Just finished
Reventure. What starts out as a pixel platformer where you're the Hero trying to save The Princess from the Dark Lord quickly turns into something else as the game dares you to try to find all 100 endings to the game.
The main gimmick of the game is that the more items the Hero carries, the shorter his jumps become, which thereby limits freedom of movement. (One of the endings involves picking up too many things BTW.) This quickly becomes a literal ball and chain around the game, as certain 'runs' for endings require combinations of two (or more) items, and eventually the player has to plan a needlessly complex route through the game world to get the more elusive endings.
But that's late-game worries, the start of the game is more care-free and open. The absolute high-point of the game is the writing and humor, the devs not only had to come up with 100 different endings, but write justifications to annul each one so that the adventure can continue. Let's just say this adventure takes a little longer than most people expect (in-world time, in real time I beat the game in 7.5 hours). The humor and sillyness of the writing goes a long way establishing a positive vibe for this game.
A notable feature is that the game tracks how many endings you've completed, then tells you how many other Reventure-players had gotten as far as you had. This proved interesting as there is a considerable drop-off once you get to around 30 endings found, and it gets worse until the very end. How many Reventure-players had reached the end? ~5.68% (the number seemed to change slightly from game to game). That's a low number... but then again the novelty starts wearing off around mid-game and the late-game is frankly just annoying. What bothered me about this is the fact that the game uses telemetry in the first place, I don't think it belongs in a game unless absolutely necessary, which is almost never.
There's an in-built hint system of sorts. Hint-scrolls can be found which will unlock a hint for an undiscovered ending. Two further items are later made available after the player unlocks a set number of endings, a compass that points the player towards the 'scene' of the ending, and then the map will show where the scene is. The problems with this are several: The map is merely a silhouette of a part of the gameworld, when a full-blown map would be FAR MORE useful. So if an ending is someplace underground, it is completely up to the player to find the way there. Another problem is that many of the endings are centered on the Hero itself, for which both aide-items become useless. Ending #47 only has the clue to "end yourself", and while many endings require the death of the Hero, this one goes way beyond that. (The answer to this one actually lies in the Main Menu. Use the cursor-keys and not the mouse to navigate it.)
What this game essentially boils down to is a playing style that infuriates me: Unlocking stuff to progress. I want to say that the Reventure-devs know that this is not a viable long-term strategy for a game, but by the time I unlocked the last few endings I had simply had enough, but since I was so close I wanted to see what the final ending was like... and then it dumps a veritable shopping list of "post-game content" for me to deal with. But at least some of the stuff that unlocks was neat: The Hero changes appearance numerous times throughout the game, and soon a Wardrobe is unlocked permitting the player to change the Hero's appearance... and then to change the Hero's name... and then to change the Princess's name, and finally the Dark Lord's name. I quickly changed his name to
DarkUnderlord to make the game's trolling feel more genuine.
As I got the game for $3 during a sale, I can't say I feel ripped off, but I feel relieved that I beat it, because I know I'll never play it again. If you need a timewaster and like platformers you can't go wrong with picking up this one for a sale, but if you dislike indie pixel-games then there's no loss in skipping it either.
A short spoiler-lite guide to help people along:
# If an item 'interacts' with people, try using it on
everyone you meet. The sword "interacts" with people, for example...
# The shield, however, does not. Find enemies that will attack you and approach them while holding it.
# There's an opening in the shopkeeper's ceiling, use the Clawhook to get up there. Use the item you find on each of the three cannons in the game.
# There are
many places to drop off a princess.
# Two useful mechanics to know are the 'cliffhanger jump' and the 'minion stack'. The former is the fact that you can jump in the few fractions of the second you fall off a platform, essentially allowing the player to jump upwards past a block. The second is the fact that a minion's head can function as a makeshift step-ladder. You will need to learn both to complete the game.
# To make it easier to travel around the land, I'm gonna spoil ending #72 right away: Take the princess to the item-sacrificing altar. The resulting world-change is just too beneficial to be ignored for most of the game.
# One of the most important (and most annoying) rooms in the game is called 'The Pit'. It's designed to funnel the player into a trap where he gets swarmed by minions. But worse than that, it's a natural chokepoint for late-game content, meaning you'll have to cross this room far more often than you'd like. Best get used to it straight away (and find the secret passage that doubles as a short-cut to your house).
