Silverhorn v1

There is an extreme amount of effort put into this from so many angles. The flash and nuiannces of how these characters work is excellent in a way that's extremely powerful whilst still being bound to the traditional play of SRB2.

I would definitely say Inazuma is the more fun of the two characters in the pack as his play is generally more straightforward, but don't let that detur too much from Aether as she's got some sauce to her play also.

There are however some small issues that are probably more nitpicks though one of these is an issue I can't help but feel to address.

The one aspect of Inazuma I've found distracting in his play is the homing attack. A weird quirk you'd think as a staple 3D Sonic move but with how SRB2's main levels and some custom maps/level packs I actually find this ability more of a hinderance than a boon?

This is mainly coming from someone who plays with keyboard and mouse where I'm use to aiming things myself rather than relying on homing. Would be nice to have a toggle to have homing on or off.

More on the nitpick side is that there's a strange sense of self indulgence in the pack. Not for Astra himself but more-so for the close knit connection of people who made this. In a time where I find SRB2 discussion hard to talk about I kinda can't help but feel wary. Probably not something to worry about much with this group but it's a nagging feeling.

Last thing is just few unnecessities. For the most part it's fine. Most of the unnecessisary things are just their to be flashy or tongue and cheek but there was one design thing I felt kinda weird on, but that's getting into spoiler territory so if I'm ever talking on here or somewhere SRB2 related I'll probably bring it up there.

Pretty cool otherwise so it's on the high end of custom characters.

Detailed thoughts (including spoilers) in the discussion thread, but overall a super fun experience!

I. Loved it. I loved it. It is the upmost best I've played in years; the gameplay from Aethers simple spell picking, to Inazuma playing how I imagined with a small twist, and just how thought-out and packed with plans and concepts that were executed perfectly! If anything, playing as them for a while seemed amazing, albeit some areas involving much crawlspace aren't available since they're not able to spin, but fairly, the way they control alone was done well. The story, which no spoilers, was a beautiful thing to comprehend and experience, albeit the [spoiler content] was kind of hard to finish, since there are some parts that need massive experience to pass through, but otherwise, I enjoyed it. The many things you can do with this, like make Inazuma do the funny korean coffee with a lady song dance, and making Aether do the funny swedish nightcore internet song dance, plus a lot of other easter eggs I will NOT mention.

Silverhorn, with at least very minimal gripes, was the best experience I could have with an SRB2 mod in ages, and since my exposure to the game and its mod base in the 2.1 ages, I could not have wanted a better experience from it, and this gratifies how amazing the community is. (besides the few flaws like some members, some executive decisions, and blah blah blah.) Thank you, mister Astra, you did good son, maybe even the best!

I've not done everything, I know there's stuff I'm missing, but what I've seen it's really great.
Inazuma is a really simple but capable character. I'd say his moveset is kinda perfect, maybe a little basic, but with enough depth and speed to make it really cool, he doesn't need much learning to make it fun to play as.
In the other hand, his brand new, magical girl partner, Aether is... A little confusing, but so fuckin' COOL. At first glance her moveset is just too much, 5 moves on 1 key and a spell that is basically useless? It sounds terrible, but if you just take a moment to learn how it all works, you start to see the potential, with good execution she can do some crazy stuff and even without execution, she's kinda OP.
Really good characters and with the bonus stuff, I gotta say it's a really good mod overall and a fitting return for my boy Inazuma, I missed how crazy things got when he showed up on the old servers and yeah, maybe this won't be his old glory, but he now comes with less lag and a waifu, so I can't complain. A 5/5 only cuz' I can't give it a 4.5/5

Ok, kindoff an edit cuz' there's no edit button, so uummmmm.. The secret level is bs, I mean it's really cool, ambientation is amazing, the challenge is fun and boss is just epic, but 3 lives for a hard 8 min level with a boss fight that's literally a bullet sponge at the very end? That's just unfair.
And also, it made me realize my only problem with how the characters control, Inazuma's thok thingy is controlled by the camera on Manual mode and that's a problem when your camera is pointed on a direction you don't want to go to or even worse, when your camera is FORCEFULLY LOCKED INTO AN ENEMY and you need to dodge. I know this can be fixed by playing on Automatic, but I don't play on Automatic, I play on Manual, why are his controls diferent on both modes? And why there's not even a way to change it?
I know these are thing that can easily be changed with an update and for that I won't lower my score too much, it's still an amazing mod with little to no problems, but these 2 problems should probably be fixed

Aside from Inazuma being able to harm Aether when playing as the tag team duo and the difficulty unlocking Mindscape (i dunno how to do so), a phenomenal add-on.

Lets get the important part out of the way; this is one of the best character wads yet released for 2.2, and it's been well worth the years-long wait. The only criticism I have regarding the characters is that the Inazuma and Aether tag team is kind of ill-conceived. I did a whole campaign as them, and I think I used Aether for around 90% of it. She's simply a more versatile character.

(SPOILERS AHEAD)

I have a lot of feelings about Mindscape, positive and negative. I love the level design, I love Facciolo phase 1, and the final sequence is awesome. I really do not like the limit of 3 lives, and I really REALLY do not like Moonreaver Facciolo.

Ok, firstly, the lives; why?????? According to the in-game timer, Mindscape took me around 15 minutes to beat. That timer disregards failed attempts. 15 minutes. One of the most difficult platforming sequences I've played in SRB2 followed by 2 brutal bosses. 3 lives! 3!!!! again, WHY????????? I used pandora's box because I value my time, but I prefer for devs to value my time for me.

And then there's Moonreaver Facciolo. So much of the fight is spent just running in a circle, since that's how you dodge most of his attacks. Sure, you can try to hit him during this, but you put yourself at a massive risk to take a whopping 3 pixels' length off his health bar. You stop running in a circle every once in a while to do some moderately more complex movement to dodge a different attack, and then if you're quick enough, you can walk up to him with your barrier up to deal an astounding 1/10th of his healthbar in damage. You can try to stick around longer for a juicy 1/8th instead, but you run the risk of getting stunlocked until your rings disappear. That's how you're meant to fight him, right? I couldn't figure out a better way. It was not fun.

I can tell there was an unbelievable amount of effort put into Mindscape. Please, make that effort easier to appreciate.

this is one the the best mods i have played just from the story and the maps a alone the Sprites for the maps are beautiful i just wanna jump in the game and run around in Aether's Castle or someting xd

and also the Characters are really fun!
Inazuma is a nice simple speedy archetype character , his Bolt Blast i think is an amazing idea because it makes it so the player to set there own speed, they can go as fast or slow as they pleas.

if you find Aether confusing, well.... play using the weapon buttons its so fun once i got the rhyme of the weapon buttons instead of the spin well thing.
she just complicated of it to fell fun playing as her but not overwhelming for me. (uhh also i like more complicated Characters too lol so maybe i just better at this types of Characters but probable not lol)

SPOILER BUT I TRY NOT TO SAY A LOT AND KEEP IT VAGUE LOL
also drawing and the end of the secret level / Credits? so cute a single teardrop goes down my cheek.

the characters are very fun and the hub world and prologue is very nice (arthur's castle kills my fps, but I think thats an issue with my computer, not the mod) my only gripe with the mod is that the secret level and boss is very difficult and lives do not carry over (though I think I have a skill issue lol) so 5/5 mod would play again (which I will do)

tldr, imazuna

While I think Aether's spell menu could use some work, the mod overall is amazing.. you can tell that a lot of effort was put into this.. it was definitely worth the wait... i'd say more, but i think it's best that people should see for themselves instead of waiting until january 1st to spoil themselves... out simply, the mod is very well made and deserves a lot of love...

Honestly crazy how this comes packaged with its own story resolution and final boss, along with what's probably my favorite looking hub. Could honestly just run around in it for hours.

Both characters are also really fun to play as. I do really like how Inazuma tackles the speedy character archetype in a nice and distinct mechanic of his own. Aether was surprisingly not too hard to get used to either, and she's a very unique character of her own for sure.

The only major critique I have is that I really would rather have your extra lives carry over to the Mindscape. Three tries to make it through the stage feels like too little for something like this, even if there are a few extra lives hidden around. But it's not bad enough to the point it takes away from my rating here.

Inazuma is a great character... and that's kinda it. Aether is just downright confusing and not fun to play as. And the mod could *definitely* could've done it without the extra baggage. Still 3 stars because Inazuma is very fun.

The mod overall is flashy, awesome and satisfying to play- but a couple of nitpicks drop the rating from a 5 to a 4.

https://mb.srb2.org/threads/silverhorn.40332/post-623135

The review system wouldn't let me say what I need to say, so the real review is in my Discussion post.

Ill be honest, this mod is really great and i love the polish, having played 2.1 Inazuma im happy to see he turned out great here.

If i had to do a request tho, it would be to make the mod have a client sided save, for uhm, "that" stuff if you see what i mean. I lost what i had done the VERY hard way.

The characters themselves are great, if a bit overpowered. Though Inazuma 2.1's *thing* was being overpowered, so the status quo is met there.

The thing that knocks the review down a peg is the bonus content. 3 lives is not enough for a boss fight which keeps eating your jumps, and having to constantly replay GFZ1 *and* the level before it (which takes about 5 minutes in total) just for another three attempts (assuming you didn't die in the stage at all) at a boss fight where you're fighting the game itself rather than the boss is just... not fun. Would probably work a lot better if the slopes were more shallow. (Or better yet, flat.)

Really soured the whole experience overall.

the milestone for our modding community has been finally reached

So many amazing, high-effort character mods that came this year! I can only hope 2024 will be even better.

I love the story these two characters have and I very much appreciated the tutorial. More modded characters with easy-to-learn, hard-to-master controls like these should have tutorials. Loved it when Cacee did it. I also LOVE the hangout map. Stutters a little, for me anyways, but still playable.

Inazuma is a pretty great speed character. Has an interesting homing attack, a "thok", and an electric shield. With the homing attack, it seems like you gain more height and maintain your speed when the targeted enemy is further away from you. My problem with the homing attack is that it'll sometimes target enemies way off screen or will sometimes just miss enemies even when you're close to them. Very inconsistent. Would recommend changing the code to target enemies in view. I also don't like that you come to a complete halt when you home in on an enemy if you're on top of them. The electric shield makes levels almost no challenge at all, which I like, but others may not. Having the shield active and running into those flying enemies that heats themselves up will still get you hit. Not sure if that's intentional or not.

Aether is an amazing wildcard character! I feel like her flight should make you fly up faster, especially when super/ XMod hyper. Had this same problem with Blaze where she just flies up soooo slow for no reason. Don't like that her magic wheel doesn't preserve your speed. I got used to just using the weapon buttons. Have to use a very specific keyboard layout tho since I only play with a keyboard, but that's fine.

As Aether and Inazuma said in the tutorial, they work better as a team. With being able to switch between them at ease, Aether's flight and magic and Inazuma homing attack and speed, they make for a potentially great speedrunning duo! Can't wait to see what you guys cook up next. :)

I dislike the review system and would rather leave extended commentary in the thread itself (which I did so here: https://mb.srb2.org/threads/silverhorn.40332/page-2#post-623050)

tl;dr extremely ambitious, strong presentation, and captures the original storytelling in srb2 that I crave over everything else.
Enjoyed the characters' gameplay a lot -- which is the most important aspect of the mod -- but much of its original content was held back by some pretty unforgiving or obnoxious design. Felt like it missed a few polish passes it would have needed to be something I could comfortably call "peak" -- but it was definitely the larger part of the way there, and that deserves praise. :p

I can't say too much because of spoilers, but even by just playing for a short bit you'll see these two have immense love & care given to them!

Ability wise, I love how each one compliments another, and also feel good to use on a controller since I play primarily with one! Inazuma is familiar to me, thanks to both his homing bolt & barrier. The barrier in particular is familiar as it at first feels very similar to Gunvolt's Flashfield, but it doesn't fizzle in water & I really like the way shields alter it subtly. Aether is particularly special when you get down how to use her spells effectively, and I can imagine people will get in some insane speedruns once timings are nailed down for each spell and swapping between the pair!

I never played the original Inazuma release because at the time I wasn't into OCs then and if I passed this due to something as petty as that, I'd be missing out a heck of a fun time. Give them a shot!! There's a lot to experience and again, they're great even for a quick single stage or two. (I am curious about their lore too... It seems very cool!)

Merry Christmas and congrats on the release!!

(Gotta leave 5 stars too i love Silverhorn)

very good mod!!!!!! it was very worth the wait!!!!!!!!