RoahmMythril, Secret of Evermore Volcano Slopes

I would have originally posted on Twitter my commentary about this, but then I notice your post about your headache issues making things bothersome, certainly enough that just posting about this would have absolutely been in bad taste. Pastebin lets me just post a URL to bookmark, and when all is said and done, it's better via not only length, but also the leisure response typing from not having to deal with Twitter's suffocating character limit on individual comments and bad habit of mishandling copy and paste. The leisure response especially allows me to keep this as constructive as I can, a good thing when this could already come across as me attacking how you play. Obviously how you play is up to you when all is said and done, even if I'm not a fan of doggie being allowed to be KOed, but I have enough reason to at least call out what I will in hopes of so much as a mention.

I need to set the stage: my first experience with you, especially your videos, was your Perfect Run of Wily Tower 1 in Mega Man Wily Wars. I was noting how you would involve commentary while starting off with the obviously generic weapon/item selection setup in clear interest of getting that out of the way. Then things get going until you make that remark about the Bigo and using the slide to bypass him easily and at that point, that's where you definitely get my attention. The fire trap handling via patience was what really sold me because it shows that you've been interested in taking things in a comprehensible manner, definitely a contrast to standard speedruns. The shocking thing is when this is the sort of thing you'd give a 1/10, although even from a casual viewpoint, I reckon movement is done for the fire trap as the given wave of fire has finished moving through. Still, it does become exciting to see what else you have in store.

Of course, I'm bringing this up in the interest of talking about TLC, which, obviously that's going to prove here to be a YMMV case. The target of my criticism isn't anything involving your MM Perfect Runs; it's the way you handled the Volcano Slopes in Secret of Evermore.

Where I take issue is your tactics around the Volcano Slopes feel rather...unstructured to say the least. Definitely at a point that would crumble to dust at the sight of the saying "ignis aurum probat."

The thing about the Volcano Slopes is that the Raptors and Carniflowers are compliments to each other, such that the combination of them leads to me actually getting inspiration for how to handle my attempt to make a Spiritual Successor to Battalion Wars. What happens to let a mid-90s game do that? Well, when I did my practice run of the Volcano Slopes, I had tried Boy-soloing in general to address the Carniflowers in particular, and those Raptors got irritating, and remember that I was actually using the Spider's Claw which actually doesn't need charged attacks for higher reach. Of course, the way back would mean wading through the same enemies and then I was watching Private Hazard just maul Raptors like nobody's business. Mind you, the truth does lead to being convenience with hit detection that worked in Private Hazard's favor by preventing the blind spot in the charged attack pseudo-intangibility from coming into play (seriously, Axes' L3 attacks are capable of being awesome for a reason precisely *BECAUSE* of their long duration, even if they are bugged to actually not cut shrubbery), but it does also bring up that the AI gets an added advantage of not having to waste an attack to do chargeup. Either way, the end result is the strengths and weaknesses of both player control and AI control being highlighted, without even having to be ridiculously blunt--all it took was a little level design, since the screen before the Mammoth Graveyard had only Carniflowers for threatening enemies.

Summary of the Volcano Slopes design is, protect doggie from those utility enemies that the AI will of course not consider well and you'll be maintaining the health of a heavy hitting ally who can take care of the bigger threats for you as reward for looking after man's best friend. (And again, I wasn't stuck with some unevolved Magikarp being my weapon when handling the climb.)

I bring this up because the way you handled this was so flagrantly laissez-faire. Granted, at least we can enjoy jokes about given Carniflowers camping right outside where you can enter the screen. My hatchet is being stricken with disappointment that layers on already blatant irritation with general circumstances about how little people will care about problems like my parents' house being the God awful mess it is even before the maggot-filled toilet issue came into play 25 years ago, tangled in red tape as well, AND having my dad's ashes being lost in the shuffle. It gets to the point where I left my response commentating about this, no doubt in a harsher tone from what I remember, to a recent comment by MoltenUprising MK4000 here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQbtLnxCpno
It's even worth noting that MU MK4K was remarking how a 1080P/60FPS video being about the same general thing had him feel sick where my 360P video, that BTW is actually that way because I've been paranoid about data space and don't know how to configure for proper settings without relying on something like XSplit's auto-convert for YouTube friendliness, doesn't, because my gameplay proves so much more refined in comparison. It does bring up how more of us could stand to learn how to provide the best of both worlds. Ironically, I'm not so different, but at this point, I'm personally tired of people not caring about the gameplay aspect of a game, because even though for example Hades' Heart in Kid Icarus Uprising does have legitimate design issues, players' hyperaggressive behavior that doesn't even consider strategy more actively like what was done in the example I just cited with Hades' Heart is at best an invalidation of that excuse through excessively rash behavior, and at worst a show of the point that gaming communities have too much hubris and not enough regard for input from others.

As to what I criticize, I do of course bring up the rush in moment where you ended up dealing with multiple Raptors directly for your troubles--that would have been problematic with a charged Axe, never mind a non-charged Spear. I can also bring up how you got yourself munched by multiple Carniflowers in succession earlier on. I will admit I did get myself eaten by a Carniflower in my own playthrough because I wasn't considerate enough of Secret of Evermore's zoom level, which while not the claustrophobia/acrophobia-inducing pressure of Metroid: Samus Returns is still enough of a reason to give me a track record in taking Raptor ambushes to the face myself. However, that you have it happen with 2 Carniflowers in a row punctuates what I'm criticizing. It's the reason moments like the revenge on the Raptor for attacking Mike feel like mere pet hype. I don't doubt you care genuinely, but there's a reason I also compared this to treatment of the spazz client at that disability daycare center I mentioned before, especially when the Genki Girl staff worker cares too by all indication, and wouldn't you know it, that scenario also became MORE messy precisely because of the thinking by heart that is still overall a good thing, but the problem is when it isn't accommodated by better structure and thus snowballs into making the good guys look like idiots. We already have too much of society being a broken mess and one of the bigger factors to that is people thinking that being smart and being angelic are mutually exclusive. Obviously, they're not, and it's a BIG reason why I gush over the ending of the Tournament of Power in Dragon Ball Super. (Excuse the major spoilers, even if I just provide a significant hint.) The problem is when the evidence becomes lighter than it should be.

Of course, where I am ultimately going with this is asking that you at least reflect upon this. Make of all this what you will, since I do understand that backseat gaming can just cramp the player's style, and even a No Casualties Run rule wouldn't be objectively beneficial for a Secret of Evermore LP, if simply because of the way Biscuits are handled thanks to mid-90s game design, and it's at least fair to point out that I myself had to dig up the good gameplay of the Volcano Slopes to even discover it because of Secret of Evermore being for the most part easy in a vacuum aside from hotspots like Thraxx. I'm just needing to make my points about the sort of gameplay that shouldn't get lost in the shuffle, especially when I'm already having to recover from frustration with people caring even less about issues like my parents' house than I already expected and I don't need to see even further evidence that gaming goes from healthy outlet for high emotional issues, the sort that had me actually recently get sick to my stomach trying to learn more about sword techniques by the way; to some hive-minded clique that cares more about quick, indifferent comments rather than quality ones in a show of being their own worst enemies. I recall Pac-Man was created to address bad conditions in gaming communities. I am for that notion to be worth the trouble.

(And as usual, I'm not even sure I said everything I wanted to, but if that invites discussion....)