#they feel like a mismash of animals and it doesn't work

[szif]

my official post reviewing verlet swing, now. [world 1-4]

it was genuinely a mesmerizing experience, and all 5 worlds had something fun to offer, obviously world 5 taking the cake.

the visuals are top notch and they were really stimulating to look at, the color choices were absolutely stunning and most importantly they weren't eyestrain-y, most of the visuals here were tame, calm and yet so full of life and vivid.

the objects/colors for depicting vaporwave as an aesthetic felt very deliberate and well-picked, they could've easily mismashed a pile of anything together to imply vaporwave, but they were very picky and i think that paid off well. it spoke of serenity, of belonging, of opportunities, of products, of a specific way of being and it spoke softly & clearly.

the addition of polybius showing up at later stages and the feeling of everything being "overtaken" and becoming more and more "dense", replacing the original feelings & atmosphere the worlds have had felt so terrible, i greatly enjoyed it.

i really enjoyed the vast possibilities at beating the levels, and the abundance of tries you can have within a level as the many grabbable objects make it so that you can change your trajectory easily (i loved messing around swinging around aimlessly for fun, to see how long i could last) and even if the videogame is composed of levels that take ~10-20 secs to beat, i didn't feel compelled to instantly reset the level once things didn't go my way. i've done it once i explored the routes i could take and was about to solve it for real, yes, but i find it nice that the game doesn't (metaphorically) end just because you didn't perform a set of key movements as much/fast as the level required you to.

it was a lot of fun because the game made it very clear what it wanted, it gave clear signals as for how the movement and swing works, the level design perfectly encapsulated the extent the physics in-game could go, it felt like a living animal i could interact with that had its own set of rules and it clearly told me what is and isn't possible, not letting me down & alone with trying to figure out how it works. this alone gave me more motivation to learn it and to find alternate routes for individual levels than anything.

i would nominate this as one of the most fun experiences i've had that left me very understanding of my experiences & how i've done the levels, it felt very heartwarming for me to find a videogame that let me learn it & felt this player-friendly.

[drinkinggblood]

why i hate seawings design

i hate this thing so much heres my rant lol

why does it have bio scales? "for communication via language" creatures dont evolve specific parts FOR languages, bio parts are not evolved in open waters for the point of communication; that is usually limited to DEEP-SEA CREATURES due to the lack of light making visual communication difficult. it would make more sense for seawings to communicate via NOISE rather than BIO SCALES. why do they have barbels? barbells are essentially fish whiskers; they work as sensory organs to allow fish to see in murky/dark conditions (hence why you see them on many species of river/swamp fish that reside in water that is often murky/cloudy/dirty, or on hagfish, which live in deep depths of the ocean); seawings do not need barbels as they are OPEN-SEA DWELLING ANIMALS. they (seem too) reside in only the most upper levels of the ocean, not near the depths or within rivers/murky water. they have no reason for barbells. their fins are useless too; they don't need back fins or tail fins really, fins are for steering, balance and stability; seawings do not have the proper fin anatomy to do any of those things, even if they DID, they wouldn't need it seeing as they have a tail with similar purpose to a crocodile's (thrust in water via tail)

the entire design makes no sense from a biological standpoint, let alone a fantastical one either. It is poorly made. heres some examples with (my opinion) reasons why THEY work and seawings don't.

example 1:

Namielle.

namielle's design is HEAVILY fiction and would not work in OUR WORLD (she has biology in the monster hunter world that explains a lot of her features but ehhh whatever) but do you know why it works? because it is unique and has features that make sense for her and her enviroment; her design is good because it's UNIQUE and it looks otherworldly, which is the purpose of her design

namielle is like that in how a lot of it's features are mashed together from animal parts, but that IS the point of it's design and it executes it well; it's meant to look otherwordly and unsettling, alien yet beautiful. it was put together with design elements that are meant to build on it's concept of an creepy, otherworldly sea dragon who lives in an alien environment; that IS the point of it's design. it is meant to look familiar yet off. seawings had not been made with the idea of making them look alien/otherworldly, it was made with the idea in mind of "sea creature" and that is it

seawings don't work in this regard because it's just "mash all the sea things to together, hope it sticks" so it feels unbalanced and a giant mess because none of it's features are set in stone or make sense for it to have. It's features are not placed mashed on PURPOSE to create a fluent design with a message to tell. Namielle's design IS a mash of many sea creatures, but she has fantastical biology to explain why as well as get the message of: Unsettling, Eerie, familiar yet beautiful.

example 2:

Shadowmane.

Why do Shadowmanes work?

Simple: It's a design with a clear point. It's a VERY basic concept with a in my opinion, GREAT execution. "Lionfish but a Lion" is the basic concept for the design. And That's It. It's simplicity yet complex design is why I think it works over the Seawing's because it's design has a clear concept, while Seawings have a mess of marine-life stuck together to make a generic 'sea-dragon' design.

"But Seawings are based on traditional sea dragons"

No. They really aren't. If it was, it's design would reflect that and be a lot more visually interesting. /hj

"Seawings are based on Leviathan"

No They clearly are not. I WISH THEY HAD BEEN, it would make for a far more interesting fantasy sea-dragon design, but they aren't. The features are inspired by real-world animals.