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Axiom Verge |OT| Life's A Glitch

Pillville

Member
I mean, his damage stays, attack cycle resets. Kinda cheap but I guess it's intended?

Attack cycle does not reset, he when to his 2nd attack several times during the battle.
I honestly thought it was the only way to beat him since I couldn't avoid the projectiles any other way.
 

SerTapTap

Member
Attack cycle does not reset, he when to his 2nd attack several times during the battle.
I honestly thought it was the only way to beat him since I couldn't avoid the projectiles any other way.

They're annoying, but you can dodge the homing purple ones from the middle of the screen (stand still, let them come close, jump just before they hit, then move if they get too close on the rebound), for the wavy all-room attack you just kinda gotta crouch in a corner and hope it doesn't hit. Not a big fan of the design of most bosses really, I feel it would have been better if it were more like Mega Man where there's a specific thing you do to dodge every attack. Several bosses do not seem possible to (reliably) dodge.

Hope bosses get the most love in a sequel. Dodging should feel more possible and be a matter of reading them + skill.
 

Z3M0G

Member
The only flaw imo was the final boss. It was a chaotic fight that had to be brute forced. The game is so calculated otherwise that this boss feels out of place.

I actually found most of the boss encounters the weakest parts of the game. Some can be cheesed by standing still and not getting hit. Some were simply not fun to encounter. And your comments on the final boss are very true, and left me fairly disappointed with its design, though the event itself was pretty cool.

Still my 2015 GOTY so far though. Easily. First game I finished in a VERY long time without getting distracted from it for months in the middle. I only had to put it down for a few days at one point when stuck to come back with a fresh mind, and then found where I had to go in less than 10 minutes. It's easy to get over-whelmed near the end with so many potential paths to gain access to.

Edit: The story, btw, was FANTASTIC. A great little piece of science fiction. I don't know how this guy did all this on his own. Simply remarkable.

I sent him a Congratulatory email prior to release, something I've never done before, but he never replied. Instead of being disappointed about that, I'll take it as a hopeful good sign that he got flooded with such emails. :)


Oh my, I didn't know about this until now... so sad. :(

Launch week is supposed to be when you blog about how well it's going and how proud you are of your accomplishments, but, for me, I couldn't feel this at all (thank god for Dan Adelman and everything he does!!) I've tried to tweet positive things and keep the buzz going, but it's empty. Chloe said this could be the universe's way of balancing things out - it takes away as much as it gives. If that's the case I'd trade all of Axiom Verge's success just to get Max back. It feels so hollow to know that with all these good things coming around the corner, he couldn't be there.

I really really hope he manages to enjoy his success some time soon... he deserves it so much...
 

Dartastic

Member
Totally stuck. Got the double tap direction ability (the next one after phase) and I have no idea where to go to progress. Anyone want to give me vague direction so I can figure it out please?
 

SerTapTap

Member
Theres a few problems with the bosses, sometimes the right way to play requires very specific optional weapons, is a bit too slow even when it works (forth boss), or dodging just isn't possible (last and second to last bosses in certain phases). I can see what all the bosses were going for, but they're just not very tightly designed. The second boss, while really easy, was a good example of a very tightly designed boss fight that's not too long and has a clear pattern, I would have liked battles to evolve from there which is what I thought they would after the third boss.

Also, regarding the
hornet
boss, it's actually a pretty clever boss but I think the vast majority of people overlook glitching mid-boss fight, which seems to be the intended/best way to take it down. I also missed some mid-fight glitches in the third boss fight that would have made it a bit easier to play even without breaking off the bits.

Can't mark the game down too harshly for the bosses myself though. They're a total of like an hour or less of a 12 hour experience. And they all look pretty good, just played unevenly. Boss music is fantastic too.
 

Number45

Member
I barely used the glitch mechanic throughout the entire game (pretty much only when necessary), but I will on my Vita run through!
 
Totally stuck. Got the double tap direction ability (the next one after phase) and I have no idea where to go to progress. Anyone want to give me vague direction so I can figure it out please?

Same here. Tried to go back to the beginning areas but can't even though I have the double jump and double tap (moving through walls) abilities.
 
Was gone too long so I gave up on trying to respond to everything, post again or PM me if anyone asked me anything or posted about the guide.



I'll spam this again since it saves me some typing: My spoiler free guide. I think you missed something after the cutscene, you are trapped in that area until you get a certain item. Look in rooms you couldn't explore during that event. After you get the item, head to
Edin
.

BTW, I was a bit surprised your username doesn't do anything in the passcode tool in this game.



You don't have to do it in one sitting, but make sure you don't leave the game paused/at the home screen, you need to save and quit as the game timer will keep going up otherwise. Rest mode is probably safe but I wouldn't risk it. Saving & quit is actually a huge timesaver in this game so it'd be a longer run if you had to do it all in one sitting!



It's not THAT hard, but much like Metroid normal enemies pose a fair threat until you get some health ups. Then the game is mostly pretty easy until the very end IO, sort of a parabola of difficulty as you start with nothing and no skill, start to figure things out, then the game starts to get serious at the end. Also if you're playing on hard mode you might want to...not do that, since it gets way worse later on. Depends on the sort of challenge you're looking for.



Congrats! Mind if I link that in my guide? I've been a bit lazy about updating that and platinuming this game so I don't burn out/get other things done, but if there's anything to improve let me know



Oh no :( I saw him post on twitter about that but I thought max was getting better. Must be awful.



See my above guide if you like, start from whichever boss you beat last. There's a few pretty common sticking points and I hopefully cover them all.



Normal. Hard does much more to exacerbate the few flaws in the game (some of the bosses) than to add anything interesting (because exploration is the interesting part and almost totally unrelated to the difficulty)

Thanks for the link. I was surprised to. It doesn't give you any indication that it's useless though.
 

SerTapTap

Member
Thanks for the link. I was surprised to. It doesn't give you any indication that it's useless though.

Nothing has an indication if it's useless, but I didn't see any obvious effect. Then again I can't even see any obvious effect of those codes that disable trophies, still can't figure that out, or the big laser the reveal trailer showed.

I barely used the glitch mechanic throughout the entire game (pretty much only when necessary), but I will on my Vita run through!

Arg. You should glitch basically every enemy to see what it does. Sometimes they're way easier to beat, sometimes they're useful (a few times it's needed to get pickups, and not always in obvious ways), and it's just cool in general. There are a few enemies that are drastically easier to deal with post-glitch. Perhaps most notably those laser Zoomer thingies.

You need the
grappling hook
, which is in the top right corner of the map or so I believe. I got that, but I still don't know where to go.

Once you get that item you finally DO need to (and can) backtrack. You'll find places you can get to you couldn't before.
Check out Indi and the lower right areas of Eribu
 

AxiomVerge

Neo Member
I sent him a Congratulatory email prior to release, something I've never done before, but he never replied. Instead of being disappointed about that, I'll take it as a hopeful good sign that he got flooded with such emails. :)

Yes, that is the case :) I'm sorry for not replying. Thank you so much!
 
Just beat it. Pretty good overall. The last two areas were lacking a bit, and I'm sure I'm echoing everyone else, but the final boss was just ughhh. It definitely scratched the 2D Metroid itch though. Music was great, weapons and gadgets were fun, and just exploring the environments was a treat. Impressive that it was developed by Tom alone!
 

Number45

Member
Not usually one for buying themes, but:

https://twitter.com/AxiomVerge said:
Looks like the Axiom Verge PS4 theme should be out on 4/21.
https://twitter.com/AxiomVerge said:
Here's a preview of the Axiom Verge theme. It cycles through 10 of these backgrounds while a downtempo track plays. http://t.co/bX6KtzDZv9

CClsotaWgAAw7Pt.png:large

https://twitter.com/AxiomVerge said:
 

Freshmaker

I am Korean.
Glitch the robots (they get stuck on walls afterwards), carefully kill the flying thingies that home on you, nothing else in that section should even be a challenge if you remain calm. You can either move past almost everything without firing a shot. Also the "sperm" can be farmed for health with Kilver if you mean what I think.

Hm. They didn't get stuck on the walls, but glitching the robots made my reflect giant and then I could just shoot them through the walls. Good enough.

Reflect also worked great on the diamond things. They don't do a thing unless you get close.
 

Chitown B

Member
If I want to go for the "glitch all enemies", should I have glitched the first three bosses?

no. You can't glitch bosses. Other than the very last bosses' minions, you can only glitch one part of one boss battles and that's
the three wasps released in the hornet fight - these are needed
 

SerTapTap

Member
Theme looks pretty good. Might switch from the Toro one for it.

If I want to go for the "glitch all enemies", should I have glitched the first three bosses?

The
hornet
boss seems to have the only missable glitchable enemies. Don't forget all 3 phases of the final boss, you can save and quit so you don't actually have to do them last. Has to all be in one playthrough I think, annoyingly.

Hm. They didn't get stuck on the walls, but glitching the robots made my reflect giant and then I could just shoot them through the walls. Good enough.

Reflect also worked great on the diamond things. They don't do a thing unless you get close.

They get stuck on level geometry if you run past them, there's little overhangs explicitly to make sure they get stuck. Some of the gold robots in E Kur Mah also do that.
 

Croc

Banned
Just beat this a little bit ago. Great great game, especially in this absence of actual Metroid games. My only real complaint is navigation was a little tricky sometimes. Could be solved a few ways, such as keeping more of the map closed off until later so it's more obvious where to go. Or maybe having a more specific map so you can see where you might be able to use items. I spent quite a lot of time just roaming around not sure where to go.

That's just a small complaint though for an otherwise amazing game.
 

Freshmaker

I am Korean.
They get stuck on level geometry if you run past them, there's little overhangs explicitly to make sure they get stuck. Some of the gold robots in E Kur Mah also do that.

That's the thing though. You glitch one with the reflector equipped, and you can just shoot the other ones through walls so you don't have to mess with them at all. It's kinda funny since I haven't seen glitching another enemy that in turn glitches your weapon like that.
 

Steroyd

Member
Completed it yesterday, thoroughly enjoyable, although the last boss was dissapointing, pretty much kill the boss before he kills you, no strategic or skill based element to it whatsoever with a sprinkle of luck needed ontop.
 

Number45

Member
Completed it yesterday, thoroughly enjoyable, although the last boss was dissapointing, pretty much kill the boss before he kills you, no strategic or skill based element to it whatsoever with a sprinkle of luck needed ontop.
Yup, I used kilver for the most part so that I was nice and close to the health pickup if/when it dropped.
 

SerTapTap

Member
That's the thing though. You glitch one with the reflector equipped, and you can just shoot the other ones through walls so you don't have to mess with them at all. It's kinda funny since I haven't seen glitching another enemy that in turn glitches your weapon like that.

Oh I misunderstood what you said...the weapon changes? I'll have to try that out.
 

Jrmint

Member
I just got to Edin. These first enemies in here killed me in 2 hits. Ridiculous difficulty jump out of nowhere.

First time I've been legitimately frustrated by the game.
 

Endo Punk

Member
Why do the secret worlds have to be so random, some flicker and easy to discover while others are completely hidden and can only find them through dumb luck. I really want that heat seeking gun!? Any pointers?
 

BluWacky

Member
For those waiting for the Steam release the game now has a store page http://store.steampowered.com/app/332200/

Just listed as Coming Soon but hopefully since they're making movements toward it the release isn't far off.

Hmmm.

On the one hand - hurray!

On the other - I sort-of want this for Vita (don't have a PS4) instead, and irrationally feel that it should come out on there first, because I'll probably just buy the PC version now.

Ho hum.
 

GeoramA

Member
Buying the hell out of that theme.

Just finally beat this, my GOTY so far. Gonna try and find the rest of the weapons/items then I'm gonna start my hard run.
 

djtiesto

is beloved, despite what anyone might say
Right up to the final savepoint, almost all the map and items collected. Now, I have 1/4 health nodes but I still only have 99% of the items, even though there's a yellow dot for every map in the game. I used SirTapTap's guide and combed every area thoroughly. Where are the last 3 health nodes? I want to get 100% health and 100% items. Is this a legit glitch?

Also, I tried glitching all enemies but I think I missed
glitching the hornet boss's spawn
... any way to go back and get this or do I have to replay from the start, glitching every enemy that comes my way?

Didn't find the heatseeker but I still got 100% weapons.

Thanks for the help!
 
This bee boss concludes my interest in playing this game. Fuck this.

Find
Shards. Or, glitch the minions, and shoot them for massive explosion damage. Preferably both. Normal weapons suck with this boss. You can take him with lightning, but I never managed it. Shards + Glitch I had half my life bar left. Shards is easy to miss though.
 
....
reading the spoiler, I now realize you could glitch the hornet's minions for damage. I did not do that, and did not have shards. It was a LONG fight.
 

KodaRuss

Member
I feel like an idiot. I am stuck right now. I just beat the third boss and can't seem to figure out where to go next. Everything is either too far to jump to
i have the extended jump
or I need to mega man slide to get to.

Any idea? Explored just a little of Kur that I can get to. It's probably something obvious that I can figure out.

Edit: figured it out. I am an idiot in these metroivania games sometimes.
 

NeoZylom

Member
I think I broke the game guys. :( I don't know where to go. and there is no way out of the area I am in ATM. I am in UKIN-NA. I don't have the grappling hook (is that normal?) and I didn't beat the fourth boss...

Edit: Nevermind. I am dumb.
 

djtiesto

is beloved, despite what anyone might say
And, beat it with 100% weapons / items on Normal. That last health power up... in case anyone is wondering...
you need to glitch the green slug enemies and they drop it
.

Overall, a great game that frequently subverted my Metroid-loving expectations.

+Does a great job of conveying the sense of mystery that oldskool games have in spades. Never did quite know what was gonna come next, what powerups I would get.
+Love how it plays like your classic Metroid but with unique and fun-to-use powerups.
+Good difficulty level... enemies hit hard and its easy to die if you're not paying attention. Save points are spaced perfectly... not too close, not too far. Seriously, every single time I was like "man, this would be the perfect time for a save point", I found one.
+Really impressive that the whole game was developed in part by one single person.
+Some nice music, I'm especially fond of the music in Zi and aboveground Kir.

-Bosses have easy, repetitive patterns and are bullet sponges
-Some sound effects are shrill and too loud
-Slightly touchy controls (I kept accidentally hitting into the right control stick and pulling up the menu popup)
-The areas don't do enough to distinguish themselves, graphically. Even if the pixel-art is quite good.
-Wish there was a way to quickly teleport around the map.

One thing I liked in the ending was
the Ninja Gaiden reference after the credit roll
. I do feel like I might be missing something of the story, though... What I gather
The Sudrans were a highly technological race but after a plague hit, they stopped using technology and shut themselves out to the world... Athetos stumbled upon Sudra for whatever reason and tried to take over it and take their tech for his own use. I think I missed the whole "clone" thing though... were you created by Athetos or the Rusalki to stop Athetos?
 

SerTapTap

Member
I haven't played a ton of NES games, so I'm wondering if there are game references I'm missing. Here's a list of what I can think of (assorted enemy and item spoilers):

Metroid--pretty obvious, and there's even some specific references like the Zoomer-like snail dudes
Contra--aiming system and character sprite (imo)
Jumping feels like Mega Man, though I guess it could be any NES game that did that sort of jumping properly
Rygar--energy tether really feels like the shield
Bionic commando--Grapple, naturally
Missingno--glitch the silver robots and they basically turn into missingno
Metroid/SMB1--secret worlds seem to be a mix of these two's secret world glitches, and the deleted tiles in secret worlds remind me of the off-screen garbage in assorted NES games
Super Metroid--second boss feels like a very easy Kraid
Castlevania 2--is it just me or do those huddled masses in the Hallucination remind you of the villagers in Simon's Quest?

One thing I liked in the ending was
the Ninja Gaiden reference after the credit roll
. I do feel like I might be missing something of the story, though... What I gather
The Sudrans were a highly technological race but after a plague hit, they stopped using technology and shut themselves out to the world... Athetos stumbled upon Sudra for whatever reason and tried to take over it and take their tech for his own use. I think I missed the whole "clone" thing though... were you created by Athetos or the Rusalki to stop Athetos?

Regarding the story, there's a few interesting things.
It seems you're basically a left over and used by the Rusalki. All the bosses are Atheos clones after all (except Sentinel). I think they mentioned something about you being left over?

In one of the notes it's implied that Atheos visited before hundreds of years prior. There's something very strange about the timeline I assume we'll see in game 2 I guess. It seems like Atheos is either extremely old or a clone himself, and he shows up after the credits after all, unless that's real him and the game takes place in some VR thing which would explain a lot. What I think is Sudra is a "real VR" digital world sort of thing Trace normally exists without, but somehow manages to access. It explains the glitches/Breach and cloning. Though there's one curious thing--Trace's wheelchair from the real world is in a room in Eribu with a note from him.

As far as the sudrans not using technology, I think that happened before the plague, then they died/turned into those zombie enemies after Atheos discovered what they were hiding. You see mountains of corpses in Absu.

....
reading the spoiler, I now realize you could glitch the hornet's minions for damage. I did not do that, and did not have shards. It was a LONG fight.

Yeah, only having ONE boss where glitching the minions does anything (and something so significant!) is a bit of a recipe for confusion. I even noticed they exploded but didn't think of getting them to explode on the boss.
 
no. You can't glitch bosses. Other than the very last bosses' minions, you can only glitch one part of one boss battles and that's
the three wasps released in the hornet fight - these are needed

Wait, I thought there were no missables?

But that might explain why I didn't get that trophy...
 

SerTapTap

Member
Wait, I thought there were no missables?

But that might explain why I didn't get that trophy...

I think those bees are the only missables, not entirely sure they count or not, but I think they're why my 100% file doesn't have the trophy. The trophy does only count for things you've glitched within a single save file though which makes it harder.
 

Venfayth

Member
I thought the bee boss was the best designed in the game. You really need to play bravely against it.

The ending was
super disappointing. I really got nothing out of it. Blah blah Athetos is evil, die! Whatever. What about what actually happened? What about all the obvious setup for your side-switch to fight the Rusalki? If the twist is that the game expects you to have to fight the robot ladies and then you don't, that's a pretty shitty twist. I loved this game but hated the ending.
 

SerTapTap

Member
WTF, there's a gun I didn't know about: hidden weapon spoilers.

Has anyone found this
Scissor Beam
? I don't have any info about it beyond what's in the video/description, never seen it. People claim to have found the big yellow beam too. Now I'm wondering if not all playthroughs even have access to both Secret World guns (or are there more than two?)

I thought the bee boss was the best designed in the game. You really need to play bravely against it.

The ending was
super disappointing. I really got nothing out of it. Blah blah Athetos is evil, die! Whatever. What about what actually happened? What about all the obvious setup for your side-switch to fight the Rusalki? If the twist is that the game expects you to have to fight the robot ladies and then you don't, that's a pretty shitty twist. I loved this game but hated the ending.

Yeah I was expecting something like you said as well. But I guess there's a game two planned so that may be why.
 

jacobeid

Banned
This bee boss concludes my interest in playing this game. Fuck this.

yeah, it's really annoying. I've been on the final boss for over a week and haven't managed to turn the game on since to get some health items. I'm just....not very motivated.

As I've said earlier in this thread, great game with some SERIOUS issues that almost ruined my enjoyment of everything else, which rarely ever happens. Pretty disappointing that one of I'll remember the frustration more than anything else for one of my most anticipated games this year.
 
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