Difference between revisions of "Komuso Temple"

6/5 aesthetics tho?? OMG this level is amazing. It picks like 4 enemies and a single gimmick and makes a really great and creative level around them. The difficulty curve is excellent and makes sense, and the usage of the Tomahawk Man platforms is really great. The Noble Nickel rooms are hard but fair, and I really like the final stretch with the bajillion platforms, it's a reeally neat usage of them. Also this is gonna be like the one level I fangirl over the aesthetics because seriously this level looks amazing? It sets up a great atmosphere and having the moon and the parallax clouds and mountains during the boss fight is such a great touch. Seriously tho this level is awesome, it plays great, it's designed really well and it's overall just really nice. And all of it without any major custom assets! (Editors Note: Komuso Temple did not receive 6/5 Aesthetics)

That was a fun level! I really liked the Cave Story background and recolored Pharaoh Man tileset you used, it gave the level a sort of mystic feel to it. The boss room looked especially good! The Noble Nickels were fairly easy to find, but INCREDIBLY hard to actually get. The last room with all the platforms was a bit extreme compared to the rest of the level. It really could have done without the laser shooting enemy.

I looove this level! It's really scary, but ultimately not too bad to traverse, making the end of each room all the more rewarding. It also limits itself to a small toolkit which works with the theme and supports it. I find it kinda sad how most of this level's challenges, especially later on, can be pretty much trivialised with Sakugarne, but that's kinda missing out on the point. This stage, in my opinion, also works beautifully for Komuso Man himself. Dunno, to me he just seems like the kinda guy who'd put traps everywhere in his house. I feel like the level could've done a tiny bit more in terms of small optional areas for pickups or more with its platforming challenges, but regardless it feels super great to play and I like it a lot.

For a level filled with plenty of deadly traps that can only be avoided with precise movement, it's surprisingly not as bad as you'd expect. It doesn't give the level a pass though, as you would still end up constantly dying to the mediocre level design, especially when trying to get the Noble Nickels. Despite that, the stage looks beautiful and inspired, the boss fight is quite decent, and I still found myself enjoying parts of this level.

This is instant death done right folks. Also: How to take a single gimmick, and SQUEEZE it for all its worth. For a stage that's almost solely dev-kit, there's some really good stuff here: Absolutely perfect checkpoint placement, nice and challenging Noble Nickels, surprisingly varied platforming challenges considering the gimmick, a few really clever almost comical moments (the walker at the end there made me laugh due to sheer bizarreness.) Design wise, I cannot fault this stage very much. Your biggest hurdle is theming. Not enough was done to make this stage fit Komuso Man, the tileset, (Look up, say, a tileset for a dojo?) the enemy set and music did nothing to help, as they are all just very generic and not really thematic. This feeling of being generic applies to the stage also, as you could've put any robot master at the end. Still, you see the scores. This is almost a minor issue.

And, obviously, going by the name.. hello dev-kit boss! If this is how you pull off instant death, I'd love to see future stuff by you!