Distorted Travesty

[sharkoftheday]

Seems like alot of seeing is to be seen then. (Fun times for everyone!)

[Slit08]

Well as you can see raocow, this one room is probably the worst and most difficult room in DT. If you passed this, you finsihed the worst one. After that it's a lot easier (aside from one boss).

[EagleEye]

Guys, is there anything worthwhile in this part other than the Vamp Bead? Does the end have, like, a magic cutlass that makes all normal enemies die instantly or something that would make it worth going through it? Because if it's just the Vamp bead, couldn't raocow just get that (however annoying that is) and then "retry from room entry" and backtrack to the beginning? Because raocow is the one thing that cheers me up in the morning and hearing him like this makes me sad.

Also, Zephyr, how are you supposed to do this part if you're color blind? I can barely tell the difference between "red aura" and "brown aura" and I'm not color blind (though I do have other vision impairments).

[Jesuiscontent]

Wow. That was painful to watch, though completely understandable. That's what I was talking about a few pages before in spoilers, this is the part where the game stopped being fun for me. It has nothing to do with you "getting old" (???), this stage is legit insane (and I didn't even think of using the boomerang cutter to press the zelda switch). I can't remember how much time I spent to beat it.

But what I find funny is that I couldn't remember at all what this stage was before seeing today's video, because as soon as I was done with it, my mind somehow wiped all memories of it. Also don't think these sorts of shenanigans are exclusive to extra/optional stages, because..... They aren't.

[EagleEye]

Zephyr, do you think you could add some sort of bullet-time mode that would slowly use up your rave meter? And also, some sort of "switch to fire/water/grass/earth" button (like in first person shooters how hitting 1 will give you a melee button). Those 2 things would probably take this from "unfair hard" to "fair hard".

P.S. You could use Slow Motion by Supertramp.

[InsaneIntentions1]

Well that was depressing. Surely the rest of the game doesn't have a room this difficult?

[Paperkoopa]

I'm sad now. I don't want poor raocow to be angry and stuff :S

I just hope that Yoshi will be more pleasant then...

[Stink Terios]

raocow basically summed up this level: it's OVERWHELMING. You need to brain REALLY hard to be able to do it. But honestly, I didn't this this was that bad. Pausing the game a lot so you can let yourself parse what the hell you actually need to do after each gate/switch/whatever is the way to go. Also I don't remember the glitch happening with me. Maybe it's something introduced by the latest patch?

[ZephyrBurst]

Zephyr, do you think you could add some sort of bullet-time mode that would slowly use up your rave meter? And also, some sort of "switch to fire/water/grass/earth" button (like in first person shooters how hitting 1 will give you a melee button). Those 2 things would probably take this from "unfair hard" to "fair hard".

No to both.

Those switches however, were resetting when the game was paused, so that's a silly thing. That was definitely making it way harder than it needed to be. raocow said he would continue the game after Yoshi was done, so that pause/switch bug will be fixed before then, along with something else I think would be appropriate.

Edit: That switch bug was always there.

[EagleEye]

I can understand not adding the former, since it's a little out there, but why not add the later?

[ACesspoolofHatred]

Oh wow.

Um, yeah, that does look REALLY HARD, and apparently the switches reset when you pause, like Zephyr said? That's nuts!

Well, looks like alternating's off the table for now, at the VERY least until Zephyr gets the patch out. Thanks for at least trying the idea out and showing why it wouldn't be a viable option for now, raocow! I'm satisfied with that, and I'm hoping other people will be satisfied too after watching today's video.

Though I'm hoping N!SMW2 doesn't prove to be even more brutal than this in the endgame....

[Ceddi90]

totally forgot raocow still had to do this extra thing....
yeah it is totally and uterly nuts! also 2 other places there are in my mind that still prove to be of that kinda difficulty being a total jerkface. its kinda the 3 big trials of this game.

controlled reactions for this part, fast precision for the think fast room and last but way not least the jerky shroudlord... yeah i finally beat him and his last part is sooo just not fair, at some points i kinda couldnt even think of how to dodge all that stuff.... whatever rest of the game is easy pie...
btw does any1 know what happens if you trust the artist in the end? i kinda dont want to replay the game to that stage just to notice that you get a gameover screen if you chosse that and have to do shroudfacemanguy again.
Also i died almost 2000 times and played kinda a lot on easy mode (which does make the game a bit more reasonable in terms of dying by damage, however holes, instakillspikes and stuff will still let you drop dead later in the game as there are no more cloudfaces in later levels stopping you to fall to your death endlessly and painfully crouching down to the flesh lords. Using up a lot of time i ended up having a D-rank. Too bad i suppose but i dont know if i´m willing to do this game again to see another ending, or if i should hope that raocow gets the other one (maybe for playing more on normal?) even if i hardly think its going to happen, as rao also has like 1,5k deaths and huge playing time. Maybe he also gives up on 100%ing the game, just a feelin here.

[ano0maly]

Just replayed it. I remember having immense difficulty with that room at first, but once you actually see the level and know what to do, it's just a matter of execution. The problem is that you can't start out the level for the first time expecting to beat it. You have to learn it until you know it, and then play it.

@Zephyr: Is using Wave of Awesome what you're supposed to do for that 2nd chest? I actually got it in Normal with just the fireballs, by having the switch start at red and carrying 3 fireballs with me. But in Hard, they're too close together and the switch doesn't actually register three flips. I also couldn't get there in Easy because the fireballs are too far apart, so one of them gets stopped at a colored door while I switch colors.

@raocow: Like you said in the video, it's memorization. It's hard with just reacting. You need to know what action to take at what step, including what button to press and how many times. It takes muscle memory.

The main thing I noticed is that (5:54) past the red door, you turn around and try to hit the first switch with Wave. You don't need to do that here. Instead use your claw attack to hit the upcoming switch through the walls. That way, your attention is fixated on what's coming up and not going back and forth.

• Set to red, and hit switch.
• Tap twice to green, hit switch (the one placed between the green and brown doors). Tap again to brown and re-hit that switch once you're past green door.
• Hit the third switch. Tap twice in the other direction back to blue (or tap three times to cycle to blue, whichever).
• Once you're past the blue door, face left and use Wave to re-hit that third switch. Then tap 2 times to brown. The blue door kept blocking your Wave because you switched to brown first.

• Past the brown door, tap 3 times back (or 2 times forward) to red. Hit the last switch after.
• Stay in red as you jump on the platforms; do not switch or you will fall through.

I personally don't recommend using pause menu when you need to change frequently. Aside from the reset glitch that came up, I just think it breaks the sense of rhythm and interrupts you. That's why I find swap buttons better to keep the flow going, both in Nitroid and in this.

@Ceddi: I can give you a save file just before that part. Just re-beat the boss on Easy and you should be able to get to that.

If the timer expires, you just die. If you choose the Artist, then after a few lines of dialogue, the game "crashes" and you die.

[Slit08]

You know which level this stage of DT reminds me of? It reminds me of the Athletic levels in the VIP series. The ones were you need to reacto fast with jumping due to shells hitting switches in a certain rythm.
When I played the Stalagmite Ruins for the first time I was immediately reminded of these levels.
Don't worry though raocow! Once you finished N!SMW2 and come back to this game you might as well play another stage. This level is insane. It's harder than "that one" room in the Secured Data Segment (especially after it was made easier in a recent version).
As I said before you might have problems with just one boss later on!

What I can tell yo guys out there is that DT is super playable. But when you play this game for the first time you will have a very hard time. Playing it a second or even a third time will make it a lot easier for you and you will realize that nearly everything in this game can be done pretty well. ;)
This game is not unreasonable it is just very, very harsh the first time you play it.
Even now, that I am used to the controls I still have big problems once I playtest a new area for DT 3 for the first time. I die a lot and sometimes certain rooms or certain bosses (Gate 3 end boss) seem to be unbeatable at first. But with a it of practice and after clearing a room or beating a boss for the first time I am way more skilled than before and suddenly I realize that said levels aren't as hard as they seem at first.

[Oracle of Wuffing]

Those switches however, were resetting when the game was paused, so that's a silly thing. That was definitely making it way harder than it needed to be.

Wait, was it resetting because the attack was re-registering, or was it resetting because the pause screen interrupted the original change? 'Cause I mean, the next logical step before the fix goes in is to see if someone can exploit this for extra damage against a single enemy (a la the Thunder Beam versus Yellow Devil in Mega Man 1) or to avoid damage (a la phasing in just about every NES Mega Man game afterwards).

Also, while you're fixing things, did you ever get around to that whole location of programs thing in Distortion Windows in all the other fixes that happened earlier?

[ZephyrBurst]

I can understand not adding the former, since it's a little out there, but why not add the later?

This requires the game to have 2 more buttons to an all ready somewhat absurd amount of buttons to use. I get what you're saying and it makes sense, but it's just not happening. Despite saying that, if I ever went back and remade the game (to which there's a 0% chance of happening) I'd probably go with this. 4 shoulder buttons for the 4 elements would work well.

@Ceddi90: The wrong choice brings you back to the start of that. No way would I ever have the player re-fight something like that over a story-based choice. That's just as bad as forcing a Game Over because the player failed a quick-time event.

Wait, was it resetting because the attack was re-registering, or was it resetting because the pause screen interrupted the original change? 'Cause I mean, the next logical step before the fix goes in is to see if someone can exploit this for extra damage against a single enemy (a la the Thunder Beam versus Yellow Devil in Mega Man 1) or to avoid damage (a la phasing in just about every NES Mega Man game afterwards).

Also, while you're fixing things, did you ever get around to that whole location of programs thing in Distortion Windows in all the other fixes that happened earlier?

For the Distortion Windows thing, I don't believe so. For the other, exploiting for damage won't work. The red/blue switch's reset timer simply existed outside of the game's pause loop. Yay video games.

So here's a thing that has been popping up more often these days, that I feel is a good concern. The brown representing earth being too close to red. I'd like to see what people think of brown changing to yellow since that also works for earth. Or hot pink, cause yeah! :P

[ano0maly]

While practical, yellow doesn't seem that good of a color for earth. Maybe make red brighter?

It's harder than "that one" room in the Secured Data Segment (especially after it was made easier in a recent version).
As I said before you might have problems with just one boss later on!

I still found SDS harder.

[EagleEye]

Yellow doesn't exactly make sense the way brown does, but it has more contrast against red. You might want to make "Earth color" an option in the options menu. That way you don't have to listen to people complain that you chose the wrong color, etc.

[linlin]

So here's a thing that has been popping up more often these days, that I feel is a good concern. The brown representing earth being too close to red. I'd like to see what people think of brown changing to yellow since that also works for earth. Or hot pink, cause yeah!

might wanna see how visible each is on the background(s) first

[Sebby19]

How about black? Not very colourful, but oh well.

[EagleEye]

Blackrock, coal, etc.

[Tsurugi]

Black also sort of makes sense, but I think you would run into a lot of visibility issues, both in the HUD and in the environment. What I'd probably do if it were up to me would be to make wind purple and earth green. Earth is pretty much always green or brown, but the color associated with wind is really variable, since it's not actually a thing you can see.

[EagleEye]

Tsurugi, that's brilliant.

[Octagon]

I just noticed: The pushable blocks in Windy Caves and stuff seem to be from the game "Lester the Unlikely". Seriously, Zephyr?

[ZephyrBurst]

They're not from that game, they're from... I don't even remember. They're edited from something though, I do remember that much.

As for that game, it's not the worst in existence. After AVGN reviewed it, my roommates said I had no choice but to play it. With a groan, I did, but it's not as bad as AVGN said it was. There's actually a nifty touch on the animations toward the end.