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schneefinkI finished Rabi-Ribi, including the postgame (~21 hours, map 93%, items 78%.) Exploration-wise this is one of my favorite metroidvanias: it is very non-linear, and it always felt like there could be a secret or even an entire new area right around the corner. (My one complaint is that I often wished there were map markers.) Movement was good and the upgrades were fun. I also liked the music a lot, and how colorful it is. I understand why some people dislike the very anime character art during cutscenes but I liked it.
Most of the combat was fine, fun even, but it turns out bullet hell is not really my thing and especially in the second half the long boss fights and boss rushes became something of a chore. Fortunately the game not only lets you adjust the difficulty mid-game, but also automatically offers a "halo" buff if you die to a boss a few times in a row. The story was a bit disjointed in the second half, but it had some interesting ideas. There are so many characters that not all of them get a lot of time and they get in the way of each other sometimes, there are many cutscenes, but I liked most of them.
Overall I enjoyed it a lot and I'm glad I played it. Still, I'm not interested in going for 100% or doing any of the post-postgame content.
Monday, day 3: I really enjoy the feeling that behind every wall could be an entirely new area to explore. Most recently I found the Volcano Caverns, I look forward to exploring those. I spent an embarrassing amount of time getting frustrated in the Spectral Cave, finally figured out where I could go if I had Wall Jump, then eventually decided to leave and almost missed Wall Jump in the corner. Heh. But now I have ten people in town as well as the Halftime achievement (50% of both map and items), so I could activate the Stele again, or else backtrack and explore now that I can jump up walls…
Tbh some of the characters are blurring together slightly, sometimes I forget who I met where (and I can't look it up because of spoilers.) Some of my favorites are Pandora the immortal princess of the pyramid and Aruraune the human-turned-half-plant. I suspect Ashuri of, uh, potentially nefarious dealings…
Tuesday: Made it to the credits! I did not expect for that final boss fight to have four phases… I used up my last food in phase three and then it took several tries and a level two Halo boost for me to beat Noah, but I made it. Not entirely sure why the credits were here tbh, clearly there is plenty of content and even story still… I look forward to finding out what Rumi, Rita, and Ashuri are up to. I'm also happy with Rumi and Miru calling Erina their sister, cute.
I also discovered some more new areas. The pacing is good, you can go wherever you want but at some point there are story prompts leading you toward places where you can get e.g. double jump and wall jump. I think I have most abilities now, most recently I got Air Dash, but there are still some that I'm missing.
I collected a few more people for the town, now I'm only missing five. One new favorite is Lilith, both because she's an unashamedly horny succubus in a way that's really funny (all the "concerned" villagers in Sky Town, heh), and because the battle in the air was cool. I might be slowly getting better at this bullet hell thing maybe, though there's still a ton of luck involved.
Wednesday: I explored more regions and won some more boss fights, and then I got to an area that is basically a boss rush against "illusions" with plenty of other enemies in between. The annoying thing is that it takes so long, and when you die you have to do several rooms again, so after a while I quit. Needing several tries to beat a boss didn't really bother me in e.g. Hollow Knight, but here I mostly find it annoying, not exactly sure why. Of course, playing a game where the hit box of the character is only part of the character sprite and not always clearly visible is probably a bad introduction to bullet hell games.
Thursday: Ugh, chapter 6 had two long boss rushes in a row, I did not enjoy that >.< At least the fight against Rumi was fun, the aerial parts were my favorite. I considered lowering the difficulty to Casual but decided not to, and I did make it on Novice so it worked out.
I have a Carrot Shooter now! I collected some more upgrades, and I looked up where to find something for the first time, the Fire Orb and later the Hammer Roll, whatever.
Chapter 7 and 8 had more platforming, which I'm sure would have been easier if I hadn't constantly forgotten to use the Bunny Amulet. And then the fight against Irisu was soo long… by this point I really mostly wanted to be done, so I finally decreased the difficulty to Casual and then did it on my first try.
I didn't see Irisu also being a bunny coming, she and Erina are sweet. I did not expect them to be literally sleeping together, with all that innuendo the first time and then Rumi so shocked when she listens in with her telepathy (rude), heh. And everyone is interested in Erina! I want all the f/f and Erina's harem fic (but not enough to want to write it.)
Most of the combat was fine, fun even, but it turns out bullet hell is not really my thing and especially in the second half the long boss fights and boss rushes became something of a chore. Fortunately the game not only lets you adjust the difficulty mid-game, but also automatically offers a "halo" buff if you die to a boss a few times in a row. The story was a bit disjointed in the second half, but it had some interesting ideas. There are so many characters that not all of them get a lot of time and they get in the way of each other sometimes, there are many cutscenes, but I liked most of them.
Overall I enjoyed it a lot and I'm glad I played it. Still, I'm not interested in going for 100% or doing any of the post-postgame content.
Monday, day 3: I really enjoy the feeling that behind every wall could be an entirely new area to explore. Most recently I found the Volcano Caverns, I look forward to exploring those. I spent an embarrassing amount of time getting frustrated in the Spectral Cave, finally figured out where I could go if I had Wall Jump, then eventually decided to leave and almost missed Wall Jump in the corner. Heh. But now I have ten people in town as well as the Halftime achievement (50% of both map and items), so I could activate the Stele again, or else backtrack and explore now that I can jump up walls…
Tbh some of the characters are blurring together slightly, sometimes I forget who I met where (and I can't look it up because of spoilers.) Some of my favorites are Pandora the immortal princess of the pyramid and Aruraune the human-turned-half-plant. I suspect Ashuri of, uh, potentially nefarious dealings…
Tuesday: Made it to the credits! I did not expect for that final boss fight to have four phases… I used up my last food in phase three and then it took several tries and a level two Halo boost for me to beat Noah, but I made it. Not entirely sure why the credits were here tbh, clearly there is plenty of content and even story still… I look forward to finding out what Rumi, Rita, and Ashuri are up to. I'm also happy with Rumi and Miru calling Erina their sister, cute.
I also discovered some more new areas. The pacing is good, you can go wherever you want but at some point there are story prompts leading you toward places where you can get e.g. double jump and wall jump. I think I have most abilities now, most recently I got Air Dash, but there are still some that I'm missing.
I collected a few more people for the town, now I'm only missing five. One new favorite is Lilith, both because she's an unashamedly horny succubus in a way that's really funny (all the "concerned" villagers in Sky Town, heh), and because the battle in the air was cool. I might be slowly getting better at this bullet hell thing maybe, though there's still a ton of luck involved.
Wednesday: I explored more regions and won some more boss fights, and then I got to an area that is basically a boss rush against "illusions" with plenty of other enemies in between. The annoying thing is that it takes so long, and when you die you have to do several rooms again, so after a while I quit. Needing several tries to beat a boss didn't really bother me in e.g. Hollow Knight, but here I mostly find it annoying, not exactly sure why. Of course, playing a game where the hit box of the character is only part of the character sprite and not always clearly visible is probably a bad introduction to bullet hell games.
Thursday: Ugh, chapter 6 had two long boss rushes in a row, I did not enjoy that >.< At least the fight against Rumi was fun, the aerial parts were my favorite. I considered lowering the difficulty to Casual but decided not to, and I did make it on Novice so it worked out.
I have a Carrot Shooter now! I collected some more upgrades, and I looked up where to find something for the first time, the Fire Orb and later the Hammer Roll, whatever.
Chapter 7 and 8 had more platforming, which I'm sure would have been easier if I hadn't constantly forgotten to use the Bunny Amulet. And then the fight against Irisu was soo long… by this point I really mostly wanted to be done, so I finally decreased the difficulty to Casual and then did it on my first try.
I didn't see Irisu also being a bunny coming, she and Erina are sweet. I did not expect them to be literally sleeping together, with all that innuendo the first time and then Rumi so shocked when she listens in with her telepathy (rude), heh. And everyone is interested in Erina! I want all the f/f and Erina's harem fic (but not enough to want to write it.)
