Ahw HELL no! I played up to the first part of AA. I'll get to the why of this outcry later on, hehe. TT ending stats:
108 HP
495 ATK
80 DEF
11180 GR (saving 'em all up, only got a few upgrades in BB and TT to kill Goblins/Tar Babies and Skippers/Water Elementals, respectively)
23/16/3/1 keys.
Alright, time for the comments (prepare! I have a lot to say).
The new room in GG is nice. Backtracking, (simple) mimic manipulation and a trap; it's all there. However, the reward seems a little extreme just for killing one mimic on oremites. I did it when I was at BB, which seems way too soon for me to earn 12 attack, 1200 HP and a skeleton key (which I used to bypass the first blue door in TT, for the shield! Very useful) just for a loss of 380 HP (two hits, bronze shield equipped).
Nothing at all to comment on SS, I like the Level, and how everyone has a different approach as to how much attack to get for the Golem. My personal: 79 attack (also saves a hit from the Neather on oremites for the blue key).
BB: The Bronze Shield is really, REALLY easy to get. By the time I got to the mimic guarding the door to the bottom area I had 121 attack, which was enough for me to only get 3 hits. The Soulless was also practically harmless, and with some planning I only took 26 damage from the hot tiles. Of course, it's a good setup, but it'll NEVER be worth killing Tar/Gel Babies to step on less hot tiles. Sorry to be a buzzkill for your nice setup, but I think a strong monster would be a better guardian for the shield.
On a side note: in retrospect, I don't even think the Wooden Shield is worth a blue key, in this version. It'll save you maybe.. 1000 damage? Before you get to the Bronze. And from everywhere in TT you can see that blue keys are worth a LOT more than 1000 HP.
For the rest, the Level is made pretty easy by the massive amount of ATK gems added in the bottom part. Goblins and Tar Babies can very soon be killed in two strikes, and the Tar Mother (the one without the brains) shouldn't even deal damage when you get to it. The HP sink (I never leave 6 ATK behind), however, is a really good way of draining the player of the massive amount of HP they've been able to stack up in this Level.
TT: The room I thought we would need a Grappling Hook for is in fact the simplest platform puzzle I've ever seen. Maybe you didn't intend for it to be that way, but I can get the rewards by moving only two platforms.
I like the Thunderbolt's new attack type. Whereas without an 'always attack in front, even when player hits with sword'-attribute they would be trivial, they are now worth avoiding, through using keys and/or killing other enemies.
It is worth noting that because of the large amount of extra ATK from previous Levels, it is now terribly easy to kill Tar Mothers, Fegundos, Waterskippers and even Water Elementals in one shot. I used the altar in this Level three times to get enough for the Waterskippers, after that it all came by itself.
Having said that, I certainly hope you didn't mean for us to kill the Adder and the Serpent
before moving on to AA. Even with my ending stats I would have taken around 7500 damage from the Serpent, and 4000 from the Adder. And that's only when I attack the heads, wasting valuable rewards.
The Egg, however, is significantly simpler now. Killing the brain at first, spending two green keys, allows me to kill both Souls for a combined 1160 damage, which saves me about 2000 damage in total. Still a good sink (almost had to upgrade HP again, because I rather keep keys over HP), but for players who tend to spend keys instead of HP, not that hard anymore. It might deserve a little toughening (maybe 2 or 3 extra pieces of fuse). That might have forced even me to use keys in some places instead of fighting.
AA: here I get to the reason I sound so angry at the beginning of this post. If you can't kill the Ice Warrior, you will have to leave your Speed Potion behind to get the Lucky Greckle! Now we know it's very simple to avoid this, just by placing an inventory slot in the room right of the Lucky Greckle room, but it's absolutely crucial, seeing as it's impossible to get back to SS after completing BB, to drop the Speed Potion before getting the Lucky Greckle.
And one more thing about AA before I stop, because I haven't played past the Lucky Greckle; maybe you're giving out a bit too many free ATK gems in this Level. By only opening doors that are in the direct way of progress, I can collect about 35 ATK. Of course, I haven't tested past this point, so I won't know if it will be compensated by later events.
All in all, I think you're doing a better job every update at achieving what you wanted this hold to be about: enjoyability rather than difficulty. I am enjoying every single second of playing this hold. The story (although not very complicated, still interesting), the puzzles, backtracking here and there, and challenges like the brained Tar Mother on BB and the Egg (and maybe the snakes? If so, I have a LOT of work to do! Yay. And I don't mean 'yay' sarcastically.) on TT, it's all great. So my conclusion is: keep up the good work!
Oh, P.S.: the scroll in AA: 3N might say 'person' instead of 'man'. I'm sure sharp women will find the solution too!
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Don't worry, be happy, and slice monsters. You'll probably do better than me at all three.
[Last edited by Midootje at 08-07-2013 12:13 AM]
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