Hello there. I've been stalking this thread (and game) for years, but never posted so as not to meddle in the creative process... I think you guys have enough help as it is, and from people much smarter than me! Despite all my anticipation, I've actually been unable to play Rain World for various reasons until just recently, but I just completed the game yesterday and it was a real trip. I feel like I can also expose some of my feelings for this game here now.
----Spoiler warning, I spoil the entire game, so if you haven't played or beat the game yet, just scoot on past----My experience was quite positive, being a fan of hardcore games, and having known a lot of "insider" detail thanks to this thread, I didn't really bang my head against any walls figuring out what to do. Even so, few games gave me such a rush playing them as the first time I played Demon's Souls, when it was that hot new game that was balls hard and cryptic in everything it did and each push forward required a mop for sweat clean up. I really love Metroidvanias in general, and this game had a lot of what I really wanted from a game, but also some things that left me kind of.. confused and unfulfilled I'd say? There are some problems with the way the game is structured, but karma gates and the other usual suspects don't have anything to do with it, as some people say. The only gate I had to grind for was Five Pebbles, but there is a ton of food around that area so it was no problem. In fact, most of the game which I experienced so far I'd say was perfect in the way it was designed, so I'll just focus on the parts that weren't, otherwise this would turn into a full-blown review.
The way I completed the game was the mainline trek to Sister Moon via the Garbage Wastes, then back through Shoreline to Shaded Citadel, which I somehow managed without a light, a mad dash through Crypts and up the Leg to Five Pebbles, doubled back to Moon with two Neurons in hand via Wall and Chimney Canopy, and getting back through the Citadel, which was now easy with me being enlightened. After showing her some stuff from around the near vicinity (btw you guys should really extend the rain clock in Looks to the Moon, it's way too short for her exposition considering how little food there is in the general area for repeated hibernation) I wanted to find a shortcut back to Outskirts or anywhere else really that would get me to Farm Arrays (as Pebbles told me) without using up a Passage, but somehow ended up getting into Subterranean from the Shoreline and that led me to the Filtration system, which for some reason I thought was the Drainage system, and... as one thing led to another I ended up accidentally beating the game
Figuring I got some sort of one ending of many, I felt a little entitled to search around to see if there were other things I could do, but it seems that is the only ending in the game. That is, whether you choose to bump your max Karma up via finding the ancient echoes or just visiting Pebbles, there's not much to actually "complete" past that, other than just getting to the final area or spending more time figuring out lore, which isn't really a "goal" so to speak. While I understand that it's rather naive to think that some small semi-intelligent mammal could have played a bigger role in a world where even advanced civilizations and computers the size of islands with cities on top couldn't find a solution to their problems, at the same time I'd have liked more variety with regards to my fate rather than simply releasing myself from the cycle of the world. You know how else I could have stopped the cycle? by pressing alt+f4
What I mean to say is, the consequences of what you do during the game don't ever really pan out in the end, it's just the same ending. Regardless of how you attained enlightenment, no matter how much you killed or helped others, or what feats you achieved during the adventure, or the things you've learned. Considering the underlying themes of the game, I think it's a bit of a cop-out not to have some closure to your actions. For example, a lot of Metroidvanias have alternate endings that unlock when you go the extra mile, like the true ending of Hollow Knight that requires to go on a side-quest almost as great in scope as the core game, the many true bosses of Castlevania games as well as the inverted castle of SOTN, the hidden ending of Axiom Verge where you realize you were never really free from your nightmare, and so on.
As I saw the update detailing the new things that will make it into Rain World, on one hand I can't wait to get back in, but I also have the nagging thought of "how will this
really change my experience the second time around?" I mean I could go searching for the remaining echos I never found instead of doing the Pebble thing, but I also want to hear what they have to say. I also want to help Moon and bring her more stuff, but without necessarily gracing that Pebble asshole or having to go back down the leg. It would have even been really interesting if the echos could talk to you either way, maybe at first in broken words, but more clearly as you find each of them, and also congratulate you for raising your karma yourself, or showing some disdain for having gotten it the "easy" way by simply having been gifted it by Pebbles (no small feat in and of itself for most players tbh...), because hearing their words is interesting, but already having your karma maxed out means they serve no real purpose in terms of game mechanics than to refill your karma should you die too much, making you actually
not want to visit them on the chance you could take advantage (much like passages). Perhaps Pebbles shouldn't max your Karma all the way? You'll invariably run across at least two ancients coming down from the wall anyway, I have, and I was even in a rush to Moon considering I had a Neuron in each hand which I didn't want to lose. Even though the ancient at the wall calls what Pebbles gave me an unimaginable gift, I kind of have a hard time being sold on the idea that an all-powerful being would just bestow something like that to a random meatbag that made its way into his chambers, and then proceed to tell them how to properly f*** off out of this world and then forcibly ejecting them outside. Whatever did he ultimately gain from doing that?
In some ways the game is already a foot in the right direction, attaining The Chieftain makes scavs friendly to you, and The Friend means you have at least some companion(s) in your journey, which all have a tangible effect on gameplay. It would also be nice if, for instance, the other feats had some small, but appreciable effect on the game; like The Monk making vegetable spawns more plentiful, while Hunter making live food spawns more plentiful. The Saint making you more resistant to getting knocked out or raising your global friendliness factor, while The Outlaw making it easier for you to knock out or kill others while reducing the global friendliness, and so on. The simple acquiring of passages is not that great, considering it's not absurdly difficult to traverse the world anyway, and most of the fun stuff happens along the way. And of course all of this would be
a lot more interesting if, at the end of the game, you were judged for your actions, and have you get a different outcome depending on what you did during your adventure. After all, some of the Ancients seemingly weren't able to ascend because of their avarice, why should you if you behaved like an asshole from day 1?
The fact of the matter is, the early game when it's still mostly about exploring a ruined alien world, is more interesting than the prospect of beating the late game, making for a "It's the adventure that matters, not the end" kind of situation, but at the same time so many games that came before have also made it pleasing to beat the game while having achieved a lot during the adventure... Rain World, for me at least, does not. Judging from the evolution of the game, I'd like to think that the Buddhist undertone/subplot was added much further into production, or at least it feels like it, simply to add closure to a game that maybe wasn't intended to have a concrete "end" state? It's interesting, but doesn't seem as tightly integrated into the world as it should. Many of your in-game feats also don't amount to more than just letting you faff about more than you already are, without really gaining any objective progress and without really mixing up the formula throughout the game other than "you can glow now and also talk to weird things. Everything in the game is amazingly well thought out, except for the one key aspect that would actually make you want to try the game over and over while undertaking radically different play styles, for grander, more global reasons other than simply seeing how the moment-to-moment experience plays out.
Well, whether you eventually pan the game out to include much more content, or make a sequel that takes into consideration many of the limitations and drawbacks you experienced along the way, I'll be waiting eagerly for them. Thanks for one of my top games of 2017, and never stop devlogging.
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