This is quite intentional. Emblem hunting is supposed to be fun, and those that don't like that kind of thing shouldn't be forced to do it just so they can access the content they're really interested in. A game that tricks you into doing something you don't want to do is honestly an insult to the player.
Personally yes and no... I mean: every game have cool content after some hard or tedious part. Yeah, the last part of ACZ1 may be tedious at first and not that fun, but that doesn´t mean I should be able to get to RVZ without finishing it.
I understand that a level is something a lot different than a score attack, but why not add some bonus after that? Even just a harder version of the same mode could be cool. Getting all time emblems could lead to some developer ghost mode, getting all ring emblems could lead to a get all rings in each stage challenge, and score attack... I just don´t know :P
What I´m trying to say is that, as a player, I expect something for playing hours on a mode that barely is fun at all. Just something. Even some kind of helper like the hint and radar system made for the score attack mode would be awesome.
犬夜叉;757396 said:
The best example of what SpiritCrusher is saying, naturally, is Sonic Adventure 2. Forcing the player to tread through all 180 emblems, including the chao emblems (which took an eternity) regardless of whether they liked going for them or not, just to unlock Green Hill Zone (arguably one of the best levels in the game) was downright terrible.
I personally enjoyed that :/ I understand people unliking it, but I personally enjoyed a lot more the emblem hunting in SA2 knowing there were unlockables after them than without them.
犬夜叉;757396 said:
(I had a thought, actually, of whether making the enemies return to their spawn point after a few seconds of losing sight of the player would help. I'm not sure the "herd all the enemies around" mechanic is something to be encouraged or removed; I'm leaning towards the latter. It's just... enemies are a lot easier to dodge and herd around in a 3d game than a 2d game simply due to the nature of movement.)
If score emblem aren´t meant to be earned doing herding, I would agree to somehow downgrade that possibility, even if I´m not that good at that mode at all and I´ve surely exploited the thing on some of the previous Score Attacks. It just feels that´s the way to earn them when it shouldn´t.
Why not add some kind of HUD with the enemies you have killed, 1ups you have earned, etc VS the total on the stage? That could lead to more exploration in the stages, which would in turn make the mode a lot more fun. It´s not the same thing being stuck on a level after 30 minutes of playthrough than knowing there´s some more rings, enemies or items to earn on some corner... Or if you are supposed to mix time/rings/getting things together to earn a score emblem, make the score attacks more streamlined somehow. Maybe get x points after x seconds or you fail. That could lead to a more fun mode too.
Just as it is, it personally lacks something to keep you trying or playing. Even replaying the same level for the 100th time without a goal seems more fun. That shouldn´t happen at all.
The skills required to A rank Black Hole are similar to the skills required to A rank Egg Satellite, just with some more stage memorization required. I'm not saying that these emblems aren't brutal, but they're no worse than the Armageddon Shield emblem in Azure Temple, which is a similar style of memorization and muscle memory in a stupidly hard stage. I think the problem here with players is that the skill required to complete the stage and the skill required to do well are actually pretty close, but after all the losses getting to the point where you can complete the stage, it FEELS like it would be impossible to complete the stage well, when in fact if you've completed it you're already most of the way there.
Personally the only problem with Black Hole is that it overuses things moving forward and back or pulsating ones all the time, so you either memorize and play exactly the same on each run, or you slow down, or it seems random. I think Nights mode needs some more variety in gimmicks to keep that last zone interesting, just as if Egg Rock Zone were just lots of platforms and pits could get boring too.
In contrast, Egg Satelite is awesome and feels a lot more fun IMO, even when you keep failing at it. Maybe Black Hole only needs something different to keep it fresh...
Expect to see more score emblems in boss acts in the future, because it lets us check whether you can complete the boss without getting hit.
Why not just add an emblem for each boss if you beat them without being hit to keep it simpler?
Hence, there are a couple of directions we could go from here
Just to throw some more ideas:
- Do the chaining system really matter that much on Score mode at all? Wouldn´t removing the chaining system just fix the problem?
- If the chain system is considered needed on the Score mode, why not max it sooner so it isn´t as exploitable?
- If it´s still considered important to keep the current high max score per enemy, then why not add a penalty if you don´t get score after x time so herding is a lot harder? (Herding enemies WHILE you keep getting points). Or like I´ve suggested earlier, some kind of "you must get the first 2000 points in x seconds" goals so you just can´t stop and take so much time earning the points?
I don´t want to be negative... I enjoy most of SRB2 and I think it´s an awesome fangame which plays better than many many commercial games. I love the new emblem system, and personally it´s nearly perfect. But Score Attack needs something more to be interesting IMO. I don´t know if the goal of the mode is to find a good route towards the goal which grants more points, or if it´s get nearly everything on a level, or if it´s just meant to play with the core system differently... But I think that goal should be streamlined. You cannot earn a time emblem being too slow and you cannot earn a ring emblem without exploring or not being hit. Think about what the mode is expecting the player to do, and make it more clear. Right now it feels like filler, while Time and Ring modes feel like they add something different to the game.