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Game crashes + zero save points = no thanks

I make it pretty far in, then found out, the hard way, that shooting one of those wind tree... things as it turns around will crash the game and take your browser down with it. I reloaded, and it returned me to the very beginning of the game.

Needless to say, I won't be playing this twice.

Very interesting, nice atmosphere, intuitive

I love the art style and atmosphere, it's very bleak and twisted. The gameplay often seems fairly intuitive, like you're guided to do what you need to do without explicit instructions.

I have to voice a suspicion that I have though. I'm not sure I'm up for playing the game a second time to find out, but I can't help but feel like this is (or should be) a multi-ending game. Most of the time, you're given two clear paths, one that involves the use of violence, and one that doesn't. I tried to stick to a non-violent path, to see if it would affect the game outcome, but I still wound up fighting the final boss with a weapon. Perhaps it requires a pacifist run? But I seem to remember at several points you're required to kill in order to progress. Perhaps someone else could give it a shot, try to beat the game without killing anything and see if it's different. I just can't help but feel these choices between the violent, but easy way and the difficult, but non-violent way aren't just incidental, and some of the imagery between the game itself and the ending makes me feel like there's a connection. Is there, or am I just imagining things?

Oh, and a possible game-killing bug: In the section where you come across the second "push-block" and use it as a platform to keep above the death-water? There's also a key and a shooting enemy? It's possible that, when you die, your corpse can actually push the block around. It didn't go too far for me, but it seems possible that enough deaths or a particularly unlucky one could push the block too far and make that section of the game unbeatable. Perhaps lower the level of the deadly water and create a little depression for the push-block to settle into so it can't move around?

Holy Crap

There are a few games I have seen on Newgrounds which involve me as much as this one. You have heard it before I am sure. It is dark, moody, and barrows like a maggot into the mind and soul. I cannot think on one part of this game which I didn't like. So I am giving you all 10. seriously A+
I hope to see more in the future from you.
If anything I would like to understand a little more of how the story got rolling.

Thank you for your submission,
Kyo

Great try, but...

Okay, so others have complained about the controls, but I'm going to talk about them anyway. There's a reason old school platformers didn't give the protagonist much momentum: the point of platforming is control, and by giving him or her momentum, you make controlling the character more difficult than necessary. To clarify, adding momentum doesn't make the game more challenging or deep, just more frustrating. It's not a good thing, and that's why all the classic platformers eschewed it. This is the core issue in the game, and it really wrecks everything else. MOVING AROUND itself is frustrating, and I could tell in the first few seconds that the game wasn't going to be enjoyable as a result.

Next is the scale. The game is way too large in scale, and the characters and enemies are too tiny. There's no need for everything to be so tall, or so wide, or whatever. Look at the great platformers of the NES, and you'll see that compared to this protagonist, Mario and Mega Man are gigantic. This goes back to the whole "control" thing. Having characters be that tiny and the environment that large serves no purpose other than to make the game less manageable. And because everything is so massive, it's hard to see what's ahead of you. I couldn't see a lot of enemies before I was in their line of fire, and since you only have a single hit point, mistakes like that are unnecessarily harsh. The sharp controls and better scale of games like Mario mean that a single hitpoint is perfectly acceptable, but here it gives the player no room for error. Unlimited lives don't excuse or legitimize it, they just make it playable.

The worst part of that is that it then requires the protag to be able to jump great distances. While in the air, you have less control, and that coupled with the momentum... Well, basically everything could have been smaller and the game would have been the same but better.

Also, there's a lack of direction. It was clever how you gave us some gameplay elements like the doors, then added keys after we were already familiar with them, but overall, I was confused. The trial and error method of gameplay is frustrating instead of fun, mainly because of the sloppy controls and exhausting area I needed to cover to reach the next section.

The game was very pretty for it's old school graphics, but couldn't you put in some more color other than red? Complicating the scale issue, the lack of color made things hard to see. It was great the the keys were bright red to make them stand out, but really? Nothing but grey, black, and red? You couldn't throw in some green for contrast? Or maybe blue? Even some brown would have been nice, but there wasn't even that.

I like the way you tried to tell a story through a mood, but honestly, the mood I got from the setting was desperately overwhelmed by the frustration I felt from the gameplay. I stopped caring about the story once I died and dropped the key in a terrible place that took multiple tries to get out.

As harsh as I've been in this review, I do really think this had a lot of potential. You clearly have a knack for design, at least in how you deliver information to the player. Your methods are subtle but effective, both in the storytelling and the gameplay elements, and that's the best way to do it. It's just that the things that let it down are problems that were solved twenty years ago. Why does the protag have momentum? Why is everything so big? What am I supposed to be doing? These little things pile up and become horrible together.

In short, your attempt at telling a story through the game's feel is great, but ultimately undermined by the poorly designed gameplay. Two out of five.

This is too epic for words.

Seriously.
This is pretty much too epic for words.
Maybe even too good to be just a game.
Then again, it wasn't just a game, now was it?
Not everybody can relate, but I think most of us saw that this based on either a great, masterful dream.
Or a living nightmare.
I saw many elements in here that struck me deep inside, not only the disturbing yet mournful and moody scenery, but the music as well.
And the plot. The words. The concept.
You, sir, have managed to affect my life and state of mind in a serious and considerable manner.
And when you can do something like through a piece of music or especially a flash game...
You know you've created something wonderful and powerful.

Although the end part of the game with the poem/almost eulogy was a good cooldown, I have to say that the sudden image flashes, creepy trees, and final boss gave me quite the feeling. If you know what I mean. I'm not sure myself.

Most of all, as I'm sure you've heard many times now:
Please. Please, for the sake of my sanity and some others maybe (heh);
Keep feeding us this, this... whatever you might call it. Mind'drug. Addiction.
The gaming world needs more of this.
No, the whole world needs to see more things like this
As I said earlier, it's pretty much too great for words.

P.S: For the love of God, go see a doctor before someone commits suicide. ;)
You're a freaking genius man.