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[Oregano]

Awesome. Kinda surprised they are bothering with 3DS.

 

[Conrad Link]

Game is amazing, I really really really enjoyed it on Xbox One... and it was free!

Old school trial and error fun, learn the patterns of the enemies and jumps, repeat, die, learn the patterns, die, repeat, get better, each time progressing through the level a bit further.

It can be brutal but you feel like you really achieved something when you 'trained' so hard to complete that stage and finally do it.

 

[Nocturnowl]

I'm under the impression this can give me an old-school Castlevania style fix so I'm fully on board.

 

[@MUWANdo]

Awesome. Kinda surprised they are bothering with 3DS.

The main reason so many games skip 3DS is that they're built with middleware engines like Unity that aren't 3DS-friendly, but if you've rolled your own code and have experience with the hardware it's not such a big deal, and the market's certainly there.

 

[Miles Quaritch]

"Shitty unfair difficulty bullshit" is the last thing I would use to describe this game. It is actually amazingly fair considering the intention to be a hard game. I would also disagree that Shovel Knight does "everything it tries to do". I like both games, but there are lots of things it does which Shovel Knight clearly doesn't even try to approach. Volgarr is about learning how to master a specific and fixed move set, and using it to overcome all challenges throughout the game. The character never gets stronger or learns new moves, the player does. Having way less checkpoints while pacing stages so they don't feel too long on their own is also a big difference between the two games. It requires players to pay more attention to what they're doing, and concentrate more without making stupid mistakes.

Shovel Knight is definitely more fun to just casually play because it offers lots of different subweapons, fun distractions, and it doesn't feel like it's kicking your ass too much so you can progress even if you suck at the game, and feel good about that. But for me Volgarr is a far more rewarding game to play, even if it can be stressful for long periods of time. Accomplishing something in Volgarr is more satisfying because you know the game wouldn't hand it to you anyway if you performed worse.

Just don't buy it on a handheld. The number of times I nearly threw my controller at the screen...haven't felt so much rage since playing OG Ninja Gaiden on the OG Xbox.

The ghost fish weren't as frustrating as this is...

 

[maxcriden]

Its got a little bit of pixel blood.

The better question to ask is how violent are you going to get after the 50th time you die on the first level?

Thanks for the info. Sounds like a tough game!

 

[WhoaIsThatMars]

I didn't know this game existed and now I really want it lol

 

[pa22word]

Finally the best game on 3ds, shinobi 3d, has some competition in its genre.

Bought and loved volgarr on steam, and will likely buy and love it again next to its suburb--and imo better--older brother on 3ds

 

[mnz]

Uhhhh?

What's up with the ratings? The game is fantastic. Very hard, in an oldschool way, but also very good.

 

[loki 16]

I always wanted to play this since I saw the Giant Bomb playthrough. I will definitely get it on vita.

 

[pa22word]

What's up with the ratings? The game is fantastic. Very hard, in an oldschool way, but also very good.

It was games for gold once, so I imagine a lot of people who don't usually buy these types of games got to play this type of game for the first time and gave it a 1 star after they couldn't beat the first stage.

Kinda one of those times where giving a game out for free was more damaging I would guess than otherwise. Niches exist for a reason, and when people wander into them and get hit with the equivalent of the sledgehammer of that niche...they tend to react poorly.

 

[Moff]

I beat the first and second stage
might double dip on 3DS but probably won' because I probably wouldn't even put in the effort to beat the first two stages again. but still kinda want.

 

[Snatch1414]

It's a good game that's fairly difficult but you can and will progress. A lot of newer gamers that need 800 bits of extra content and don't see the point in actually playing the game won't like it.

 

[Grief.exe]

I beat the first and second stage
might double dip on 3DS but probably won' because I probably wouldn't even put in the effort to beat the first two stages again. but still kinda want.

The first two stages are the hardest, after that the difficulty drops off as your personal skill catches up.

 

[Xater]

Hmm I never 100%ed the PC version. Maybe I'll get it on PS4 again during a sale.

The game is great. If you have not played it before it's a total no brainer to pick it up.

 

[El Sloth]

Volgarr gave me the great moment of watching my 10 year old nephew get stuck on the very first part of the first level. The part where the enemies infinitely spawn, crawling up from the ground.

See, he's never encountered infinitely spawning enemies before.

It was fascinating to see him try to parse what was going on. At first he would just stand there as enemies keep crawling up from the left and right, getting overwhelmed each time. After two deaths he figured it was best not let them get close in the first place and started chucking spears every which way, moving a little more to the right (and left) but not understanding he had to keep going right just yet. Modern games had taught him that when he came to an area with a lot of enemies he had to kill them all before he could continue.

He slowly began to understand the enemies wouldn't hit him if he crouched and began to dominate this small stretch of land without taking any hits. After ~25 minutes he finally dared to go farther to the right and I saw comprehension dawn on him: he didn't have to kill all the bad guys. So he just kept going. Jumping over the blue lizardman waiting for him and on to the broken bridge. He was liberated! He doesn't have to kill all the bad guys! Woo!

Then he died to the lizardman who spawns on the other side and jumps across to get you.

That's when he decided to go back to watching guys play minecraft mods on YouTube.

 

[Rubikant]

What's up with the ratings? The game is fantastic. Very hard, in an oldschool way, but also very good.

Our theory is its because it first was released on XB1 as a Games with Gold game, meaning many people downloaded and played it that wold normally never have tried a game advertised as being super difficult (it wasn't really meant to be a mass appeal game, it was intended for a niche audience).

Also there seems to be some sort of weird XB vs PSN war about free games, and each side gets pissed when their favored company releases a free game for the month that they don't think is good enough competition for the other side's offering. Many XB1 players seemed outright offended that Volgarr wasn't some AAA highly anticipated release that they could flaunt to the Sony fans, rather than "yet another 2D indie game".

Our other releases were all met with largely positive responses from people who were actually somewhat interested in this kind of gameplay and thus bought the game or got it on sale (on Steam our rating is 9/10 for example). But with GwG, we were surprised not only by the massive negative user ratings compared to elsewhere, but by how much the hate spread beyond that - our e-mail boxes and twitter feeds were buried in hate messages and horrible offensive pictures, Kris (the artist/PR guy that runs the twitter account) had his XB1 account shut down by a deluge of fake reports against it, then after he dealt with that it was hacked, and he had to change his ID and basically hide. And as soon as the GwG promotion ended and the game was on sale normally, we were back to getting 90% praise again, but by that point there had been so many negative votes on the XB1 that the rating will never recover now.

Still, GwG did more good than harm, we were well compensated by MS and it certainly helped spread the word about the game. We'll be better prepared next time a company offers to do a free game promotion thing with us for what kind of reception we might get. Almost feels like MS should turn off the ability to rate games during a GwG promotion until the promotion is over or something, I don't know, probably not really any good solution to this problem, or maybe we were the only ones to have something like that happen?

 

[@MUWANdo]

Our other releases were all met with largely positive responses from people who were actually somewhat interested in this kind of gameplay and thus bought the game or got it on sale (on Steam our rating is 9/10 for example). But with GwG, we were surprised not only by the massive negative user ratings compared to elsewhere, but by how much the hate spread beyond that - our e-mail boxes and twitter feeds were buried in hate messages and horrible offensive pictures, Kris (the artist/PR guy that runs the twitter account) had his XB1 account shut down by a deluge of fake reports against it, then after he dealt with that it was hacked, and he had to change his ID and basically hide. And as soon as the GwG promotion ended and the game was on sale normally, we were back to getting 90% praise again, but by that point there had been so many negative votes on the XB1 that the rating will never recover now.

Holy shit, that's insane.

 

[manueldelalas]

Amazing little game, only let down by the last level which went against the rest of the game (constant checkpoints and not much going on).

If you do try it and you should, know that the second level is a huge hump. It gets much easier after that.

But that's not the real last level though. Real Vikings find another way to get to the top floor...

Incredible game, one of the best designed games I've ever played. Buy it.

 

[Cynn]

Fantastic game guys and gals. I loved it on X1.

 

[TheYanger]

Holy shit, that's insane.

yeah, but it makes sense. I mean, even at some greatly reduced rate I HAVE to assume you guys made a lot more on the game than you would have otherwise. Seems like the kind of game where the people who are the target audience will hear the positive word of mouth too.

 

[KevinCow]

Our theory is its because it first was released on XB1 as a Games with Gold game, meaning many people downloaded and played it that wold normally never have tried a game advertised as being super difficult (it wasn't really meant to be a mass appeal game, it was intended for a niche audience).

Also there seems to be some sort of weird XB vs PSN war about free games, and each side gets pissed when their favored company releases a free game for the month that they don't think is good enough competition for the other side's offering. Many XB1 players seemed outright offended that Volgarr wasn't some AAA highly anticipated release that they could flaunt to the Sony fans, rather than "yet another 2D indie game".

Our other releases were all met with largely positive responses from people who were actually somewhat interested in this kind of gameplay and thus bought the game or got it on sale (on Steam our rating is 9/10 for example). But with GwG, we were surprised not only by the massive negative user ratings compared to elsewhere, but by how much the hate spread beyond that - our e-mail boxes and twitter feeds were buried in hate messages and horrible offensive pictures, Kris (the artist/PR guy that runs the twitter account) had his XB1 account shut down by a deluge of fake reports against it, then after he dealt with that it was hacked, and he had to change his ID and basically hide. And as soon as the GwG promotion ended and the game was on sale normally, we were back to getting 90% praise again, but by that point there had been so many negative votes on the XB1 that the rating will never recover now.

Still, GwG did more good than harm, we were well compensated by MS and it certainly helped spread the word about the game. We'll be better prepared next time a company offers to do a free game promotion thing with us for what kind of reception we might get. Almost feels like MS should turn off the ability to rate games during a GwG promotion until the promotion is over or something, I don't know, probably not really any good solution to this problem, or maybe we were the only ones to have something like that happen?

Jesus christ. People can be fucking psychopaths behind the veil of internet anonymity. Sorry you guys had to go through that.

 

[@MUWANdo]

yeah, but it makes sense.

Does it really make sense that people would try to attack a developer or shut down their account because the free game they were given wasn't quite to their tastes?

 

[manueldelalas]

Should be noted that Volgarr looks like old arcade action games, like Rastan, but it actually is nothing like them.

In Arcade games, you will have crap hit detection and waves of respawning enemies to take your quarters.

Volgarr on the other hand, has levels divided by chunks, so you have challenge, rest, challenge rest and so on, it's actually a game were you can breath and take your time, and respawning enemies are infrequent, and really beatable or avoidable.

Bosses in Volgarr are pattern based, and AI is basically 0, so they are extremely easy to beat actually. Once you learn patterns, the game becomes VERY easy, despite its fame.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

Our theory is its because it first was released on XB1 as a Games with Gold game, meaning many people downloaded and played it that wold normally never have tried a game advertised as being super difficult (it wasn't really meant to be a mass appeal game, it was intended for a niche audience).

Also there seems to be some sort of weird XB vs PSN war about free games, and each side gets pissed when their favored company releases a free game for the month that they don't think is good enough competition for the other side's offering. Many XB1 players seemed outright offended that Volgarr wasn't some AAA highly anticipated release that they could flaunt to the Sony fans, rather than "yet another 2D indie game".

Our other releases were all met with largely positive responses from people who were actually somewhat interested in this kind of gameplay and thus bought the game or got it on sale (on Steam our rating is 9/10 for example). But with GwG, we were surprised not only by the massive negative user ratings compared to elsewhere, but by how much the hate spread beyond that - our e-mail boxes and twitter feeds were buried in hate messages and horrible offensive pictures, Kris (the artist/PR guy that runs the twitter account) had his XB1 account shut down by a deluge of fake reports against it, then after he dealt with that it was hacked, and he had to change his ID and basically hide. And as soon as the GwG promotion ended and the game was on sale normally, we were back to getting 90% praise again, but by that point there had been so many negative votes on the XB1 that the rating will never recover now.

Still, GwG did more good than harm, we were well compensated by MS and it certainly helped spread the word about the game. We'll be better prepared next time a company offers to do a free game promotion thing with us for what kind of reception we might get. Almost feels like MS should turn off the ability to rate games during a GwG promotion until the promotion is over or something, I don't know, probably not really any good solution to this problem, or maybe we were the only ones to have something like that happen?

Jesus christ.

Well, if it matters, I thought Volgarr was great. Even streamed myself finishing it to people cheering me on.

 

[TheYanger]

Does it really make sense that people would try to attack a developer or shut down their account because the free game they were given wasn't quite to their tastes?

Obviously not those parts I just meant the low ratings.

 

[atbigelow]

Will get for 3D.

 

[El Sloth]

Our theory is its because it first was released on XB1 as a Games with Gold game, meaning many people downloaded and played it that wold normally never have tried a game advertised as being super difficult (it wasn't really meant to be a mass appeal game, it was intended for a niche audience).

Also there seems to be some sort of weird XB vs PSN war about free games, and each side gets pissed when their favored company releases a free game for the month that they don't think is good enough competition for the other side's offering. Many XB1 players seemed outright offended that Volgarr wasn't some AAA highly anticipated release that they could flaunt to the Sony fans, rather than "yet another 2D indie game".

Our other releases were all met with largely positive responses from people who were actually somewhat interested in this kind of gameplay and thus bought the game or got it on sale (on Steam our rating is 9/10 for example). But with GwG, we were surprised not only by the massive negative user ratings compared to elsewhere, but by how much the hate spread beyond that - our e-mail boxes and twitter feeds were buried in hate messages and horrible offensive pictures, Kris (the artist/PR guy that runs the twitter account) had his XB1 account shut down by a deluge of fake reports against it, then after he dealt with that it was hacked, and he had to change his ID and basically hide. And as soon as the GwG promotion ended and the game was on sale normally, we were back to getting 90% praise again, but by that point there had been so many negative votes on the XB1 that the rating will never recover now.

Still, GwG did more good than harm, we were well compensated by MS and it certainly helped spread the word about the game. We'll be better prepared next time a company offers to do a free game promotion thing with us for what kind of reception we might get. Almost feels like MS should turn off the ability to rate games during a GwG promotion until the promotion is over or something, I don't know, probably not really any good solution to this problem, or maybe we were the only ones to have something like that happen?

What in the fuck.

I wonder how often this happens with other games. People take their video games way too damn seriously

 

[Rubikant]

yeah, but it makes sense. I mean, even at some greatly reduced rate I HAVE to assume you guys made a lot more on the game than you would have otherwise. Seems like the kind of game where the people who are the target audience will hear the positive word of mouth too.

Oh yeah, like I said, in the long run we still feel it was a good call to take up MS on the offer to go with GwG, and we'd probably still choose to do it again with Sony's free game thingy if they offered (or for a future game on XB1). I mean, even if most didn't actually play it (or actively hated it) its still pretty cool to know over a million people have downloaded our little 2-man-studio indie game! We were just caught off guard by the backlash from it. Kris, for one, learned a valuable lesson about the dangers of becoming a kinda sorta "public figure" and how important it is to keep personal information as private as possible (or at least I assume he did).

But anyway, didn't mean to derail the topic here, just wanted to offer an explanation for why the user rating for Volgarr on XB1 is so much lower than elsewhere, since someone asked.

 

[LukasTaves]

I've got to e 3rd level on xbone a few times, but no save kills it for me. Having to go trough the beginning every time is a bit too old school for me.

 

[OrbitalBeard]

Awesome. Kinda surprised they are bothering with 3DS.

The team's already worked on a 3DS game, so they have experience with the hardware.

I'm hoping for Wii U/3DS cross-buy.

Our theory is its because it first was released on XB1 as a Games with Gold game, meaning many people downloaded and played it that wold normally never have tried a game advertised as being super difficult (it wasn't really meant to be a mass appeal game, it was intended for a niche audience).

Also there seems to be some sort of weird XB vs PSN war about free games, and each side gets pissed when their favored company releases a free game for the month that they don't think is good enough competition for the other side's offering. Many XB1 players seemed outright offended that Volgarr wasn't some AAA highly anticipated release that they could flaunt to the Sony fans, rather than "yet another 2D indie game".

Our other releases were all met with largely positive responses from people who were actually somewhat interested in this kind of gameplay and thus bought the game or got it on sale (on Steam our rating is 9/10 for example). But with GwG, we were surprised not only by the massive negative user ratings compared to elsewhere, but by how much the hate spread beyond that - our e-mail boxes and twitter feeds were buried in hate messages and horrible offensive pictures, Kris (the artist/PR guy that runs the twitter account) had his XB1 account shut down by a deluge of fake reports against it, then after he dealt with that it was hacked, and he had to change his ID and basically hide. And as soon as the GwG promotion ended and the game was on sale normally, we were back to getting 90% praise again, but by that point there had been so many negative votes on the XB1 that the rating will never recover now.

Still, GwG did more good than harm, we were well compensated by MS and it certainly helped spread the word about the game. We'll be better prepared next time a company offers to do a free game promotion thing with us for what kind of reception we might get. Almost feels like MS should turn off the ability to rate games during a GwG promotion until the promotion is over or something, I don't know, probably not really any good solution to this problem, or maybe we were the only ones to have something like that happen?

This is insane. Sorry you guys had to deal with this crap.

 

[dark10x]

Can't believe people reacted to Volgarr that way. It's such a damn good game. What the hell is wrong with some people? I just don't get it.

 

[Miles Quaritch]

Our theory is its because it first was released on XB1 as a Games with Gold game, meaning many people downloaded and played it that wold normally never have tried a game advertised as being super difficult (it wasn't really meant to be a mass appeal game, it was intended for a niche audience).

Also there seems to be some sort of weird XB vs PSN war about free games, and each side gets pissed when their favored company releases a free game for the month that they don't think is good enough competition for the other side's offering. Many XB1 players seemed outright offended that Volgarr wasn't some AAA highly anticipated release that they could flaunt to the Sony fans, rather than "yet another 2D indie game".

Our other releases were all met with largely positive responses from people who were actually somewhat interested in this kind of gameplay and thus bought the game or got it on sale (on Steam our rating is 9/10 for example). But with GwG, we were surprised not only by the massive negative user ratings compared to elsewhere, but by how much the hate spread beyond that - our e-mail boxes and twitter feeds were buried in hate messages and horrible offensive pictures, Kris (the artist/PR guy that runs the twitter account) had his XB1 account shut down by a deluge of fake reports against it, then after he dealt with that it was hacked, and he had to change his ID and basically hide. And as soon as the GwG promotion ended and the game was on sale normally, we were back to getting 90% praise again, but by that point there had been so many negative votes on the XB1 that the rating will never recover now.

Still, GwG did more good than harm, we were well compensated by MS and it certainly helped spread the word about the game. We'll be better prepared next time a company offers to do a free game promotion thing with us for what kind of reception we might get. Almost feels like MS should turn off the ability to rate games during a GwG promotion until the promotion is over or something, I don't know, probably not really any good solution to this problem, or maybe we were the only ones to have something like that happen?

This honestly deserves its own thread. The fuck is wrong with some people... I don't want to put in the spotlight though, so we''ll just leave it here.

Really sucks you had to go through that.

 

[Noisepurge]

eagerly waiting for the Vita version! Will pay full price day-1.

 

[mnz]

I've got to e 3rd level on xbone a few times, but no save kills it for me. Having to go trough the beginning every time is a bit too old school for me.

There is a save if you're really talking about levels. Just go left at the beginning, like at the beginning of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2bt9HOnCGw

(See also the big hint at the bottom of the screen)

 

[PancakeAlmighty]

Great game, cool more people get to play it, and on portables too is awesome

 

[ChryZ]

Man, that GwG reaction is heart breaking. Why can't people be happy and enjoy good games.

 

[Footos22]

Our theory is its because it first was released on XB1 as a Games with Gold game, meaning many people downloaded and played it that wold normally never have tried a game advertised as being super difficult (it wasn't really meant to be a mass appeal game, it was intended for a niche audience).

Also there seems to be some sort of weird XB vs PSN war about free games, and each side gets pissed when their favored company releases a free game for the month that they don't think is good enough competition for the other side's offering. Many XB1 players seemed outright offended that Volgarr wasn't some AAA highly anticipated release that they could flaunt to the Sony fans, rather than "yet another 2D indie game".

Our other releases were all met with largely positive responses from people who were actually somewhat interested in this kind of gameplay and thus bought the game or got it on sale (on Steam our rating is 9/10 for example). But with GwG, we were surprised not only by the massive negative user ratings compared to elsewhere, but by how much the hate spread beyond that - our e-mail boxes and twitter feeds were buried in hate messages and horrible offensive pictures, Kris (the artist/PR guy that runs the twitter account) had his XB1 account shut down by a deluge of fake reports against it, then after he dealt with that it was hacked, and he had to change his ID and basically hide. And as soon as the GwG promotion ended and the game was on sale normally, we were back to getting 90% praise again, but by that point there had been so many negative votes on the XB1 that the rating will never recover now.

Still, GwG did more good than harm, we were well compensated by MS and it certainly helped spread the word about the game. We'll be better prepared next time a company offers to do a free game promotion thing with us for what kind of reception we might get. Almost feels like MS should turn off the ability to rate games during a GwG promotion until the promotion is over or something, I don't know, probably not really any good solution to this problem, or maybe we were the only ones to have something like that happen?

jeez, how pathetic Would take Volgarr over Tomb raider any day of the week.