One level down in pursuit of Yatagarasu, and this is already proving to be a massive headache.
I have to begin with the fact that I had a bad experience overall with this level, and even after letting it rest for a week or two, I still don't think it's particularly good. At the very least I can say that it's not irredeemable; most of the level is passable in hindsight. However, the level is incredibly front-loaded with difficulty and inconsistency, peaking at one of the Michigun chokepoints of all time, and many other parts of the level - similar to Subsonic - feel dated and finicky to me in terms of gameplay. If I was being cynical, my biggest critique would be that Artificial Ascent feels too much like an attempt to outdo its predecessors, and which fails to hold up in 2024 with a lot of its gameplay and balancing, especially when you assess it in isolation. To be honest though, it's kind of just an okay level.
Hopefully this video proves to be useful; I'm concerned that it might be unnecessarily long, but then I already know that I'm not exactly a master video producer so who cares. I'm also now working on WOW, which is going to take a while, but considering I never would have dreamed of beating this just a year ago, I've got nothing to complain about. I'm also thinking of making a sort of year recap, so, there's stuff in the works, just don't expect to see any of it anytime soon.
00:00 - Intro waffle
00:53 - Codex (0-4%)
01:36 - Manix648 (5-12%)
04:58 - Sanic (12-18%)
08:42 - The next part (18-24%)
10:06 - Zobros (24-29%)
11:56 - Michigun (29-32%)
14:36 - Anthrax (32-36%)
16:21 - ZenthicAlpha, Viprin (36-44%)
19:13 - Loogiah, wamiq8 (44-53%)
22:08 - nasgubb I think (53-58%)
22:56 - AbstractDark (58-64%)
26:38 - Etzer (64-70%)
30:04 - GDSpeed (70-77%)
35:11 - Serponge (77-83%)
38:31 - G4lvatron (83-91%)
41:18 - Terron (91-100%)
43:57 - Full completion