Knytt Underground is a good example of how not to start a game. It puts you into a world you know nothing of and will not know for quite a while. It gives you zero incentive to move on and you don’t do much other than jumping and climbing. You start of the game as a mute sprite called Mi as you move from area to area to find some fairies of some sort. Areas stay in place while Mi moves around the map and she has the ability to climb any horizontal surface. All you do is run around and climb while performing fetch quests for various other sprites. Soon chapter 1 finishes and you start chapter 2. You are now a ball. Right. Playing as a ball is much different, you bounce around and it is easy to lose control. It becomes even worse than chapter 1 as this jarring transition has even harder control and it leaves you completely clueless about what the heck is going on. Then you finish chapter 2. By that time I was thinking how bad an impression the game left on me and I found it extremely difficult to enjoy. Then I started chapter 3, and the game just evolved into something so much better
It melded the mechanics of the first two chapters to become a fully realized platformer. In this chapter, I was now able to switch between Mi and the ball form and using this to traverse areas just worked so well. Previously inaccessible areas became so much easier and enjoyable to get to. You can jump as a ball to gain altitude and speed, switch to Mi to grab on to a ledge and just climb up. Since this was impossible in the first two chapters, something so that sounds so plain becomes rewarding to pull off. It gets even better when the stakes are higher and when power-ups are involved. The story became better, though it didn't have much competition. Mi is basically chosen to ring 6 bells to save the world and is accompanied by 2 fairies. The fairies have contrasting personalities to fill the void that Mi leaves, after all she can’t talk and we rarely get to know what she’s thinking. The two fairies are Dora, the kind and seemingly perfect one, and Cilia, the profane and sarcastic one. They have some amusing quips and finding out more about them is actually quite rewarding as it is revealing. Dialogue among characters feels natural and real and this makes it all the more enjoyable. To ring the 6 bells, you will either have to pay the cheapskate guards or find their secret entrances. There are a wide variety of optional quests to complete and doing so is what will progress the story with the characters, but it is entirely missable. What makes Knytt Underground even more enjoyable is it’s absolutely massive world. There are over 1200+ areas (excluding the hidden ones) and it can be fun to fully explore the map and discover new quests. Areas have quite an interesting look and have wide varieties. Platforming is fun but even better with power ups. Power ups appear as colorful auras e.g. yellow aura launches you upwards, red aura gives you a powerful jump, green aura allows you to float freely. They might not sound very exciting but the game is capable of creating challenging platforming that requires you to utilize every trick in the book. There are secret challenges that you can seek out and while they can be very challenging, it’s rewarding to complete them. Mastering them requires you to be have quick reflexes as the smallest mistake can lead to your death. You may need to precisely time when you need to turn into a ball to get the right angle vault to catch the power up which leads you to the next power up etc. It’s frantic but it’s fun. Outside these challenges, the platforming is less challenging but still fun.
You can complete the game without touching the challenges or other quests but it’s more fun to at least try them out. There is little actual incentive to complete quests aside from the amusing dialogue. You may or may not receive items as reward, and even those are lackluster rewards. However, completing them is the only real way to get the most out of the story as the game does very little on it’s own to explain the world it’s set in or just tell you about its characters. It’s an extremely difficult game to enjoy early on but once past that, it becomes a much better experience overall. Still, they don’t explain why you play as a ball...
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