Which of these Wii U eShop games should I play next?

[Nabbit]

Looking for a game for us to play until 3/11 when Ori 2 comes out. Just finished getting all the coins in Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair (you'll be so proud QuixoticNeutral!) and thought it would be fun to go back to my favorite console of all time, the underappreciated Wii U. I don't have a ton of free time for gaming sadly, so probably not going to play a longer game. These are all games we already have, not really interested in buying more right now.

The Cave

-played it before, but only once, so we'd have 3 new characters to play as. And it was long enough ago that the interlude sections present in every playthrough wouldn't be familiar.

Elliot Quest

- we probably only have the final boss and a bit of side questing left.

Shovel Knight

- played the original campaign and couldn't get into Plague (sorry Weiss) so I was thinking of playing another campaign.

NES Remix 2

- I don't think we finished this. We enjoyed the first game a ton, and this one a little bit less but still decently.

Mario vs. Donkey King: Tipping Stars

- only played a little of this one

Kung Fu Rabbit

- haven't finished this either but enjoyed it a whole lot.

Never played these, or at least not much:

-Child of Light
-Olympia Rising
-Freedom Planet
-Octodad
-Runbow
-Star Ghost
-Ducktales Remastered
-Cosmophony
-The Swapper
-Stealth Inc. 2
-Tengami
-Art of Balance
-Another World: Out of this World
-Level 22
-Nihilumbra
-Mutant Mudds Super Challenge (doubt we'll play this as I'm terrible at the 3DS game)
-Futuridium EP Deluxe

There must be a bunch of Wii U eShop games I'm forgetting too. I'll try to edit this with more games.

Edit: checked my Wii U and got the list of remaining games, added them in above.

 

[asmith906]

Since sonic is the new hotness, I'd play freedom planet

 

[Weiss]

Looking for a game for us to play until 3/11 when Ori 2 comes out. Just finished getting all the coins in Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair (you'll be so proud QuixoticNeutral!) and thought it would be fun to go back to my favorite console of all time, the underappreciated Wii U. I don't have a ton of free time for gaming sadly, so probably not going to play a longer game. These are all games we already have, not really interested in buying more right now.

The Cave

-played it before, but only once, so we'd have 3 new characters to play as. And it was long enough ago that the interlude sections present in every playthrough wouldn't be familiar.

Elliot Quest

-we probably only have the final boss and a bit of side questing left.

Shovel Knight

- played the original campaign and couldn't get into Plague (sorry Weiss) so I was thinking of playing another campaign.

Never played these, or at least not much:

-Child of Light
-Olympia Rising
-Freedom Planet
-Octodad
-Runbow
-Star Ghost
-Ducktales Remastered

There must be a bunch of Wii U eShop games I'm forgetting too. I'll try to edit this with more games.

Click to shrink...

grr

 

[Professor Beef]

DUCKTALES REMASTERED

 

[Jaded Alyx]

The Cave was a great experience back when miiverse was a thing and you could use the Question tag to ask for hints and also help people who needed them.

 

[j_z]

Affordable Space Adventures:

My Nintendo Store – Nintendo Official Site

Shop at the My Nintendo Store for exclusive Nintendo merchandise, video games in digital and physical formats, Nintendo Switch™ systems, and much more.

www.nintendo.com

 

[Syril]

Freedom Planet

 

[QuixoticNeutral]

Congratulations on wrapping up Impossible Lair. Was it just recently that you couldn't get into Plague Knight? Because I'd suggest that Plague of Shadows is very well worth a second look even if you couldn't get deep into it the first time. Late-game Plague is easily the best time I had in Shovel Knight (Joustus in King of Cards being the second) but I'm also somebody who dropped the campaign halfway when it first came out. If you really can't get through it and behold the wonder of how Plague Knight's movement develops over the course of the game, no harm done; the other two might be more your speed, particularly Specter, who is designed to feel smooth and accessible right out of the gate.

I seem to remember The Cave having seven playable characters, requiring three playthroughs to see absolutely every segment (which would naturally include repetitions, although if you've already seen the puzzle solutions for a character-specific segment once, you're likely to breeze through it). Still, if you've been away from it for years, even the segments shared across all characters should feel pretty fresh all over again. I was a day-one adopter on PC when it released back in 2013, as I've been a big fan of Ron Gilbert's work since the original Monkey Island games, and just talking about the game now makes me want to revisit it; I think I only ever ran it twice to see six of the characters, but I don't remember which one I left dangling or which were the favourites I'd pick as my two to replay.

 

[sredgrin]

Of those, Ducktales and Olympia Rising are the two "stuck" on the platform (presuming you don't play on PC and buy Olympia there, and you can't buy Ducktales anymore). So I'd knock those out.

 

[POE_001]

Octodad and play it with someone.

 

[Ultimate Bear Cub]

Affordable Space Adventures:

My Nintendo Store – Nintendo Official Site

Shop at the My Nintendo Store for exclusive Nintendo merchandise, video games in digital and physical formats, Nintendo Switch™ systems, and much more.

www.nintendo.com

Click to shrink...

Absolutely this. Preferably coop with someone.

 

[Platy]

For a game so focused on selling itself as a multiplayer game, I absolutely loved the runbow singleplayer

 

[Ashby]

Affordable Space Adventures:

My Nintendo Store – Nintendo Official Site

Shop at the My Nintendo Store for exclusive Nintendo merchandise, video games in digital and physical formats, Nintendo Switch™ systems, and much more.

www.nintendo.com

Click to shrink...

This one

 

[Like the hat?]

ducktales or elliot quest

 

[Nabbit]

Of those, Ducktales and Olympia Rising are the two "stuck" on the platform (presuming you don't play on PC and buy Olympia there, and you can't buy Ducktales anymore). So I'd knock those out.

Click to shrink...

Have you played Olympia? I don't know much about what it's like.

 

[Nabbit]

Ok, i pulled up my Wii U and here are the games I couldn't think of (excluding retail and VC):

NES Remix 2 - I don't think we finished this
Mario vs. Donkey King: Tipping Stars - only played a little of this one
Kung Fu Rabbit - haven't finished this either

Not played or barely played:
Cosmophony
The Swapper
Stealth Inc. 2
Tengami
Art of Balance
Another World: Out of this World
Level 22
Nihilumbra
Mutant Mudds Super Challenge (doubt we'll play this as I'm terrible at the 3DS game)
Futuridium EP Deluxe

And I suppose we could always be tempted to get some Nintendo Land time in!

We do have Affordable Space Adventures but we usually don't play co-op, we just take turns playing SP games, and couldn't get into this one. Maybe if I control engine and she moves the ship. Not sure if we tried it that way.

Also, #paging eShop expert TheMoon for his expert opinion.

 

[dedge]

Ducktails Remastered is great

 

[Jimnymebob]

Another World is nice and short (like about under half an hour), although it'll probably take a few hours, because it can be quite difficult and obtuse. It's fun though, and it still holds up wonderfully in terms of visuals.

 

[TheMoon]

Ok, i pulled up my Wii U and here are the games I couldn't think of (excluding retail and VC):

NES Remix 2 - I don't think we finished this
Mario vs. Donkey King: Tipping Stars - only played a little of this one
Kung Fu Rabbit - haven't finished this either

Not played or barely played:
Cosmophony
The Swapper
Stealth Inc. 2
Tengami
Art of Balance
Another World: Out of this World
Level 22
Nihilumbra
Mutant Mudds Super Challenge (doubt we'll play this as I'm terrible at the 3DS game)
Futuridium EP Deluxe

And I suppose we could always be tempted to get some Nintendo Land time in!

We do have Affordable Space Adventures but we usually don't play co-op, we just take turns playing SP games, and couldn't get into this one. Maybe if I control engine and she moves the ship. Not sure if we tried it that way.

Also, #paging eShop expert TheMoon for his expert opinion.

Click to shrink...

ahahaha saw the post in the eShop thread first before I noticed the notification :P

cross-posting my reply from there:


Since you're talking about Wii U games, you should probably pick those that either shine on Wii U or are still exclusive aka stuck on Wii U.

NES Remix 2
Olympia Rising (prob forever stuck on Wii U at this point)
Stealth Inc 2 (especially since it sounds like you two are playing together?) (!!!)
Futuridium EP Deluxe (for variety)
The Swapper
Runbow
MvsDK Tipping Stars
Tengami (it's really short and chill and that David Wise music!!!)

As the official Elliot Quest Ambassador, I don't think you need to sink more time into that original version at this point? :D

 

[werezompire]

The games on the list I've played.

-Child of Light

Click to shrink...

This is a rather pretty 2D turn-based JRPG. Solid soundtrack. Combat is like a simplified Grandia (aka very good), but you'll want to pick the Hard difficulty if you want a challenge (default is rather easy). It's about 10-15 hours long and I felt it could have trimmed off a couple hours towards the end, but for the most part I rather enjoyed it. Plus short JRPGs are hard to find.

-Another World: Out of this World

Click to shrink...

This is one of THE classic cinematic platformers so if you're a fan of those, it's a must play. No dialogue, but still manages to tell a memorable story. Very unique artstyle that was especially cool when it came out nearly 30 years ago. It's also short enough you could easily play it in a sitting or two unless you get really stuck and don't look at a walkthrough.

 

[Thriftweed]

The Swapper is really good, I recommend giving it a go

 

[Nabbit]

Jimnymebob What's the gameplay like in that one? Is there a modern equivalent at all?

TheMoon Knew I could count on you, amigo! Of the games you listed, did you enjoy all of them? Is there 1-2 you thought were best?

werezompire Great to see you in this thread. I've never played Grandia but is the combat at all similar to the Paper Mario/Mario & Luigi style of games? Those are typically the only JRPGs I've gotten on with since they have dynamic, active button pressing for landing better attacks and performing better dodges.

Thriftweed What made you enjoy The Swapper so well? Is there another game you feel like it's similar to? I think we tried just a little of it and couldn't quite figure out how to get into the groove with it.

 

[TheMoon]

TheMoon Knew I could count on you, amigo! Of the games you listed, did you enjoy all of them? Is there 1-2 you thought were best?

Click to shrink...

I've not played/finished all of them. But again, especially if you're going to play together with your partner, I'd recommend Stealth Inc 2 since that has that Wii U exclusive asymmetric two-screen co-op mode and it was criminally overlooked overall. One of those quintessential Wii U showpiece games. Man, remember when Curve was making these top class download games non-stop and then ported all these other top-class games to Wii U? What a time.

Olympia Rising I've not played at all yet but ironically, I'd recommend you check out since you already own it anyway because it always looked so interesting and maybe your Elliot Quest-heart will appreciate it in a similar fashion.

I don't know if you have Ultimate NES Remix on 3DS but if you do, I would recommend that over going for base NES Remix 2. Imo UNESRMX is the concept brought to perfection.

The Swapper is just a really clever and cool sci-fi puzzle platformer with the whole cloning mechanic. Very highly regarded. I forget if it supported the touch screen.

 

[Thriftweed]

Thriftweed What made you enjoy The Swapper so well? Is there another game you feel like it's similar to? I think we tried just a little of it and couldn't quite figure out how to get into the groove with it.

Click to shrink...

It was the overall atmosphere and mood to the game that really grabbed me, I recall playing it in low light with headphones on and being completely absorbed.

I think it took me a little while to get used to the idea of swapping and cloning characters to solve the puzzles but once it clicked it was hard to stop playing. I also liked the fact that the gamepad was used to show the map as well as documents you pick up during the game, and while it's not the most amazing use of the second screen I thought it was pretty cool.

 

[werezompire]

werezompire Great to see you in this thread. I've never played Grandia but is the combat at all similar to the Paper Mario/Mario & Luigi style of games? Those are typically the only JRPGs I've gotten on with since they have dynamic, active button pressing for landing better attacks and performing better dodges.

Click to shrink...

No, there aren't timed presses in the Grandia games. The big distinguishing elements about the Grandia games is that there's a timebar, events can happen simultaneously, and certain moves can interrupt other moves (knocking the character back on the time bar). It's definitely one of the more entertaining & engaging turn-based battle systems out there. Child of Light has those Grandia elements, although it's somewhat simplified since characters don't run around on the battlefield like they do in Grandia.

 

[Big G]

The Swapper is excellent.

 

[Soapbox Killer]

Art of Balance is fantastic!

 

[Nabbit]

Thanks all for the replies. werezompire I just tried Ni No Kuni recently and couldn't get into it at all, is the combat kinda similar to that? Sorry if that's a dumb question.

Soapbox Killer what did you enjoy about Art of Balance?

TheMoon Big G Thriftweed I'm leaning toward Swapper and a Cave replay at the moment. Not sure which we'll try first. As QuixoticNeutral mentioned that game is really a treat to play so I'm looking forward to re-spelunking with new characters. But yeah the second screen features of The Swapper sound very appealing, even if they're limited, as that's one of my favorite unique qualities about the Wii U.

Also Moon you mentioned Curve Digital's Wii U heyday, I was thinking about that last year when we played Hue. Man, that was a cool time for Indies on Wii U indeed. And as to NES Remix, I do have it on 3DS but haven't played it much there, so maybe that's the way to go. I remember feeling like the games in NES Remix lent themselves better to the remixed mini levels than the games in NES Remix 2 did.

 

[TheMoon]

Also Moon you mentioned Curve Digital's Wii U heyday, I was thinking about that last year when we played Hue. Man, that was a cool time for Indies on Wii U indeed. And as to NES Remix, I do have it on 3DS but haven't played it much there, so maybe that's the way to go. I remember feeling like the games in NES Remix lent themselves better to the remixed mini levels than the games in NES Remix 2 did.

Click to shrink...

Do note, Ultimate NES Remix is both games combined with all the fat trimmed and just an overall better mix of stuff.

 

[Nabbit]

Do note, Ultimate NES Remix is both games combined with all the fat trimmed and just an overall better mix of stuff.

Click to shrink...

Thanks, I thought I remembered something of that sort. ^^

 

[werezompire]

Thanks all for the replies. werezompire I just tried Ni No Kuni recently and couldn't get into it at all, is the combat kinda similar to that? Sorry if that's a dumb question.

Click to shrink...

No, it's nothing like Ni no Kuni.

It'd probably be easier to just show you.



Apologies for the poor video quality, but that should give you a good idea of how Grandia works.

And here's a video of a battle from Child of Light.


Child of Light limits you to 2 active party member (who you can swap out mid-battle) plus a helper spirit (who can go over enemies to slow them down). This video is from early in the game so you don't have any allies yet though.

 

[Nabbit]

Oh yeah werezompire that gives me a much better idea of what combat is like. Definitely more appealing to me than NNK. Thanks so much for the vids. Looking forward to trying out the game.

 

[Weltall Zero]

This thread reminded me of how much I enjoyed the NES Remix games, and how sad I am that we'll probably never get a SNES Remix. :(

On-topic, skip the Plague Knight campaign and get straight to Specter of Torment and King of Cards. Plague of Shadows is technically not bad per se, and the potion making mechanic eventually becomes pretty interesting, but it suffers from a double whammy of being almost entirely recycled from Shovel of Hope, and having the most complicated and least intuitive character to control.

In contrast, Specter is much more fun to control, with wall-running and homing air slashes; the campaign remixes the levels and alters the bosses much more dramatically than Plague, including new music for all of the stages. King of Cards then takes it a step further, with an entirely new world map, a few new stage settings / tilesets, a lot more new bosses, enemies and mechanics, a new game structure with more (but smaller) stages, lots of new locations and characters, amazing level design (each screen feels a bit like a puzzle), and a deceptibly fleshed out card game. King of Cards is frankly the best campaign in the whole package, above even the original Shovel of Hope. It's the result of many more years of experience and refinement than the original, and man if it doesn't show. It's really exciting to think of what these people will do next.

 

[Nabbit]

Thanks for sharing your take on the SK campaigns, Weltall Zero! I'll be sure to check out Specter and King. At the moment I'm thinking we'll spelunk back down The Cave starting today, and if there's time left before Ori comes out we'll move onto The Swapper and Specter.

And I am right there with you on NES Remix. I enjoyed that game a ton. It was very addictive chasing 3 stars and we still need to get them - and rainbows - on a bunch of levels. I was super bummed never to get an SNES or GB Remix. Maybe we still will sometime. I miss the more frequent, experimental digital-only games from Nintendo during the Wii U/3DS era. Crazy we haven't had a Pushmo game in nearly 5 years now.

 

[scare_crow]

"my favorite console of all time."

I'll be honest, I didn't get past this part in your post.

 

[Geist 6one7]

Shovel Knight or Ducktales for maximum pogo action.

 

[Celine]

Affordable Space Adventures:

My Nintendo Store – Nintendo Official Site

Shop at the My Nintendo Store for exclusive Nintendo merchandise, video games in digital and physical formats, Nintendo Switch™ systems, and much more.

www.nintendo.com

Click to shrink...

What he/she said.
One of the few games that integrated well the use of the GamePad.

 

[TheMoon]

"my favorite console of all time."

I'll be honest, I didn't get past this part in your post.

Click to shrink...

Very helpful, great suggestion.

 

[scare_crow]

Very helpful, great suggestion.

Click to shrink...

I'm very sorry I didn't take this thread as seriously as it deserves. I hope everyone will be ok.

 

[Nabbit]

I went to find The Cave and it turns out it wasn't downloaded. So I searched the eShop and it was nowhere to be found. Googled and it turns out it was delisted on all platforms in 2018! Thankfully I was able to go into my download list and redownload it still.
Going into my DL list also showed me there were some games I hadn't listed before. Those include Tetrobot and Co., Knytt Underground, Edge and Ballpoint Universe.

 

[TheMoon]

I went to find The Cave and it turns out it wasn't downloaded. So I searched the eShop and it was nowhere to be found. Googled and it turns out it was delisted on all platforms in 2018! Thankfully I was able to go into my download list and redownload it still.
Going into my DL list also showed me there were some games I hadn't listed before. Those include Tetrobot and Co., Knytt Underground, Edge and Ballpoint Universe.

Click to shrink...

I seem to recall you advocating Tetrobot & Co. a lot back in the days so you surely must have played that already? :)

 

[Camjo-Z]

I heard there's this epic Wii U game called Drop It: Block Paradise, not sure who made it but I'm told the artist on it is apparently incredibly handsome and successful. Don't wanna spread rumors but I heard he has six-pack abs too???

On a more serious note, of the games you mentioned, definitely try Specter and/or King Knight's campaign. Didn't play too much of Stealth Inc. 2 but I really enjoyed the original, and Runbow is more of a party game but has a decently fun SP mode if you're into speedrunning.

 

[Nabbit]

I seem to recall you advocating Tetrobot & Co. a lot back in the days so you surely must have played that already? :)

Click to shrink...

Man you'd think so but I don't remember much of it. For some reason I have it mixed up with Nova-111 a bit in my memory. But I think I played some of Tetrobot (probably a good but since I was praising it lol) and didn't play Nova-111 at all.

 

[Weston]

I know you're looking for suggestions from what you already own but I'm just gonna throw out a suggestion for anyone interested.

Swords and Solidiers 2 is a side-scrolling RTS game. It's by Ronimo, the creators of Awesomenauts. You fight for resources, create units, and push over enemy towers. It's kind of like controlling creep waves from a moba.

I just found out that it released on Steam a couple years ago and I'm going to buy it again.

From you're current pool I really liked Child of Light, Freedom Planet, and the Swapper.

 

[TheMoon]

I know you're looking for suggestions from what you already own but I'm just gonna throw out a suggestion for anyone interested.

Swords and Solidiers 2 is a side-scrolling RTS game. It's by Ronimo, the creators of Awesomenauts. You fight for resources, create units, and push over enemy towers. It's kind of like controlling creep waves from a moba.

I just found out that it released on Steam a couple years ago and I'm going to buy it again.

From you're current pool I really liked Child of Light, Freedom Planet, and the Swapper.

Click to shrink...

And you also missed that it's out on Switch along with an expansion DLC.

Swords & Soldiers 2 Shawarmageddon

What do Vikings, Persians and Demons have in common? They’re all willing to fight for the perfect shawarma in this side-scrolling battle game!

www.nintendo.co.uk

It's also cheaper on Switch (15 bucks on Switch incl the expansion vs 20 on Wii U for the original base game only).

 

[Weston]

And you also missed that it's out on Switch along with an expansion DLC.

Swords & Soldiers 2 Shawarmageddon

What do Vikings, Persians and Demons have in common? They’re all willing to fight for the perfect shawarma in this side-scrolling battle game!

www.nintendo.co.uk

It's also cheaper on Switch (15 bucks on Switch incl the expansion vs 20 on Wii U for the original base game only).

Click to shrink...

Nice. game definitely didn't deserve to be a Wii U eshop exclusive.

 

[Memory Pak]

Out of those you listed, Tengami is a very short and relaxing point & click puzzle/adventure game. 90 Minutes tops, and it has savepoints so you can stretch it over several shorter sessions if needed too. Great game for an afternoon with a mug of tea, or perhaps an evening by yourself.

In a similar vein, Art of Balance is a very chill block-stacking game/zen garden simulator. Level-based so also works in short bursts (the early levels are super easy though). Looks great, can be played on the Gamepad,or even with a Wiimote.
EDGE is a decent time too, helped by great music and an economical art style. The gimmick allowing you to stick to walls is garbage though, they make you lightly feather the thumbsticks and minor overcorrections spell doom. Frustrating at times, but a good game.

For meatier experiences, I'll join the chorus of those recommending The Swapper, it's a room-based puzzle game in a sci-fi setting, with just a taste of how a Metroidvania might use the Gamepad for a map. I found the story surprisingly captivating, and the gameplay requires some cool spatial thinking that reminded me of Portal.
Affordable Space Adventures also rightfully gets recommended here. I see you couldn't get into it, but do know that it's highly optimised for co-op, and the ship becomes muuuuch more smooth to control once you unlock the 2nd engine early on. A highight on the platform.

I'm not very fond of Stealth Inc. 2; it's kind of a meat grinder, and now the Miiverse is down you can't even share frustrations with other players upon death. Game also really overstays it welcome, I found. Wouldn't prioritise that one. Same for Nihilumbra, allthough that one's a lot better, but it doesn't really stand out from the crowded puzzle-platformer genre. Also found its storytelling rather overbearing. Both of these games are still okay, but when you're short on time and have Shovel Knight: King of Cards, Octodad, Futuridium, Mario vs. DK and others to pick from I personally wouldn't dedicate 10 hours to Stealth Inc. 2.

 

[Nabbit]

Memory Pak thanks very much for your thoughtful and detailed reply. I think those frustrations with Stealth Inc. 2 are similar to what I experienced when I tried a little of the game back when it came out. It sounds like you found Futuridium and Mario vs. DK worthwhile, too, what did you think of those?

I'll try to give ASA another try, too. Watching For All Mankind kinda put me in the mood for playing it. But yeah, I really appreciate your sharing all of your thoughts as a fellow Wii U eShop devotee.

 

[Nabbit]

Just wanted to share some thoughts on The Cave for anyone interested. Like QuixoticNeutral. ^^ We finished our second runthrough of The Cave yesterday evening. This time, we played as the Adventurer, the Scientist and the Monk. Their individual setpieces came in that order. We got all but one cave painting for the characters. It was interesting to see their journey in captioned pictures, as with our first runthrough 6 or so years ago. Since it had been so long, we didn't remember the non-character specific sections too well so it wasn't a problem to replay them. Out of the character setpieces, the Scientist was our least favorite. The puzzles in that one were mostly not that engaging to us.

The Adventurer and the Monk were both very enjoyable to play through. The Adventurer puzzles weren't quite as tricky as the Monk, but they had a fun Indiana Jones-esque feel to them. The Monk puzzles had us stumped a bit but we persisted in deciphering them and they were the most unique and interesting puzzles we encountered in the game, at lest this playthrough if not both, and kind of reminded us of Professor Layton puzzles. At least, the balancing gallons of water one did.

I guess any feeling of dissatisfaction with the game came from being powerless to make non-terrible choices for the characters in their individual scenarios. It seems like The Cave is making its spelunkers relive the worst things they did, so the lack of agency in these sequences makes sense, but it's kinda unsatisfying. We rarely play games where the protagonists are terrible people, so, that created a little bit of cognitive dissonance for us, though I understand it was intentional. It did feel a bit heavy-handed though. We did look up how to get the good ending this time, which involves just one very minor thing to do at the end of the game. Overall, I didn't love the game, but it was interesting to revisit and the puzzles kept us intrigued.

Last night, we started Specter of Torment and I have a pretty good feeling we are going to enjoy this a whole lot. 2D platformers are our favorite genre. My wife played the first level though I helped her figure out one tricky jump. She had some trouble with the first boss but persisted at it and beat him. The Tower that replaces the town from the original game, along with it's NPCs, strikes a good balance of chilling and kinda funny, and helps temper the darker tone of the story. Also really like the touch that you can select any level after beating the first. We're still getting the hang of Specter Knight's moves but getting the projectile and health curios already seems like it will make the learning curve a bit gentler. Looking forward to playing another level tonight hopefully. I really liked how much the levels and town have been remixed, as Weltall Zero mentioned. And QuixoticNeutral, you'll be glad to hear that since we are enjoying Specter a whole lot, I feel confident in saying we will give Plague Knight another try some time, given your praise for it.

 

[Weltall Zero]

Just wanted to share some thoughts on The Cave for anyone interested. Like QuixoticNeutral. ^^ We finished our second runthrough of The Cave yesterday evening. This time, we played as the Adventurer, the Scientist and the Monk. Their individual setpieces came in that order. We got all but one cave painting for the characters. It was interesting to see their journey in captioned pictures, as with our first runthrough 6 or so years ago. Since it had been so long, we didn't remember the non-character specific sections too well so it wasn't a problem to replay them. Out of the character setpieces, the Scientist was our least favorite. The puzzles in that one were mostly not that engaging to us.

The Adventurer and the Monk were both very enjoyable to play through. The Adventurer puzzles weren't quite as tricky as the Monk, but they had a fun Indiana Jones-esque feel to them. The Monk puzzles had us stumped a bit but we persisted in deciphering them and they were the most unique and interesting puzzles we encountered in the game, at lest this playthrough if not both, and kind of reminded us of Professor Layton puzzles. At least, the balancing gallons of water one did.

I guess any feeling of dissatisfaction with the game came from being powerless to make non-terrible choices for the characters in their individual scenarios. It seems like The Cave is making its spelunkers relive the worst things they did, so the lack of agency in these sequences makes sense, but it's kinda unsatisfying. We rarely play games where the protagonists are terrible people, so, that created a little bit of cognitive dissonance for us, though I understand it was intentional. It did feel a bit heavy-handed though. We did look up how to get the good ending this time, which involves just one very minor thing to do at the end of the game. Overall, I didn't love the game, but it was interesting to revisit and the puzzles kept us intrigued.

Last night, we started Specter of Torment and I have a pretty good feeling we are going to enjoy this a whole lot. 2D platformers are our favorite genre. My wife played the first level though I helped her figure out one tricky jump. She had some trouble with the first boss but persisted at it and beat him. The Tower that replaces the town from the original game, along with it's NPCs, strikes a good balance of chilling and kinda funny, and helps temper the darker tone of the story. Also really like the touch that you can select any level after beating the first. We're still getting the hang of Specter Knight's moves but getting the projectile and health curios already seems like it will make the learning curve a bit gentler. Looking forward to playing another level tonight hopefully. I really liked how much the levels and town have been remixed, as Weltall Zero mentioned. And QuixoticNeutral, you'll be glad to hear that since we are enjoying Specter a whole lot, I feel confident in saying we will give Plague Knight another try some time, given your praise for it.

Click to shrink...

Very glad you're enjoying Specter of Torment! Specter Knight does take a bit to get used to, but once you do it's one of the cooler characters to cruise along, wall-running and dash slashing around at high speeds.

I think the one key skill in playing as him is to rewire your instinct to avoid dash slashing when you're at the highest point of the jump. Because (as you probably noticed) there's two angles for the dash slash, depending on how you are relative to the enemy, it's actually better to wait until you're below the enemy, so that you slash upwards. All of this you probably already know rationally, but it's hard to get the instinctive hang of it. You can practice on one of the red lanterns by just dash slashing back and forth on it (left and right) without touching the ground, so that you get the hang of the timing.