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IGN reviews A Shadow's Tale - "one of the Wii's most beautiful and interesting games"
- Thread starter gamingeek
- Start date
whatevermort
Member
Bought this. Played it for a good long while, and then (gasp) gave up. I found it really quite boring, unfortunately, and the (very derivative) art wasn't enough to carry me forward. Compared to other art-platformers of recent times - because that's the genre it fits in, it's nothing like Ico or SotC to play - it really suffers. Limbo is a much better game, and far prettier. Shame: the Wii is my de facto platformer machine, and I would have liked this to be astonishing. Roll on Donkey Kong, Kirby and Epic Mickey...
Man, this constant idea that because "it looks like Ico" it is supposed to fit into that mold is really starting to get on my nerves.whatevermort said:
I am not challenging your opinion on how entertaining it is in the end--that's yours to hold and I likely have yet to play as much of the game as you have--but the creator and director said the overexposed look was about the bright sun shining while kids were playing shadow tag. Ico never entered the picture.
whatevermort
Member
zigg said:
They can say that all they like, but that's bull. I mean, everything about it reeks of Ico - not just the art-style, not just the washed-out, overly bright use of light, but the tone as well, the sound, the atmosphere, the entire damn colour palette. There's a bit near the start where you find an abandoned mine cart on a track across a huge gap in a castle, and you ride the cart across, and the camera pans back and the whole thing reeks of Ico. That's not why it was boring - it was boring because it was boring, frankly - and I loved Ico, and would love more games with that atmosphere. It wouldn't even have been a criticism if the game had been amazing, but it isn't.
Also, FWIW, I do agree - it's frustrating that people have assumed it plays like Ico because it looks like Ico. Although, that's what I expected, more than a completely straight 2d-plane platformer, so I'm not sure that Hudson are doing a great job of challenging that expectation.
nincompoop
Banned
Can you explain WHY you found it boring? I mean you can go into a thread for ANY game and say "this game sucks it's boring", but if you don't expand on why you feel that way it reads more like a troll post than something that was meant to add to the discussion.whatevermort said:
PS if you don't want your copy I'll buy it from you, since thehut are being dicks and won't send me my copy for whatever reason.
whatevermort
Member
nincompoop said:
Yeah, sure. It's boring because the mechanics are dull. Remove the notion of being a shadow as being something exciting - because it's just a visual/narrative nicety, rather than actually affecting anything in a major way.
So: here's a 2d platformer with three major gimmicks. Gimmick 1 is that you can occasionally find objects in the world that you can change the light source on, altering the shadow. This amounts to latching onto something with the wii remote and wiggling around until it moves into place for your character to progress. It's a basic lever puzzle dressed up in fancy clothes. Gimmick 2 is that, occasionally sliders appear on the screen, and you can change the entire light source on the level. Sounds cool, but in reality, it's just moving some sliders - increasingly intricate sliders, but that just means more of them - to get some platforms to match up. It's boring and pointless and not nearly as inventive as it thinks it is. Gimmick 3 is when you walk through some funny portals - not even in the main levels themselves! - and get the chance to rotate the level a tiny bit, much like that Fez game that's been hyped for the last few years and still hasn't appeared. It was done a few years ago in the Paper Mario Wii game, and done better, because it didn't have insta-kill annoyances if you pressed the wrong direction (which was easily done, because you can only tell what's going to happen when you rotate the level via trial and error). In between this all there's some fine if basic platforming, which has a pretty decent sense of weight, but not much more to it than that - it feels a bit 2d Prince Of Persia-ish, almost, actually, but more responsive.
I can assure you, my post wasn't motivated by a desire to troll (because, please, give me some credit); it was motivated by being disappointed when I played a super-hyped game that turned out to be very bland indeed. Compared to Limbo, Braid, And Yet It Moves, or any other of the recent thoughtfully atmospheric puzzle-platformers, it doesn't come close to matching up - in my humble opinion, of course.
(Oh, and I've already passed my copy on, I'm afraid.)
FoxhoundNL
Member
It's kinda hard to not get a Wii at this point. I really like old school 2D platforming games... The games the Wii's getting in this genre lately is astounding
. I wonder how the controls in these games work though, are you using the Wiimote like a regular controller with d-pad and stuff? Or point shit?
. I wonder how the controls in these games work though, are you using the Wiimote like a regular controller with d-pad and stuff? Or point shit?it looks like super paper mario or metroid other m ishFoxhoundNL said:It's kinda hard to not get a Wii at this point. I really like old school 2D platforming games... The games the Wii's getting in this genre lately is astounding
play nes style and utilizing the pointer at some point
Haunted
Member
whatevermort said:
You're missing gimmick 4, where you actually
enter the real world, moving a physical (well... you'll see) body around in 3D space and navigate the actual real levels/geometry that casted the shadow platforms you were on as a shadow before.
It's by far the most intriguing mechanic and it's a real pity that it's introduced so late in the game (haven't finished it myself yet).
It's by far the most intriguing mechanic and it's a real pity that it's introduced so late in the game (haven't finished it myself yet).
Nunchuk is required. Analogue stick controls your character, Wiimote pointing is used to manipulate structures and light sources in the world.FoxhoundNL said:It's kinda hard to not get a Wii at this point. I really like old school 2D platforming games... The games the Wii's getting in this genre lately is astounding
No waggling, very intuitive.
nope.farnham said:
nincompoop
Banned
Well those mechanics sound pretty interesting to me, so I guess I'll have to wait until I get a chance to play it for myself to see if they're as dull as you claim. I wasn't trying to accuse you of trolling btw, I just don't think it's very productive to call a game boring without explaining your reasoning since it's such a shallow and generic complaint.whatevermort said:
nincompoop
Banned
Finally got my copy today and played up to floor 6-9 of the tower, seems really good so far. The level design hasn't been mindblowing or anything as of yet, but the way it translates traditional platforming elements and obstacles to work with the game's shadow-based gameplay makes it feel quite unique. They nailed the atmosphere too, sure it feels derivative of Ico, but the atmosphere was incredible in that game too and it's even better here, so who cares? It's not like that style has been run into the ground or anything. As long as the platforming and puzzle solving elements continue to become more varied and more intricate as the game moves along, it looks like it's shaping up to be one of the top entries in the already solid list of Wii sidescrollers. My main concern is that it might be too short, I only played for around 45 minutes and I'm already 17% done.
wackojackosnose
Member
It's really good, and I had the same fears as you nincompoop but the game is a lot longer than I expected. It took me about 8-9 hours to get to the top with a memory completion rate of about 70% and then I find out that the game isn't really finished as they introduce another game mechanic quite late on to open up more areas.
nincompoop
Banned
Yeah I guess you're right, I played for another hour and my percentage only went up by 10%. I guess it has to do with those light things I keep passing that I can't use yet, I'm assuming you have to come back down to use them later after you acquire another ability? Or maybe there IS a way to use them already and I just haven't figured it out yet, i dunno.
Foliorum Viridum
Banned
Just played this for an hour or so after FINALLY getting around to reaching for it off my shelf. :lol Only up to floor 12 so far but I'm liking it. Really neat concept.
I have to be honest, my initial impression was how beautiful the game could be... if it wasn't so ugly. Wii hardware really holds it back. Jaggy jaggy jaggy. If this was an XBLA/PSN/Steam title it would blow me away.
Gameplay-wise it seems to be introducing new ways of manipulating shadows fairly regularly which I hope it continues. The combat is simple enough for me to not mind it, but I'd much prefer less enemies already. The fun in this game is going to be solving the puzzles and finding the keys, that much is obvious.
I'll probably plough through it this weekend.
I have to be honest, my initial impression was how beautiful the game could be... if it wasn't so ugly. Wii hardware really holds it back. Jaggy jaggy jaggy. If this was an XBLA/PSN/Steam title it would blow me away.
Gameplay-wise it seems to be introducing new ways of manipulating shadows fairly regularly which I hope it continues. The combat is simple enough for me to not mind it, but I'd much prefer less enemies already. The fun in this game is going to be solving the puzzles and finding the keys, that much is obvious.
I'll probably plough through it this weekend.
Reading the last few posts, I have a question--
The press demo and the ready-to-go levels they had at E3 had no backtracking at all. Now that you have
(right?) you now go back to use it? Do you have to remember where to go to use it? Is the backtracking tedious at all?
The press demo and the ready-to-go levels they had at E3 had no backtracking at all. Now that you have
materialization
Haunted
Member
I usually don't do this, but yes, I agree.Foliorum Viridum said:
Unlike Nyxquest or other Wii(Ware) platformer titles, this is a game that really screams for clean visuals, less jaggies, a better image quality. Maybe they'll make a PC port of it, like the Nyxquest devs did. The Wiimote manipulation is easily replicated with the mouse setup.
zigg said:
Yes. You basically go through the whole game (tower) once, then get told to backtrack to specific floors to collect something else. You don't have to remember, you're explicitly told which floors to backtrack to. I guess it is rather tedious, as you sometimes have to go through a couple useless floors to get to the one you want (elevator only goes to every tenth floor, I think).