By the way, in case this helps anyone: There is a rather large hidden cave right below William. The Sight upgrade won't show anything until you break the illusion.
@Galleon: The four pixies are all located close to the fire statues. Two are in caves to the left of the statues I believe, two are in hidden caves, usually to the right, I think.
Very good graphics and overall atmosphere. It's nice to just ambiently explore. However, the endgame is terribly dull, since it basically just involves going through the area you've already seen over and over again. Still, nice game. (Where are the hard-to-find shreds, by the way? I'm missing one...are there any caves that aren't revealed by the Sight?)
Augh, I can't find the last item in Lux Lirata for the life of me. ;_; I have all the other Helix Fragments, that's the only one I'm missing...sigh. I'm sure I combed every inch of the area already. Great game nonetheless, though it was rather linear for a Metroidvania.
I'm also a bit surprised beta testers felt so daunted by less linear gameplay. I usually like non-linear exploration; to be honest, it's the main thing that defines a 'Metroidvania' for me. A map is definitely essential, though, even in a small-scale game, since it's very easy to get lost/confused in exploration games. Other suggestion: It would also be nice to save the humourous quips in the trophy text once you acquire them. Perhaps update the trophy page with them? Oh, and in case people don't know, LoK has a TV Tropes page (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/LegendOfKalevala)! Have fun with it.
Brilliant. I wish there were more designers who actually care about video games as an art form like you do. The story was interesting, and I liked the atmosphere of slowly accumulating memories. I also liked how you explained how most of the powers worked, though I'm disappointed there's no explanation for double jumping. Ah well. The music was quite nice, though surprisingly fast-paced and upbeat in places. Suggestion: Record text from memories in case you want to see them? Perhaps in an additional sub-menu on the main menu. It would be also nice to have an easier way to backtrack at the point right before the final boss; it probably took me at least half and hour trying to get through the lava gauntlet backwards.
Oh, and I played Fuzor's story first, so the beginning of the third episode really shocked me. The news is just so...sudden and the implications are horrifying. o_O
This game had me in tears by the end, seriously. That is a major accomplishment, by the way -- this is coming from someone who didn't tear up during the ending of Mother 3. Just...the line "I'm tired, Mell," really does it for me. :'(
(Continuation because my post was too long):
I particularly liked the character of the Oarboar; it seemed like a wise, sagelike creature that was peaceful despite its monstrous appearance. (I keep trying to picture that -- the closest I can get is that it's either a chimera or a griffin) I do like jigsaw-puzzle like things where you have to slowly gather pieces of the plot, especially if you get them out of order, so that was fun. The only thing I think the game was lacking in was the Seecha -- I had a hard time grasping their exact methods and culture. I was a bit confused as to the extent of their "machines", how they used them, etc. I didn't really get a feel of "pragmatic intuition" like you say. That's just me though. Anyway, um, yes, this was great and I will probably recommend it to others. :)
This is very well-done. I wasn't surprised to learn that Yume Nikki was one of the influences for this game; Looming does feel very similar. Because of that and some of your previous games, I was constantly nervous that it would suddenly turn dark and depressing, but it didn't, and I'm glad for that! Though I like dark, depressing dramas, sometimes you do need lighthearted ambiance to relax a bit. The letters to January were a nice touch to this; they were all very sweet and heartwarming, and I wonder what January thinks of everything September writes to her about. Like September says, Looming is somewhat dreary and oppressive, but also serene and a fountain of knowledge.
Brilliant. I agree with the other commenters that we shouldn't have to replay the entire game after every ending, though. I'm curious to know if you'll ever be expanding upon the story, since it feels like we're only given a small snapshot of a much larger world. Possibly a sequel featuring the Light Folk?
@ Zlah: What do you mean? You have to get the corresponding memo before you can really do much there. In fact, I find it's best to go around grabbing memos first thing in level 3, before you start exploring, since enemies and NPCs required to complete tasks don't appear unless you have the corresponding memos.
I was a bit confused as to where the extra key went, and spent a while trying to search for the pants. I think all you need to do is put a reminder sign next to the key saying that it unlocks the door to Clarence's trousers or something. (Sorry that this is a bit late...)
To anyone who hasn't read my post on Pseudo's page, I recently made a TV Tropes page for Clarence's Big Chance at http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ClarencesBigChance. Please contribute!
Pseudolonewolf, do you think you should make the "peckish" trait on the character screen red, since it deducts points from the date? I imagined that gray scores would be neutral and red ones would be negative... (Though in that case, the "dullard" trait should be red too, since having no dialogue options reduces your score as well...)
@ hiperson: There are indicators actually -- look at the girlfriend's facial expression. Each one corresponds to an ending, so you can monitor how well you're doing by that. And actually, you can get a lot of variance in endings depending on what options you take during the dialogue tree -- I've managed to get four of them in one go. (Say "return to title screen" instead of "restart at level 1" to do so)
As for what I thought on the actual game, it was hilarious and quite fun! I was somewhat disappointed that the "description of new enemy" signs disappeared after the first level, but I didn't mind too much. I agree that the map could use a little more detail; I did get a little lost at times. The difficulty was much more reasonable and less frustrating than Raider. (I know I've said this before, but lives are a very bad idea in my opinion) I would be interested in seeing all the dialogue branches in the date section, but I'm not willing to play dozens of times to see them all. D:
Does anyone know what the final achievement is? I've got the ones for the endings and 100% completion, but I don't know what the (presumably) miscellaneous one is. Is it "complete the game with zero deaths" or a speedrun?
@ tehpineapple: You can find it on the internet, to the left of the starting section. Kill all the enemies to complete the mission.
@ HowItKilledYou: Some doors can't be entered; you can tell by the fact that they're darker than the doors you can enter.
 "William and Sly 2"){kind=icon}
 "Snailiad"){kind=icon}
 "Legend of Kalevala"){kind=icon}
 "Babies Dream of Dead Worlds"){kind=icon}
 "Looming"){kind=icon}
 "PRIOR"){kind=icon}
 "Clarence's Big Chance"){kind=icon}
 "Great Game 1/5"){kind=icon}