Comments on: The Gainful Waltz (Nora Shishi)

By: nobody

nobody — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 22:49:31 +0000

And, apparently, totally incorrect! (see Humming’s comment below)

I’m still convinced, however, that there’s no rear wall to the castle. [probably the same emoticon as before, but this time with cheeks reddened a bit]

By: Humming

Humming — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 22:23:43 +0000

Uh from what I gathered the wings let you float (hold down the mouse), the dress blocks fireballs entirely (ice dress?), and the “binoculars” are a jetpack (double click to boost).

By: Stephen

Stephen — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 22:17:33 +0000

verrrrrry tenuous

By: nobody

nobody — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 21:11:00 +0000

Oh, it takes a bit of metaphorical transformation, but my thinking was that higher average coin-height is functionally equivalent to having augmented sight: it’s like you can see the coins from further away, appearing earlier on the horizon before they move down to your position.

(Obviously liberties were taken to bring this all into a 2-d plane. My guess is that the coins are being lobbed in through the absent fourth wall, since them passing through the floor unimpeded just makes no sense. [some emoticon; reader's choice])

By: xAMAZINGx

xAMAZINGx — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 20:37:41 +0000

This game was xAMAZINGx

By: Stephen

Stephen — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 19:44:38 +0000

Wait. Why do the binoculars make sense?

By: nobody

nobody — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 15:07:37 +0000

It’s interesting that this one manages to be so charming (and ‘sticky’). You’ll enter the first door and assume that what you’re seeing is an item shop, most likely a waypoint preceding the first level. But the coins are apparently being generated inside the shop — curious — and small fireballs occasionally travel across the shop’s floor. By the second room it’s abundantly clear that these item shops are the game itself, and while one might expect that to feel like a let-down, it’s not. Maybe it’s because now this second shop has ghosts to complicate things, but I suspect it’s because that curious looking middle item in this second shop — the one whose purpose you haven’t already gleaned from the first — ends up frightening the ghosts away. And so you realize these aren’t just ordinary power-ups and you’re compelled to collect them all to see what the game has cooked up for you.

To answer increpare’s question on the site’s page (without putting these spoilers right below the game window itself), I suspect the blue dress lowers damage amount, I’m pretty sure the wings add a small amount float to your jump, and I’m almost positive the goggles/binoculars raise the average height of the coins’ arc. This last one is the slyest iconography, binoculars for coin-height, because only upon reflection does it turn out to be completely appropriate.