Recent reviews by azmth

my brain is ticklish

It's been a bit and I still wouldn't recommend Seekers of the Storm.

The bugs are now being patched out *reasonably* quickly (if you elect to ignore that the DLC-accompanying update should never have released with the vast majority of them... seriously, half of them were noticeable on first run) but I still feel unsatisfied with the DLC as a whole, and I'm not very cool with AA dev/publisher pulling what is very much a AAA move, even if the turnaround time on coming back to fix the bugs is shorter.

I originally brought up mods as a point of comparison, which is maybe unfair... but I do think it's worth considering what the price of the DLC gives you, especially in comparison to Survivors of the Void (which shares a price tag). Don't get me wrong- there is certainly good! I love having new stages, especially finally an alt stage five, and the art direction on all of them is great. Same goes for the skins- Most of them are refreshing and unique and I really think the art team killed it across the board.

However, the art style is most of what I have to say that I like about this- there's plenty of things that don't hurt (you're not required to head to the new boss every run) but there are also some actively negative additions, and I'll get to those later.

**New items: **
Most of the new items are letdowns. In particular, I think the *majority* of the common items are usually insta-scraps. A couple of synergies that seem intuitive (such as Shaped Glass permanently activating Bolstering Lantern, or damage boosting items affecting Antler Shield) do not actually do anything.

Uncommons fair a little better, Chance Doll and Luminous Shot come to mind. I love seeing a shrine of chance rarely drop a boss item, even if it is cursed.

I'm lukewarm on the new legendaries. Runic Lens made me quadruple take before I even understood what it does and I'm still not certain I've ever seen it proc. Sonorous Whispers used to drop an obviously untested number of items on later stages, Growth Nectar is cool for min-maxing I guess? War Bonds is possibly the most uninteresting item in the game.

There are no new boss items because the only boss the DLC adds is a final route boss, and the only new lunar item is a buggy mess which seems like an always-avoid (why doesn't it carry over between stages?!?). On the bright side, the singular new equipment item is an extra life for either you or other dead players, which I think is an excellent addition!

In other words, the items aren't great in quality or quantity, a lot of the stats and percentages shown for them in game are incorrect even after two major patches, and they look even worse when compared to Survivors of the Void, which adds 1 less common and uncommon but more of every other rarity... plus an entirely new rarity that significantly changes up the strategy of existing items. Void Cradles are some of the most exciting stage interactables to find and sometimes even led to my friends and I fighting over them. Seekers of the Storm has no equivalent.

**New survivors:**
All of the new survivors feel clunky and under-tested.

Seeker feels like a weak hybrid of a melee and ranged character with mechanics ripped straight from existing moves/items... notably artificer's primary and volcanic egg. Their secondary ability feels unrewarding for the effort it takes to use, especially on flying targets. On paper, the long cooldown buff ability gives a good reason to find cooldown skipping items (such as Bandolier or Brainstalks), but even with no cooldown I find it unsatisfying to use (some feedback on hitting the keys for it would go a long way) and it's irritating to have to stop and punch the code in multiple times to reach the strength you finished the previous stage with.

Chef seems half-baked. I have a lot less to say about them, but their kit overall is un-fun to use and the passive rather unrewarding.

The "hidden" survivor is easily the best of the three but still feels a little lackluster. Clunky is an understatement and I'm not referring to the jumpy animations (because I think they fit the character). I find a lot of the abilities are missing good feedback, for example the swing feels like a pool noodle with the complete lack of impact other melee characters have. It also swings at a weird angle that means you can occasionally miss short enemies you are aiming directly at, which comes up very rarely on later stages but sets a sour tone on earlier ones. I like some of the ideas such as getting more health regen per charge on their secondary skill, but the numbers feel out of line and it also feels weird when you consider that's their main way of targeting flying enemies. It's hard to not compare them to Paladin, a modded survivor that shares some similarities but feels more polished.


**New alt path & final boss:**
I like the way the new path has it's own continued route that travels through a few stages in a row, but the new stages are not really functionally different from normal stages save from the fact that accessing the Bazaar will (presumably? didn't bother to check, I suppose) knock you out of the alt path. The running section on the final stage is annoying but okay, whatever, try not to think about the fact that Survivors of the Void has an entire new gamemode instead.

False Son is a pain. I get the idea was probably to attempt to make him difficult regardless of when you reach him (which didn't really work, btw), but the lightning bolts are irritating to dodge and irritating when you get hit because of the slowdown. And I do NOT care what the reasoning is, difficulty induced by disabling abilities is lazy. False Son hits a weird balance where you either have a build that trivializes him- many items I wouldn't expect to be able to immobilize him seem to work, such as Singularity Band, Tentabauble, etc... or alternatively the fight feels borderline unfair on certain survivors, a problem that is compounded by the fact that the portal to head to alt path seems to spawn most commonly on either stage 1 (where you are underleveled and it is not impossible to clear on Monsoon but certainly quite difficult), or much later (where you are likely overequipped and quickly smoke him). Accessing the alt path through the shrine is fine, it's just that the spawn rate of it seems oddly weighted (or is at least low enough that I've had weirdly polarized luck with it), and the elite monster that spawns at the end of it is a great segway to talk about the new enemies.

**New enemies and elite types:**
Easily the worst additions overall. The new enemies are all annoying for one reason or another. Whether it be teleporting away, frequently tunneling underground and becoming invulnerable for irritatingly long periods of time, or having weird hitboxes that persist after they should have been disabled even post patch... ugh. But the elite types are the worst of it. Halcyonite elites do nothing but slow the game down with their damage reduction and money draining, and Twisted elites can easily randomly end your looping run by reflecting damage across the whole map if you aren't quite overpowered enough. These are the biggest case of *subtracting* from gameplay that was already there and I cannot fathom why either were allowed into the game.


In conclusion: I'm glad they're fixing bugs relatively quickly. But it still stings that they were allowed in to begin with, and ultimately even with almost no bugs I would still be unsatisfied with what I got for the cost, and while I don't want to pretend SotV was a flawless launch either, it leaves me concerned with where the IP will be going from here under Gearbox's control.

it's such a simple gimmick that makes this game so interesting and I'm completely addicted...

love the attention to detail too, the minor story segments and dialogue during runs are some of my favorite. Lines that require specific synergies to see are objectively a minor thing but I find them super cool!

I want to be able to pokemon-battle the lofi spirits while I'm on a break

Charming art style, fun puzzles, short and sweet. Easy recommend especially for the current sale price!

A bizarre experience with ubiquitously great humor. Hard to describe but worth playing! Is quite short though... don't regret the buy but 100%'d in about 2 hours.

I love this game but it's impossible to get anyone who doesn't already know the chaos it devolves into to play it with me.

Phenomenal story, beautiful graphics, fantastic controls, great level design, excellent music... I'm not even generally a platformer player and this is still easily my favorite game of all time.

I loooooove the art style. Both the animations and models are adorable. The controls are simple but work pretty well (at least for Dadish, the Burgergular is a little rough). The possum and subsequent screech was unexpected and cute.

However,

In general I didn't really like the level design. Many of the obstacles and traps are complete non-threats, and some are not synced to level start and will be out of sync on subsequent attempts (which is especially irritating on the Crash style stages) although the game is quite easy in general and that felt somewhat intentional to me so that's probably okay. The secret stars hidden in each stage were almost all very uninteresting.

Dialogue (particularly the conversations between Dadish and the baby radishes at stage end) hits an uneasy middle-ground where it's definitely not funny but it's also not quite in dad joke territory where the quips are worth an eye roll, I really wasn't a fan of any of them besides "what is the soup of the day".

I found the bosses to be bland, easy, and slow. Nearly all of them are more or less solved by walking in a straight line the entire time.

Music is okay but nothing to write home about and I found it a little repetitive even though the worlds are only a few stages each.

$15 feels really steep to me, especially for a game this short.

There's no penalty for leaving teammates for dead and yet they'll come back for you every time. No dwarf left behind.