ass off at my own expense if they did. Cthaere's own developer thoughts talks about how RNG Dungeon is "a game where the mask is half on, half off." I think this is an incredibly apt description of this game's ethos and design philosophy. The in-jokes and ideas are so off the wall and stupid that I can only imagine the amount of 3am insomnia-ridden nights that led them to put in half the content in this game. I think if it were only the dumb jokes, this game wouldn't have the same value to it. As unhinged as some sections get, there is an amazing design-first element of restraint that separates this from most other weaker meme-fests.
I imagine the thought process for RNG Dungeon was something like this:
1. Is it funny?
2. Can we make it cool as fuck?
If it fulfills at least one of those two categories, with the second one being given a heavier weight, it got put into the game, then polished as much as possible without losing the core of the idea.
With that said, I don't enjoy every idea. I think RNG Dungeon does a lot of really interesting things with its abrasive nature and disregard for people outside of their narrow audience, but there were a couple sections which I found myself having difficulty even appreciating in that context.
The biggest losers for me with this game were the Squid Game fight and small parts of the final boss second phase. Squid Game feels like a bit of a luck fight, which isn't even that big of an indictment on the game. There's another pretty big luck fight in this game with the "Fortnite Cube Kevin" boss (God I sound so deranged out of context.) What kills me with Squid Game is that so much of the hard to learn/somewhat luck based elements are at the very end. You are asked to apply an unfamiliar gimmick at a very high level in a way which the platforming beforehand just doesn't prepare you to do. It's also lowkey one of the hardest bosses. I spent more time on it than the first phase of the final boss. It's legitimately a big sour spot for me and kind of blindsided my early experience with the game.
My problems with the final boss comes down to information overload. It is a much learnier boss than everything else in the game, and I think it puts a heavy amount of time into the spectacle of it all. The song chosen is supposed to make you feel like you're in a fucked up carnival, and given everything you went through in the game up to this point, that is a perfect mood-setter. The fact that it's so learny compared to the rest of the game is a pretty big deterrent for some people, but given that I am not amazing at avoidance compared to needle, this felt par for the course for me. Once I started getting attempts to the easier to understand second half with some amount of frequency, my problems with the boss began to show up. There's a section involving color-switching in particular that just completely overloaded my brain. There's so many things I needed to focus on that I would keep accidentally hitting a bullet my brain had tuned out, and as such the fight became a matter of if this one 5 second attack halfway through the fight would let me through. You can absolutely call this a skill issue, but for me this tests your skills on a level disproportinate with what was expected of me both throughout the game and within the rest of the boss itself.
I didn't really even think I was capable of beating this game. I told myself that my skill level just simply wasn't high enough. I wasn't patient enough, and I would never be able to close things out. Despite that though, I pushed through. I think I was rewarded for that in spades. The platforming in this game is some of the strongest I've experienced. It is challenging without being too much or overshadowing the bosses. Every save has a new idea and it goes just far enough with it that I feel like I got a good experience without being overwhelmed. The bosses, despite myself not being an avoidance player, make me feel like I'm actually pretty good at them. Every boss save for the ones I mentioned feel like a condensed challenge that has the appeal of all the hardest boss fights without feeling entirely insurmountable. I feel the level of polish here.
I am not the target audience. I think sometimes I'm a bit simple. I like needle because it is just viscerally satisfying to play. Avoidance for a long time has been something I've enjoyed, but which I never expected to get decent at, and that's partially because of how engaged you need to be when playing. You can't just turn your brain off when playing avoidance in the same way you can when going through the motions of a needle save. I am not properly equipped to appreciate all of this game's intricacies and special moments. I respect it though, about as much as I think I am capable of doing so at this time.
Please keep going. This is what fangames exist for.
[3] Likes
I don't know how to talk about RNG Dungeon. I am a filthy needle player. I don't *dislike* adventure/avoidance, in fact I would say I like them, but I know my comfort zone and until recently I mostly stuck to it. I'm definitely not the target audience for this game. Now, normally that isn't really a problem for me, but with this game in particular it feels almost wrong to talk about. RNG Dungeon is so clearly designed for a specific type of person that it almost just tells you to fuck off and die if you don't fit that mold.
It doesn't do that, but it is absolutely in character for the developers, and I would be laughing my ass off at my own expense if they did. Cthaere's own developer thoughts talks about how RNG Dungeon is "a game where the mask is half on, half off." I think this is an incredibly apt description of this game's ethos and design philosophy. The in-jokes and ideas are so off the wall and stupid that I can only imagine the amount of 3am insomnia-ridden nights that led them to put in half the content in this game. I think if it were only the dumb jokes, this game wouldn't have the same value to it. As unhinged as some sections get, there is an amazing design-first element of restraint that separates this from most other weaker meme-fests.
I imagine the thought process for RNG Dungeon was something like this:
1. Is it funny?
2. Can we make it cool as fuck?
If it fulfills at least one of those two categories, with the second one being given a heavier weight, it got put into the game, then polished as much as possible without losing the core of the idea.
With that said, I don't enjoy every idea. I think RNG Dungeon does a lot of really interesting things with its abrasive nature and disregard for people outside of their narrow audience, but there were a couple sections which I found myself having difficulty even appreciating in that context.
The biggest losers for me with this game were the Squid Game fight and small parts of the final boss second phase. Squid Game feels like a bit of a luck fight, which isn't even that big of an indictment on the game. There's another pretty big luck fight in this game with the "Fortnite Cube Kevin" boss (God I sound so deranged out of context.) What kills me with Squid Game is that so much of the hard to learn/somewhat luck based elements are at the very end. You are asked to apply an unfamiliar gimmick at a very high level in a way which the platforming beforehand just doesn't prepare you to do. It's also lowkey one of the hardest bosses. I spent more time on it than the first phase of the final boss. It's legitimately a big sour spot for me and kind of blindsided my early experience with the game.
My problems with the final boss comes down to information overload. It is a much learnier boss than everything else in the game, and I think it puts a heavy amount of time into the spectacle of it all. The song chosen is supposed to make you feel like you're in a fucked up carnival, and given everything you went through in the game up to this point, that is a perfect mood-setter. The fact that it's so learny compared to the rest of the game is a pretty big deterrent for some people, but given that I am not amazing at avoidance compared to needle, this felt par for the course for me. Once I started getting attempts to the easier to understand second half with some amount of frequency, my problems with the boss began to show up. There's a section involving color-switching in particular that just completely overloaded my brain. There's so many things I needed to focus on that I would keep accidentally hitting a bullet my brain had tuned out, and as such the fight became a matter of if this one 5 second attack halfway through the fight would let me through. You can absolutely call this a skill issue, but for me this tests your skills on a level disproportinate with what was expected of me both throughout the game and within the rest of the boss itself.
I didn't really even think I was capable of beating this game. I told myself that my skill level just simply wasn't high enough. I wasn't patient enough, and I would never be able to close things out. Despite that though, I pushed through. I think I was rewarded for that in spades. The platforming in this game is some of the strongest I've experienced. It is challenging without being too much or overshadowing the bosses. Every save has a new idea and it goes just far enough with it that I feel like I got a good experience without being overwhelmed. The bosses, despite myself not being an avoidance player, make me feel like I'm actually pretty good at them. Every boss save for the ones I mentioned feel like a condensed challenge that has the appeal of all the hardest boss fights without feeling entirely insurmountable. I feel the level of polish here.
I am not the target audience. I think sometimes I'm a bit simple. I like needle because it is just viscerally satisfying to play. Avoidance for a long time has been something I've enjoyed, but which I never expected to get decent at, and that's partially because of how engaged you need to be when playing. You can't just turn your brain off when playing avoidance in the same way you can when going through the motions of a needle save. I am not properly equipped to appreciate all of this game's intricacies and special moments. I respect it though, about as much as I think I am capable of doing so at this time.
Please keep going. This is what fangames exist for.
Rating: 8.5 85
Difficulty: 83 83
Jan 19, 2024
Ywave
The idea of the work is very unique. Thank you for the masterpiece produced by TGCC Team.
The game has eight branches, integrating some classic scenes and interesting points of Fangame, such as FTFA Deathless, Soulless, etc. Rich RNG elements and cool special effects.
But the game is not friendly to beginners, or the difficulty is a little unexpected. As suggested, if you are not a fan of Gimmick and Avoidance, you are not recommended to play. The final Avoidance is brilliant and worth playing.
Looking forward to the next work.
[3] Likes
The game has eight branches, integrating some classic scenes and interesting points of Fangame, such as FTFA Deathless, Soulless, etc. Rich RNG elements and cool special effects.
But the game is not friendly to beginners, or the difficulty is a little unexpected. As suggested, if you are not a fan of Gimmick and Avoidance, you are not recommended to play. The final Avoidance is brilliant and worth playing.
Looking forward to the next work.
Rating: 8.5 85
Difficulty: 78 78
Nov 20, 2022
sonicdv
First thing is first, I'm absolutely NOT the traditional audience for this game. Feel free to discount this long winded review if you want to just from that information. Despite this, I still feel like I really enjoyed this game, a few rough segments notwithstanding and I felt like trying to explore the things that personally worked for me and the things that did not. Take this review as the ramblings of a shitty, salty player that sucks at avoidance, but still managed to complete the game regardless.
If you want a short summary, I totally recommend people try this game even if they might not fit fully into the audience. The game is a lot easier than the difficulty rating implies except for a few choice bosses and the final boss. I'd say it's around a 60-70 difficulty game if you ignore the final boss, and you can have a great time playing 90% of the game up to the final boss and calling it quits, even if some of the content doesn't fully agree with you.
Firstly, I loved pretty much all the platforming in this game. I always thought I didn't like gimmicky modern fangames, but I think I was wrong if this is anything to go by. One of my favorite elements of this game is how a lot of the platforming itself isn't super hard by fangame standards, and especially by the game's difficulty. I believe that gimmick platforming kind of disguises how difficult it is, most of the challenge is in learning how the gimmick works, but once you have that down, you can pull off the actual platforming somewhat easily. This feels really great as you go through mastery where you feel like you're continually getting better and better at the game, instead of having one random jump in the middle that is way too hard which feels like luck to get past. The gimmicks themselves were really funny and varied, and every single room felt unique. Nothing felt like filler.
I also believe that the bosses at the end of stages have a great balance of being somewhat challenging, but also short so that you don't feel like they're huge difficulty walls. The bosses in this game have some of the most intense rng reading I've ever done as a very shitty avoidance player, but I never felt inclined to give up even when a boss completely outclasses me, because the fights are rarely longer than 50 seconds maximum. This kept the avoidances interesting throughout and stopped me from feeling discouraged even when I got screwed over by rng
The cracks in the games foundation are mostly in some of the attack balancing. I know the game is called "RNG Dungeon" but I don't think the game intended to have such variance between attacks in a lot of cases. The MHC inspired boss was pretty awful, both because the "song" sucked and wasn't pleasant to listen to, and it took the hardest segment from a 90 difficulty avoidance and had you play it over and over while learning a second learny avoidance right afterwards. I do not believe this fight fit with the rest of the bosses. Additionally, I hate carnival's most famous bosses, and they show their ugly faces around in this game as well as minibosses. They're not all that funny, kind of grindy and annoying, and are just time waster bosses that prey on your boredom, same as the original versions. Both carnival bosses took me astronomically longer than the proper bosses they guarded, which to me suggests they needed to be nerfed or replaced with fun gimmick platforming, maybe inspired by each carnival boss instead.
I also think the final bosses are somewhat poorly balanced. I found the needle wall hard to dodge, but will admit that I misunderstood how that attack was meant to be dodged, so therefore I will not hold that attack against the first phase. Some other attacks, such as the star attack with curving bullets while you stand on a 3 block ledge, the 360 spike attack while the cherries chase you across the screen, and the 360 spike barrage, felt like they were up to complete chance whether I finished them or not, and since the boss is 6 minutes long, it does a disservice to the fight's attempts to challenge your consistency. Preferably, all attacks would be balanced around being able to be dodged consistently, but I found that a good 25% of my deaths were caused by rng out of my hands, discounting the spike wall attack which killed me a lot more. The second phase of the fight, while interesting, is exhausting to play for long periods because of eye strain and visual effects, and is incredibly learny, mixed with a few attacks that either require 99 difficulty reading or outright luck to get past.
The final boss didn't entirely click with me, but I easily loved most of the game, and I believe this is a great foundational game. I'd love to see more from the developers that made this game. I might suggest adding in either an optional health mode or an easier difficulty in future releases though. I think the biggest issue with hard meme games is that the jokes they're based on do not hold up after you grind for over an hour. At some point you get tired of seeing the same joke and get incredibly mad at the fight for not letting you see the next cool bit of content. Having the ability to make the fights easier, or even to just warp back to the hub and try a different section, would have been a great addition to the game for players who will not finish the entire game. As it is, the game is awesome and is surprisingly underplayed, probably because of fears that the game will be too hard. I'd encourage people playing this who don't mind some struggle to try the game out for themselves, and make up their minds on it, as I believe they will be able to enjoy most of the content.
[2] Likes
If you want a short summary, I totally recommend people try this game even if they might not fit fully into the audience. The game is a lot easier than the difficulty rating implies except for a few choice bosses and the final boss. I'd say it's around a 60-70 difficulty game if you ignore the final boss, and you can have a great time playing 90% of the game up to the final boss and calling it quits, even if some of the content doesn't fully agree with you.
Firstly, I loved pretty much all the platforming in this game. I always thought I didn't like gimmicky modern fangames, but I think I was wrong if this is anything to go by. One of my favorite elements of this game is how a lot of the platforming itself isn't super hard by fangame standards, and especially by the game's difficulty. I believe that gimmick platforming kind of disguises how difficult it is, most of the challenge is in learning how the gimmick works, but once you have that down, you can pull off the actual platforming somewhat easily. This feels really great as you go through mastery where you feel like you're continually getting better and better at the game, instead of having one random jump in the middle that is way too hard which feels like luck to get past. The gimmicks themselves were really funny and varied, and every single room felt unique. Nothing felt like filler.
I also believe that the bosses at the end of stages have a great balance of being somewhat challenging, but also short so that you don't feel like they're huge difficulty walls. The bosses in this game have some of the most intense rng reading I've ever done as a very shitty avoidance player, but I never felt inclined to give up even when a boss completely outclasses me, because the fights are rarely longer than 50 seconds maximum. This kept the avoidances interesting throughout and stopped me from feeling discouraged even when I got screwed over by rng
The cracks in the games foundation are mostly in some of the attack balancing. I know the game is called "RNG Dungeon" but I don't think the game intended to have such variance between attacks in a lot of cases. The MHC inspired boss was pretty awful, both because the "song" sucked and wasn't pleasant to listen to, and it took the hardest segment from a 90 difficulty avoidance and had you play it over and over while learning a second learny avoidance right afterwards. I do not believe this fight fit with the rest of the bosses. Additionally, I hate carnival's most famous bosses, and they show their ugly faces around in this game as well as minibosses. They're not all that funny, kind of grindy and annoying, and are just time waster bosses that prey on your boredom, same as the original versions. Both carnival bosses took me astronomically longer than the proper bosses they guarded, which to me suggests they needed to be nerfed or replaced with fun gimmick platforming, maybe inspired by each carnival boss instead.
I also think the final bosses are somewhat poorly balanced. I found the needle wall hard to dodge, but will admit that I misunderstood how that attack was meant to be dodged, so therefore I will not hold that attack against the first phase. Some other attacks, such as the star attack with curving bullets while you stand on a 3 block ledge, the 360 spike attack while the cherries chase you across the screen, and the 360 spike barrage, felt like they were up to complete chance whether I finished them or not, and since the boss is 6 minutes long, it does a disservice to the fight's attempts to challenge your consistency. Preferably, all attacks would be balanced around being able to be dodged consistently, but I found that a good 25% of my deaths were caused by rng out of my hands, discounting the spike wall attack which killed me a lot more. The second phase of the fight, while interesting, is exhausting to play for long periods because of eye strain and visual effects, and is incredibly learny, mixed with a few attacks that either require 99 difficulty reading or outright luck to get past.
The final boss didn't entirely click with me, but I easily loved most of the game, and I believe this is a great foundational game. I'd love to see more from the developers that made this game. I might suggest adding in either an optional health mode or an easier difficulty in future releases though. I think the biggest issue with hard meme games is that the jokes they're based on do not hold up after you grind for over an hour. At some point you get tired of seeing the same joke and get incredibly mad at the fight for not letting you see the next cool bit of content. Having the ability to make the fights easier, or even to just warp back to the hub and try a different section, would have been a great addition to the game for players who will not finish the entire game. As it is, the game is awesome and is surprisingly underplayed, probably because of fears that the game will be too hard. I'd encourage people playing this who don't mind some struggle to try the game out for themselves, and make up their minds on it, as I believe they will be able to enjoy most of the content.
Rating: 8.0 80
Difficulty: 85 85
Jun 14, 2024