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[Ultimortal]

Done a games journalism for Iji,http://db.tigsource.com/games/iji. Don't know if I covered everything, tell me if I didn't.

As much as I like your honesty,

each gun has only one compatible combination

It took long enough making the 16 standard weapons and balancing them, not to mention the enemies fire replicas. I could have had like 36 weapons in there - if I had the time and motivation.

and can be detected even when hidden behind objects or lower elevation.

This is untrue. Plus, cracking disables powerful weapons and can either kill or remove half the HP of an enemy.

the game limits the amount of levels Iji can gain in each sector; this is probably to encourage players to come back to the game

Nope, it's so you won't hit level 63 (the theoretical maximum) halfway through the game. It dampens the slippery slope seen in Kid Icarus, where if you don't kill tons of enemies to level up in the first few levels, you'll die in 3-4 hits in the upcoming levels and won't have any money to buy life-saving equipment.

if I deflect someone’s attacks back at them, they’d technically be shooting themselves, and I would gain experience while keeping my hands clean

Not only are you technically responsible for their death since you are the one with the Reflector, consider the Reflector's reload time (since it uses no ammo) - traversing the levels would take forever since players would likely want to kill everything possible with it.

I must say again though, that I should not have stressed the pacifism as much as I did, because the game wasn't designed for it in the first place. I just did it because otherwise, no-one would ever even have thought of trying it.

Now I feel defensive again 

[Aik]

I must say again though, that I should not have stressed the pacifism as much as I did, because the game wasn't designed for it in the first place.

I thought it was really interesting how the theme of the game supports and what the gameplay of the game supports are at complete odds with each other. It's a feature, not a bug
If there wasn't the option of pacifism, the entire thing would fall apart, IMO. It would still make for a nice story and a fun game, but it wouldn't have much weight to it. Seeing things go to shit and knowing that if you had've gone about it the hard way instead of blasting your way through it wouldn't have reached this point is powerful.

You don't need to apologise for this game - even with its flaws it's still the best story-focused game I've played in a long time (and the best 2D sidescroller too, but seeing that I don't play very many of those, that's not saying so much).

[William Broom]

Nope, it's so you won't hit level 63 (the theoretical maximum) halfway through the game. It dampens the slippery slope seen in Kid Icarus, where if you don't kill tons of enemies to level up in the first few levels, you'll die in 3-4 hits in the upcoming levels and won't have any money to buy life-saving equipment.

You can level up in Kid Icarus?  No wonder I was always shit at that game.

[Ultimortal]

You can level up in Kid Icarus?  No wonder I was always shit at that game.

It's a far deeper game than most people realize. There's even hidden stats and requirements the game never tells you about, discovered by RAM editing and save states when I wrote my FAQ for it. It's an awesome, quirky game when you get into it, with some obvious flaws but what game doesn't have those.

[Melly]

the game limits the amount of levels Iji can gain in each sector; this is probably to encourage players to come back to the game

Nope, it's so you won't hit level 63 (the theoretical maximum) halfway through the game. It dampens the slippery slope seen in Kid Icarus, where if you don't kill tons of enemies to level up in the first few levels, you'll die in 3-4 hits in the upcoming levels and won't have any money to buy life-saving equipment.

This could have been done with proper balancing as well instead of simply limiting levels. It feels fake in a game that seems to be trying to create a detailed world, especially when Dan himself talks about it, though he doesn't give a good reason why, or any reason for that matter. I'd avoid have the characters talk about game mechanics unless these fit within the game's world. It breaks the illusion.

I can tell the reason you'd do it, but even though I personally dislike grinding, I also don't like much that the game imposes an artificial wall to my development. You could also do it in such a way that weaker enemies stop giving you nano after you reach a certain level because their nanofields aren't advanced enough and don't really give you anything of value anymore.

[Ultimortal]

Dan says that assimilation is a slow process, but you're right, that's all the explanation you get. I don't know how to explain to the player why the enemies suddenly stop dropping their default stuff, however, but it's a good idea.

[Valter]

Eh. It could be explained with some BS like "The nanofield requires time to process extra power, resulting in a maximum amount of energy gain per area" or something like that.

Although I was fine with the level cap, I wouldn't mind an unlockable "free mode" or something like that, in which you either have no level limit, or start the game fully maxed out (secrets such as posters and ribbons would be removed for this).

[Syrion]

I haven't quite finished Iji, yet, but I did enjoy it. So far I also felt a bit uneasy because of the "pacifism". On the one hand I mostly like playing the "lawful good" characters in games, but on the other hand it really seemed like Iji is totally ment to be a shooter with some secondary ways of killing enemies. Fighting the enemies is just a lot more satisfying than jumping around above their heads in this game. Still I am mostly told that I'm doing the wrong thing, being the "mindless murderer" while actually just trying to help.

But I guess I really just expected something else from the game there, not taking into account that this is just intended to be the way the story normally goes/can go



About the level limit for each stage: I think it is a good idea, for the reason Ultimortal mentioned. Also this way I feel a little more comfortable leaving out some enemies and don't feel forced to take them out, as I can still reach the maximum level of the stage and am therefore not missing out on anything.

[Ultimortal]

(secrets such as posters and ribbons would be removed for this)

That's exactly one of the problems, the game accumulating too many modifiers. Originally, there was a Supergun in Sector Z which you carried with you the rest of the game (it generated its own ammo among other things). However, this made things like Posters and endgame Extras non-unlockable, and I had to find ways to tell the player why on Earth she was not allowed to unlock lots of stuff in the game or enter some areas - just because she was carrying the weapons modifier which could not be deequipped. The game logic was becoming a jungle so I dropped it. :p

Edit: Also, you had to re-enter AND beat Sector Z from a New Game in case you had obtained the Supergun from Single Sector Play.

Similarly removing the level cap or starting at max level would just break the game, some objects and enemies/bosses even lack code to be damaged by certain weapons since Iji can't have them at that point.

[Curseman]

Hopefully this isn't necroposting too much...

I think that the special trait for maxing health is too strong, and it makes a lot of the game easy to waltz through.  Maybe changing it so it was the equivalent of a level 4 armor upgrade would be more balanced?

[Ultimortal]

I'm not really comfortable with changing that at this point though, since it makes the game considerably harder (meaning people will not want to upgrade to the next version despite important bugfixes), and makes Ultimortal difficulty nigh impossible. I know it's imbalanced, but I don't consider it game-breaking enough to change with these things in mind.

V1.2 and HQ soundtrack in a few days. Berserkers can no longer insta-spam the Resonance detonator, final boss automatically reduces polygon count and special effects if your computer is lagging, gamma effects option to avoid crashing on some graphics cards, some updated cutscene pics and Scrambler shenanigans etc.

[Valter]

Scrambler shenanigans etc.

 

[pnx]

Wallop your weapons Iji, woops!

The stuff that doesn't make sense isn't half as fun as the stuff that comes out as innuendo though.

[godsavant]

Berserkers can no longer insta-spam the Resonance detonator...

THANK YOU

[Ultimortal]

You're welcome.

I take no responsibility for what the Scrambler can come up with. :p Considering it can also replace vowels it's bound to generate at least some swear words, but I don't consider it a big deal. The new version and soundtrack are up btw.

[Curseman]

Awesome, downloading that now.  You've done a great job with all of this so far.  Thanks for your hard work.

[Greg Game Man]

oh im really late to this. I just downloaded and played up to lvl7, i think its a brilliant game. Ultimortal, i think its amazing that you spent so long on a game, and i know it is very well recieved i cant believe 1man made this!? (also wtf 1man made out of this world or w/e that was called? btw-did heart of darkness ripp that off, or were the two related. BTWW- Did ICO take its art inspiration from OoTW?i heard it did)

anyway..yeah its a great game i had loads of fun! +my review is bias because i usually really dont like games that force certain controls/playstyles onto me (new bionic commando..wtf is that!? I cant even jump over a box!), but i can see why you did that..and it does add to the combat. I usually dont like games much, where all the levels look the same.. like the same tiles and stuff.. but this kept me playing :]

Thanks for a great game! Im gonna go download your other games now :p

[Curseman]

Thanks for a great game! Im gonna go download your other games now :p

I thought Castle of Elite was a good one.  Iji is his best work though, if you ask me.

By the way, Ultimortal, I think damage taken from the Komato Beasts don't add to the running total of how much damage has been taken.  Obviously it's not a huge issue, but it makes getting immortal rank a little bit easier.

[Ultimortal]

By the way, Ultimortal, I think damage taken from the Komato Beasts don't add to the running total of how much damage has been taken.

You're right, thanks. I wonder in how many years I'll stop fixing bugs and just be satisified...