Takes a while to get in the groove, but now Im groovin

[vapid quartz]

The point is to learn

the puzzles aren't as direct as in some other games, and neither is the progression

[maiden knoll]

this was the same with me when i started

[sudden oar]

``A lot of this game appeals to me on paper, but I'm a few hours in, and nothing is clicking

My whole experience so far feels like I'm struggling up a muddy hill, constantly losing ground, and... the hill is like some MC Escher shit where there is no top, bottom, forward, or back.

I've learned a few tricks, which has been enjoyable discoveries, but I feel like there's no actual progress outside of "and now I'm over here".

The most frustrating thing, aside from those goddamn killer vines, is the one thing that's supposed to be helping me. Those yellow worm things are so very unhelpful. I've tried following the ones that have the little me face, but... there isn't really a destination, and it feels almost random whether or not the me face ones even show up at all. And as for the yellow worms that have no additional symbols, I have no idea what they are trying to tell me.

I'm im the second area, the industrial complex, following the me face has gotten me nowhere, and I keep getting this weird green message that flashes between one of those "you survived" symbols and like, a line or a stick. It keeps trying to point me over to the left above the industrial complex entrance, but I can't get all the way up. I was able to climb some of it by using a stick to make a platform, but once I get up there, nothing. Oh, and sometimes that same green message will pop up and point me to fruit, so I really have no idea what the hell it's trying to tell me. Do I need to have a high enough "survive" streak? When I was at or above that symbol, it didn't change the way the messages came up.

I get that this is one of them "metroidbrainia" type games with little direction, but this feels too directionless. To defend my honor, I will say, I have a lot of experience with meteoidvania type games, as well as metroidbrainias. I'm fresh of the highs or Animal Well and Tunic.

TL;DR, I'm a whiny newbie who really wants to like this game, but can't figure out what the point of anything is.``

[maiden knoll]

i get what you mean

[sudden oar]

Just reposting for spoilers

dw

[vapid quartz]

It often doesn't feel like progress but it is. You just wander around and find stuff.

And then you get better at surviving using that knowledge

And then you can find more stuff

[sudden oar]

This game CAN really be frustrating sometimes though. If you ever feel like you cannot think straight and are just brute forcing something, take a break

[vapid quartz]

can't find stuff if you're frustrated after all

[sudden oar]

Also yeah the yellow worm dude sucks, but you don't need to follow him

[vapid quartz]

Yeah it's pretty directionless. But I would prefer to say it accepts all directions

it's hard to not make progress in some way

[winter heron]

These are all helpful in confirming that I'm not going crazy, lol. I was very tired and frustrated last night lol. But I can try pressing on. The only thread of curiosity I really have is that "survived" counter and the gateways that reapond to it, so I guess I'm not completely unstimulated.

I've heard enough non-specific spoiler-free praise about this game to be willing to put in the time and effort.

[vapid quartz]

Treat it a little bit more like a sandbox, don't get over-focused on progress. Then progress will happen naturally.

Just explore whatever you think looks interesting. Figuring out how the "survived" counter works is a good start

[vapid quartz]

If you end up not liking the basic gameplay loop you won't get to "the good part" later on, though, don't expect that. The praise is just how much cool stuff there is to find and how much fun it is to find it

[winter heron]

It seems strange to me that you lose progress on that counter, yet it still rolls back your save. There's a question of "how canon are these deaths", you know? I was able to reach the last symbol, and saw that is says "the survivor", which is extra curios

[vapid quartz]

(and also how rewarding it is to get the knowledge-based equivalent of metroidvania power scaling)

[winter heron]

Kind of what I was worried about. But I can power through. A lot of deaths just feel like total bullshit. Ive heard that you just have to learn the ways of the land, but the process of doing that isn't very fun.

And the vines. Can someone just tell me what to do with vines? I feel like sometimes I can walk past them, and sometimes not. And is the only way of escaping their grip throwing something at it as its eating you?

[winter heron]

This. This is why I'm playing this game. This specific type of game is my absolute favorite. I don't know any of its secrets yet, only that its held up as a great "metroidbrainia" by those who love it.

[vapid quartz]

Yeah you are very right about that, you have to get used to dying in silly ways when you're not familiar with the area
As long as you learn from your mistakes at some point, don't feel bad about making them.

[spice sequoia]

Is this the right thread to ask about a first playthrough?

[vapid quartz]

Make your own thread

[spice sequoia]

Ooh

Okie

It was more just a simple question

Non spoiler really

Anyways have a good day!

[vapid quartz]

still works. And we're very careful with spoilers so better to make a thread for it than not

[vapid quartz]

As for the vines, that's where the puzzle aspect of the game is. The thinking isn't as abstract as in ANIMAL WELL or TUNIC, it's more directly problem-solving-oriented.

Observe it, try any ideas you have, see what works, you'll come away wiser

[winter heron]

Yeah, I found some fun tricks so far my favorite two are ||the stomach pocket|| and ||getting away when two predators are fighting over your body||. Both of those discoveries are making this survival aspect feel less tedious. Not because those two thing are helping me a ton, but it feels like there is a lot more depth to find if these are some of the things the devs thought of

[vapid quartz]

There is a ton of hidden depth of that variety

You rarely find major game-changers at once, which is why it can feel like you're not making progress sometimes. But those little bits of wisdom add up.

[winter heron]

Understood. Thank you for all this. Its very encouraging to know that I'm pretty much having the intended experience lol

[vapid quartz]

yeah

this game is very weird on purpose

[winter heron]

Oh goddd noooooo

I just hibernated with one food short, and the next cycle I was trying to scramble at the last minute to get food and get to shelter, and he started getting super slow and struggling because he was starving.

My poor babyyyy

[spring lake]

i had the same feeling, thats the reason why i quit before (feeling lost, no clue where to do/what to do) (and now im back and enjoying the game so much :D), i just made up a goal mine was get to the highest spot and then i found some other cool stuff which got me back on my path

[spring lake]

||others fighting for you is pretty rare, but when it does happen it feels so cool||

[winter heron]

I'm getting places, but... I think I just ||did a terrible thing and killed the robot by eating all of her friends. I got "enlightened" according to the achievement I got, but wanted to see what would happen if I ate more. Now the robot is dead, and I'm wondering if this is a reset save file situation. I noticed those orange egg things and I started following that trail, but I know I don't need to take away all of the robot's thingies to do that.||

[winter heron]

To be more specific ||I got past the water zone and found the place called "looks to the moon". I found a weird robot that looked scared of me, and I ate its white glowy bug things||

[lament juniper]

There are no "wrong choices" in Rain World, and everyone does smth different. It's up to you if you want to reset or not
(Btw this thread is for you so you don't have so spoil tag anything past the opening message and title)

[winter heron]

I gotcha. I do appreciate that kind of freedom, but like, there are consequences for that action, right? It seems like eating just one has consequences too, since the achievement says "but at what cost?"

I may reset. Well, I may reset regardless because I'm like, super-softlocked. Not actually softlocked, but I went down a different path, and all the directions, including trying to backtrack, are very frustrating, and I just want to try following those orange egg things instead.

I took the low path in the water zone, and just like most games, the water level is always the worst lol. You drown way too fast in this game, and the swimming controls are too stiff for that small of a margin for error.

[prime parcel]

you’re not softlocked yet, you just need to keep looking

[winter heron]

I see the way out, i just really hate dying this way over and over, and Id like to undo what I did to that robot

[lament juniper]

I'm just gonna say, it's insanely difficult to truly be soft locked. There are no wrong decisions in Rain World, even if you think there are consequences, there are very few that you have yet to act upon

[winter heron]

I figured soft locking is hard. I just... dont wanna do this part, and Id rest easier knowing I haven't murdered a cool robot who just liked looking at the moon. It shouldn't take long to get back to where I was, since I know stuff now. Plus it keeps your map, which is cool

[winter heron]

Oh yeah, eating any of those is bad. The orange worms hate me after that. I tried other stuff, but after I saved (after meeting robot) I got a good dream. Now I feel like I'm on the right track, having not lobotomized this cool robot

[vapid quartz]

Yeah, you can reset if you really want, but you definitely do not need to

and yeah you can get around much quicker once you've already explored the world. That's the fun part of knowledge-based progression

[safe granite]

Way too much info.

[winter heron]

Ooh, as in following those orange egg thingies that I could see after eating one?

I did wanna see where those lead

Eh, Ill just pretend I didn't see that

[winter heron]

So, does pearl color matter to the merchant? I found a gold one, and I wanted to bring it to him, but I lost it. That's not the only gold one, right?

I hate swimming i hate swimming i hate swimming

You drown way to damn fast, and its way too easy to get snagged on something

I know about catching your breath, and I know about the weird jet ski fish

[lament juniper]

Are you by chance pressing jump while swimming?

[winter heron]

Trying it with and without the jump button. Also trying to hit the button with a rhythm. Its really inconsistent. But whats worse is the turning

[lament juniper]

Ok, don't jump underwater bc that yk can make you drown WAY faster

(Unless you have a specific remix setting on that I do NOT recommend for a FP)

[winter heron]

Ah, that sucks. So directional input is all you need? No other tricks?

[lament juniper]

Nothing else

[winter heron]

Well, thanks for the clarification, lol.

[vapid quartz]

There's some tricks to the directional input

[spring lake]

how many did you eat? all of them?

[prime parcel]

he ate all of them

[winter heron]

Yeah, I reset my save, and found that you can still get progress if you sleep after just meeting the robot. Ive been following the yellow worms, and I just got to a place called "the leg"

[prime parcel]

gulp

[vapid quartz]

shhh

that's not necessarily true and if it was you shouldn't tell 'em

[prime parcel]

guh I’m still new to this

I understand tho

[winter heron]

I'm not sure how spoiler sensitive this game or its community are. I'm used to Animal Well and Outer Wilds, where every post about the game looks like redacted government documents lol

[prime parcel]

lol

I’ve never really been in a spoiler-heavy community so this is all new to me

[brittle whale]

rain world is a lot worse when playing soiled

imo

[vapid quartz]

Yeah we're pretty spoiler-sensitive. It would be a lie to say the game is at the level of Outer Wilds but it's up there

so we might as well maintain maximum spoiler security.

(although, for a game this difficult, not everyone wants to play completely blind, it's a balance of telling people just enough that they still can enjoy the game...)

Either way the First-Playthrough Helpers are very well-trained in controlling what we do and do not mention. There's a semi-hidden thread elsewhere in the server that we use to coordinate our advice without being seen by the people we're giving it to

[winter heron]

Thats a very very good system

And yeah, to some degree, I dont mind being spoiled for quality of life things. Because I have ended 4/5 of my sessions with rage quitting lol.

I think its mostly because of mobility issues, which have been less of a problem in the recent parts. Web slingin in the leg/underhang, and fun 0 grav movement in the five pebbles. I just got to the part of 5 pebbles where it keeps switching the gravity. Really enjoying these parts, especially because this zone is sort of telling a more tangible story

[winter heron]

Takes a while to get in the groove, but now Im groovin

[vapid quartz]

[spring lake]

it is a metroidbrainia