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Ressurflection

Ressurflection’s core theming draws from our inevitability of fearing death, and that at some point or another, we all must accept it


Oh, those are fighting words, my friend. I'll definitely have to give this a look when it's finished.

(If this theme interests you, you might like I Miss the Sunrise.)

Fleuret Blanc.

Doesn't free Fraps only allow short clips, though? I'm also not sure how well it picks up sound. Plus my current main computer is a piece of crap that chokes and dies just trying to play RM games normally... but maybe one day! I really do love this game and I'd love to be able to share it with people. If nothing else, it'd be nice to have videos of every scene on record somewhere on the internet -- that's something I take for granted with a lot of video games, I think.

Fleuret Blanc.

There's not a single Let's Play for this? D: That is a tragedy! If I had good recording software I'd make one myself, but they all cost money.

Fleuret Blanc.

That's a problem with Windows Vista, I believe.

A Very Long Rope to the Top of the Sky

I'm a little surprised Sanctuary is getting lag


Wait, you are? I didn't say anything, but it was super laggy for me too. Mainly just the first hub area, though.

Soma Spirits

author=Solitayre
Response to argh above, hidden for ending spoilers:

I felt like the true ending was totally in line with the game's message, balance needed to be maintained and one side overpowering the other would obviously lead to catastrophe. A world of all joy and no responsibility sounds like it would be unworkable to me.

I also felt it was clear that neither Form NOR Dissonance could be trusted. Believing Form was good because she praises you and wants happiness while Dissonance yells at you and wears a bad guy outfit was a trap. Just me take.



Oh, obviously yes, textually, both of them are evil maniacs who are not to be trusted. What I object to is the fact they were made to be omnicidal untrustworthy maniacs in the first place, instead of rational individuals who could make reasonable points. I agreed with her on a theoretical level even if what she wanted in practice was monstrous.

It's just... when I heard this game was about nuance and respecting all points of view, I didn't expect the ending to be "only one point of view is right". It may be the most tolerant point of view overall, but it's still pretty myopic to present it like that.


Explaining all my reasons why would take an essay, though, so I'm going to save it for a review.

Oh, also it felt like there were a few questions from the demo that were never answered.

Why does Acre flash and act really weird before his boss battle? Soul explicitly points out that there's something strange about that, but it never comes up again. I assumed the big reveal was that the instability didn't happen naturally and the villain actively destabilized things, but that never panned out.

It's also never explained what "shifting" into one world or another really means -- like, are the characters in each world literally the same person, just different facets of their personality? In that case I don't see what's so bad about destroying one world or another, since that shouldn't actually kill anyone. Wouldn't the personalities just get folded into the other?

Soma Spirits

Sorry for the double post, but I've now seen all five endings and beaten the superboss, so this should be the last bug report.


-Small flower in Joy Chasm: "I bet were gonna get along great!"
-Candy duo in Sorrow Chasm: "Sorry, but I didn't bring a ticket" has the punctuation chopped off by the message box.
-"This one is pretty obvious to me" has a weird gap
-Shaydo confrontation: "Oh(missing comma) it's you!"
-After delivering sorrow to Form, she says "fourth time's a charm", but isn't this the fifth time?
-Confrontation between Form and Dissonance (3/3 split): "You big whiny, baby!" That comma should be after "big" instead, I think?
-"Their conflicting emotions is what drives them to anger"
-After the Sunny/Lunar battle, Lunar says "Oh...." with four dots.
-Retribution does not consume True Strike.
-Sorrow choice in Box World if you already picked Sorrow for Acre: "What will happen if we keep taking denying people the right to be sad?"
-On the Ending 3 route, Glacia still acts like she thinks you're trying to stop her after the Glacial Golem battle.
-Soul's warning in Maltose Mines: "Maybe I'm just imagining things (missing comma) but I feel like something awful will happen if we do this once again."
-Four sorrow orbs collected in temple: "Ah, you did not think saving the world would be as easy as collecting some trinkets for me now, did you?" The comma should be before the "now", I believe.
-Choosing Sorrow for Shaydo in the World Without Sorrow path results in Shaydo using his Joy portrait at one point in the cutscene.
-In the Temple cutscene with five sorrow orbs, Heart's reversion animation occurs over Soul instead.
-When preparing to fight Form, Heart says "Soul and I will stop him together"
-The Goddess Ring does not increase Mind.
-Form EX battle win: "I will see you both in hell!" When referring to the singular place, "Hell" is capitalized (since it's a name)
-Are the status effect spells supposed to kill Oozie Princes so easily?
-Ending 4 pre-Form battle: "Come out (missing comma) Form!"
-Same thing happens with Dissonance
-Ending 2 pre-Dissonance battle: "A sharp an eye as ever..."
-Ending 4 stinger: "With Form defeated, (weird space) everything..."
-World Without Joy path: Glacia says "D- not think I will go down without a fight!"
-Catastophe is under Power, not Spirit. (Are there any other special spirit powers or are Dark Nova and Catastrophe it?)
-Sorrow garden before final battle: Lettuce says "No charge, big heros" when offering the drink.
-Oakley's screen still has colored flowers.
-Some attacks seem to reflect back on the user at random? Some Spookys in the Chasm seemed to attack themselves, and now Dissonance Z just killed himself with a Gravity Void. I was pressing Z to fast-forward text in both these cases, if that has anything to do with it.
-The "start New Game+ without saving" options are mixed up; "Yes" goes back to the save prompt.


Also...

How does Heart summon fire in the Maltose Mines on the World Without Sorrow path? If he's now strong enough to use Power skills in the World of Sorrow, that's not reflected in the gameplay.


For anyone collecting data on the choices, I chose to

let Shaydo be free. To be honest the choice felt kinda weird. I don't see any reason at all to force him to move on; he's not hurting anyone. If you do force him, Heart gives the cliche spiel about our time being limited and there's no way he can see the whole world, but... ghosts are immortal??? He totally can. I'm not sure what the dilemma was supposed to be.


I feel like gameplay tutorials should probably be skipped on NG+. It would also be nice to have an easier way to avoid encounters, like if they ran away from you on the map at high levels.

Sword Dance seems more powerful than Pummel; Sword Dance does ~50 damage per hit for me for a total of 200, while Pummel does ~20 damage per hit for a total of 180. Is the balance that misses are less of a big deal and there are more chances for criticals?

(And there are no new skills after Sword Dance and Pummel, yes?)

Now that I've finished it, I have to say...

Calling the balanced ending "true" feels really off-message. All it means is that instead of following Form or Dissonance, you followed Oakley. My own conscience and decisions led me to believe that Form was right and Joy was the way to go, not that balance was necessary. You made a big deal in all the advertising leading up to the release that this was a story about there being no objectively wrong or right decisions, but the true ending topples that. To truly uphold that principle, every ending should have been a valid choice. After all, if there are valid arguments for supporting either option in the individual choices, there should be valid arguments for choosing one side in the aggregate sum of them. By dictating to the player that no, you're not being logical and you're only motivated by arrogance and emotion, you're robbing the player of agency. Extremism is often scary, but it can be valid and it deserves the right to be reasoned with fairly instead being branded as complete lunacy that only horrible people would ever agree with. It all comes across as extremely preachy, which I was really hoping was something this story would avoid.


It also seems thematically bizarre that the evil weapons are the best ones. The thing that's supposed to be a cross to bear is the awesome thing that helps me commit more sins, and is better than the rewards I get for playing nice? If the player knows this in advance and only pursues the bad endings for more power you could do something clever with that, but that's not really how it plays out.

Soma Spirits

Though something like that would be pretty significant and not something I could patch in overnight, so if I do end up needing to update the game down the road it's something to keep in mind.


Oh, of course. Take whatever time you need.

Actually just managed to power through the Maltose Mines, too. Bugs:

-The graphics for the cart tracks don't change when the switches are used, which is a bit confusing.
-The stair connected the first and second floors of the mine are accessible in the World of Sorrow, but don't do anything.
-Something weird seems to be going on with the levers and their corresponding switches. The upper-left one on the second floor (the one only accessible in Joy) turns the one directly south green, but effectively seems to change the far-right track. The lower-right lever only accessible in Joy turns the one directly north green, but doesn't seem to make it act differently.
-If you deliver sorrow to Form: "Continue to deliver these sphere to me so that I may purify them."


I chose to

make the foreman let go. It was a pretty easy choice for me, since I'm not a sentimental type and believe pretty firmly that conscripting other people to help with your personal and possibly dangerous goals is wrong. I feel it's cheapened a little by the ring being right there if you choose to approach in Sorrow -- in that case there's not much to be gained by crushing his dreams, since he would have stopped anyway. The damage has already been done. I still stuck to my choice on principle, though.

Also... kinda disappointed you did such a standard man-motivated-by-woman's-death thing. It would have worked better if you gender-flipped it, I think...

Soma Spirits

Finally finished Freezing Fjord.

Bugs & things:

-The boulder in the starting town disappears if you talk to him from the south or west after clearing Box World.
-"Where ever this snowperson go his hat..." - 'Wherever' is one word.
-The snow oozie: "It won't attack you (missing comma) so feel free to admire it."
-When the Key of Spring is introduced, the wizard calls it the "Key Of Spring", with the "of" capitalized.
-Sorrow Fjord choice: "There are many plants and animals that will not see the light and day without spring." Usually, it's "light of day". Intentional?
-"I'm sure that's what you, and the old wizard, wants to see."
-"With the Key of Spring, (weird gap) you two..." Only in the Sorrow version, though.


I chose to

let spring come, but I was pretty confused about the situation. Will the snowpeople die permanently 100% stone cold dead if the thaw comes? Everyone seems to be acting like they'll only go into hibernation, which does make Glacia's desire seem pretty selfish to me, since eternal winter means organic life does die for real. Yet when I chose to end the winter, Heart & Soul just went on about natural order and acted like the animals would have just had to spend more time in hibernation instead of dying. I'm also unclear how far the eternal winter extends -- Glacia's pre-battle taunt implies it's currently contained to the Fjord, which would make it more reasonable, since then she's not destroying the entire world, just sectioning off one chunk of it.


Also, a request: I'm playing the game in little spurts, so it often takes me days to get through one area, which can make it hard to remember all the details of the situation. It might be nice to have some feature that lets you review the situation and what choices you have right before the boss. This could also be used to clear up any lingering questions like the ones I had.

Soma Spirits

Could you release new versions as patches instead of just full downloads, by the way? Since the folders always have different titles I have to move my saves every time. Unless it's only the rgss3 file that changes and it's safe to just extract that?