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Soft Body |OT| This is your brain on slugs

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Wozman23

Member
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DESCRIPTION:
Soft Body is a meditative action game where you control two beautiful, gooey snakes at the same time. In the game, you paint the world with your body, and as you do so, the world changes around you revealing new obstacles and challenges. The action is tense, but the mood is contemplative and calm. It’s a blend of quick-restart action games like Super Meat Boy and the mind-melting coordination of top-down shooters like Ikaruga.​

RELEASE INFORMATION:
Release Date: May 17th
Platforms: PS4, PC
Price $12.99, £9.99
Developer: Zeke Virant​

FEATURES:


  • 100 levels
  • A variety of modes and campaigns with their own unique levels: from simple bullet dodging to brain-splitting bliss
  • Learn the basics and play through the musical and meditative Soft Game
  • Master the art of controlling two bodies at the same time in Hard Game
  • Revamped and rethought levels in Hard Game+ which is really hard
LINKS:

GIFS & SCREENSHOTS:

GRATUITOUS, TRIPPY KEY ART:
CiqiOO1WUAESI-Z.jpg
 
I've never made an OT before, so I don't know if there are any guidelines or rules. The games been out for a few days and has no exposure here, but after playing though a bit, I felt compelled to make a post. Didn't want to include my impressions in the original post.

I'm about 20 levels in Soft Mode.

Its minimalist approach is well executed in all facets. Color palettes are bold and vary with levels. Simple geometry creates lovely level layouts. The sound design compliments everything with a hint of old-school flair. Gameplay objectives vary within levels, teetering between tranquility and chaos.

Gameplay objectives included: painting squares with your soft body, moving a dot along a line by staying in close proximity with your ghost body, and killing enemies with your ghost body. As for hazards, there's a tinge of bullet hell, enemies who snipe at you every few seconds, and homing enemies.

The soft body and ghost body can be separated by playing as a twin stick shooter. Most of the time so far, I just keep them together. To my understanding, Hard Mode requires a much better grasp of playing with the 'snakes' separated.

So far, objectives and mechanics have been rolled out slowly, but I can feel the kid gloves coming off. There's something really fascinating about the dichotomy of such a peacefully presented game transitioning into a monster that kicks your ass.
 
A bit more insight into the game:

I beat the 25 Soft Mode levels which were a bit of a challenge, then hopped into Soft Mode+, which does force you to keep the two snakes separate and use both analog sticks through the Soft Mode levels. I was making some progress until I got to the first boss - level 12 I think.

So I tried Hard Mode... It's a fresh set of levels that not only keep the snakes separate but imposes other obstacles, like a continuously screen-crossing rotating killer line, or a circle that both snakes must be kept inside. Those are complex and hectic, but a ton of fun when your multitasking clicks. Then there are these other assholes who let out color coded breadcrumb trails that are hazardous to the opposite colored snake and can only be erased by the same colored snake. Level 17 has two of those asshole breadcrumb triangles who make a tangled mess of red and blue spaghetti. What tranquil frustration! Right now, that seems impossible.

I don't know how much more progress I'll make, but what a delightful game. The epitome of indie creativity. It's cliche, but there truly and literally is no other game like it. Easily a GOTY contender for me.

Yet here I am, talking to myself. There's a 400+ post OT for the Black Ops backwards compatibility - a trite military shooter that came out 6 years ago. Sometimes I don't think I'm of this world.
 
Wozman23 said:
A bit more insight into the game:

I beat the 25 Soft Mode levels which were a bit of a challenge, then hopped into Soft Mode+, which does force you to keep the two snakes separate and use both analog sticks through the Soft Mode levels. I was making some progress until I got to the first boss - level 12 I think.

So I tried Hard Mode... It's a fresh set of levels that not only keep the snakes separate but imposes other obstacles, like a continuously screen-crossing rotating killer line, or a circle that both snakes must be kept inside. Those are complex and hectic, but a ton of fun when your multitasking clicks. Then there are these other assholes who let out color coded breadcrumb trails that are hazardous to the opposite colored snake and can only be erased by the same colored snake. Level 17 has two of those asshole breadcrumb triangles who make a tangled mess of red and blue spaghetti. What tranquil frustration! Right now, that seems impossible.

I don't know how much more progress I'll make, but what a delightful game. The epitome of indie creativity. It's cliche, but there truly and literally is no other game like it. Easily a GOTY contender for me.

Yet here I am, talking to myself. There's a 400+ post OT for the Black Ops backwards compatibility - a trite military shooter that came out 6 years ago. Sometimes I don't think I'm of this world.
Click to expand...

GAF's made up of more mainstream people thank you'd think, something like this isn't even on their radar. Having an OT helps though.

So there's 50 different levels between Soft Game and Hard Game? Interesting - I've been wanting to play through this on our YouTube channel, when I get around to it I'll update this OT with my own opinions/findings.
 
Yep. (At least) 50 levels. I'm not sure how Hard Mode+ varies yet. I'll probably give it a go soon, but I kind of want to persevere through the walls I hit in SM+ and HM before tackling it.

I look forward to your impressions.
 
Saw this on GB the other day, wrote myself a note to check it out when I next got the chance, and....totally forgot about it. Glad this thread reminded me and I'm definitely diving into it soon.
 
First off, great title. I don't even know what this game is, but the title made me click on the topic.

I can't even tell what's going on in these gifs. I'm gonna have to watch some vids to see if that will help me understand what's happening. Game looks crazy, but I am intrigued.
 
Got this when it came out, but haven't played much since I got hooked on watching Game of Thrones and playing Exanima

Qwark said:
First off, great title. I don't even know what this game is, but the title made me click on the topic.

I can't even tell what's going on in these gifs. I'm gonna have to watch some vids to see if that will help me understand what's happening. Game looks crazy, but I am intrigued.
Click to expand...
You simutalously control the two bodies, one of which can activate the barriers and other items, and the other that can destroy enemies. You need to use them at the same time with both sticks or combine them into a single body to survive/solve the levels.
 
Game's very stylish. I like the color schemes, sound design, animation and the vectory graphics. I especially love how most enemy things will give a unique visual cue right before they fire.

I'm pretty bad at controlling both things simultaneously though. My Brothers experience hasn't helped too much!
 
epmode said:
I'm pretty bad at controlling both things simultaneously though. My Brothers experience hasn't helped too much!
Click to expand...
I've been battle-tested with Brothers and ibb & obb. ibb & obb was built for co-op, but had a trophy on PS3 for beating it solo. According to PSNProfiles, there are 325 achievers out of 27526 owners. At 1.18% it's my second rarest trophy (only beat by the 100% Drum Training trophy in Rock Band 3 at 0.8%). It's one of the most satisfying trophies I ever got since it was so brutal. At a few points I never thought I'd make it.

I don't know how it controls on PC, but it's definitely worth a look on either platform for people who 'enjoy' multitasking.
 
Finally got around to playing this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PLnhwVsYSH1o1kFSrAiXDTfoNxK7bsMLVC&v=Nc3tuLBzIwY

It's simple and yet so satisfying just to move the snakes around in space, and the psychedelic aesthetic and ambient music contrasts the gameplay massively, it actually gets quite tense when you're trying to escape from a flurry of homing projectiles.

I must admit, trying to control the snakes individually is a bit mind-bending for me personally, but I'm sure much better players than I can create some brilliant strategies in order to get the lowest time possible.

Congrats godzekesatan, I hope Soft Body's gone really well for you!
 
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