Incline Rain World

[HoboForEternity]

this game is pure evil. i probably died more in the first 10 hours of this game than the entirety of dark souls 2 and 3. yet there is just something so captivating about this game. the design is purposefully hostile and i can respect that. few of completely non power fantasy videogame out there.

the environment and creature design are gorgeous, unsettling, terrifying, brutal. this game is like shoving a cactus up your ass, but it somehow feel good and making you crave more.

 

[HoboForEternity]

The game is really brilliant. It's hard af, but learning to use other creatures to your advantages is a cathartic AHA! Moment. Like in shoreline

creature

using the sea monkey/squid thing to jetski in water. Also when you learn the blue fruit with black outline (not the hanging one) becomes edible when you submerge them in water, etc.

The game is chock full of secret interactions that you learn by observing, experimenting but sometimes luck.

 

[HoboForEternity]

okay some of the areas are legit frustrating.

spoiler

the wall especially and the underhang. you can fall to death at every screen some enemies camp in bottleneck points right after the area transition hole. i did not find these areas too fun to explore.

But at least i can communicate now.

lore

so i don't know much yet since i just got the ability to talk, and there's like 2 NPCs that can talk so far. Turn out the game is basically just buddhism, at least heavily inspired by it. The whole gameplay is basically samsara and i thought the plot is just about finding your family, but five pebbles said go to the arrays to escape this cycle. Dunno is the death and hibernation thing is literal cycles, like you really are revived after each death , , or five pebbles is referring to life in this shithole in general.

I talked with looks to moon too and brought her the nearest pearl. These people probably somehow digitized themselves into a robot body and made themselves immortal, which because the whole buddhism theme, this is a big mistake, shit happened. The lore is intriguing but collecting those pearl is a pain in the ass because everything is pain.

 

[Tweed]

Climbing The Wall is a bitch, but it can save a lot of time if you want to visit 5P without wasting time going to Moon first, it's also a hell of a lot less frustrating than trying to get through Unfortunate Development. The upper half is above the rain line too so that gives you a little more time, but you really don't want to hang around. The Underhang is nowhere near as bad once you figure out how grapple worms work, the only real danger is getting cornered by orange lizards.

Spoiler

Who communicate telepathically so when one sees you, all of them do.

 

[Lagole Gon]

So I understand this is BROapproved?
I'm thinking about getting it on GOG.

 

[Hag]

So I understand this is BROapproved?
I'm thinking about getting it on GOG.

It is one of a kind, very alien, very unique. Difficult, uncompromising, but of a beauty and life that you will not find elsewhere. Very well worth a try, if only for its incredible animations and environments.

 

[ItsChon]

Started a playthrough as the Monk. Seems like I fucked up and skipped a load of shit as I went from the Industrial Complex to the Shaded Citadel. Regardless, should be easy enough to backtrack through. My question is, should I keep playing as the Monk or reroll as Survivor?

 

[Üstad]

It seems like one of those games codex slept on. Will update this post after I play this game, hopefully I'm not wrong about it.

 

[Elthosian]

Currently doing a co-op Survivor playthrough with my wife and it has been a blast, it's definitely not for everyone but I can't describe it as anything else than a one-of-a-kind gem. Just don't go in expecting a typical Metroidvania where you get upgrades. More often than not, the rewards boil down to getting better at the game and discovering new areas/wildlife/mechanics.

Started a playthrough as the Monk. Seems like I fucked up and skipped a load of shit as I went from the Industrial Complex to the Shaded Citadel. Regardless, should be easy enough to backtrack through. My question is, should I keep playing as the Monk or reroll as Survivor?

Some of the wildlife doesn't appear in Monk, and honestly, interacting with wildlife is one of the best parts of the game, so I'd say it's worth rerolling as Survivor.

 

[Üstad]

Currently doing a co-op Survivor playthrough with my wife and it has been a blast, it's definitely not for everyone but I can't describe it as anything else than a one-of-a-kind gem. Just don't go in expecting a typical Metroidvania where you get upgrades. More often than not, the rewards boil down to getting better at the game and discovering new areas/wildlife/mechanics.

Started a playthrough as the Monk. Seems like I fucked up and skipped a load of shit as I went from the Industrial Complex to the Shaded Citadel. Regardless, should be easy enough to backtrack through. My question is, should I keep playing as the Monk or reroll as Survivor?

Some of the wildlife doesn't appear in Monk, and honestly, interacting with wildlife is one of the best parts of the game, so I'd say it's worth rerolling as Survivor.

Should I go blind or read some shit before playing?

 

[Elthosian]

Currently doing a co-op Survivor playthrough with my wife and it has been a blast, it's definitely not for everyone but I can't describe it as anything else than a one-of-a-kind gem. Just don't go in expecting a typical Metroidvania where you get upgrades. More often than not, the rewards boil down to getting better at the game and discovering new areas/wildlife/mechanics.

Started a playthrough as the Monk. Seems like I fucked up and skipped a load of shit as I went from the Industrial Complex to the Shaded Citadel. Regardless, should be easy enough to backtrack through. My question is, should I keep playing as the Monk or reroll as Survivor?

Some of the wildlife doesn't appear in Monk, and honestly, interacting with wildlife is one of the best parts of the game, so I'd say it's worth rerolling as Survivor.

Should I go blind or read some shit before playing?

I'd say go in blind and sporadically check online resources or, even better, ask around here if something doesn't make sense (and trust me, some things won't). The feeling of discovery really adds to the experience and the game provides sufficient guidance early on so that it doesn't become frustrating quickly.

 

[Tweed]

Monk is a perfectly good primer for Survivor. Hunter is hard no matter what. I didn't get around to playing the others yet. Each one has a story in some fashion since they all arrive at different times and that includes the monk.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Hhhmm, is Tweed a slugcat?

 

[Elthosian]

Currently doing a co-op Survivor playthrough with my wife and it has been a blast, it's definitely not for everyone but I can't describe it as anything else than a one-of-a-kind gem. Just don't go in expecting a typical Metroidvania where you get upgrades. More often than not, the rewards boil down to getting better at the game and discovering new areas/wildlife/mechanics.

Started a playthrough as the Monk. Seems like I fucked up and skipped a load of shit as I went from the Industrial Complex to the Shaded Citadel. Regardless, should be easy enough to backtrack through. My question is, should I keep playing as the Monk or reroll as Survivor?

Some of the wildlife doesn't appear in Monk, and honestly, interacting with wildlife is one of the best parts of the game, so I'd say it's worth rerolling as Survivor.

Should I go blind or read some shit before playing?

Forgot to mention this but there are a bunch of QOL enhancements you can turn on from the main screen. Be sure to do so as the vanilla game can get annoying at times.

 

[jimster]

I'm thinking about getting it on GOG.

It has a Steam Workshop, Idk if there's anything worthwhile.

 

[Elthosian]

Our co-op adventure through Rain World continues and it has quickly risen to become what I consider the best game released in the last 10-15 years, probably even more. I don’t remember a game that came after Metroid Prime 2 that engaged me this much; even Demon’s/Dark Souls and Hollow Knight feel unsophisticated in comparison.

We did half of our current run in vanilla mode but switched to using some of the QOL enhancements since, which gave us just the right dose of unguided discovery. Honestly, though, we could have just continued without the QOL stuff if we weren’t both working full-time. We’ve spent at least 30 hours just exploring 5 of the games’ 10-14 zones and it continues to deliver. This is how you fucking do enemy AI, mechanics discovery, itemization and level design, fellas.

 

[Tweed]

You left out choice and consequence. No matter which route you take to your destination there's trouble, you get to decide what kind of trouble and how fast you theoretically get to your destination.

 

[Terenty]

This is how you fucking do enemy AI, mechanics discovery, itemization and level design, fellas.

I'd also like to add that so called immersive seems (all of them) wished they had even half of emergent gameplay Rain World delivers.

 

[Elthosian]

This is how you fucking do enemy AI, mechanics discovery, itemization and level design, fellas.

I'd also like to add that so called immersive seems (all of them) wished they had even half of emergent gameplay Rain World delivers.

Half? Probably not even 10%.

A few days ago we were backtracking through the Canopy, I did a bad, overconfident jump across a ledge and fell to my death but...

gameplay mechanics spoiler

I was lucky to have the worm, so I stuck to the lower part of the platform. Sadly, this won't help in most situations as you can only swing up to 25 degrees below the x-axis. Vulture music started playing while my wife stood watching. We think "well, maybe the tongue will stick to the other slugcat", so she gets to the edge, and after a few attempts, wow, it worked! It seems she can pull me up! Alas, it's a very slow process. Vulture arrives, hope is lost, the motherfucker grabs me and my wife forgets to let go so it gets us both offscreen and we die.

The best part is that the "pulling up" mechanic actually works and saved us in a couple other situations where wildlife didn't show up. It's impressive how learning a new mobility/interaction mechanic in this game is comparable to unlocking it via upgrades in a traditional Metroidvania. It's even more impressive when you take into account that this game systems were developed without co-op in mind, so it's very well possible that the devs never thought of this specific scenario.

 

[lightbane]

It's really a shame that from what I remember playing, slugcats cannot attack in melee in order to artificially limit you. They can throw spears, yes (it took a patch or mods to let them learn to throw them in different directions other than horizontally), but they can't exactly stab with them IIRC. I think you can if you're very close to the enemy but I'm not sure if that's a bug or an intended feature.

At least from the new variations, one is capable of using weight as an attack of sorts, and another can use an explosive as a weapon.

 

[Elthosian]

It's really a shame that from what I remember playing, slugcats cannot attack in melee in order to artificially limit you. They can throw spears, yes (it took a patch or mods to let them learn to throw them in different directions other than horizontally), but they can't exactly stab with them IIRC. I think you can if you're very close to the enemy but I'm not sure if that's a bug or an intended feature.

At least from the new variations, one is capable of using weight as an attack of sorts, and another can use an explosive as a weapon.

There have been a few instances where I thought melee abilities would have been useful but, honestly, the slugcats look so frail and weak compared to other creatures that it would feel weird for them to be able to use slash or blunt weapons to hurt enemies. Keeping them to ranged attacks plays very well into the gameplay-narrative harmony. Maybe a spear-stab attack would have worked but you can kinda emulate that when fighting at very close range by quickly pressing the throw + pick up button, assuming you're good enough not to get killed instantly (which would apply even if you had a lil' sword or mace). Of course, we're playing survivor, so we usually avoid confrontation, but whenever we've needed or wanted to fight front-on it's gone well as long as we set up the environment properly: bringing enough spears, keeping a good throwable in the slugcat's belly and, of course, exploiting the behavior of other creatures.

The thing with throwing spears in other directions seems like a must but I think it's not in Downpour, I might look into that!

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You wouldn't notice until having playetd a lot with how sparsely it is used, but the soundtrack is niiiice. Hitting all the right Metroid feels there: