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Volgarr the Viking |OT| RISE, 16-BIT HARDCORE NOSTALGIA!

duckroll

Member
Oooooh yeah. Enough for today. Finally beat World 4 after I stopped being an impatient prick at the boss. World 5 is really awesome. It's great how each stage is completely unique and has its own gimmicks too.
 

KarmaCow

Member
I think I got the "trick" for every boss but the second one. He has a predictable pattern but I can barely kill him without cheesing him with Mjolnir but I also suck at getting past the part just before the boss room with the red fish dude and tank.

The final boss
was a bit of a let down. There is even a little ledge on the right where you can just pelt him with javelins if you just take a hit to get up and maybe one stray fireball.
. Do bosses change in hard variants of stages?

Also what's up with the achievements for the game? They don't show up anywhere but in the detailed view on the game, they don't even show up in the activity log.
 

Ionic

Member
Alright, I managed to get ending B, but I feel like I cheated a bit by just skipping through to stage five and just doing that level really well instead of playing through the whole game. There's no shortcuts for ending A though, so my work's cut out for me I guess.

Also, 60 in both full and windowed.
 

VandalD

Member
The final boss
was a bit of a let down. There is even a little ledge on the right where you can just pelt him with javelins if you just take a hit to get up and maybe one stray fireball.
. Do bosses change in hard variants of stages?

Also what's up with the achievements for the game? They don't show up anywhere but in the detailed view on the game, they don't even show up in the activity log.
About the bosses,
no, they don't change at all on the harder path, with one satisfying exception, and of course you get to a level and boss that you can't access on the normal path.

I'm having the same problem with the achievements. I can't see the three that I haven't earned. All that shows up is the most recent one and the 17/20 complete. Any time I click to try to see them, it takes me to the Steam store.
 
By the way, F3 will show the in-game FPS counter.

I'm getting twenty-five in full screen, sixty in windowed.

Also what's up with the achievements for the game? They don't show up anywhere but in the detailed view on the game, they don't even show up in the activity log.
The game is "hidden" from most Steam community features, the developers have notified Valve, I suspect it'll be fixed some time on Monday.
 

kevm3

Member
At least this game went for 16 bit graphics unlike all the 8 bit retro remakes. I'll keep my eye on this one.
 

Amagon

Member
So this game is kicking my asshole. Took me at least two hours to get through Stage 1, still stuck in Stage 2 but progressively slow and steady to learn the patterns. Frustrating to no ends, I hate the slow movement, the jumping, dying over & over & over again because I'm so stupid but you know what.

id8Vi0E.jpg
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
I tried it on my laptop and it does run at 60 in fullscreen.

I suspect it has to do with the use of multiple displays and connections on the desktop. I'm using a monitor and a plasma in addition to the pass through box for the HMZ-T1. Somewhere in that chain the game is running into an issue.

What's odd is that, when it switches to fullscreen, there is no flicker or switch. It literally just fills the screen so it's not changing refresh rate.

Furthermore, the framerate does jump back to 60 fps in the menu but as soon as you return to the game it drops to 30 fps again.

I suppose I'll just have to wait on playing the game until this is fixed as it does seem that one of the developers is working on it.
 

duckroll

Member
FWIW, I'm playing on a laptop and getting 60fps in fullscreen too. Hopefully they can track down the root of this problem for those affected. 30fps sounds pretty shitty. >_<
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
Did you try playing with the vsync setting in the options? As I posted earlier, it cleared up all the framerate issues I had and I was curious if it was an isolated fix or if it could be applied elsewhere.
It definitely does not work. The developer also posted a beta-build of the game to Steam which I tried as well without any luck.

It's not a v-sync issue simply due to the fact that it runs at 60 fps in fullscreen when using the menu and then drops back to 30 fps when you return to the game. There's something else going on.
 

Copenap

Member
Just saw this for the first time, looks really nice and I'll make sure to pick this up . Also nice to see that there's another game to add to the successful kickstarter list.
 

Easy_D

never left the stone age
It definitely does not work. The developer also posted a beta-build of the game to Steam which I tried as well without any luck.

It's not a v-sync issue simply due to the fact that it runs at 60 fps in fullscreen when using the menu and then drops back to 30 fps when you return to the game. There's something else going on.

I'm getting the same issue, except that it happens in both windowed and full screen, feels kind of wrong to play a 2D sidescroller at 30 :p

Edit: Scratch that, turning vsync off helped me. Still felt kind of jittery, turned bilinear filtering off as well and now it's smooth as butter and looks much better (save the tearing). Didn't even realise the game had a filter on until now.
 

duckroll

Member
AWW YEAH! I beat it! Yeah I scrubbed through, I got a terrible score, and I got Ending C, but why does it still feel SO GOOD. Lol. Such a satisfying game. I played through World 5 and 6 in one sitting too, since the final stage was so goddamn fun. I'm glad I managed to at least get one ending before GTA5 hits tomorrow. Lololol.

I'm totally not looking forwarding trying to beat the Valkyrie stages in future. Can't wait to get my ass kicked even harder. >_<
 

ElFly

Member
After a lot of work, and finding the mjolnir, I beat the second boss.

Now the third stage is kicking my ass. Enemies whose head still attack after hitting them low? fuck you game.
 

Ionic

Member
After 13 hours of trials and tribulations I have beaten the final boss and attained ending A. I'm trying to decide if I should try for one life or if that would make me go (more) insane.
 

VandalD

Member
After 13 hours of trials and tribulations I have beaten the final boss and attained ending A. I'm trying to decide if I should try for one life or if that would make me go (more) insane.
Congrats! Go for it. I might try this too. There aren't many random elements in Volgarr. Once you learn the levels and bosses, it's just up to your execution.
 

KarmaCow

Member
So I'm going to try to tackle the hard mode stages now I have the first Valkyrie stage down, except for this part. I'm trying to jump far enough that I can kill the one of the right with a downstab and land out of range of the one the left but that seems uncharacteristically unforgiving. Am I missing something here? This would be simpler with the fire sword but there is no way to get it unless you bring it from the previous stage.

edit: just noticed that the Mjolnir is near there after looking at my screenshot, heh.

Also what exactly are the conditions for Endings B and A? I'm assuming one sitting and one sitting + Valkyrie stage variants.
 

VandalD

Member
So I'm going to try to tackle the hard mode stages now I have the first Valkyrie stage down, except for this part. I'm trying to jump far enough that I can kill the one of the right with a downstab and land out of range of the one the left but that seems uncharacteristically unforgiving. Am I missing something here? This would be simpler with the fire sword but there is no way to get it unless you bring it from the previous stage.

edit: just noticed that the Mjolnir is near there after looking at my screenshot, heh.

Also what exactly are the conditions for Endings B and A? I'm assuming one sitting and one sitting + Valkyrie stage variants.
You can try either killing the left one with your double jump spin attack and thrusting on the second one, or (what I did) you can just thrust the first one from enough range so that when you land, you block the right one's attack, then either counter or roll away to do another thrust or spear throw.

About the endings:
Condition for A is beating all of the Valkyrie worlds, including world 7. I'm guessing that B is from beating only some Valkyrie worlds, but I don't know for sure as I haven't tried to get it yet.
 

KarmaCow

Member
Hmm I was actually trying that first strat when I happened to land outside of the range of the one of the left. I think I'll try your strat, it seems safer, thanks. That part still seems out of place though.
 

Noogy

Member
Aside from the framerate issues (my gaming notebook is running it at 25fps fullscreen, 30-60 in a window), I'm REALLY enjoying this game. His flaming sword spin attack is boss.
 

Rubikant

Member
So I'm going to try to tackle the hard mode stages now I have the first Valkyrie stage down, except for this part.

Do a single jump, downstab the first guy, then double-jump to the right out of the downstab before you land and downstab the second guy. It hints at this in the tips section in the manual ;)

Everything in the game is possible without a shield or any other equipment. I made sure I could run through everything in the game "naked".
 
This game is why I keep buying games. I've been disappointed a lot lately, with controls and game design not matching my expectations.

Volgarr is the real thing. The controls are tight and fun to use, with plenty of room for experimentation. The levels are well designed and look great. The enemies are deadly. It was pure joy up until I got to the 2nd boss and rage quit, but I'll play again today and beat him.
 

itwasTuesday

He wasn't alone.
Just bought it, enjoying it so far as level 2. Took a break to watch pro playing of it, learned a few new things.

Going back in shortly.

Just checked, Giantbomb is doing a quick look of this tomorrow. Color me surprised.
 

KarmaCow

Member
Whelp, I beat the first Valkyrie stage and got game over on the second Valkyrie stage. Then after telling myself I was only going to practice the second Valkyrie stage I ended up beating the game and getting the B ending. Oops. There are a couple optional parts in the second and fourth Valkyrie stages I want to check out as well as finding all the Mjolnir spots but I'm really tempted to just go for a full run
and the 7th stage
.

Do a single jump, downstab the first guy, then double-jump to the right out of the downstab before you land and downstab the second guy. It hints at this in the tips section in the manual ;)

Everything in the game is possible without a shield or any other equipment. I made sure I could run through everything in the game "naked".

I tried killing one and jumping away to be safe but I screwed up and took damage. I managed to beat the boss on that run so I didn't actually try again, so maybe the problem was that I needed to kill the second one before its attack reaches me?

I had no idea there was a manual, it's a shame too because it's really well produced. I was about to look up how to get to the thing I linked to for the second stage but I didn't realise the manual outlined how to do it, heh.

It's comforting to know that the game be done naked but (second Valkyrie stage spoiler I guess) I play this waaaay too cautiously and rely on that shield too much to ever even attempt that. :p

That level two boss is going to prohibit me from doing any sort of low death run or any Valkyrie level run.

I felt the same way at first but it really isn't that bad. My problem was that I was way too cautious and the longer the fight goes, the more chances there are of me screwing up. It has a locked pattern so be aggressive, attack every time it jumps out of the water and it can go down one cycle. If all else fails, Mjolnir's Blessing also wrecks it.
 

Haunted

Member
It's punishing but awesome so far. One of these games that demand the player to better himself and improve to make it through. Always the same patterns, a very specific challenge.

No excuses!


edit: wait, you lose two pieces of equipment when you're hit while having the flaming sword?

Ok, that's just bullshit. :p
 

KarmaCow

Member
It's punishing but awesome so far. One of these games that demand the player to better himself and improve to make it through. Always the same patterns, a very specific challenge.

No excuses!


edit: wait, you lose two pieces of equipment when you're hit while having the flaming sword?

Ok, that's just bullshit. :p

The same happens when you get hit with the good shield. You have a max of 3 hits (Mjolnir's Blessing -> Flame Sword/Helmet -> Shield) with all the power ups.
 

duckroll

Member
I took pa22word's advice and picked up a cheap copy of Shinobi 3DS when I was picking up my GTA5 preorder yesterday. It's a pretty interesting game. The graphical style makes it look really bad in screens and videos, and every youtube video just looks horrible.

In the actual game, it's not that bad, but it does take a while to get used to what to focus on in the game visually to actually play it properly. The game design is pretty good, aside from the really awful horse riding part in the first stage so far. The stages are also a bit long, with some obvious padding at parts, but it's fun for the most part. I've beaten the first two stages so far.

I'll probably make a LTTP thread for it when I'm done later on and have more detailed thoughts. But between that and Volgarr, I definitely think the guys at Crazy Viking Studios have a lot of potential in terms of developing satisfying sidescrollers.
 

Haunted

Member
The same happens when you get hit with the good shield. You have a max of 3 hits (Mjolnir's Blessing -> Flame Sword/Helmet -> Shield) with all the power ups.
I call bullshit. Each of the powerups should represent one hit, this is messing with my OCD. :mad:
 

KarmaCow

Member
Yikes the (Ending A related spoiler)
7th stage is weird. What triggers the orbs to start following you? I know the javelin will make them teleport behind you but it seemed like they would randomly start chasing me down. I didn't have many lives to experiment there since I tried (and failed) to get to the second airship in the hard level of world 5.
 
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