The Messenger: Sorry we cannot be there to applaud when you get your diploma But our hearts and best wishes are with you

[KobaBeach]

Sea of Stars (yet to play the demo)

me but i get twice the kinkshaming for not playing the switch demo yet due to being the resident brain damaged rpg cumdump to the point that i literally want to play chinese and korean rpgs beyond genshin impact or ragnarok online private servers + i play wizardry with no savescumming and think SaGa is square-enix's best franchise

[Dragon Fogel]

It's very easy to get eaten by the whale monstrosity when it first spawns. Luckily, you got through the whole obstacle course in one shot. Dying anywhere in it sends you back to when you got the note, so it can be pretty annoying to mess up. Not too hard overall, fortunately.

And I'm very much looking forward to tomorrow's video.

[Dragon Fogel]

The final story really resonated with me. When I played through this game, I was recovering from some rough times, and the metaphor hit me hard. I think the part that got to me the most was that the boy was essentially told that it was up to him when to leave the well. At the time, I don't think I was quite out of my own well and it came across as very reassuring. I didn't have to stay in the well, but I didn't have to leave it before I was ready.

As for the music box itself, I really enjoyed it as an area. Movement in this game feels great, and this area tests all the movement tricks you've used throughout. The fact that the mechanisms are synced up to the music is a nice touch.

Phantom is a great fight, and while the ending is a bit silly, it's in character for the game.

Overall, I find this to be one of my favorite games, both to play myself and to watch others play. Personally, I didn't find the difficulty that high overall, and I'm not even someone who specializes in platformers; I think I just got into the flow of the game, something that also happened to me with both Guacamelee games. Although, it probably doesn't hurt that the platforming is very open and rarely expects you to do one specific sequence of moves.

[pholtos]

In today's episode, rao does the thing.

[EllenHouraisan]

Nobody wants me to get out of the well.

Gotta say, I'm glad that the game didn't go full-on wacky meta with its storyline. Other than the first conversation with the shopkeeper, the humor was a lot less agravating than I expected going in. It even got a chuckle from me here and there, so that's nice.

[S.N.N.]

yeah the messenger is easily one of my favorite games in the past few years. snappy controls, great level design, killer soundtrack. it was really fun watching raocow play through this, and doing additional playthroughs really drives home how speedrun-friendly it is - there are so many tricks you can do to bypass entire chunks of areas. for instance, you can skip into forlorn without the phobekins by doing some clever windmill shuriken throws above tbe first screen and then gliding to the right. you can also free manfred in glacial peak without even needing the queen of quills by just windmill shurikening the ice block holding him up and using your cloudstep to get over there.

looking forward to picnic panic. a couple of old friends will return too.

[raocow]

of course to get the windmill you need the green coins that are found in the areas you would be accessing using the windmill. so interesting ng+ shortcuts though, definitely

[Dragon Fogel]

You can't have the new guest go to the end because there is no end. You can, however, send them a billion rooms in so there are a billion people who don't have to move.

A better question is, why do they have a term "finite" to turn into "inn-finity" if the term "infinity" doesn't already exist?

[thatguyif]

So, the story of The Messenger DLC's development kind of ties into the story of Sea of Stars' development.

Some backstory first, based on what I've read: When Thierry Boulanger created Sabotage with Phillipe Dionne et al, Sea of Stars (back then known as Project Solstice) was his dream project (a pun related to Chrono Trigger's development may (not) be in there). But Mr. Boulanger, showing some business acumen, recognized that pitching a 16-bit-style narrative RPG is a lot harder to do than a 2D action game with neat twists, especially when you had no game development experience to showcase. So Sabotage developed The Messenger first, getting the support of both Devolver and the Canada Media Fund/Fonds des médias du Canada (the latter of which also helped fund Dead by Daylight and We Happy Few).

After the success of The Messenger, Sabotage began work (as one does these days) on DLC. Picnic Panic was meant to be the first of three DLCs, but the only one published. I will not explain the story of the DLCs until the very end of Picnic Panic. What I will say though is what happened to the other two: Project Solstice happened. I don't know the exact specifics, but I suspect that Sabotage recognized that since they now had the mettle and credibility to pitch themselves to the world at the same level as, well, Yacht Club Games, they decided to redirect their focus entirely to Project Solstice. Eventually, in February 2020, they had enough ready to launch a Kickstarter campaign, the game now called Sea of Stars, on a ~US$100,000 goal. By the end of the campaign, they not only had more than ten times that, but Yasunori Mitsuda reached out to them personally to compose tracks for the soundtrack. You could see where their priorities lay henceforth.

Will we ever see the other two DLC? I dunno. I have my doubts. But hey, if John Romero could still make classic DOOM levels, maybe they'll see the light of day...

[raocow]

ah man. though I mean I'm glad they got a good success but still

[Lord Ruby]

Well, that was a very bold plan, given how well most indie games do. I'm glad it worked out, though, since Sea of Stars looks really nice.

I also feel like that story explains some of the writing decisions in this game...

[EllenHouraisan]

I guess there's always the chance one of the devs will pull a Florian Himsl and make DLC for the old game when they're bored.

[thatguyif]

It's worth saying that, based on logs from their Discord, the team had a very clear vision of what the other two DLC would be about, and the first DLC sort of sets up the remaining two. So it's not like they were running out of steam. It's certainly possible that they could return to it after Sea of Stars is complete.

[Catabo]

lil smile.png (4.06 KiB) Viewed 786 times

c:

Text on signs above shops says "tuwhera" which apparently means "open" in Māori. Getting Bonkles vibes from the little guys with masks+Māori words combo.

I can't speak for how easy it would be to navigate the environs, but the healing cove would make for a great secret clubhouse. Maybe it's the meeting spot for the hooligan voodkins who spit at you with blowguns.

[Dragon Fogel]

This boss fight gave me a lot of trouble. Good work getting through it in one try, I guess being aggressive with those windmill shuriken helped.

[EllenHouraisan]

I didn't know there were more golden egg-laying geese other than the one the giant in the clouds had.

Gotta say, I'm enjoying the vibe of this DLC a lot more than the main game. The laid-back nature of it fits super well with the general tone of the game.

[kitikami]

The infinite hotel story is from a famous thought experiment about countably infinite quantities.

This game kind of reminds me of a Back to the Future NES game i played as a kid where you have to go back and forth between timelines looking for random items (it even has a gimmick where you can plant trees in the past so they grow in the future), except this is many orders of magnitude better.

[Dragon Fogel]

Climbing that tower of birds was very tough for me, good job making it through in just a few tries.

The platforming definitely gets serious here, especially for the mask pieces. I enjoyed the big room full of lanterns, though.

[Dragon Fogel]

Had to adjust the title a little to fit the whole message in. I thought this was a good one to end on, though - it got lost in transit, but eventually made its way to its recipient after 50 years.

You're not the only one who struggles with the flight section. There's an achievement for not getting any losses in the race, and it's widely considered the hardest in the game. I managed it, but it took a lot of attempts. They do go a little easy on you - if you manage to keep it close, there's a good opportunity to catch up right on the end. But maintaining momentum is tricky, and you don't get a lot of practice with it.

I had a much harder time with Punch-Out, but then it turns out you can just cheese that by pausing repeatedly to watch the tells better. The Architect's explanation gives you the basic controls, but also is very explicit on what the tells are.

[KobaBeach]

yo whys the final boss fucking hot

[Grounder]

bottom of the box

so yeah i was gonna do a box thing for every ep but then i got bored

rip mystery box!

[pholtos]

In today's episode, rao does the thing.

[thatguyif]

In today's episode, rao does the thing.

At least you are consistent

Also, pretty sure what the writer was saying, dziękuję, is "thank you" in Polish. (Pronounced jie(n)-ku-ye(n). The ę sounds very nasal, similar to how you pronounce the vowel in cinq in French) Could tell based on dz and the odd e.

So yeah, there were two other DLCs planned when Sea of Stars took over. The DLC hints at what was to come based on lines by the Shopkeeper and the Monk said. Based on what information came from Sabotage's Discord through its alternative-reality game (yes they did one and are doing one now for Sea of Stars), here's what is known...

The general gist of the DLC trilogy, known as Barma'thazël's Revenge, was this: Remember how god-damn easy the Demon King was? That's because you killed a fake. Barma'thazël was planning to bring the real one back to Earth in vengeance of his humiliation and the breaking of the curse.

The second episode had a name: Tower of Thyme. I suspect it would have something to do with a corrupted Tower of Time, formed from a Beanstalk created by that Magic Seed Barma'thazël planted with the cyclopes. This act would explain the whole deal regarding Time Shards.

The third episode would involve a place called The Clockwork Castle, probably something in reference to the Clockwork Concierge and the Music Box. Supposedly the real Demon King's remains are there, and it is likely you'd have to face him in the end.

Additional information:

• There was a statue for the final story the shopkeeper tells you. It only appears though during the Dark Messenger race, and in a very specific way: You have to win twice, and lose once.
• There are 25 race rooms for the Dark Messenger! What room you get depends on how many wins and losses you do. Draws count as losses, from what I understand.
• Not really discussed here, but worth mentioning considering some context: Shopkeeper is a she. It's kind of hinted at in Picnic Panic with the feminine Hawaiian outfit over the robes, but the ARG I mentioned revealed the Shopkeeper's gender in a rather playful (though tactful) manner.

  Fascinating to think about when you consider the game also references Jordan Peterson...the world is a strange place

Anyway, glad you played it, raocow

[thatguyif]

Oh, and two more things:

• New Game Plus changes the dynamic of Quarble's revival mechanic: Instead of him claiming your Time Shards, he demands upfront payment to revive you. And if you fail to deliver payment after a revival, you will get a Game Over. New Game Plus scales upward with each playthrough, but if you Game Over once, it resets to baseline New Game Plus. Relatedly...
• THE DEAL in the DLC that comes with New Game Plus is that you "sacrifice" Quarble, and in turn, your health is doubled and your attack power tripled. BUT! Because you pissed off Quarble for pulling the ol' binding of Moses' son stunt (Quarble was never meant to be killed, only get the fear of death out of them, for Voodoo Magic operates on fear), they quit, and that turns on Permadeath. In other words, you die, and it's Game Over, restart the game completely (your save is reset).

[camwoodstock]

please do not fill this game with bullets btw, bc, y'know,