A2XT: It's Over

[Maiku Wotaharu]

I CAN'T REALLY JUDGE HER BECAUSE SHE ONLY APPEARED LIKE ONCE IN THE ENTIRE ASMT CANON THUS FAR AND HASN'T HAD ANY TIME TO ESTABLISH A PERSONALITY SO YEAH TIER
Serac

...says the person who established her backstory.

[SAJewers]

I think I have to agree with the sentiments echoed earlier of Calleoca should have been placed later in the world. I think she shouldve appear somewhat close to the final level, simply because it's very climactic when a game piles a lot of bosses near eachother near the end. (see: ASMT, big time)

More Calleoca in general would've been nice considering she's clearly the best sibling right up there with Demo.

I kinda want both Feed and Calleoca to just randomly appear in levels in Episode 2 like STTB did with Percy and Kirby.

[Leet]

i want more atxs characters, if feed can come say hi then the rest of the gang can too ;[

[Demolition]

In canon both Feed and Caleoca have the power to travel between timelines and dimensions. Currently we plans for both of them in the later episodes.

[Doctor Shemp]

Also I'm not sure if this was posted anywhere but here's a cool picture I found:

On the subject of Sheath having huge eyes and pupils in this picture and in cutscenes, my headcanon explanation for her huge eyes and just standing around not doing much and being vague for the whole game is that she's off her tits on E. I look forward to Episode 2: Analog Comedown where she's aggro and super-thirsty the whole time.

[Leet]

the joke is drug xd

[oshaoshawott]

THE OBJECTIVELY BEST TIER LIST
^{_{feat. raocow, kood, and sheath}}

elder god tier
my waifu kood

god tier
UFO Demo
Plant Mishi

great tier
Blue Iris
Iris
raocow

good tier
Purple Pily
Calleoca
Garish but in a Box
Red Nevada

bad tier
American Calleoca

literally who tier
Sheath
Serac

[Joseph Staleknight]

At long last, after several worlds and mountains of demos, Demo and Co. finally enter Science's fortress for an ultimate showdown thing. The only question remaining is this:

What shall Science have wrought?

A Final Thing (Name Pending) (SAJ, Sturg, SepPlei, Voltgloss, and Docopoper): This level, being the finale, obviously has multiple parts to it. So, I'll give running commentary on each section as I have played through it.

***

Outside and Inside Lobby (Sturg): Feed, as much as I would love to humor you, I'll need to finish this in one go to be caught up with raocow. Also, wow, those enemies were somewhat gratuitous, weren't they? Oh well, they're no big deal, especially since Demo stays big here.

Giana Sisters Gimmick Experiment (starring Demo and Iris) (SAJewers): This level's got a more focused version of Qraestolia Caverns's gimmick which applies only to Demo and Iris. Yet it also expands it to include powerups and enemies as well! I'd have to say it was well implemented since I had fun figuring out how best to tackle the enemies and hazards with both siblings. This sublevel overall feels almost like the actual game that inspired it, and I can't complain about that!

John Madden John Madden (starring Kood) (Sturg & SAJewers): Meanwhile, this sublevel was quite precarious because of the moving Willis platforms, the bottomless pit in space, and the tiny precise jumps I had to do. And that's not even getting into the gimmick with the magnetic Thwomps! If you know what you're doing it's no real problem, but otherwise you'll have to make really sure the thwomp isn't set to head into you! This sublevel would've been simpler if the jumps were more generous and the gimmick was more prominent, but otherwise it's not completely horrid.

Infiniflight Test (starring raocow) (Sturg): Go, raocow, go! Man, this sublevel was incredibly fun! Sure, the planes will try to be a downer and ruin your flight, but they're not too hard to dodge. Still, if you could just jump straight up and fly from there, that would have made the level much better. Especially since you don't have a clown car or airship cockpit that keeps you afloat even after getting hit.

My First SMB Level (starring Sheath) (Sturg & SAJewers): And finally, a stage that was desingned for the PC's suffering...if the PC were any other character but Sheath. Nevertheless, I died multiple times, most to the one-tile-wide gaps between the Yunchers and the ground near the key. Otherwise, I didn't have much of a problem romping through the Yuncher-spammy ninja wasteland.

Inside, Second Floor - Boss Prelude (Sturg): Hi, Mr. Triskelion. You wouldn't have seen Buer around by any chance, would you?

Pseudoscience (Septentrion_Pleiades & Voltgloss): If you thought one scrolling Science was bad, then how about two? Pseudoscience is a very fast-paced and difficult boss fight where you have to defeat both clones of Science while dodging their shots. Oh, and you have to do it...with a herring! Sure, a respawning herring accompanied by three controllers, but a herring with a strange arc against an incredibly fast and trigger-happy pair of UFOs nonetheless. I didn't even try to play this one legit simply because there was so much to keep track of and such absurd odds to beat. Overall, this boss fight was hard and relentless as a hungry wolf made of nails. Not necessarily the most pleasant of similes, but pretty accurate!

Inside, Third Floor - Midpoint and Throwing Donuts Mini-Tutorial (Septentrion_Pleiades): Oh hey, target practice with Throwing Neon Donuts! Which is a good thing because...

Final Boss: Identified Save-Scumming Brother ~Science~ (Septentrion_Pleiades & Docopoper): ...this guy loves giving them away like they were free lottery tickets.

Man, even with all the improvements made to this finale since the beta, I still had an incredibly hard time with this fight. Dodging the TNDs and throwing them up into Science's face was itself a major ordeal, more so in the second phase when I couldn't simply burn any TNDs that came too close for comfort. It doesn't help that in that phase he goes into full-on Touhou territory and starts spamming the donuts in intricate and very hard-to-dodge patterns. Science manages to succeed in making everything distracting and capable of breaking the player's focus, just like in any good Touhou game. Yet despite all this, it is possible to eventually defeat him by outlasting his patterns long enough to get a clear shot at his smaller true form. That said, the final confrontation is an incredible experience to behold, for better if you're quite competent at shmup games and for worse otherwise.

The Inner Sanctum - Final Leek (SAJewers): With that finale taken care of, it's time to invade Science's command quarters and take the Super Leek powering his computer, ending his evil plan once and for all! Mission "Vegetable Harvester II" Complete! ...But wait, what's with the sisters' Leek Radar beeping like crazy?

(As an aside, Science's theme sounds pretty sweet slowed down like that, now that I have time to listen to it. Kinda reminds me of Drum 'N' Bass.)

***

End of World 8/A2XT Cutscene: What Hath SciencePandamona Wrought (Darkychao & Demolition): As it turns out, the Leek Radar has found a giant trove of Super Leeks! Guarded by Science, of course. It turns out that Science had built a leek-powered dimensional stabilizer, and it's been keeping reality safe and sane so far. Not that our heroes care, of course. But suddenly, Pandamona? Where did she come from, and what is she doi--

Oh no, Pandamona's destroyed her box! Now she's an almighty and all-mad face on legs! Also, she has a pretty hairdo, though that doesn't matter when she's way off her rocker. And now she's--

...Welp, reality had a long run. Now it's time to escape the incoming post-production void! Except the siblings (and raocow) don't make it. Nor does Kood, if the plot has anything to say on the matter. Now it all rests on Sheath to go back to the start of the adventure and prevent the incoming disaster from happening.

...At least she paid attention to the sacred turtledove's function.

I gotta say, cutscenes like this are what really set this apart from earlier SMBX episodes. Before this game was a thing, I'm pretty sure people were only mildly interested in picking up where Redigit had to leave off. Thus, the cutscenes were pretty much limited to what SMBX could do at most. Now, with all the technical skill involved in making those cutsenes and generally improving SMBX, interest has apparently picked up in reviving/superseding it with their own mods and alternative engines. And this was all because raocow had heard of a side project from the creator of Terraria. Brings a tear to your eye, doesn't it?

Credits (SAJewers & Holy): You know, the credits remind me of those from the Mother trilogy. Granted, the cast roll is not quite as animated, but I guess SMBX just hasn't been modded to do that yet. Anyway, there's a few missing guys here and there (including Spiritia and the Elsen from Farina Station), but this feels rather complete as far as cast lists go.

The credits roll after that is pretty touching, what with Demo's spirit going back through the levels she and her companions have traversed on their long journey. The music also helps seal the deal with its juxtaposition of melancholy and hopefulness; pretty appropriate considering Sheath's also journeying back in time to change the future and actually save the everything this time. The only issue I had with the latter half of the credits was that the inner counters of the letters weren't outlined, leading to some humorously strange moments when the text crossed Ghost Demo. At least, that's how it looked in v1.1.1; I need to update the game soon! Otherwise, a relaxing credit sequence to complete an awesome finale.

(Oh, and on a side note, I believe I mentioned picking out the background for the overworld map and helping with the Ampersandzo/Amperstand in the early parts of the LP. I'm not part of the Graphic Design Team just for twiddling my thumbs, you know.)

The Planet of Non-Diurnal Content: Man, this world is quite the finale for the main game! Not only do you have some difficult levels (starting with a visit from Calleoca, no less!), but you also have a surprisingly deadly town and some crazy shenanigans leading up to the Science Castle. And in there, the stakes only kept getting higher until the very end! Of course, there used to be a more tranquil song for the OW instead of the forest remix from A2MT, but I guess we had to salvage something from that trainwreck other than the plot. Other than that, a great way to end a game!

Now to start a postgame. Let's hope it doesn't drop the ball on the very first level...

Oh, and for the curious, I ended the main game with 124 demos. Granted, I did reset the demo counter a few times (and ended up cheesing through a number of levels), so I'm sure I'd have far more if I tried a 100% legit run. Still, I had plenty of fun, so no regrets there.

[Tenlade]

I actually really liked the final boss, it was actually a pretty neat and unique challenge. I actually liked this game a lot, though i samelessly cheated at the end to get through "everyone has a starman but you"(ow) and kood's final level segment (which kinda bugged out on me).

I felt really stupid on the demo/iris segment, because i kept double tapping down slowly and thought the mechanic was broken (you need to actually do it faster then that little example sprite does it)


sibling rankings from best to worst: Pily, garish, iris, demo, science, caleoca, nevada, pandamona, mishi.

after that nevada level in the intro of the city planet, I actually wanna try making levels with playable siblings, though i should propably work on that "making a level at all" thing i keep saying I'll do.

[Leet]

oh huh i forgot Pandamona in my sibling ranking. i always forget Pandamona!

really though i love all of the siblings. all of them

[Zygl]

So hey how about that Air Fortress music? No idea how it got there, considering last I checked no more than like 6 people have even heard of that game, but it sure was there.

I played that game once (didn't get very far though)
It's okay

It's unique, if nothing else. Also ridiculously hard, from what I remember, and it may or may not have a second-quest-type thing going on? I dunno, I haven't gotten that far.

[ranking the siblings]

Nevada is best sibling because he's very clearly literally Kurt Cobain, hence his battle music being 8-bit Nirvana out of nowhere. Nevermind the fact that Kurt Cobain had limbs and more than one eye and all that, artistic license is a thing.

[Tenlade]

oh huh i forgot Pandamona in my sibling ranking. i always forget Pandamona!

really though i love all of the siblings. all of them

Yeah all the siblings are awesome, though I wasn't a huge fan of pandamona at first because i somehow skipped all her levels while playing, so the only time she became the focus was when she was horribly zoomed in pixelated for a cutscene where she blows up everything.

I stink at mishi's fight so I hate her out of petty spite.(hmm, since she erased herself from existance and existance itself kinda just got erased, i wonder if she'll show up when sheathe is doing...whatever in ep2)

[GenesisJames]

Wow. Everything about this experience was awesome; it was funny, engaging, did not make sense at all, and paved the way to the postgame. Amazing job to everyone; very nice credits! Summed up the game perfectly.
I look forward to seeing the postgame!

[Mabel]

Calleoca is best Demo

[Sebby19]

And this was all because raocow had heard of a side project from the creator of Terraria. Brings a tear to your eye, doesn't it?

Actually, Terraria wasn't even a thing when SMBX was made.

So, that list I was making earlier with the status of the siblings was kind of pointless, with the universe all destroyed and such. Which is too bad, since Pily joined our side, and tasked us with freeing the others from their mind control.
...which don't out to be a bad idea. What the heck, Pandamona!?! And here I thought Mishi was the most dangerous of all the siblings.
Actually, it's weird. Mishi is mind controlled by the Artist, yet she can mind control others as well. How does that work?

I do hope we get to see the Artist and demo's Space Master of Space in person. You can't just name drop them, and not have a payoff. We've known of Demo's master for 3 games now!

[Leet]

Well, The Artist's (and presumably the various space masters of space's) mind control is less "i control you with my mind" and more "you are now working with me with my mind".

And The Artist was going to appear in A2MT as the final boss. But, well, yeah.

[ano0maly]

That's assuming that it's the same Artist. The A2XT team might decide to use someone else.

[Sebby19]

Also, I'm declaring that Serac married Garish. Her bio said she likes to drink, and I think Garish likes to as well.

[Leet]

That's assuming that it's the same Artist. The A2XT team might decide to use someone else.

Was there something in A2MT's planned plot that I didn't know? Because the A2MT team (well, Alex) never made graphics for The Artist, so he never actually had a design.

Besides Nitori

[Demolition]

Was there something in A2MT's planned plot that I didn't know? Because the A2MT team (well, Alex) never made graphics for The Artist, so he never actually had a design.

Besides Nitori

The artist isn't Nitori, that would be stupid.

[Tenlade]

Everytime I hear "the artist", my mind just defaults to the obvious and thinks "Jeez raocow why are you so mean to those cyclops you drew?"

[Lunikyuu]

Man this game is overall really neat. It seems so surreal and kinda neat looking at the credits while I'm actually on the Talkhaus. Maybe Episode 2 will motivate me to actually finish something

I think World 8 is thematically probably one of my favorites as I really like levels that take place at night and during twilight.

World 8 Favorites

Peculiar Night- I really loved the atmosphere in this one. It felt very peaceful and calm while also feeling very mysterious. I thought the gimmick of the level was really neat and added to the atmosphere and sense of wonder, and the gameplay was pretty solid as well. I don't think I had trouble figuring out where to go, but I may have just gotten lucky.
Custom C++ Code Example #3- I thought being chased by the boss instead of outright fighting her made for a pretty neat boss and added a nice extra challenge to an otherwise normal level. I also really liked the music and the jokes at the midpoint and end of the level.

Least favorite level has already been talked about and most of my problems with it have been said already, and I'm lazy

World 8 Demo Counts

Mistrial/Content Nowhere- 0
Custom C++ Code Example #3- 24
Alternative Invasion- 8
Navel of the Universe- 9
Party, Platform, and DODGE!!!- 12
Blue Surfer- 40
Monty Mole's Aerial Extravaganza- 7
Castle of the Above and Elsewhere- 33
Desolate Town- 13
Peculiar Night- 10
Pavlov Gold- 31
Twinkle Tower- 37
Everyone Has a Starman Except You- 53
Dark Side of the Sun- 65
A Final Thing (Name Pending)- 55 (took me a while to realize the sections stayed completed permanently...)

Also by this point I believe I had around 1800 demos total. By the end of World 9, I had over 3000... Speaking of which, I wonder how many Demos raocow will get from tomorrow's level...

[S.N.N.]

I didn't mention this in my previous posts, but after a few days and a couple of drinks worth of thinking, I've realized that I actually really enjoy the idea behind the siblings. I like the fact that new characters were created (ages ago, but this is their first real appearance) and that they were given real recurring roles throughout the game. It really clicked how underutilized they really were throughout A2XT, and how much potential they had to grow and develop as characters. That being said, I would actually love to see either a) a pure Indie game surrounding them outside of the realm of a pre-made engine like SMBX, or b) some sort of story/comic involving them.

Just my two cents.

[Kitet]

Also, I'm declaring that Serac married Garish. Her bio said she likes to drink, and I think Garish likes to as well.

excuse u

serac X mishi 4ever

their personalities compliment eachother in a sublime way that makes my heart go dokidoki

On a more serious note, I'd like to repeat what others have said: I really liked this game, it was pretty well-done, the ending was great and I hope we get to start episode 2 as Sheath! It seems only appropriate.

[Septentrion Pleiades]

Also, I'm declaring that Serac married Garish. Her bio said she likes to drink, and I think Garish likes to as well.

That being said, I would actually love to see either a) a pure Indie game surrounding them outside of the realm of a pre-made engine like SMBX, or b) some sort of story/comic involving them.

serac X mishi 4ever

their personalities compliment eachother in a sublime way that makes my heart go dokidoki.

I think a fanfiction contest is in order. Hopefully, it will be better than the creepy love story contest.