#How to make the game non-linear

195 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

celest sable
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I like games that you can take your own approach to play so I wanted to pitch this as an idea:

All properties will be unlocked the moment after you beat the tutorial excluding the museum as that's your ultimate goal (you can get into the museum but you can't get into the attic, you know what i mean) however you may ask how would this make the game non linear well I have some solutions to it

Every property you successfully get the key from, it will count as a day and the night sequence will begin (or just have day and night slowly transitioning and the day/night achievements will be instead tied to you beating the properties in your own order.) what i mean by this is that you could beat the Mayor's property on Day 1 and then you'd be put into Night 1. etc

Have each property need something from another residence, if something's blocked off in the bakery, i doubt Gerda will have a crowbar lying around so you'd have to head back to let's say the old neighbor's house to get one. Some of these will be replacements for puzzles and others can just be for side quests, like digging up a container of golden apple coins at the museum.

If the player has no idea where to go, the game will point you in the direction of the 'recommended' property to start off at. You could start off at the bakery and get something to eat but the game would hint that you should go to the police station after the tutorial is over.

Another good way to point that you're making progress is bring back the little watch notification and have it refer you back to the pinboard, yes, I think the pinboard should get more usage and be updated as you continue the game. The only problem was in the beta it didn't indicate that it was the pinboard being updated.

If the dev team is afraid of all the walking getting annoying, then allow for the player to use Quentin's bike to easily navigate around outside, it'd be faster than sprinting and perhaps could have a system where Quentin can retrieve his bike if it gets stuck somewhere.

I'm just a fan of non-linear games, and the beta was an alright non-linear experience I just wish we got what was in it.

As a update since the halloween update came out, I'd say it'd be better for the forest section to be not available until you beat Mr. Peterson at least until the story gets properly continued. It just feels a bit odd how right after the tutorial you just can run straight into the forest.

granite glade
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This, please, this

lusty night
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this also adds in an element I really wanted to be in hn2

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that being that you can use stuff from other houses to help yourself in other ones

celest sable
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also it'd help if every house didn't have a copy of the tool you needed

granite glade
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It's definitely not needed now that there is a tool rack

celest sable
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remove the duplicate tools, or reset your inventory every day

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actually just remove the duplicates

granite glade
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Don't reset your inventory

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That just makes it feel somewhat linear again

celest sable
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yeah

whole pond
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They could use the pin board for the hints since the current iteration of it isn't very interesting

warped fable
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do it NOW

vapid peak
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Revive

ripe zealot
# celest sable I like games that you can take your own approach to play so I wanted to pitch th...

the thing is, even if they make the game non linear, you still have to do in a certain order:
You'd have to go to the neighbor's old house first cuz of lore purposes
then you need to go to the bakery cuz that has the museum front door key, and only if you open the museum you can use the other two keys. so, the only selection you can do is whether going to Taxidermist's house first or Mayor's house first, which is pretty pointless.

vapid peak
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They could need some touching up

lusty night
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some minor modifications and thats good

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in the beta it was fine

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all you needed to do to get in was enter the mayor`s lawn

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you could do his house later

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literally all the player needed to was collect items or heads for the puzzles in the museums

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some minor reworks could be made and boom

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its non linear again

celest sable
lusty night
celest sable
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I said Museum was unlocked too

vapid peak
vapid peak
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I really need more non linear gameplay tbh

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The linear structure is just less fun

light falcon
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"addition"
the museum should be the only thing locked. you have to get a key from each house to get into the museum right? so just unlock every building after you do the Cop area, and if you get the wrong key, you can put it on a key rack in your house. (ik its not a house but I cant come up with a name)

dawn lark
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This is actually a really good suggestion

vapid peak
lusty night
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ok?

vapid peak
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Again Even though i doubt this will be Done i Think it would benefit the game so much

celest sable
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It shouldnt be that hard to make it like beta progression but with the main game's paint. I mean yeah they'd have to rework the nightmares and how they play out along with some puzzles but itd add replayablity

dusty spoke
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I agree

celest sable
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Heck, imagine the game being non linear and puzzles being randomized! That'd make the game replayable just for the first chapter alone

vapid peak
tiny pewter
celest sable
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it's not really 'controvercial' to say you want them gone

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I want them to be replaced

tiny pewter
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They are kinda fun, but generally just jarring, taking you from houses to wake up in your bed

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Like, is the whole game a dream or something?

celest sable
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like i get what they're doing, but there's better ways to do it....

and not have Quentin constantly be knocked out

tiny pewter
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Are you being dragged back to your house or something?

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I can't possibly be invested in the story of a videogame where my character is constantly passing out and waking up back home

celest sable
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i have a seperate feedback for it- also 50 likes?

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my goodness

tiny pewter
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Huh, I am the 50th liker

vapid peak
celest sable
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Ya can if you want.

vapid peak
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Im there now

naive prawn
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This is peak

celest sable
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How are we at 63? A full day hasn't even gone by? Who gave this feedback a boost in popularity, amybe i should add a bit more onto it now

dusty spoke
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I guess its because people found this

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||Peak||

celest sable
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I mean, i get why its got all the support. It's trying to help add back what we were promised.

gusty bobcat
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yeah

celest sable
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Cause now we have the forest area i got to ask

Should the forest section be locked off until the player makes a certain amount of progress or what?

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Cause honestly, it's a bit odd that you can just go straight there

dusty spoke
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yeah it should

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be locked off until we beat the 1st part of the game

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(aka the one we have)

celest sable
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So the game would currently be formated like this

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Tutorial
Doing all of the 4 residences in whatever order you want.
The Museum
The Boss
Free Roam/Forest

dusty spoke
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I could find that working I think there should be a notification that tells you the 2nd part of the game is now unlocked

celest sable
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A new cutscene when Quentin wakes up in the banner and the drone's camera comes to life, showing what happened in the teaser.

dusty spoke
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yeah that one works good

celest sable
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It'd be a placeholder possibly.

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as we don't know what directly happens after we get knocked out

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It's possible there's something blocking the tunnel before then...or nothing is and if you try to enter before you unlock it Guest jumps you

dusty spoke
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yeah

gusty bobcat
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i really like this feedback post

naive prawn
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Also 63 likes

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That’s great

gusty bobcat
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i made one similar to this long ago but after this was made

gusty bobcat
celest sable
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I just hope tB reads it and considers it

gusty bobcat
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yeah

naive prawn
celest sable
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Super Non-linear Hello Neighbor 64

sorry i wanted to make that joke.

naive prawn
vapid peak
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Now

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Btw

celest sable
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it was nice while it lasted, might as well do some editing

vapid peak
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PEAK

celest sable
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there we go, i added on the guest part

vapid peak
celest sable
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Oh yeah, I should add that on shouldn't I? Thanks.

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done.

vapid peak
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Good

vapid peak
green cedar
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Damn

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Sad

twilit terrace
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nice post. i really love this idea

gusty bobcat
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they could easily fix that if they just made a chose your own level thing

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and can easily get out of it

celest sable
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They can also add a option to...what's that term. Occlusion culling? Basically don't render any ai or dynamic objects unless the player is nearby.

naive prawn
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70 likes

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impressive

celest sable
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idk where all these likes are coming from but i appreciate it so much

green cedar
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hell, they could make it so that it only renders stuff that the player sees

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The Amnesia games did this for their switch ports

vapid peak
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Can’t believe we reached 70 likes that’s so peak

celest sable
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I think at 70 likes, they have to at least take a look at it.

vapid peak
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With patch 10 still being in early phase I have a feeling they might be reworking act 1 structure to be more non linear

karmic spruce
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one of the promises was "open world sandbox"

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that didnt happen

vapid peak
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Yep and that’s the thing I was most disappointed at

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Even More then neural network

karmic spruce
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it even more upsets me then the nerual network because THEY ALREADY HAD IT IN THE BETA

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why the hell take it away you already had it

vapid peak
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They apparently cut it because performance issues

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So they just removed it all

karmic spruce
true owl
karmic spruce
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they could have just hire someone who knows the job to do the game layout.

vapid peak
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This is the hn2 i want

karmic spruce
vapid peak
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Same

karmic spruce
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the old artstyle was better in my opinion

vapid peak
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I agree and I loved the idea of a big open sandbox environment

karmic spruce
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but tbh it didnt really make sense with the stupid lore like why would the town be so abandoned

vapid peak
karmic spruce
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i think it was the perfect mix between cartoony and realistic

vapid peak
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Ik it didn’t look that good but u liked it

karmic spruce
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and for the "performance issues" there is a nice default feautre in UE4 to NOT RENDER STUFF IF YOURE FAR FROM THEM

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magic i know

vapid peak
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Aw that just sucks

karmic spruce
# vapid peak Bro 😭

seriously im not even kidding you can even look it up and find a 5 minute tutorial on how to set it up

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like bro come on how do you mess up this bad

vapid peak
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I think they honestly just changed the game to be linear to fit the story they wanted to do

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But the current story is not even that good

true owl
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"Story"

karmic spruce
vapid peak
true owl
karmic spruce
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firstly, the beginning with the cop and the basement is required to be linear but thats good because this can be an introduction to the game and the mechanics, instead of the barn tutorial. then the game could become open world-ed like in the beta and slowly reveal the story plus extra info for loreseekers through stuff like poster or vhs tapes youll find around town. they can just make it so that you cannot enter 1 house unless you find a key item from another like in the beta.

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should i continue?

vapid peak
karmic spruce
vapid peak
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Since day and night cycle would exist

true owl
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The nightmare sequences are useless anyway

vapid peak
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True they could just be for when you sleep instead

karmic spruce
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i think these ideas are pretty solid but if you have something to add tell me

vapid peak
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I think it would be cool if the guest would spawn when it becomes night as well tbh

karmic spruce
vapid peak
karmic spruce
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:(((

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this would have made so much scary moments

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also im the only one who thinks the neighbor should have add the hn1 artsyle like the first alphas?

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there is something about his emotionless face in alpha 1 that makes me creeped out

vapid peak
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But he should have felt more unhinged and unstable imo like in the books and the AS

karmic spruce
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i know it was because they didnt have time to animate the face but i want this feeling of dread in hn2

karmic spruce
vapid peak
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The books and the animated series shows how disturbed he’s become

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Building an amusement park in his basement in the books to keep Nicky and Aaron together forever

karmic spruce
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oh sorry never mind this game has to be pg 7 now

vapid peak
karmic spruce
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dont you?

vapid peak
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The games make him feel like just a paranoid sad angry dude

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Anyways we’re going off topic

karmic spruce
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i swear if they didnt decide mid development they make this game kid friendly it would have unlocked its full potential

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the neighbor now just looks like a slightly weird and depressed middle aged man who lives in a strange house it doesnt feel like hes the main focus of the game anymore

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i dont say make the game pg 18 that will be a bit too much but a pg 16 would have been enough

vapid peak
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But yeah it feels like making the game linear was a last minute decision

karmic spruce
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both of them. hn1 and hn2

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hn1 still has a huge amounts of bugs they didnt bother to fix but i think its better this way cuz it makes the game 10x funnier lol

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anyways enough complaining for me im going afk bye

vapid peak
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Bye

karmic spruce
# vapid peak Bye

one last thing for a little while i still have a little hope for RBO. even though its multiplayer and theres no fancy AI and stuff its from the original game designer of hello neighbor so maybe its closer to how he envisioned hello neighbor originaly

vapid peak
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Yeah

karmic spruce
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damn the final game is disappointing

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makes you wonder what took so long? tbh imo probably just a crap ton of scratched ideas. same problem like the first game