paqoe

[paqoe]

ppl are looking at my congregation review . go away

[paqoe]

Congregation (review!!!)

i believe this is the best extreme in the game in just about every way, and i don't see it being dethroned any time soon.

starting with the song choice: i think this is the best song in any extreme demon by a pretty large margin. Koraii is extremely talented (albeit not a good person), and this is one of his best pieces by far. i don't think Congregation would have anywhere near the same impact if Presta chose any other song.

every single detail feels meticulously thought out, and there genuinely isn't anything i would change in the level (other than the line coloring in the cube portion of the drop).

the choice in color palette is (generally) phenomenal, and the way Presta weaves in slightly more and more variation and detail as the predrop develops is perfect. i know people think the predrop is boring, but i honestly couldn't disagree less (and it doesn't matter much to me how it plays in the first place). i think part of what makes the predrop work so well is how long it lasts!

although the drop is definitely weaker in terms of visuals (especially colors), the way in which the movements are choreographed is almost mesmerizing. despite being quite repetitive in nature, presta somehow manages to keep the drop fresh from start to finish.

i've heard some people criticize how similar the ending is to the predrop, but i feel that the level tends itself to the direction of the last cube quite well considering how much the sense of progression is reliant on the song developing over time.

what truly sets congregation apart from other levels for me, though, is how it manages to create such powerful environmental theming with so little.

as an aside, i think "environmental theming" is a good way to refer to level theming that you can place yourself in. it's extremely uncommon for a level to properly pull it off with an abstract setting -- the best example i can think of is "reviens" by vrymer -- but levels that pull it off are among my favorites. extending the concept to other games, it's part of what makes undertale so appealing for me -- i absolutely love how easy it is to put yourself in the protag's shoes and imagine you are actually traversing these abstract environments. i've never seen another game pull it off so well, and it's why i don't think Deltarune will ever have the same effect on me as Undertale.

what Congregation, Reviens, and Undertale all have in common, and a HUGE part of what makes them work, is that they all force you to imagine yourself in a place that has no proper real-world parallels. whereas games like Omori and & levels like Night Rider and Black Flag fill in the blanks for you and don't leave much of the setting up to interpretation, the more abstract previously-mentioned media force you to construct these settings entirely differently -- much more is left up to your interpretation, as they're more focused on eliciting a specific mood or atmosphere than painting a clear picture.

some people may criticize Congregation for being too empty, but i feel like that's exactly what the level's environment is. i know that is am definitely assigning meaning to something that has none here, but when i try to construct the environment the level creates, i imagine an endless void, inhabited only by the pillars and platforms seen in the level. led by only the illuminated blue accent lights, you are the only living being in this world. one feeling in particular stands out to me in this cold, lifeless setting i've described: isolation.

it's important to note that due to the abstractness of the level, this interpretation is not laid out for you at all. i completely understand that this meaning i've assigned is personal only to me and is swayed by my experiences, but this post is meant to convey my opinions on the level, and i'm not going to change the way i see the level to write a "better review".

there are other levels that have made me feel certain emotions (SAVE AS comes to mind, obviously), but Congregation's usage of environmental theming (for me) to elicit those emotions is truly phenomenal work on Presta's part.

i'm aware that everything I've said here can be summed up by the phrase "it has atmosphere", but i feel like i'd be doing the level a disservice by chalking it up to that.

9.9/10

[paqoe]

random vent post about old irrelevant """extreme demon"""

today, i beat master red's cave (or at least a really accurate recreation of it). here's a video:

https://youtu.be/PqD564AkAOU

although it's not at all original, good-looking, or particularly fun, this level will always hold a special place in my heart as the level that made me want to get good at the game.

back in early 2016, i stumbled across Tosh's impossible level series, and i saw a showcase of this level. due to a combination of looking more doable and personal attachment to the song used, i set this as my end-goal for gd without checking to see if it actually existed.

later in 2017, i looked for the level believing that i had improved enough to take it on, and came up empty-handed -- i think it was just deleted from the servers, or maybe it got auto-removed. i asked around and nobody had it, so i set this goal to the side.

since then, it turns out that someone actually made a near-perfect recreation of the level. i don't really have much to say about the level itself, but i'm really glad that i was finally able to achieve my first real goal and beat the level that got me into extreme demons in the first place. if i get good enough at creating one day, i might try to do the level justice, and maybe even inspire someone else the same way the original inspired me ♡♡♡

[paqoe]

SARY NEVER CLEAR (review!!!)

hi!! so i beat sary a few days ago, and i just wanted to use this funny little new platform of to give some of my thoughts on the level:

overall, I think this level is really fucking cool. It’s definitely one of my favorite extremes (especially on the list), and I really like how the level feels in general - for a level of its difficulty, it feels surprisingly fun and I found it hard to get genuinely frustrated at it in part due to how little it takes itself seriously (more detail further below)

obviously, however, being (to a degree) a joke level means that it’s bound to come with some flaws. the decoration is definitely questionable at some points, and the gameplay is about as good as you would expect a level with 1.6 base gameplay to be. with that being said, i still found it pretty fun, despite my bad luck!!!

overall, my favorite parts in the level (deco-wise) are definitely 0-19 and 28-37 (theyre super similar in deco style, so im treating them as pretty much the same part). god i just cant explain it they just look SO CLEAN idk why dbjnfgkj   ↓↓

outside of the aforementioned parts, the level definitely shows its age (2017 mostly???) with its very questionable glow usage, particularly in the midsections.  ↓↓

i’ll never understand why people ever thought (and still think, for some reason..) that glow, particularly T3 glow, can just be slapped on and make anything better, and it ruins parts which would otherwise look pretty clean.  ↓↓

due to the fact that the level isn’t trying to be good, i’m not going to waste time picking apart the deco and giving super specific feedback since that really isn't the point of the level

with that being said, i want to touch on the gameplay in more detail before delving into my thoughts on this level conceptually. i’ve never really been one to harp on playtesting (or a lack thereof) as a problem with levels, but god this level would’ve been a lot more fun had it been properly playtested. here’s a list of some parts that i had issues with:

24% ship transition

28% invisible ship part

31% ufo click

37% orb spam

55% quads (this is intentional level design tho)

57% orb chain

66-67% straight flies

75% orb chain

78% orb timings

81% quads

91% mini ship

however, just because there’s a long list of bad parts doesn’t mean i wish it was properly playtested!!! i think that, for a level like this, playtesting sorta defeats the purpose, which brings me to the main reason why i’m writing this, that being my thoughts on the level conceptually:

i really like the purpose that this level fulfills. i’m a big fan of how little it takes itself seriously, and it’s clear that the creators had fun with their parts. from the shoddily-made blinking eyes, to the invisible ship section at the end, to the broken english scattered throughout the level, i love all the little charms and quirks that it has, and i think it’s awesome how such a quirky little level ended up so high on the list in a sea of levels that take themselves too seriously and focus too much on looking good.

i think this level also serves as a perfect indicator of how to properly implement “infamous gameplay” into your level, like “the line” in phobos or the quads in this level. ↓↓ 

anyone who has heard of phobos or SNC, for example, has heard of these “infamous parts”, and i think creators trying to ride off of this feeling is a problem that i’m starting to see come up more often. in general, i think that “infamous gameplay” should have a reason to exist. for phobos, it’s because of the lack of experience of the people in the collab, and for SNC, it’s because it was derived from a shitty old impossible 1.6 level and made to be a joke - the thing that makes SNC shine in this regard, and that makes it fine to have, is that it embraces it. 

it seems to me that a lot of hosts try to create a similar feeling to these sorts of levels in an effort to make their levels more “remembered” and it just falls flat because every other aspect of their level is trying way too hard to be good. 

to a similar degree, i think this same logic applies to the humor that SNC has - i don’t think levels like cersia difficult will ever have the same feel for me, because they just feel like they don’t lean into it other than simply having The Funny Text just . existing  ↓↓

anyways, enough of my gushing / ranting. i know that tumblr is definitely an  odd choice for writing reviews, but i don’t want to make an alt on an existing platform and both youtube and twitter don’t feel free-form enough. i’m not sure how well my thoughts have come across here and hopefully i wasn’t too harsh in that last part, but thanks to anyone who read the whole thing :)