• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Volgarr the Viking |OT| RISE, 16-BIT HARDCORE NOSTALGIA!

VandalD

Member
Yikes the (Ending A related spoiler)
7th stage is weird. What triggers the orbs to start following you? I know the javelin will make them teleport behind you but it seemed like they would randomly start chasing me down. I didn't have many lives to experiment there since I tried (and failed) to get to the second airship in the hard level of world 5.
It felt like just a time related thing. If you were on the same screen as one for too long, it'd just come after you.
Quoting for the new page.
 
Oh, COME ON.

2qYeGOk.png
 
I lucked out on the second boss this time and had a good run where I made it to the fourth boss on Valkyrie path.

I actually made it to the third boss on my first life, it was great.

Then I bumbled up pretty bad and spent six lives on the second half of level three.

I think you can cheese this by throwing a spear into the left side of the stones your're standing on, stand on it and throw spears at his head.
You have enough time to rush him in one go without needing to jump a second time.

But my first encountered was panicked.
 

jett

D-Member
Second boss is totally kicking my ass, can't find a good pattern on him.

This game's great btw, digging the difficulty. I may end up replaying Super GnG some time soon too. :p
 

KarmaCow

Member
A Ending Get!
(I have no idea how people got <30 mins and a fairly high score in the leaderboards)

The last boss looked pretty awesome but he was fairly easy. His attacks are way too telegraphed but at the same time I kinda want to see a speed run of him. I barely used javelin on his hands but he does give you a lot of time to set them up.

I think I'm done for a bit though I'll probably go back and try to find all Mjolnir powerups. I really suck at the last level so I doubt I'll ever attempt a 1CC. Anyone have any good links to speed runners trying this out?

This was probably the second best blind purchase I've made this year (next to Antichamber). Good on Crazy Viking Studios and Adultswim.
 
(I have no idea how people got <30 mins and a fairly high score in the leaderboards)

The value of the boss' treasure is determined by how quickly you finish the stage. Running through the game as quickly as possible will more than make up for ignoring enemies and treasure chests... I'm not sure if I like that.
 

Dice

Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
I think you can cheese this by throwing a spear into the left side of the stones your're standing on, stand on it and throw spears at his head.
What you call cheese I call intelligent strategy. Evil creatures don't deserve an honorable battle.
 
Got the worst ending and it feels good. It turned out the 2nd boss really was the hardest (or at least most annoying) part of the game. The rest of the bosses are all fun, although of course getting to the boss intact is the main attraction.

Love the game, but I don't feel like trying to figure out how to get endings B and A myself. Can anyone explain it or link to an explanation?
So far I know you need to get warrior's souls and beat a level to unlock the alternative version of the next level (so I assume there is no alternate level 1). However, how do you unlock level 7?
 

VandalD

Member
Got the worst ending and it feels good. It turned out the 2nd boss really was the hardest (or at least most annoying) part of the game. The rest of the bosses are all fun, although of course getting to the boss intact is the main attraction.

Love the game, but I don't feel like trying to figure out how to get endings B and A myself. Can anyone explain it or link to an explanation?
So far I know you need to get warrior's souls and beat a level to unlock the alternative version of the next level (so I assume there is no alternate level 1). However, how do you unlock level 7?
Stay on the Path of the Valkyrie (don't run out of warrior's souls) and you'll get to level 7.
 

dralla

Member
I never heard of this game until yesterday. I just finished up world 5. This game is fucking great. It has that Demons Souls style of progression. You start a new level, you get your ass kicked. Fast forward 30 minutes and you're running through that same level without getting touched, heading into the boss decked out in full gear.

Unfortunately I got to the castle level and it's just a generic level with recycled enemies. I was really hoping for a unique castle level. Throw it on PS4 indie with a proper ending level and I'll double dip.

One thing I'd like is the ability to keep the camera zoomed out. Make it a toggle rather than zooming back in automatically.
 

VandalD

Member
I never heard of this game until yesterday. I just finished up world 5. This game is fucking great. It has that Demons Souls style of progression. You start a new level, you get your ass kicked. Fast forward 30 minutes and you're running through that same level without getting touched, heading into the boss decked out in full gear.

Unfortunately I got to the castle level and it's just a generic level with recycled enemies. I was really hoping for a unique castle level. Throw it on PS4 indie with a proper ending level and I'll double dip.

One thing I'd like is the ability to keep the camera zoomed out. Make it a toggle rather than zooming back in automatically.
Sounds like you didn't hit the real final level. Did you do path of the valkyrie?

I liked the castle level. It threw enemies at you that came from all the previous levels, so they were mixed up into different situations for you to apply what you've learned and take them out. I think they also added the camera zoom toggle in this latest patch.
 

jett

D-Member
He's got a pattern, but it's still not a fun battle. Falling into the water is the worst.

Yeah I got it finally after like two hours of trying. Boss 2 is by far the hardest part of the game. Just finished it with the C ending. What an awesome game. Classic 16-bit GnG-inspired throwback, but with 100% responsive controls. The level design and enemy placement is pitch point perfect. Loved the pixel art, reminded me of Blackthorne. Really, REALLY good stuff here.
 

mrgone

Member
Would any of you folks happen to know what might be causing this "noise" in my Volgarr screenshots?

SSlRG5U.jpg

fxJsurj.jpg


It looks a little like the kind of video corruption you get with a failing video card, but it doesn't show up when I'm playing at all. So far I've only seen it in Volgarr screenshots, and it happens with all the settings combinations I tried (bilinear on/off, triple buffering on/off, windowed mode on/off, fast vsync on/off, all the various vsync modes.)
 

Rubikant

Member
I have been in contact with Valve about the screenshot thing, they are looking into it. The built-in screenshot function included with the DRM-free version of the game (press F11) does not have that issue, only the Steam version does, which uses Steam's built-in code that I have absolutely no control over.
 

mrgone

Member
I have been in contact with Valve about the screenshot thing, they are looking into it. The built-in screenshot function included with the DRM-free version of the game (press F11) does not have that issue, only the Steam version does, which uses Steam's built-in code that I have absolutely no control over.

Whew! I was getting a little worried that my card was taking the slow back road to GPU heaven. :) Thanks for setting my mind at ease!
 
One more bump from me so this game can get some visibility/love.

Seriously, if you ever loved late 80's/early 90's arcade games, this is easily one of the finest homages out there, a gift crafted out of love.

Also, I must show off.

Kp2MCKZ.png
 
Clean sweep :D
GhMzi0H.png


Volgarr would probably be my GOTY if Dodonpachi Saidaioujou hadn't come out. I might be jumping the gun a little, but I'd say it can easily go toe-to-toe with the best action/platformers. It's an excellent game.
 

Kalnos

Banned
and... Ending A. Rank 79 on the leaderboard, not too bad for learning it. I see Iconoclast at number 1, insane.
 

Varth

Member
I see the devs are around here. Any clue if a PS3/4/Vita are being considered? It strikes me as the kind of game that would be perfect for Vita.
 

Dave Long

Banned
Finally got to play tonight and this is a brilliant piece of work. Thank you for a perfect throwback game that would have been a classic if it had been released in the early 90's for sure and is still guaranteed cult hit status today. Amazing!
 

Ziophaelin

Member
I see the devs are around here. Any clue if a PS3/4/Vita are being considered? It strikes me as the kind of game that would be perfect for Vita.

We would LOVE to bring the game to other platforms, especially the console space. However that very much so depends on how well it does on PC whether or not we can afford the $ and time to do it. After that, it is really just a matter of if enough people want it on a particular console to make the work worthwhile.
 

Varth

Member
We would LOVE to bring the game to other platforms, especially the console space. However that very much so depends on how well it does on PC whether or not we can afford the $ and time to do it. After that, it is really just a matter of if enough people want it on a particular console to make the work worthwhile.

Just for kicks, may I ask what kind of money/time did you sink into the project already, and how much do you figure would be needed to port this? Also, how do you gauge potential interest on one platform versus the other? Do guys like Sony's Shahid or whoever is the equivalent in MS/Nintendo usually provide data such as sales of similar titles to help this kind of evaluation?
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
Man, the game is really quite frustrating to the point where it feels a bit unfair. I still play a lot of retro games and I feel as if the balance here isn't quite right. It's not challenging in a fun way after a certain point. I feel as if the game isn't well suited for the type of controls they offer. It could definitely use some tuning.
 

ArjanN

Member
Man, the game is really quite frustrating to the point where it feels a bit unfair. I still play a lot of retro games and I feel as if the balance here isn't quite right. It's not challenging in a fun way after a certain point. I feel as if the game isn't well suited for the type of controls they offer. It could definitely use some tuning.

You probably just need to play more. Once you master the controls they're perfectly suited to the challenges IMO.

To be fair a LOT of the difficulty is in learning the level layouts and enemy patterns, which is going to take you dying a bunch at first.
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
You probably just need to play more. Once you master the controls they're perfectly suited to the challenges IMO.

To be fair a LOT of the difficulty is in learning the level layouts and enemy patterns, which is going to take you dying a bunch at first.
It started out fine, but as you progress, I feel that it begins to rely too heavily on trial and error to the point where it becomes less fun. It could use a good checkpoint system similar to what you might find in classic NES titles.
 

ArjanN

Member
It started out fine, but as you progress, I feel that it begins to rely too heavily on trial and error to the point where it becomes less fun. It could use a good checkpoint system similar to what you might find in classic NES titles.

It does have a good checkpoint system IMO, I think most classic NES titles were way less fair than this. I think the later levels are actually easier than the earlier ones as well.
 

Tesseract

Banned
every time this thread gets bumped i feel an incredible urge to lift weights until my muscles explode with warrior's heart.

game of the year.
 

Kamina

Golden Boy
We would LOVE to bring the game to other platforms, especially the console space. However that very much so depends on how well it does on PC whether or not we can afford the $ and time to do it. After that, it is really just a matter of if enough people want it on a particular console to make the work worthwhile.

Well you better take note then. :) I'd love to have this on PS ViTA.
I did't yet buy it because playing such games on PC just doesn't work out for me. On a handheld however i'd play the hell out of it.

How did you com up with the name Völgarr btw? Does it mean something?
 

Kalnos

Banned
It started out fine, but as you progress, I feel that it begins to rely too heavily on trial and error to the point where it becomes less fun. It could use a good checkpoint system similar to what you might find in classic NES titles.

One of the shoulder buttons zooms the screen out, if you use it there really isn't very much if any trial and error in the game. You get a checkpoint every half of a level and you have unlimited lives which is pretty fair compared to a lot of classic games.
 

duckroll

Member
It started out fine, but as you progress, I feel that it begins to rely too heavily on trial and error to the point where it becomes less fun. It could use a good checkpoint system similar to what you might find in classic NES titles.

Never felt that way about the game myself. I wouldn't change a single thing about the design really. I feel it's one of the indie games which most perfectly captured exactly what I loved about action games like this in the past. It was never frustrating, always fun, the controls are perfect, the move list and level design is spot on. The checkpoints are just generous enough without feeling watered down, and the challenge presented is very well balanced.

If you start to feel that the game relies more on trial and error as you play, I think that's a good sign that you have not been learning more about the game mechanics as you play through the game. As the levels progress, the challenge is ramped up to expect that you have been learning how to react to certain challenges instead of just barely winging it. That might be why.

There are a lot of mechanics in the game which you must discover and learn for yourself by reflecting on what options you have with the limited move set, and how to expand that into creative ways of mastering a given challenge in the game. If you're not playing with that mindset, then it can be frustrating, but the game is designed for people who enjoy stuff like that.
 
I really want to try both this game and Rogue Galaxy. Will wait for a future sale or humble bundle. Still hurts buying FEZ and a couple weeks later seeing it on a bundle.
 
Top Bottom