One Week, One Vidya - Ronin

Oh, it's a What I Expected What I got image, yeah, you probably were talking about the screencap tho.

I don't keep a record of all the reasons games are shit, either. The flaws usually make themselves fairly obvious within the first hour of replaying, however.

reasons enough to drop. "jump arc is not always accurate" = indie dev excuse for shit programming skills

I've played through the game three times, and the only situation where the jump arc isn't accurate is when you end your turn in midair, close enough to a platform to "snap" to it. It moves you all of a quarter of an inch and it killed me maybe once. I wouldn't care for a bit of jank like that in a more polished game but given that this was developed by one guy I can't really bring myself to be angry.

The grappling hook can be odd if you're zipping to a specific point at a weird angle, but mostly I used it for swinging around or zipping with nothing in my way.
user, it's an action game. I don't understand what you mean here.
Do you mean the guards with machine guns? Those are the only ones which frustrated me to any degree, but only on NG+ since they track you rather than firing in a straight line. You have at least a turn to react to an enemy firing at you, so there aren't any unfair enemies.

This game is great. I enjoyed it much better than Gunpoint, believe it or not.

I never played Gunpoint since it didn't look to my tastes, but I think I would have preferred Ronin's more straightforward gameplay anyway. Then again, the games are probably too different to compare in spite of their similar art styles and perspectives.

If there's one thing I'd change about Ronin, though, it would be to remove the hints. The "this isn't Gunpoint" hint is especially stupid, since it was barely relevant at the time and by now makes no sense at all. I really like games that are timeless in that they don't have a lot of bullshit you need to know about in order to play them. Super Mario 3D World has some online features, but they're integrated seamlessly and aren't noticeably missing when you turn them off. It doesn't have amiibo support either, so it'll still be a fully functional game if you pick it up off the shelf 20 years from now. I can't say the same thing about Ronin because the developer decided to have an epic roast in the in-game hints - it isn't a really big deal but I'd have preferred he just stick to making the game.

Upon reflection, perhaps I care too much about this.

I hope this game is not fucking 100% trash, because I am on a good mood today and I am playing 100% fun games, other than that shit midnight animal demo.

I had lots of fun with it, and it isn't a big time sink either way. Just remember to plan your moves a turn ahead and you'll be fine.

And that's all of your opinions invalidated right there. Anyone who uses the "but it was made by one guy so it's ok it's bad" excuse needs to off themselves.

But it's not bad, you nigger. It's a single bit of janky collision detection in an otherwise functional game.

It's a valid complaint but it wouldn't stop me from enjoying Ronin. If it did actually stop you, then I might say you care too much though.

...

nobody is talking about your mom, m8

how the FUCK do you beat the officer? This level is killing me

By the way, I have the OST for this game in flac and the prologue comic because I bought the collector's edition. Are people interested or should I save my bandwidth?

It's a pain, yeah. The strategy I found worked best was to kill everyone in the left tower, then swing across the top and kill everyone in the right side so they don't become alert once you engage the officer. After that, swing back across to the left side and plan you entry so you kill as many people as possible before you're noticed. Make good use of your ability to pause time and cheese angles.

In particular, I remember if you jump down and kill the guy on the far left as fast as possible, you can jump over top of the line of sight from the guy who hears you and get the drop on someone else. The fight is much easier if you have the shuriken upgrade since it has almost unlimited range and stunning people for a turn is valuable. If you can bait the Officer to slash upwards then he'll go up into the clouds and you'll have a handful of turns while he falls back down.

If you're still banging your head against a wall I can record a webm or something tomorrow.

I uploaded the flac OST and the prologue comic to Mega since why not. Here are the links:
OST - mega.nz/#F!VSowAbZQ!WFr_bEPWN8EU3b86qTF4ww
Comic - mega.nz/#!Fa4x1aBC!6UAiTMgVlhgnefk9BfCNBpYjgdQ_z6iY4KURAVYMYdM

I just replayed it and the following strategy worked well. As long as you remain undetected you can cheese the whole encounter with sword throw.
Throughout this whole process you have to pause to plan your next jump as soon as you can since you'll be spotted otherwise.

I'm just at the second level and it's pretty shit.
the controls don't feel rsponsive at all, i'm fighting against them. Also don't read if you want to still enjoy the game: after attaching the cord to a wall, just pause and click on the green arrow. You will phase through the wall

I had that happen to me on the third chapter. It's definitely a bit janky but I got used to how to swing around that point too. Glad they threw in some stealthy levels around then, fairly satisfying hanging people.

Just finished it, pretty meh, sometimes the controls fuck you over and some bugs here and there. Also the endings suck since they don't change much.
If you want something in this style but done better i'd say just play mark of the ninja.

Fun fact: the artist for this is the same guy who did vid related and some other questionable stuff.

I appreciate you sticking with it, user; do you think you'll give NG+ a shot? The enemy spawns are slightly randomized and the elite guards are a much bigger pain in the ass.

You're probably right in that Mark of the Ninja is just the same concept but better, but there is something about Ronin's bare-bones mechanics I find appealing. Planning two turns ahead made me feel smart, even if there wasn't much of a challenge in retrospect. The mechanics themselves aren't that amazing, but I found it satisfying to batter and stab enemies.

As far as these threads go, do you have any suggestions for next week? Pitfall was kind of middling, which I attributed to the length of the game, so I wanted something shorter. However, I think I misjudged how interested people would be in this game; it might be a bit too short for its own good.

The game is shit, the turn-based gameplay could have been good but it's too shallow. It needs an action point system or something similar, right now not being able to fucking walk like normal (or climb ledges) makes it tedious to finish off enemies, and the grappling hook is a joke in turn mode since it takes a separate turn to reel it in. It's also a pain in the ass to figure out what your hitbox will be after you finish a jump, so trying to do anything precise is a gamble, and I feel like I abuse the teleportation when you attack someone too much.

Keep making these threads though, discussion can only really happen here when there isn't a consensus on a game

oh yeah; managed to talk to him before, pretty nice guy.

In person? The only time I can remember him talking to anyone was during some Twitch livestream I found on his Twitter profile, but it wasn't archived.

Dubs of truth it seems as this is pretty much my sentiments on the game. I found the controls particularly frustrating. I hate that grappling hook. It really took me awhile to figure how you were supposed to play. Figuring it out sooner would've definitely changed the order I acquired skills. I feel like I made the game much harder in certain parts by poor skill selection.

The quote about this game not being Gunpoint has stuck with me. I really enjoyed Gunpoint. I get the feeling the developer intended for this game to played a certain way, but during playtesting, everyone kept trying to stealth their way through the game. The dev resorts to forcing open combat in ham-fisted manner in a lot of places. He seems to have relented at some point because there are 2 or 3 levels in the middle of the game where there are some decent stealth sections.

The dev could have avoided the comparisons to Mark of the Ninja if it the players didn't find this urge to stealth their way through the game. The game would need much tighter controls, access to wider range of abilities sooner, more variety and level design that lent itself to combat variety to pull it off imo.

Oh, and the endings were really weak. I was expecting a face reveal at least.

seconded. Finished it about an hour ago and I feel pretty much the same way.

on a side note I really like this kind of threads, I came here because I was suffering from major burnout and couldn't find anything to play, looking forward to playing something different next week

POST IT

It was short but sweet.
Felt too much like a flash game you'd find on newgrounds but still I'd give I would pay one buck for this game, gladly.

It was a letdown since it was a game i really wanted to play but i couldn't find the time to. I'm enjoying these threads. For the game proposal what are the rules? (aside being able to finish it in one week). That short i can think of monster tale, dino crisis, prinny and gurumin.

I think the main problem I had with it was the reloads were a bit too long, kind of made experimenting a bit unpleasant.

Aw shti, dood. I tested out emulating it last week and it seems to run okay.

There aren't really any rules aside from the game not being too huge or too niche; we had a naval simulation game one week which killed the threads. I think a good 2D game like La-Mulana or Momodora 4, or a moderately big 3D game like Outcast or The Suffering (since they seemed to stoke good discussion) would be good. Something that stands out from its competitors in one way or another.

Dino Crisis would be pretty cool, assuming it hasn't aged too poorly to turn people away. I've heard people talk about it but I've never played it myself.

For that matter, I've been trying to avoid the "classics." That is, I could've put Mega Man in the OP this week, but I figured everyone's already played it, and the same goes for Castlevania, Resident Evil, etc. Is it sensible to devote these threads to unknown games or could we shake it up once in a while with old classics? I'm not sure if it would start better discussion, or if that kind of "educate yourself with the classics" idea would deserve its own thread.

If you insist. The menu was going to be different initially: vanripper.deviantart.com/art/ronin-room01-516649744
Questionable stuff:
e621.net/post/show/707808/animated-celty_sturluson-clothing-crossover-dialog
deviantart.com/art/myLittlePony-likeFineWine01-452575496

I didn't find the reloads to be too long, but the awkward checkpoints could have used some fine tuning.

I think these threads should be dedicated to the unsung games that nobody usually hear about.
Valdis Story and this one (alas, the only two threads I was present to partecipate with) were good finds for me.

How do you classify them thoug? Let's take for example valdis story or iji. They appear almost everytime someone asks for recommendations or in charts. Do they still count as unsung, even thoug by now, people would know about them?

God damn Wisegal's club level is pissing me off. I had trouble with it the first time time through, but now with NG+ machine gunners on the second floor, this shit is seriously frustrating. I doesn't feel like there is a clear strategy for this on NG+, I've had varied levels of success and there is nothing I have identified to carry over between runs to repeat what went or avoid what went wrong.

It occurs to me that most of my advice is going to be "just cheese it more" which probably doesn't reflect well on the game itself.

Surprised no-one has anything to say about the dev being a ponyfag. I had a good laugh at that, myself.

Good question - I think things like Iji and Valdis Story would count, since they live in that category of stuff everyone tells you to experience but you never get around to. They're kind of like some local/breakout musician, in that you know you'll like their music but you never get around to listening to it.

And here's the boss room. The webm ends abruptly since 2:30 of footage was too long, but you get the gist of it. The game has wonky rules for breaking line of sight, especially given you can't see the guards' vision cones. Breaking LoS is crucial to beating the previous encounter, but impossible in this room.

I laughed at that more than I should have.
I agree that a lot of this game feels like you either have to cheese it or end up frustrated, It's a shame because there are some points where I can see what the game tries to go for, but they are too few and far between.

Yeah, I'm really beginning to realize how little depth there is to the mechanics. You could build an entire game around sword throwing mechanics coupled with turn-based platforming action and an AP system. The player begins with the simple throw, but you acquire upgrades like calling the sword to your position, a sword that homes in on you as you move, etc. By the endgame you could be deflecting bullets, reflecting lasers, locking the sword in place, or puppeteering it around the stage.

I kinda want to dev something like that, now that I'm thinking about it. I don't have any skills but there's so much damn potential here.
Yeah. Jumping over a stumbled enemy and calling the sword towards you as he takes aim only for the sword to impale him is fucking great. Constantly interrupting your jump arcs so you can cram as many actions into an 8-second alarm countdown isn't great.

Anyone want to make the new thread or shall I do it again? Dino Crisis seem like a solid idea, but if someone else wants to pick up the torch I'm all game.

And here's the OP pasta for anyone interested. I will be keeping it up to date: pastebin.com/PVtAQJBG

Yea, thanks for the illustration. I've learned that I can hit spacebar freeze time at any moment has made NG+ much more doable.