Haha. I just got pass that on my first try like 5 min ago.Fuck that garbage bonus heart piece in Ruth's. I can get it to every single time. No problems. But it's the way back that gets me killed. It's so demotivating and lame.
Hopefully not too much of a spoiler, but keep progressing until you get the double jump.Decided to get this after watching half of the Giant Bomb quick look. Great game. I'm in the castle at the moment. I think I've missed some secret areas and what not from earlier because I was expecting to get access to the warp statues by now so I could travel back. I need to go back to the clock tower and the House of Ruth.
I wouldn't bother fighting the crab unless you have X-sword.
Oh, I see. In that case, it shouldn't matter if you leave, since it's easy to get back up to him. But you should be able to beat him using theExecutioner's Axe.
Wait, maybe you're talking about the guy with the floating shield, not the guy at the top of the Crystal Tower? In that case, you'll find it a lot easier if you go back and get the Explosion Fire magic. That's in theHouse of Ruth.
Do you by any chance have the Heavy Armor equipped?
You get so used to wearing it wouldn't suprise me if a lot of people went "wtf these jumps man".Do you by any chance have the Heavy Armor equipped?
Is this game actually an open map like a metroidvania? Or is it more like a mega man style linear stage progression?
Spent about seven hours on the game tonight. Loved it initially hence the gaming marathon but now it's getting just too damn hard. Retro hard. I'm in Windy Ruins and I'm completely stuck and unable to progress. Here's an outline of my predicament:
So there's a save point and then several rooms to clear that leads to the giant eye boss that fires projectiles at you. It's in the sequence with the chest that has the Torch. There's a save point then those several screens. By the time you get to the giant eye boss the enemies and hazards have depleted your health so you have like two bars remaining and then of course it's instakill at the boss. Also I had the Moon Bow equipped and my arrows fired at the boss did zero damage. Help anyone?
For reference I've been using a guide and backtracking to get additional HP boosts and items and so on. The game is pretty fucking awesome but my God is it hard. I haven't played a game this hard since I owned a NES back in the nineties but I guess that was the developer's objective? Shovel Knight I'd class as challenging. This my God is just hard.
Is there a specific upgrade I'm missing? Do I need more HP or something?
Go get the dream armor (buy the 20k dreamstone and go sleep at the inn) and gungnir (13k, the seller is in the section before windy ruins).. if you need money, farm the purple boxer that opens its mouth to shoot a crescent beam, that's what I did, and it didn't take too long to get enough money for both (I was at 17k to start with, though).
With these two things, it's cake.
Thank you! Followed your advice and got the Dream Armor. I also backtracked massively (outlined in my earlier post) to the levels I missed on the way to Windy Ruins. I boosted my HP gauge by a factor of 10 so when I hit Windy Ruins again I'll have massively boosted armor and health. The task now is to get that super sword you mentioned so I can tear through the enemies on the way to that boss. I think that might be enough for today (played for hours now). Love this game but it's seriously hard. The challenge however is what makes it addictive.
It's a beyond impressive effort for just one developer. Close to Shovel Knight in quality.
I agree, but I feel the game feels more like a light-la mulana than Shovel Knight, which had a much more smaller team. Also some Battle Kid vibes too, and there's even a reference to that game I believe, as there's a corpse or skeleton that's named Timmy at some point. Unless that references something else?
Anyway, you mentioned The Cave of the Great White Ape? I'm not sure I've went there, the name doesn't really ring a bell, is that the ice cave?
Yeah it's just the ice cave that you access via the The Cave of Serpents. The short ice level where you have to fireball the frozen enemies. If you've been to the ice cave then you would have been there. I can't believe how many levels I missed on the way to Windy Ruins. I was thinking last night after I finished my marathon play session (God I love this game) about why I found the level so difficult but if you compare the stats I had at the time compared to the stats I probably should have had:
First run. Attack (Moon Bow): 4. Defense (Green Tunic): 4. HP: 26.
Second run: Attack (Gungnir): 10. Defense (Dream Armor: 7). HP: 38.
It's just no wonder I found the level impossible. Missing all those levels complete with their HP upgrades made me extremely weak for a level that late in the game. I should have known when I saw the save file showing 30% completion at Windy Ruins which is quite late in the game. The save file now shows 60%. Anyway it's an amazing game. So much better than I thought it would be. It's the first game of its kind I've enjoyed since Shovel Knight. I know the games as you say are quite different but the platforming mechanics and RPG-style upgrades are very similar.
Just love these kind of games. Reminds me of my childhood when I played Wonderboy in Monster World.
I'm watching the (short) end credits and still baffled basically one guy made this incredible game.
Makes it sad when you realize AAA companies like Konami won't try out another sprite-based sidescrolling Metroidvania for PC or PSN/XBL.
Did you start the Sorcerer's quarter? It has me raging, ugh! I went back to do the Torture Chamber, but I stopped playing before I managed to make my way back.
As for Wonderboy in Monster World, look out for Monster Boy (creator of the original Monster World is working on it), which should release this year (or early next year), formerly on Kickstarter as Flying Hamster II if you like those kind of games.
Monster Boy is definitely on my radar. Massive fan of the Monster World series so I seriously can't wait to hear more about that one. I have the thread subscribed just in case any news comes out.
As for the Sorcerer's Quarter it too had me raging at my control pad. There are two paths (one leading to the crab boss and one leading to the finale) and both are equally infuriating. Whilst Windy Ruins could simply be completed by just getting some upgrades Sorcerer's Quarter is hardcore spike-laden retro platforming action and whilst I managed to reach both bosses and the "thank fucking God" warp point just before the final boss the level was that frustrating it kind of changed my opinion on the game.
I still think Castle in the Darkness is one hell of an achievement particularly for just one developer and a good game overall. However Sorcerer's Quarter was the point where I decided the difficulty is ramped up way too high. I've been hearing complaints that the level design and spike placement is "mean" and I think that's the perfect way to describe it. It feels like the levels are designed to kill you rapidly in every screen. Save points help but sometimes they're intentionally spaced way too far apart so you're dying repeatedly via trial and error before successfully completing an area.
Shovel Knight is challenging. This game is just hard. Some of the endgame bosses are just impossible even with a maxed out character (crab boss in Sorcerer's Quarter, Guardian at the top of the Crystal Tower). So yeah I think ultimately I'm done with the game. I stopped enjoying it at some point around the endgame. It was fun while it lasted but the difficulty spiked way too high for the remainder of the game to be enjoyable.
On a more positive note the developer is planning DLC and content updates so I'm excited for those.