Nocturne in Yellow (& Knuckles)

[Toberone]

Aw c'mon, Skull-Mask Super Mage is the best fight! It's so intense and keeps you on your feet. About that, Most in the bosses in this are great, the last one was kinda eh and I wasn't really digging the fireplace dude either but if all the other ones were flying around shooting billions of projectiles in interesting patterns like the mage and the intro boss then I think this would be more more set. I like bosses that sort of emulate trying to survive like the player does, strafing everywhere.

I haven't seen a lot of FPS's get bosses right but this game is definitely in the ballpark of good fps boss design.

[Viscra Maelstrom]

so uhh, how are you supposed to beat what i assume is the final boss? first time the thing came flying at me and i turned up in some place and i died. subsequent times, however, the thing never moved, no matter how many of its minions i killed. am i doing something wrong or is it bugged?

[TerminusEst13]

Thanks for the kind words, everybody. I know no product is perfect, but I'm surprised at how generously people have been taking this so far.
We definitely want to patch this up and expand on it down the line, but not before a long rest.

A couple of issues I had with the game were with how frustrating it could be at times. Since saving is limited to right before the bosses and at the start of each level, it can be frustrating to die and be forced to redo the entire level, especially since there's no armor and the enemies deal a lot of damage (at least on the third difficulty level). Also, some of the bosses (namely the skull mask guy) are an absolute pain to deal with.

Keep in mind the third difficulty level explicitly increases the amount of damage enemies do, as per what was said. You selected "Yes" on the difficulty.

so uhh, how are you supposed to beat what i assume is the final boss? first time the thing came flying at me and i turned up in some place and i died. subsequent times, however, the thing never moved, no matter how many of its minions i killed. am i doing something wrong or is it bugged?

It's a puzzle boss. Want a hint?

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The question is not what you kill, but where.

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What are the minions doing when they die?

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What did Morena say you were going to do?
(Unless you played Arcade mode in which case WHOOPS I GUESS THIS AIN'T A HINT)

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Kill the minions next to the boss, which will cause the boss to go berserk with energy. The boss will lunge to try and eat you. Let it eat you, and then attack its form from the inside.

[Viscra Maelstrom]

oh, now i see, reading the first two hints. how could i have missed that?

i guess now that i finished it (on skill 2, i am not some masochist having a death-wish ) i should say what i thought about it. gonna spoiler it all just in case.

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it was definitely enjoyable, and the atmosphere is pretty terrific. for some reason a few levels gave me frame drops, such as the vista of the first level, part of the second level, and some others. not enough to be annoying, but it was noticeable that some directions gave a bit of lag. the levels themselves weren't the most interesting perhaps, but the atmosphere alone helps sell it. and the final level is a beautiful mindfuck.

the enemies were all mostly interesting to fight. some of them could be annoying (the things that cries, the... things charging at you), and the rifle guy had a stupid amount of health, though he's very predictable, if dangerous, with his attacks. the weapons were cool, i wish i had more of an incentive to use the spear because it was fucking AWESOME. the rifle was cool, and none of the bow powers seemed inherently useless to me (though Dragon Scale drops in usefulness once you get a rifle and more powers, and the mask's projectiles sometimes just circled around targets. fun to have in cutscenes though!)

the bosses were hit and miss. the first one isn't even technically a boss you can beat, which surprised me as there was no indication that you couldn't beat Morena aside from it being a giant-ass facepunch. the final boss wasn't actually particularly challenging, though i didn't know how to damage it at first. i think the one dropping the coin was the best of the bunch, as it was pretty intense but nothing you couldn't handle. i'd say that there should've been earlier spots that teach you about sprinting, though, as i had no idea it was a thing until i had to jump on the floating platforms to proceed in Clock Tower, which could have helped a lot against the one in the fire and aforementioned skull-boss.

lastly, was the final boss song the one song composed specifically for the project? it feels like it should have been, but i could be wrong.

overall, i'd rate this as fun and something you should give a go. it's not bad for what it is, if a little plain in the gameplay department, perhaps, but there are no obvious flaws in the project as i can see it. (note that i haven't played arcade mode yet so i dunno how different that is.)

[BouncyTEM]

Nope. The barely existent, minimalist ambience in the first level was. I know this because I made it.

[YukiHerz]

I'm amazed no one has made a knuckles mod for this yet...

[Blox]

The boss of map04 is quite easy once you realize that you can duck beneath most of his projectiles (you can also duck beneath the long array of daggers Morena launches at you while high up in the air).

The bosses are generally too bullet-spongy, and the performance issues are due to Term not knowing what one-sided linedefs are - things which will be fixed later on.

I'm amazed no one has made a knuckles mod for this yet...

and yeah where's the KNUCKLES sound replacements

[Viscra Maelstrom]

okay, so the million dollar question... why Nocturne in Yellow? what's the Yellow referencing?

[Big C]

okay, so the million dollar question... why Nocturne in Yellow? what's the Yellow referencing?

Given the myriad eldritch horrors you fight, I assumed it had some relationship to The King In Yellow.

[idGamer]

Keep in mind the third difficulty level explicitly increases the amount of damage enemies do, as per what was said. You selected "Yes" on the difficulty.

Heh, I had a feeling that was why it could be so difficult.

The boss of map04 is quite easy once you realize that you can duck beneath most of his projectiles (you can also duck beneath the long array of daggers Morena launches at you while high up in the air).

That would've helped to know.

[3noneTwo]

I enjoyed this quite a bit, atmosphere was definitely its strongest point. Enemies were great fun, that shadowy demon and the screamer both caught me off-guard when they were first introduced. Boss battles were tough and interesting, the dialogue before each battle (and throughout the game) was a nice touch. And it's really cool to see GLOOME in action, I hope the engine continues to be improved.

I'd agree that some of the bosses felt very bullet-spongey, even on the default difficulty. Map04's boss was particularly brutal - I eventually had to save-scum my way through him. (Cheers for not nulling the F2 hotkey, by the way ) Some general visual weirdness in a couple levels too, though no performance issues.

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In particular, big holes around the left side of the island in the first level, visible as you make your way up the platforms:

(also, screenshots have that black border along the top and right edge. GLOOME issue?)

And a couple instances in the final map. I wasn't sure how much of it was intentional, and how much would be considered bugs. [Weird rendering throughout the glitchy "water" area], and [inconsistent HOMs at the final doorway].

All in all though, for a game that was pulled together in a month, it's an impressive and charming little package. Everyone did great on it, I'd love to see it taken further.

[jpalomo]

I wasn't sure if I should post this here or in this recently bumped thread. Took me about a minute in slade to sift through the actor names. Enjoy

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I replaced all normal enemies with Drekavac. Have fun trying to move around.

[Alekv]

Very nice game, HUD style and weapons.
GLOOME engine rules =)

[TerminusEst13]

okay, so the million dollar question... why Nocturne in Yellow? what's the Yellow referencing?

This is a bit twofold.

The project was originally inspired by CastleVania (and ended up less Vania-ish than hoping), but it took after the theme of [Musical term] of/in [generic]. Like Aria of Sorrow, or Harmony of Dissonance, or Rondo of Blood, or Scordatura of Mild Anxiety. The yellow, however, has a little bit of a double meaning.
Yeah, it's that yellow is a common color in the Cthulhu mythos (and let's be honest, it really is a disgusting color), but in the Eastern Orthodox Catholic church, there's also that yellow/gold symbolizes the golden key to the Kingdom of Heaven, which Christ gave to St. Peter in recognition of his struggles and suffering. It's a double-meaning color that can swap from good to wicked, from sanctity to madness, from God to Hastur.

This dual-relationship was intended to be expanded upon, but deadlines unfortunately negated that hope. Whoops.

And a couple instances in the final map. I wasn't sure how much of it was intentional, and how much would be considered bugs. [Weird rendering throughout the glitchy "water" area], and [inconsistent HOMs at the final doorway].

Not intentional, but we kept them in because "just fuck my shit up" was basically the entire theme of the map. If stuff broke accidentally, great! Let's build around it!

I wasn't sure if I should post this here or in this recently bumped thread. Took me about a minute in slade to sift through the actor names. Enjoy

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I replaced all normal enemies with Drekavac. Have fun trying to move around.

Yes. This is perfect. The game has been finished.

[ReedtheStrange]

Damn it, I thought I was the only making ZDoom games. First Adventures of Square and now this. I though Harmony was a more rare occurrence.