There is probably a path that you aren't seeing.
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Guacamelee! |OT| ¡Mexicovania - Olé!
- Thread starter ThatStupidLion
- Start date
There is probably a path that you aren't seeing.
And if you're really having a hard time, try doubling back tot he previous checkpoint. The tree is filled with alternate paths you can take.
AbandonedTrolley
Member
On the
fight, is it me or does this boss seem really cheap?
I can see me sitting in this place for quite a while, I hope it doesn't get the better of me.
Jaguar
If you don't back off straight away, chances are he will hit you at the start, if he goes yellow it's almost impossible to get close enough to headbutt and if you do he will just shift planes or flame cone you. Couple of times I've had him to half life and myself at full and then he will just chain me in a corner hitting me 4-5 times with me unable to escape
I can see me sitting in this place for quite a while, I hope it doesn't get the better of me.
i envy your approach. i was dismayed when i saw myself 45% in after a couple of hours. it's so good, i don't want it to end that quickly.
Agreed. You can't interrupt any of his attacks. There is only one place you can get an attack in and that is when he is standing straight up with the shield out front. I waited until that point then blue dashed at him to knock him over, then took his shield off and beat on him. You have to be patient, but once you get the pattern down you can beat without taking many (or any) hits.
Posted a near identical post to yours back a few pages; the boss *is* really cheap/broken. I've had some success just kind of playing a "poking" game (
react to whichever color he changes to, back up and dodge like crazy, rinse and repeat
This boss is single-handedly responsible for impeding my enjoyment of the game
dragonflys545
Member
I love the cloud save. I went from playing it on my PS3 to playing it on my Vita while I'm taking a dump.
Jaguar's
tough because he seems to be the only enemy in the game who can cancel his own moves. There were plenty of times where I would wait for his animation to end so I could attack, and he would essentially dash cancel the animation into another attack. He does it a ton once he's below 25% health.
Nocturnowl
Member
I finished this up clocking in at 4:09 apparently, that's not with 100% but I think i'm close, shouldn't take much more time to round up the rest of the trinkets.
I can say off the bat that this game is more than worth the asking price and is a fine Metroidvania title yet I can't help but feel that it doesn't quite hit the heights it could've done.
Guacamelee for the most part feels like a blender of various Metroidvania titles and concepts from Metroid itself to even Outland, what it adds to the mix itself is the simplistic yet satisfying combat system, towards the back end of the game when you have accumulated many ways to wallop skulls and a nice chunk of stamina of which to keep things going it's quite something, uppercutting foes into the air, ping ponging them around with strikes and headbutts before finishing them with an aerial piledriver that smashes into a group of straggler skeletons below, as I said, satisfying.
However there's some niggles with the brawling, it can get overwhelming when you've got colour coded enemies that are all residing in different dimensions as projectiles fly across the screen, clusterfuck is the word for these moments. And curse those swifter skeletons, especially when they have a colour shield, trying to headbutt one of these guys during a scuffle can get pretty tiresome as they roll around all over the place. This aside the combat side of things is fun and remained enjoyable to the end, it's just the right level of complexity for a game like this, not too simple that fighting enemies gets tiresome but not too complex that it begins to interrupt flow.
I'm in two minds regarding the exploration execution, while Guacamelee presents you with a world to explore it feels more segmented than i'd like, areas don't often intersect with only the one entrance and exit into each, areas are also quite guided in their traversal so you'd be incredibly hard pressed to get lost or stumble out of your depth. The positive thing to take away from this is that you'll always have the right idea about where you're headed and it allows maps to expand continuously without retreading old ground so much, what's not so great is that exploration doesn't often feel organic, the path is perhaps too obvious and heading back to an earlier point in the game with a new skill to break open one of the tantalising coloured bricks blocking a path tends to always lead simply to treasure as opposed to suddenly stumbling into a new area of map. This all goes back to my feeling that each area comes more across being its own level instead of a big connected world.
The various skills you obtain in the game are mostly standard Metroidvania fare, I was happy to see that the last two skills felt far more unique than the repackaged versions of familiar and basic skills seen up to that point and helped give the game its own flavour in this department
. By contrast some new abilities simply turn out to be a melee strike variation which outside of fights is mostly used for just hitting the right brick colour that blocks your progress though occasionally these strikes prove extra worth in platforming making them a bit more interesting than they initially appear.
Platforming has a pretty big role to play here, it's mostly a lot of wall jumping mixed with flipping the dimensions to swap out the visible platforms, they got a lot of mileage out of each possible mechanic in this case which is great to see, even the aerial special strikes aid in the platforming. I'd say that bar a few exceptions the platforming is more focused on solving the small puzzle based upon when to flip between dimensions as opposed to outright tricky precision and timing (of course they're still part and parcel of platforming in itself), if you ever get stuck it helps to just take a quick look at the room, think of what your most recent abilities can do and the answer shouldn't be too hard to find, if anything it reaches its trickiest simply because of the amount of buttons you have to keep swapping between in a short space of time.
Alas on the way to the finish line like many games the emphasis on enemies begins to take over and the platforming gets scaled back in favour of more enemy gauntlet rooms, a small shame considering the platforming dial was really starting to get turned up.
No surprises that the Tree was my favourite area, lots of vertical focused platforming in there.
Visually the game looks pretty nice, it's sharp and colourful, you've got this nice angular cartoony style going on, platforms are clear and there's a nice visual shift as you swap between the land of the dead and the land of the living. Some of the platforms that just float in the air could do with looking a bit more organic to the environment though.
Characters are bold and have some pleasingly snappy animations at times, while the villains are memorable in a way I can't say the same for our leading Luchadore. Juan is well, pretty damn bland, especially so considering the occupation handed to him, for all intents and purposes he's a wrestler, these guys thrive on being larger than life characters, yet Juan just slaps on the mask and proceeds to just be mr muscle and nothing more. The wrestling angle doesn't get played up as much as i'd like, you could've maybe had an invisible audience for the enemy rooms with Juan playing to this unseen but certainly heard crowd when suplexing skeletons into bone piles, taunting away and generally being a bit more animated and expressive, I actually sat on the screen at one point hoping for an idle animation or something, it's a small thing but minor touches like these could go a way to making Juan have more character for a mute.
Music is suitably Mexican if that makes sense, but it doesn't do much to endear itself to me, it serves its role well but I can't recall any themes off the top of my head, it all kind of blends together. The subtle style shift it takes between worlds is okay but once again it doesn't come across pronounced enough to make much of an impact.
I'd be amiss if I didn't mention the games cameos and humour, i've got to say that i'm not much of a fan. The level of cameos begins to be simply too much, a never ending series of "hey look, it's that guy" at every turn, the novelty quickly wears off, though one late game reference on the mountain did get me good i'll say that much.
But the game references even in their abundance are like the greatest of humour compared to the memes that seeped in, i'm not usually one to gripe about memes but in this case they felt more forced than usual, almost like drinkbox are yelling LAUGH DAMMIT because there's one of those overused internet jokes given a Mexican twist.
I think the games own identity would come across a lot stronger with less of these references, it's like being in a Mexican themed Smash Bros at times, when I got my first power up I smiled at the rather blatant Metroid homage, and then it turned out to be the way every power is gained which just served to keep reminding me of Metroid as I played (as if the genre itself doesn't do that already).
Character dialogue is goofy and doesn't take itself too seriously which is fine, I think a certain joke loses a bit of its punch when the character has to outright tell me that it's a double entendre though, another LAUGH DAMMIT moment.
Okay I think i've covered all the bases now, Guacamelee is short and to the point, it doesn't outstay its welcome and packs a lot of punch, absolutely worth buying if you're a Metroidvania fan and in fact it makes for a good entry title to the genre as well though it's a bit too typical of the genre at times, maybe a sequel with a little more polish could work wonders as the foundation here is solid indeed.
I can say off the bat that this game is more than worth the asking price and is a fine Metroidvania title yet I can't help but feel that it doesn't quite hit the heights it could've done.
Guacamelee for the most part feels like a blender of various Metroidvania titles and concepts from Metroid itself to even Outland, what it adds to the mix itself is the simplistic yet satisfying combat system, towards the back end of the game when you have accumulated many ways to wallop skulls and a nice chunk of stamina of which to keep things going it's quite something, uppercutting foes into the air, ping ponging them around with strikes and headbutts before finishing them with an aerial piledriver that smashes into a group of straggler skeletons below, as I said, satisfying.
However there's some niggles with the brawling, it can get overwhelming when you've got colour coded enemies that are all residing in different dimensions as projectiles fly across the screen, clusterfuck is the word for these moments. And curse those swifter skeletons, especially when they have a colour shield, trying to headbutt one of these guys during a scuffle can get pretty tiresome as they roll around all over the place. This aside the combat side of things is fun and remained enjoyable to the end, it's just the right level of complexity for a game like this, not too simple that fighting enemies gets tiresome but not too complex that it begins to interrupt flow.
I'm in two minds regarding the exploration execution, while Guacamelee presents you with a world to explore it feels more segmented than i'd like, areas don't often intersect with only the one entrance and exit into each, areas are also quite guided in their traversal so you'd be incredibly hard pressed to get lost or stumble out of your depth. The positive thing to take away from this is that you'll always have the right idea about where you're headed and it allows maps to expand continuously without retreading old ground so much, what's not so great is that exploration doesn't often feel organic, the path is perhaps too obvious and heading back to an earlier point in the game with a new skill to break open one of the tantalising coloured bricks blocking a path tends to always lead simply to treasure as opposed to suddenly stumbling into a new area of map. This all goes back to my feeling that each area comes more across being its own level instead of a big connected world.
The various skills you obtain in the game are mostly standard Metroidvania fare, I was happy to see that the last two skills felt far more unique than the repackaged versions of familiar and basic skills seen up to that point and helped give the game its own flavour in this department
running up walls and zooming across chasms, especially the wall running
Platforming has a pretty big role to play here, it's mostly a lot of wall jumping mixed with flipping the dimensions to swap out the visible platforms, they got a lot of mileage out of each possible mechanic in this case which is great to see, even the aerial special strikes aid in the platforming. I'd say that bar a few exceptions the platforming is more focused on solving the small puzzle based upon when to flip between dimensions as opposed to outright tricky precision and timing (of course they're still part and parcel of platforming in itself), if you ever get stuck it helps to just take a quick look at the room, think of what your most recent abilities can do and the answer shouldn't be too hard to find, if anything it reaches its trickiest simply because of the amount of buttons you have to keep swapping between in a short space of time.
Alas on the way to the finish line like many games the emphasis on enemies begins to take over and the platforming gets scaled back in favour of more enemy gauntlet rooms, a small shame considering the platforming dial was really starting to get turned up.
No surprises that the Tree was my favourite area, lots of vertical focused platforming in there.
Visually the game looks pretty nice, it's sharp and colourful, you've got this nice angular cartoony style going on, platforms are clear and there's a nice visual shift as you swap between the land of the dead and the land of the living. Some of the platforms that just float in the air could do with looking a bit more organic to the environment though.
Characters are bold and have some pleasingly snappy animations at times, while the villains are memorable in a way I can't say the same for our leading Luchadore. Juan is well, pretty damn bland, especially so considering the occupation handed to him, for all intents and purposes he's a wrestler, these guys thrive on being larger than life characters, yet Juan just slaps on the mask and proceeds to just be mr muscle and nothing more. The wrestling angle doesn't get played up as much as i'd like, you could've maybe had an invisible audience for the enemy rooms with Juan playing to this unseen but certainly heard crowd when suplexing skeletons into bone piles, taunting away and generally being a bit more animated and expressive, I actually sat on the screen at one point hoping for an idle animation or something, it's a small thing but minor touches like these could go a way to making Juan have more character for a mute.
Music is suitably Mexican if that makes sense, but it doesn't do much to endear itself to me, it serves its role well but I can't recall any themes off the top of my head, it all kind of blends together. The subtle style shift it takes between worlds is okay but once again it doesn't come across pronounced enough to make much of an impact.
I'd be amiss if I didn't mention the games cameos and humour, i've got to say that i'm not much of a fan. The level of cameos begins to be simply too much, a never ending series of "hey look, it's that guy" at every turn, the novelty quickly wears off, though one late game reference on the mountain did get me good i'll say that much.
But the game references even in their abundance are like the greatest of humour compared to the memes that seeped in, i'm not usually one to gripe about memes but in this case they felt more forced than usual, almost like drinkbox are yelling LAUGH DAMMIT because there's one of those overused internet jokes given a Mexican twist.
I think the games own identity would come across a lot stronger with less of these references, it's like being in a Mexican themed Smash Bros at times, when I got my first power up I smiled at the rather blatant Metroid homage, and then it turned out to be the way every power is gained which just served to keep reminding me of Metroid as I played (as if the genre itself doesn't do that already).
Character dialogue is goofy and doesn't take itself too seriously which is fine, I think a certain joke loses a bit of its punch when the character has to outright tell me that it's a double entendre though, another LAUGH DAMMIT moment.
Okay I think i've covered all the bases now, Guacamelee is short and to the point, it doesn't outstay its welcome and packs a lot of punch, absolutely worth buying if you're a Metroidvania fan and in fact it makes for a good entry title to the genre as well though it's a bit too typical of the genre at times, maybe a sequel with a little more polish could work wonders as the foundation here is solid indeed.
Seriously? I took 14.5 hours to finish and got 84%. Maybe I just suck at games. Actually I knew that already.
dreamer3kx
Member
Anyone get that treasure maybe halfway up the tree I think (haven't completed yet), tried but got a bit frustrated, that part feels like a finger twister.
yeah, I give up. I don't see another way up. I just can't get the timing down for that whole dimension switching thing. I'll try again later or something.
Same thing with me. I reluctantly gave up on it, but I'll probably get back into it soon.
This game ended up being way more fun than I expected, solid combat and great platforming combined with some nice level design made it really hard to put down.
Honestly the game doesn't really feel like a Metroid type game, it feels more like a platformer/action game with some backtracking for secrets and collectibles. Which is fine by me, other than the lack of music variety and the really questionable humor/references I ended up absolutely loving it. The dodge roll is so satisfying and the way they force you to combine your various skills in both platforming and combat is fantastic.
I was also surprised by how cool a couple of the boss fights were coming from a Western indie dev, Javier had some fun patterns, classic stuff! Anyone on the fence should definitely pick it up, one of my fav PSN titles no doubt and way better than I thought it would be!
Oh and Headbutt is your friend, juggling the crap out of bosses is very satisfying!
I found an easy spot. After obtaining the Blue Power-Up, while returning, there's a place when there's just one enemy in a Blus Shield. He's way to easy to trap against the hall and built up the Combo meter there (no other enemies and enemy doesn't die).
Even only using the standard combo, you can get the trophy in a minute
Um...i didn't even notice I was in the #2 spot on the leader board...Huzzah!
It's always there, but it's never shoved in your face. You can look past it with ease.
It's pretty much there all the time but the game is so much fun that you just look past it, I do think its misguided though, this stuff is already outdated and it just feels lazy.
Some of the gaming nods were OK but the dumb internet humor has got to go. Oh well, everything else was good/great so they get a pass!
how?
Go on platform 1. Jump, warp, uppercut, warp.
Repeat all the way up. I posted a video on the last page of me doing it.
how?
Mid jump change dimensions. When you you cross the barrier going up, change back to the other dimension to make the level for you to land on appear again.
Edit: guy above me described it better.
Redoing some sections after gaining skills feels like cheating. After failing at a specific treasure time after time and then breezing right through it afterwards, I was happy that I finally did it but knew it was to easy that way.
Does the game let you keep playing after beating the final boss so you can wrap up missing stuff?
Does the game let you keep playing after beating the final boss so you can wrap up missing stuff?
Depends on your platforming ability. I got to the last area in about 4 hours. But then, I can beat Super Metroid in under 3.
I'd say, for the first run, 5-7 hours is about right. Once you figure out what you're doing, you'll be able to cruise through it though.
Arlecchino
Member
Getting the most out of it, and beating it 100% on Normal and Hard would probably run you at minimum 13-14 hours.
Yes. You get put back right before the final boss if you hit continue.
You'll have to beat him again once you get the luchodor masks for the true ending
dreamer3kx
Member
Yea I found this, did you check it out, what was it?
Oh I'm glad there is a hard mode, yes! Is there something like a special unlock like with the Samus without Suit? You can send me a pm because I don't want to spoiler it for others.
I'm right up your alley, might not be as good as your 3h run of Super Metroid but I can make it in about 4h, but still sounds absolutely great with the replay value. I can't wait to get one of my Vitas back!
Arlecchino
Member
Oh I'm glad there is a hard mode, yes! Is there something like a special unlock like with the Samus without Suit? You can send me a pm because I don't want to spoiler it for others.
I've only played the prologue on hard, but it's my impression that it's just the enemies take and do more damage and the bosses have more ability/ies.
I got it as well, just a message like "You found the QR code!".
Okay. I don't suck. I just can't do it. The timing required is too twitchy for me. I'm thinking this may not be the game for me. If I can't can't past this point. I may just be wasting my time. The platforming is most likely going to get more difficult. I'll walk away for now and try it later.
FrostuTheNinja
Member
ViewtifulJC
Banned
So how do you get the complete Luchador mask? I got one from the
final boss, and one from that combat arena in the main town
I'm almost done with the game, and from what I've actually been paying attention to, most of the meme stuff is relegated to one particular location, which is heavy with billboard ads and what not.
Also, maybe it's because I'm not super internet-meme savvy, but it all kind of just melted into the background anyway. To be honest, most background ads/promotion/etc remains just that while I'm playing a game.
The few meme's and references I actually paid attention to were fun and humorous, and the fact that they all have a Mexican spin on them made them more amusing to me than if just played straight. The use of them in dialogue is pretty rare, however, and also seemingly limited to just one character from my observations (Flame Face).
EDIT: Also, I didn't realize the Tule Tree was such an area of trouble for people. I found it challenging, but didn't have any problems with the large bulk of it. One part was challenging, but it was the timing, not actually figuring out what to do.
ViewtifulJC
Banned
Yeah, don't believe the hype on the Tule Tree if you're scared. You definitely need some decent timing and platformer skills, but it's not like Super Meat Boy or anything dumb like that.
HIJOLE!
100% completion took me about 7 hours. Hard mode awaits, but I'll save it for later. Seriously fun game. Great gameplay and lots of personality, I loved all the of the video game references in the game. The
poster is the best, and the
100% completion took me about 7 hours. Hard mode awaits, but I'll save it for later. Seriously fun game. Great gameplay and lots of personality, I loved all the of the video game references in the game. The
Manny Calavera "missing"
Journey character lying dead in the mountain was pretty funny.
This game ended up being way more fun than I expected, solid combat and great platforming combined with some nice level design made it really hard to put down.
Honestly the game doesn't really feel like a Metroid type game, it feels more like a platformer/action game with some backtracking for secrets and collectibles. Which is fine by me, other than the lack of music variety and the really questionable humor/references I ended up absolutely loving it. The dodge roll is so satisfying and the way they force you to combine your various skills in both platforming and combat is fantastic.
I was also surprised by how cool a couple of the boss fights were coming from a Western indie dev, Javier had some fun patterns, classic stuff! Anyone on the fence should definitely pick it up, one of my fav PSN titles no doubt and way better than I thought it would be!
Oh and Headbutt is your friend, juggling the crap out of bosses is very satisfying!
Nice time! I want to start speedrunning this too. any tips?
Acquiescence
Member
I caved in and purchased the game this evening, then subsequently played it for about 40 minutes... hells bells it's good, on all fronts thus far. A real step up from Mutant Blobs Attack for the team, I can already tell.
Shame about the protagonist being of the silent variety though
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