[2.4] Luigi's Fight For The Mushroom Kingdom

[reghrhre]

Okay how about this, it's more than obvious that I won't remove the falling sequences so how about we let the users decide. I'm pretty sure you're the only person that's bothered by it but if there's a decent amount of users who are annoyed by it also then I'll remove them. Yep, I'm not gonna do some majority vote thing, I'm only gonna do a "if there's a decent amount of users who agree with you" thing. What number will fit in that category? Idk. Sounds fair enough? I dont mind removing it despite the fact i might not sound like it, but at the same time your reasoning isn't convincing at all and the falling sequences aren't even bad. I'll add a poll about this sooner or later.

As for the bosses, I was both satisfied and unsatisfied with most of them and i agree with what you said about all of them and will most likely do what you mentioned, I definitely know some aren't too good and they need changing for sure. Reason why they require lots of waiting is because I felt they were just too short if it contained just 1 or 2 phases. But now I think about it, it's probably not really a bad thing also.

[reghrhre]

So guys... anything else that you think needs to be fixed? Or did none of you play this

[Radishl]

So guys... anything else that you think needs to be fixed? Or did none of you play this

The ending

[reghrhre]

Be more specific. What about the ending needs to be fixed exactly?

[Imaynotbehere4long]

So guys... anything else that you think needs to be fixed?

1) The intro

Spoiler: show

The intro level shouldn't force the player to die. If you wanted a realistic death effect, sprite-swap a Jump AI Parakoopa.

Speaking of the intro, the text afterward implies that world 1 through world 5 take place after the intro level...


But you have a duplicate version of the intro level after world 5 that shows this! You should change the intro's text so that it's obvious that the intro takes place after world 5 from the beginning; instead of saying that Luigi went on a 5 hour journey, then returned to the intro level (because that just makes it more confusing, especially for first time players), say that he lost consciousness and began to dream about how he ended up in that situation in the first place. In retrospect, I see what you were trying to imply with the intro level's narration, but I can say from experience that the player won't interpret it the way you intended.

2) The ending:

What about the ending needs to be fixed exactly?

The problem that everyone except you seems to notice about your ending is that it's very abrupt and anticlimactic. On top of having gone through all of world 8 (which forces the player to kill Chase AI Paratroopa generators with noblockcollision=1, among other things *cough*Burglar John*cough*Blazing Glide*cough*), the player also just defeated practically every pre-programmed Boss AI in SMBX while dealing with a constant bombardment from an invisible Wart sprite-swap that can't be killed, and after that, the player went through an extremely unforgiving Golden Mushroom section, and the player had to do all of that in one life because the level doesn't have a checkpoint, and what's the player's reward? Text. No music is playing, no graphics are being shown (even the player's sprite is hidden from view); it's just text, then the default credits. This is the second-laziest way you could have ended the episode, just under having the default credits roll at the end of Denouement. Not only is it lazy, but it's also a huge let-down after all that the player has had to go through in order to reach it.

Imagine if you bought a game that became extremely difficult near the end, and once you finally beat the game, your only reward was a black screen of text, almost as though it was taken straight from the early NES days of game endings. That's basically the disappointment that SMBX players everywhere felt when they reached the end of your episode; the only difference is that, as fellow SMBX level creators ourselves, we know how lazy doing that is, and we know how easy it would have been to add, say, music and a cut-scene, and being let-down that much by one of our own may be the most disappointing thing of all.

[reghrhre]

You do know this is a game right? What kind of reward am I supposed to give the player? A $5 coupon to the library? Lol. And whoa sir, who said I wasnt aware that the ending is anti-climatic? Dem assumptions. I definitely rushed it since I wanted to release it ASAP; I'll work on making the ending more appealing.

[Radishl]

You do know this is a game right? What kind of reward am I supposed to give the player? A $5 coupon to the library? Lol. And whoa sir, who said I wasnt aware that the ending is anti-climatic? Dem assumptions. I definitely rushed it since I wanted to release it ASAP; I'll work on making the ending more appealing.

Not money, we as gamers or any human being plays games with story to get a sense of progression to the eventual ending, which is closure to the whole game itself and makes the player feel as if he actually completed something for a reason. Bad endings give a feeling of emptiness and that just adds insult to injury after an intense and cruel final world.

I say give the ending more closure and clear up mysteries and other things like that.

Why do you think most people watch the final boss and ending of a game more than they watching a whole play through of all the levels? Other than walk through purposes.

[reghrhre]

50% of that post was sarcastic you know that right? Of course I know the player ain't expecting money. Anyways don't worry, I'll work on the ending.

[Superiorstar]

(Spoilers)

Spoiler: show

To be honest I don't have a thing against the falling sequences I'm pretty sure it's just IMNBH4L. The final boss is fine but the ending where Luigi dies sucks, you just went through a literal hell in world 8 and that is the ending? what the heck is this fire emblem?

[reghrhre]

(Spoilers)

Spoiler: show

To be honest I don't have a thing against the falling sequences I'm pretty sure it's just IMNBH4L. The final boss is fine but the ending where Luigi dies sucks, you just went through a literal hell in world 8 and that is the ending? what the heck is this fire emblem?

Nothing wrong with having an ending you wouldn't expect in a Mario game.

Question time: So today I played through my episode and I felt that World 8 was the only world with difficulty that's way harder than it should be considering what world it is and that the other levels in the other worlds have levels whose difficulty fits in with the world besides a select few levels in certain worlds.
I probably didn't make sense whatsoever so what I mean is that the levels in World 8 are too hard for World 8 and that the levels in Worlds 1-7 feel like Worlds 1-7 in terms of difficulty except for a few certain levels in random worlds.

That probably make sense either, fuck, what happened to my English? I'm probably confusing myself probably. Anyways, besides World 8, do you guys think the levels in the other worlds were too hard for the world they were in or were they just fine? I thought they were fine but I guess it's because I practically know everything about every level since I created this episode after all, it's a different story when you play an episode you didn't make.

[Palisade]

Worlds 1 and 2 were average when it comes to difficulty. They weren't that hard, but it spiked from world 3 onwards.

[reghrhre]

I could probably understand World 5-8, but you thought World 3 and World 4 spiked up in difficulty? Idk, I thought the difficulty was fine for their worlds. Well, I guess I'll see what others think assuming they even bother posting here since no one ever does lolol

Oh yeah, I'm probably gonna be able to fix up everything mentioned in the first post by this week so you guys need to tell me what else needs to be fixed or forever hold your peace!!1

[Imaynotbehere4long]

you guys need to tell me what else needs to be fixed or forever hold your peace!!1

http://www.smbxgame.com/forums/v ... 320#p58412

I admit that there are a few extreme nitpicks there in retrospect, like the isolated blue coins and areas where secrets could have been, as well as mentions of problems that have already been fixed, but most of my points still stand. Plus, I've been quite busy recently, and I don't know if I'll be able to go through and reword the whole review in the time you're giving us.

I was, however, able to revise my review of the first world, so here are some first world problems for you to fix:

Spoiler: show

Because the dolphin buddies are Podobo sprite-swaps, they make the lava sound effect each time they land back in the water. A simple fix would be to have them sprite-swap playerblocktop=1 Jump AI Parakoopas and place a playerblock=0, playerblocktop=0, jumphurt=1, and nohurt=1 (<cancels the hurt from jumphurt, but prevents the player from colliding with the top as well) invisible doughnut block under it; that way, it still jumps, the player can swim in the water without colliding into any invisible blocks, and there's no annoying lava sound effect.

The platform should be on top of the sphere at the height of its rotation, not below it. Even in SMW, the platform didn't end up between spheres until the bottom of its rotation. The ones that only stay at the bottom are okay, but the ones that rotate should be moved up by one unit since they look awkward otherwise.

You should move this platform down by one unit so that the player has time to jump back up before falling into the water.

Wait, there's nothing up HERE? Seriously?? You even had the blocks there and everything! If you won't add a secret here, at least remove the blue blocks and fill that area with the green cave tiles so that this area doesn't seem so suspicious.

[reghrhre]

Oh, well if you're gonna reword your review then go ahead, I don't NEED to have this done soon anyways, it can be done any time. I also doubt there's much, if any people who want to play this next update soon anyways since no one's saying anything whatsoever so I don't need to rush fixing this up.

[Imaynotbehere4long]

Oh, well if you're gonna reword your review then go ahead, I don't NEED to have this done soon anyways, it can be done any time.

Well, the main reason I posted that is because you said we only had a week to say what needed to be fixed, and I know that I'm going to be busy until at least Thursday, and possibly into the weekend, meaning I wouldn't have time to reword my review in the time you've given me. I already had the revision of the first world's problems because I had already typed it on Jan. 24. If you're willing to wait until I can reword the rest of my review (which will probably take more than a week), or at least be willing to go back and fix what's in my reworded review if, when I post it, you've already uploaded an update, then that's okay. If not, go ahead and fix what I've pointed out in my original review (and, if you can still access it, the final part of my review that I only posted on your forum) that hasn't been fixed already.

[reghrhre]

Imaynotbehere4long: Oh, I guess I did say that huh? Well, I can wait nonetheless, like I said, I don't NEED to have this done soon so I can definitely wait on releasing an update so go ahead and take your time to reword stuff.
Also, I was reading this post and I was reading the part about the final boss of the game and I'm wondering do you find only the last phase of the boss hard or just the whole boss in general? Personally, I found only the last phase hard and the first 2 easy. Also, what would you recommend as a replacement for Blizzard Buffalo?

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(This is for everybody who's interested) In other news, I fixed everything mentioned in the first post of this topic inside of the "Things to be fixed" except for the "Stuff in this post 3" which I'll do some other time. Though I didn't do the "Give hints as to which levels have stars, or make it more obvious at least" as I did the star system mentioned here. Even though I still have some things to change/fix, I think you'll guys will like the new update, it'll either be a hit or miss. If anyone's interested, here's a changelog for what's changed so far.

Spoiler: show

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World 1
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- Made the boss fight at the end of World 1 easier

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World 2
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- Removed the star in 2-1
- There are blue coins if you go all the way left in Section 3 that were impossible to get in 2-1; they have been removed
- Moved the position of the 3rd Yoshi coin in 2-2
- Made it so the player can now exit the level with a Kuribo Shoe in 2-3 as I originally made it so the player enters a warp at the end of the level so they would lose it but they would regain the shoe after finishing the level which ruins the point of the warp
- Improved the boss in 2-4 by making the boss battle faster to complete and made it so you do more instead of practically standing there
- Made 2-8 easier
- Made it so you can't activate the platforms that you have to take after sinking the ships in section 2 of 2-8 as it can screw you over depending on the timing on when you step on whatever platform
- Made the boss fight after 2-8 faster to complete
- The Toad House in this world now has a Hammer Suit generator in the room that requires 1 star to enter (inside the Toad House)

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World 3
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- Removed the Hammer Suit in 3-2, 3-3, 3-5, and 3-7
- Made the boss at 3-6 faster to complete by making the Bomb Lakitus visible the whole time and by removing the Thunder Lakitus

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World 4
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- Removed the star in 4-1 and placed it in 4-7
- Removed a useless pipe in section 1 of 4-2 at the bottom right corner of the section which was originally supposed to lead to a secret but got removed a long time ago
- Changed up the boss in 4-3; now faster to complete and you do a lot more to beat the boss
- In section 2 of Vine Ascend there's a coin trail near the end of the level at the left that serves no purpose; it now has one.

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World 5
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- Removed the star in 5-1 and placed it in 5-4
- The first part of the message in 5-1 had a grammar issue
- Made 5-3 easier and made the Blue, Yellow, Green Flying Elite Koopas second form disappears if they get killed before reaching their 2nd form. There's a 0.1 second delay though so you'll see the 2nd form for 0.1 second then it'll disappear. I would've made them disappear instantly but I got run-time errors for some reason. All levels that have these types of Elite Koopas have been "fixed" as well
- Made 5-3 Part 2 (Bridge Skedaddle) easier
- I believe the player could get past the huge pit in the beginning of Skypop Hunt without using Peach. Didn't feel like testing it out so I just added Peach blocks to fix it if it was true

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World 6
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- Removed the star in 6-4 and placed it in 6-6
- 6-6 leads to both, the next level and a warp to World 2 upon beating the level

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World 7
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- The player can now go back to World 6 on the map as I originally made it so they couldn't once they reached World 7; they can also revisit the other World 7 levels as they couldn't originally as well after they took the warp pipe to the next level
- Made 7-2 easier
- Made it so the player can now exit the level with a Kuribo Shoe in 7-3 as I originally made it so the player enters a warp at the end of the level so they would lose it but they would regain the shoe after finishing the level which ruins the point of the warp
- 7-4 uses a better version of Bloody Tears (AKA, the song for the level)

===============
World 8
===============
- The player can now go back to World 7 from World 8
- All the levels in this world are easier and tolerable except for 8-1 which I didn't change whatsoever since it wasn't really hard especially compared to the other world 8 levels
- There were parts in certain levels where you MUST kill chasing AI Bullet/Banzai Bills to advance further; those parts have been removed
- Removed the boss fight in 8-6
- Worked on the falling sequence in the last section 8-7 so you have a higher chance of not getting hit by the Lava bubbles
- Made the last phase of the final boss easier
- Added a midpoint in 8-7

More changes to come

[Imaynotbehere4long]

do you find only the last phase of the boss hard or just the whole boss in general?

If by "last phase" you mean "Section 2," then yes. Section 1 was just a mess of get-hit-grab-the-power-up-win, but I already explained how, on top of those two terrible design choices, it's just lazy. Section 3 wasn't too bad, but the level throws the player into a "follow the coin trail" section with barely any warning (and the spam of rocks will likely cause the player to take damage a second time before falling into the warps). Plus, there's that one fireball bubble that's placed too close to the coin trail and that will cause all first-time players to get hit (I linked to the image on your forum, but if you can't access that post anymore, you won't be able to see it).

I see that you've made changes to that level, so I'll have to check it out.

Also, what would you recommend as a replacement for Blizzard Buffalo?

Gravity Beetle (I didn't even have to go to a different game to find a better song!). If you're wondering why I'm suggesting that, here's my reasoning:

Spoiler: show

Blizzard Buffalo's song is obviously unfitting for a lava stage because the song was composed to be fitting for a more icy stage. Because it doesn't fit with the location of the level, that couldn't be why you chose that song.

Moving on: in the part of the episode where Blizzard Buffalo's song plays, Toad just got kidnapped/killed by Burglar John, and since another fact about Blizzard Buffalo's song is that it sucks, the song was most likely chosen to fit the mood of the story at that moment, as listening to Blizzard Buffalo's song would make the player sad, just as Luigi is sad at the loss of Toad, although obviously for different reasons (at least, that's the only reason I can think of why you'd use that terrible song).

Simply put, the reason I think that Gravity Beetle's song is a good replacement is because it conveys this same theme of sadness without being a terrible song. However, pretty much any song that doesn't suck would be a good replacement for Blizzard Buffalo's theme, and that's my overall point (basically the same point I had with that Bloody Tears cover). With that said, here are two songs that should fit the theme of a lava level while still conveying a sad mood:

The reason I have both of these songs here is because Crisis City (Skyscraper) is more fitting for a lava stage, whereas Flame Core (the cavern) has a sadder tone. With that said, you might find Gravity Beetle's song to be more fitting than both of these suggestions.

- Made the boss fight at the end of World 1 easier

Wait, huh? The first boss didn't need to be made any easier than it already is. The only problem with the boss is that, at this part of the battle, Burglar John moves really slowly, forcing the player wait for him to move out of the way of the switch:

Spoiler: show

This exact same circumstance happened to me twice: once when I played the episode normally and again when I went back to test all of the bosses to make sure I got all of my criticisms right.

If that was also fixed when making the boss easier, then I'm okay with the change.

[reghrhre]

do you find only the last phase of the boss hard or just the whole boss in general?

If by "last phase" you mean "Section 2," then yes.

No, I meant the last part of the actual fight itself. (Spoilerized in-case people haven't beat the game and don't wanna be spoiled for whatever reason)

Spoiler: show

The last part of the fight where you fight Wario replacing SMB3 Bowser and Waluigi replacing SMB1 Bowser

*Stuff about the final level*

Looking back and playing the final level today, you are rather right about it being bad and lazy, I did rush it for sure. I'll have to work on it and probably come up with some different gimmick. As for the song, I feel the "Crisis City (Skyscrapers)" song fits best with the level so I'll be using that as a replacement for Blizzard Buffalo, not sure if I'll use that for 8-6 as well but we'll see.

- Made the boss fight at the end of World 1 easier

Wait, huh? The first boss didn't need to be made any easier than it already is. The only problem with the boss is that, at this part of the battle, Burglar John moves really slowly, forcing the player wait for him to move out of the way of the switch:

Spoiler: show

This exact same circumstance happened to me twice: once when I played the episode normally and again when I went back to test all of the bosses to make sure I got all of my criticisms right.

If that was also fixed when making the boss easier, then I'm okay with the change.

Idk, I felt the boss was a tad bit, too challenging for a World 1 boss. I mostly removed the Jelectros and removed the purple fish in the screen you posted and I think I messed with the time when the fish generate in some of the phases of the "fight".

[bossedit8]

This is just a huge nitpick I have but I only saw the purple Yoshi in the first World 2 Level and then... no Yoshis what so ever during gameplay. I do find it kind of weird that you won't earn any other Yoshis. Not even the green regular one. I might miss something but so far I only see one purple Yoshi in the whole wide world. Again, just a nitpick I have right there.

The rest, after I read through the whole changes, I personally don't really find anything of what this Episode Needs to Change anymore further in order to have a better Quality of the game.

Even then, I wish you good luck and I am looking Forward to Play the updated Version of this SMBX Episode.

[FanofSMBX]

Would you mind if you used LunaDLL? If so I volunteer to remake the peach-1 graphic with a correct hitbox.

Also you never gave me a resolution to this problem:

Why does lava make you lose a life for most of the game, but Luigi dies for real only at the end of the game? That doesn't make sense at all.