I didn't finish the game, I think... I went to hell and got to the room with a red face. Didn't get what I had to do, so I gave up. The game is alright, the music is astonishing. It needs more directional help and info on where you need to go.
Reviews for "NONDEVICER"
Okay, I've finally given up. I wasn't even that far into the game (10 minutes or so) when I had to give up because it was too frustrating but not in the "fun" way like VVVVVV (a game which I saw you took inspiration from). Also, it was frustrating not because of difficulty but because I had to go back extremely long places to change directions and the controls were WAAAY to stiff. My other criticism is the really bad music and the fact that you can't drop out of conversations. However, I think your game was well made and I like the retro feel. On top of that it was pretty original and challenging. I think if you can fix the more "interference" and "control" issues your game will be much better, as you obviously have the good gameplay.
FINALLY completed the game. Not much to add on top of Primalmoon's review, just adding that large chucks became a major grind, particularly for 100% completion.
One thing which might help (on top of a way to bypass completed challenges) is a more informative map, perhaps showing important items within the rooms (warps, connections to surrounding rooms, important dialogues).
SPOILER ALERT
NWSW
SSNW
SSSSSSSN
EWEWW
WWSW
Well, my computer restarted and I apparently lost everything, so I'm just going to review now. Maybe I'll re-attempt the game one day but not now.
Many of my concerns have been addressed by previous reviews, but I'll add my 2 cents::
The gameplay at the beginning is very linear, with an interesting mechanic of having to navigate rooms without being able to change direction except at certain points. This isn't bad, just the style of the game. But when later all of a sudden the restriction is completely removed and you are allowed to freely roam the entire map, the game has suddenly changed. This is nothing like what I was playing and it's very disconcerting to have the game completely drop a mechanic like that.
That free-roaming without much of a defined goal is definitely a test of your patience at that point. My patience lasted and I eventually found pockets of linearity and obvious platforming puzzles in the desert and hell but I definitely spent an hour or two just in that forest. When the rest of the game seems to be very direct (i.e. the caves, hell, the desert, the factory, the clouds, etc. are all very obviously "you can push forward or you can head back, and you might not even have that option"), having one area so wildly different in focus seems out of place. I would recommend condensing the forest a lot.
As Menace13 commented a few pages back, this game suffers a lot from the rather intense amount of time wasted just on traveling back and forth on the map, though I imagine he had a tougher time since you hadn't implemented the "teleport to the map room" feature yet when he played. The teleport is helpful because it gives you a way to always get back to a somewhat central location, but until you have the map figured out that and have memorized where the necessary warp portals in the forest are, that still makes for a long trip back and forth. And even once you do have a handle on it, the trip to any particular region never gets easier. And after a long backtracking to find out the solar code, I had to go through the factory again, going through the exact same platforms again. One thing I've noticed with most games that have large amounts of backtracking is that over time you manage to be able to skip a lot of the previously-conquered content, such as by opening shortcuts or getting some power-up that lets you bypass a previously difficult platforming section. This game has none of that and I really felt it when I had to go through the factory again. I believe this is what Menace was getting at when he was suggesting teleporters to each region.
Along the lines of power ups, when I found the map, I got the impression that I would be getting more things along the way. A map with a teleport? Awesome. I wonder what I get next? Double-jumping? A way to kill those annoying enemies? nope nope nope.
All those concerns aside, I really liked the hell region. It was torture, which was thematically appropriate. And spikes growing under your feet is just evil.
And I did feel that the controls were rather tight and solid. Any failures were always my fault, not the controls.
Last, to the others, since missing just one code can be crippling, I'll be nice and write some here. Maybe when you suddenly need one of these and realize you don't have it, perhaps it'll be right here for you to find. This list is not necessarily exhaustive since I didn't finish the game, but in no particular order:
SSSSSSSN
WWSW
EWEWW
NWSW
SSNW
MNWS responds:
I really hate it that you lost your save-file, I have no idea why it's happening to some people unless maybe you deleted your browser-data, I just hope it's not something to do with the game itself.
As I also replied to Menace13 I can see where you're coming from with your criticisms and while I don't think I'll change much about this game, I'll definitely take your points into account with any similar games I might make in the future.
Also, it seems your list with solutions is complete.
Thanks for playing and reviewing!
The pope is gone! Back to the nope!