While this game wasnt the best, its still nice that the developpers have made a video describing a lot of really good changes to the game to make it better. They actually listened to criticism and the fact that theyre trying to make their game better proves they actually care about their game. it might not be the best, but i cant bring myself to outright hate this game.
@@rafaelascencao6045Yep, enchanted portals is pretty much the cuphead at home. But, i think enchanted portals is in the "better" ripoffs. And by better, i mean that its better than other ripoffs because it at least had some care put into it and is currently recieving updates that fix the issues people were having with the game, its not like all those other ripoff games that are made in a day for a quick buck in ad recenue that are never touched again after release. Enchanted portals was not just made for money like those other kinds of rippoffs. It is easy to see that the people who made it loved cuphead. While yes, the fact that enchanted portals is the same price as Cuphead shows that it was made for money too though. And when i said the game was better than other ripoffs i am not saying the game is good because we all know that isnt true, at least for now...
0:22 For people who arent aware of what he means by RNG, Enemy placement is randomly generated meaning that there are times where you cant dodge certain things due enemy placement being so out of nowhere, a perfect example being here: 5:42
that was caused by the game not having a proper spawning mechanic. there's specific triggers that spawn these sliding guys throughout the level but they spawn at the start and / or the end of it and approach your location so they kind of stack over eachother if you move through the level too quickly . the level generation is mostly for foes that stay in one place as well as the platforming one
@@Refferixz it's moreso that the problem is the lack of despawn triggers. the enemies could have distant spawns but never despawn if you run past them, which means you have to take your time to attack them they will chase you endlessly as you move through a straight line with no variation
5:47 The reason the enemies stack like that is because, get this, the linear stages’ enemies are PROCEDURALLY GENERATED. If you progress faster than the game expects you to (in this case, running past enemies instead of killing them), the RNG will start stacking enemies to the point where you may not be able to avoid them at all. In a game like Cuphead, ESPECIALLY in linear platforming stages, you NEED to ensure there’s enough space accounted for between the level design and enemy placement. This is especially evident in World 2; once platforming comes into play, the levels are made completely unfair by the enemies, projectiles, and platforms spawning in with no formula or level planning, leading to situations where you can’t avoid damage at all.
This game didn’t use what made Cuphead fun. Cuphead allowed you to buy new weapons and use them in boss fights but this didn’t allow you to get new stuff!
Other things Cuphead had: -A map that allowed you to pick and choose which boss you wanted to face next -Run and gun stages that had actual care put into them and only served to bridge the gap between boss fights instead of being shitty padding to hide the fact there's so few levels -Good player feedback that let you recover from a hit with some reliability instead of just playing a stock sound effect and giving you half a frame of invulnerability so that you can get hit again immediately after -Tight controls that let you skillfully dodge attacks and didn't take away most of your options once you're airborne -Memorable characters including villains that are properly built up throughout the game -Attacks with coherent pattern which you can get better at dodging without worrying about it being entirely random on the next try -Consistent hitboxes -Coherent art styles -A grading system that encouraged you to replay levels and get better -An engaging parry mechanic that rewarded you for taking extra risk and hitting enemy bullets -Fun easter eggs and gimmicks
What this video doesn't share is the absolute pain that was David dying to the final boss and saying "one more" whenever we begged him to stop. Fun times.
“Take Cuphead but remove all the great level design” Correction: level design has been removed ENTIRELY since every run and gun level layout is AI GENERATED.
Randomly, not AI. An AI would at least have some criteria to avoid overcrowding an area with the same enemies or adding a whole swath of nothing to a level, which this game can and does have.
They were given a grant or something like that from epic games, but it put them on a deadline they couldn't meet so half the art style was changed, multiple ideas were scrapped. Its honestly so sad bc if u look at the trailer, it had so many cool features they had to scrap
They were literally funded tousands and still poorly rushed the game instead of notify or the unfinish procress , they go and launch it as the same price (even more ) than the original game they copy
@@LunaWillow27 yeah but you know , you use money for funding help??? Cuphead was made by 4 , then funded by Microsoft Minecraft was a team of 4 until the 1,5 The whole fnaf saga (1-5) was by a only guy So the excuse ?
honestly the first level having a boss with a different artstyle for its 2nd phase was kinda interesting (even if it was quite jarring), im disappointed they didnt iterate on that at all for the rest of the game. Edit: they did for 2 phases of the final boss rush???? What???
Yeah, I would have loved if each boss switched the entire art style in a unique way. The cow could switch to a cyberpunk aesthetic, the crab could make you into a sort of an almost painted look, the princess would switch you to a whimsical almost chibi look, the chicken would switch art styles instead of just designs switching to like an early color cartoon look and then a steamboat willie vibe, and the final boss rush could remain unchanged, as 2 of the “phases” are just 1 phase bosses.
It’s just such a shame. So much work went into the art and animation, and really- it’s pretty stellar, it looks like a modern day kids’ cartoon, or something you’d find on Netflix, and there’s lots of fun ideas dotted around From little things like the phone charging in the background of the Space Cow fight, to the second phase of the Witch fight, with the drastic art style shift. That takes a lot of assets and patience. The artists animators did an incredible job, that deserves recognition The game design and sound design however, completely take away from the entire experience. Not only clearly copying Cuphead’s homework without the intricate tweaking and refining, but the original ideas they had, like the different colour magics, are… boring. And underdeveloped. They just… they feel like they were added into levels out of obligation, since they had the mechanic coded. It’s such a massive shame, the fate that befell Enchanted Portals
I love how the portal gimmick isn’t used in an interesting way and is instead the excuse for doing random bullshit that makes no logical sense by moving the protagonists around between boss phases instead of having a cohesive and satisfying fight. Like what in the world was that final boss fight?? Beethoven to modern day Cerberus to the book they’ve been chasing turning evil and then into a tree and then into an anime boy??? There’s no way the story cutscenes that weren’t shown here could have made that make sense. Also, do the cutscenes play every attempt? Are they skippable? I wouldn’t be surprised if you had to sit through them every single time…
When this game was announced I was one of the very first people to jump on it. Yeah it was obviously a Cuphead clone, but to me that just meant Cuphead had inspired its own subgenre. To me that didn’t detract from EP, it elevated CH. I made videos on it for reactions, trailer analysis, covering the Kickstarter, and I even interviewed Xixo themselves twice: once after the announcement and again following up with them after the failed Kickstarter. In fact, those interviews are still the highest viewed on my channel. They genuinely came off as passionate creatives who wanted to build something inspired by what they love. Unfortunately even back then I could tell their inexperience was leading to some poor decisions. When I asked them about what inspired their cool boss ideas they pretty much admitted they were just throwing whatever ideas they liked against the wall to see what sticks, which to me conveyed a lack of thorough planning. I had asked them if they’d promote the interviews, to which they said yes, but when I released said interviews and tagged them in the Twitter post all they did was “like” the tweet. When I asked if they were going to retweet it or promote it at all they responded that liking the tweet *was* their promotion, and while they were willing to (figuratively) sit down and interview with anyone who reached out to them, they weren’t going to actively bring attention to it. I still haven’t the foggiest idea why they made the decision to choose to squash free promotion (i asked why this is and brought up how they would repost fanart, to which they said if they shared one interview or news piece they’d have to share all of them and it would clutter their fans’ feeds with similar information they didn’t think was interesting, but they could pick and choose which fan art they liked). Then this odd mentality expanded soon after the Kickstarter failed and they ceased all social media presence for a long time, total silence. It led me to think that maybe the project had fallen through? Only for them to come out of nowhere and drop the next teaser with the native Americans that *really* wasn’t well received (side note: insensitive as it was, I don’t wholly blame them as they’re from Spain and totally divorced from American history. Not saying they couldn’t have done their research, but it’s more understandable as they didn’t have a relationship with the culture being depicted). After that, total media blackout *again* until, well, just prior to the game’s release. I had hopes for this game. I wanted it to be great. I supported it best I could from day one, but sadly they kept making it harder and harder to support them with baffling decisions. The entire thing reeks of two naive, inexperienced but passionate creatives who just got in over their heads and didn’t know how to do any better. I truly hope Daniel and Gemma take this as a learning experience and don’t get discouraged. I, and many others, want them to be better.
I feel like if they had other style changes during the boss fights like the witch and book, it would be a passable game but, just like the colour change, they put it in the beginning, ignored it, only to bring it back in the end
Gameplay aside, my problem with this game is that unfortunately the artstyle...at least the one present for most of the game...doesn't look as nice when it's computer animations vs hand drawn animation. like the bg just does NOT fit with the sprites in the environment. maybe if they didn't saturate the sprite colors so much it could have looked better? I know they were on a time budget (grant from Epic), but kinda wish we could've seen what this game could have been. I like the concept of a space cow overlord and the chicken mafia, and cerberus being a house pet is neat. Unfortunately everything falls flat once you realize most of the concepts are unfinished, none of said concepts are cohesive with each other, and the levels, the main chunk of the game, are all procedurally generated.
Fr like on the cow boss they didn't utilize the space well AT ALL it looks so empty and the background is very distracting especially considering the attacks DON'T HAVE A SINGLE SOUND CUE or at least noticeable ones and you can barely tell an attack is going to happen The second stage uses the background better, it looks more interesting but everything else is atrocious, there's no audio, no movements, no wind up to show an attack is gonna happen it's actually so bad
I don't know why but this game's main motif like actually infuriates me to no end. I don't think it's very good as a "motif" and kind of felt like somebody came up with it beforehand and just inserted it into every song afterwards. I think I would still be okay with it if they didn't spam it like, every single chance they got. Final boss, main menu and the game over music just... Ughhhh
@@IDontReallyWantATH-camHandleenchanted portals is not just your average turd it's one of those putrid Ransom disgusting turds that sit in a truck stop bathroom for thousands of years till even the flies won't go near it
All they had to do was make the run & gun levels by hand and the game might've been okay. Edit: Also the game is extremely front-loaded, there aren't any unlocks or new gimmicks, just dodging new sprites with different projectiles. The only new thing in the levels is the platforming, which is quite bad, not only due to perspective, but also due to RNG shenanigans. The game just feels like they threw assets from a WIP animation, then built the mechanics around that.
Wow great animation on the crab boss, in the first phase he's barely moving and in the last one he makes grimaces... that's it! Really impressive 😂It doesn't look lazy at all!
Even now I don’t know why they changed the art style for the game thrice. Honestly I’d think the game would be better looking(ish) if it was JUST the art style from the witch’s 2/3rd phases
I kinda really like some of the art? Like the second phase of the witch boss fight is actually really neat looking. The backgrounds don’t quite mesh perfectly with the sprites, but both the sprites and the backgrounds are pretty charming. Art wise, I would give this game a B- . The music is also pretty decent, like the crab boss fight theme is really catchy. Music gets a C . Sound design is awful, sound effects are just crappy stock sounds, and some effects just don’t have sound cues. Sound design gets a D- . Gameplay is downright awful. Definitely Deserving of an F. Overall, this game gets a D. If the devs use their art style to make something truly original, there’s real potential.
This game has a Good Artstyle and some Decent Animation it’s just… Everything f*cking else that’s WRONG! I honestly feel bad because if you watch the trailer for this Game, it had a Really solid idea and Gameplay it just sucks with how the game turned out
Why do the snake and crocodiles from world three look really close to the snake from the jungle book and the crocodiles from Peter pan(?). They look so ridiculously close to the actual disney animations from what I remember that it's genuinely giving me whiplash. Like everything else looks like a flash game and then those two look so Disney to me. I'm not at all saying they're traced but I haven't seen anyone else mention this and I fell like I'm going insane. Is it just me?
Jump control too. This game has fixed-height jump and without the dash your horizontal speed in the air is crap, so the choice is "Do you want to jump 5 feet in the air to leap 2 feet across, or do you want to jump to the goddamn MOON to jump slightly farther?
See the issue is that it's not _bad,_ it's just executed poorly and... well, _boring._ You can't outright hate it, and the fact they're actually listening to the criticism makes a big difference. Of course it's not _original,_ but nothing is truly original. And it's definitely not bad for being on such a budget they couldnt make their own sound effects.
As bad as this game is it's honesty got some charm with its flaws and quite a bit of the difficulty does also come from people being bad at the game (ai generated stages and enemy spam doesn't help in the slightest) but it is a bullet hell so bullet hell bosses do make sense (although this games is still bad don't get me wrong but skill issues are real)
He literally played it on the hardest difficulty and then complains that it's too hard and unfair. Thats really unfair towards the game tbh (that doesn't mean that the game is fair and balanced). But you shouldnt complain about a game being too hard or too easy if you play on the hardest or easiest difficulty . Also there have been multiple times in this video were him losing was partially or mainly due to skill issue. It is still a bad game tho. But just like you, I think it got it's charm. But I think some of the levels are way too long and boring. Also sometimes the hitboxes of some enemies or projectiles are pure cancer.
firstly, it wasnt communicated through the game that Turbo mode was the hardest difficulty, you'd think "insane" would be. second, doesnt matter how hard its set to, if the games fundemental flaws are visible at any difficulty, its a serious issue. No sound queues for important attacks, no i-frames, and a host of other faults make this game insanely hard at any difficulty, it just took even longer for me cause turbo mode
@@obambagaming1467 The thing is, the hardest difficulty wasn’t “hard.” It was unfair. There’s a very significant difference. Of course there was plenty of times where he made a mistake and that’s why he lost. That’s a given in these kinds of games. But the game still needs to uphold its end of things by being designed properly. Like he stated, the lack of sound cues and former lack of invincibility frames combined with the RNG projectile and enemy spam makes it unfair. You’re expected to see everything at once and if you aren’t looking at every centimeter of the screen, you get hit by an attack with no sound warning. Sound cues are very important because a human can only focus on part of the screen at once. They can’t be expected to attack _and_ dodge a hundred projectiles that give no auditory warning, since they need to use their eyes to focus on attacking! An example of a hard but fair game would be Hollow Knight. A boss like Nightmare King Grimm is really hard because of his speed and the perfection you are expected to demonstrate, but it is _fair_ because you know what attack is being used before it’s too late to react and dodge. If you aren’t given time to react and dodge, like with the coil during the octopus fight, it’s inherently unfair. Being unable to dodge an attack due to lack of time to react causes the fight to boil down to luck instead of skill. Hollow Knight has challenges like Steel Soul (hardcore), or upgraded versions of boss fights including no-hit versions. It’s able to get away with this because Hollow Knight is a _fair_ but _difficult_ game. There are a few boss fights that do become unfair during a no-hit challenge due to RNG (oblobbles… god they suck on radiant), but the majority of the boss fights keep RNG to a minimum, which puts a higher emphasis on skill over luck and makes these challenges fair.
Worst part about this game is the no invincibility frames Edit: I got to the part where they explained they patched them in, but still? They really released it with none??
If it had proper music and sound design, a less derivative art style, and deterministic enemy placement and level design, it wouldn't be that bad. EDIT : They already had multiple other art styles they created entire animation sets for, just use one of those art styles and build the game around it, going for the 1930s style just makes the game feel even more like a rip-off, use it for maybe like, one phase, as a reference to Cuphead. The squirrel style looked so damn good, they could've just based it on that.
not even half way through the video, and from seeing the gameplay, it feels like somebody tried to make one of the unfair cat mario games but cuphead. and somehow failed at that too.
I love how he was talking about the colour mechanic getting abandoned after the first level then almost immediately after he had to use it in the bossfight lol
I half wonder how MUCH of a speed boost Turbo Mode is. Because I can't imagine it being significant without the game looking incredibly sluggish. Cause I'll be honest, it doesn't look like the speed would be the problem. The design seems more like the problem honestly. Sure, things going slower would make it easier to react, but if THAT'S what is defining the difficulty, problem becomes more obvious. Sort of the weird thing with "Turbo Modes" in most games, where you have to ask if it's significant enough to make a difference, and when does it become stupid speed wise? Is Turbo mode the speed that feels more natural for the game? Is it borderline unplayable? Turbo mode sets this weird standard of a game playing well at two notably different speeds.
This game doesnt seem very good from a gameplay perspective, but i do like how it looks. It tried to replicate Cuphead's style and failed, sure. But it's still clear that the artists have talent, the game would be gorgeous if they went for more of an early 00s kid's show aesthetic, rather than rubberhose animation. I particularly like the animation on the knight armor enemies, it has a good energy to it
I really like the greaser chicken design, and using the whole 'cows get abducted by aliens' thing as a way to have a creative spin on an alien boss was a pretty neat idea too (even if they really should've had hints throughout the level as to the identity of the mystery leader and not just be 'SUDDENLY COW', though I guess that'd require the levels not being randomly generated lol) and shit, the basic concept of the Cerberus boss was pretty cool too, but honestly they should've just made animations and put them up on TH-cam, that'd probably be more enjoyable than making a game of it.
As much as this game is lacking in so many basic game features, which is honestly it's most major sin even if it is bad in other areas, too, I can say that at least it's a content farm and a learning experience for the creators.
i think people fail to understand the fact that this game did not have the funding, nor the people to make a game as GOOD as cuphead. this game isnt cuphead.
Hey David, I can’t see your streams on your TH-cam page. Do you know why that is? The only way I can find them is by getting them suggested, searching them myself, or seeing them in a playlist
could be wrong about this but the run and guns section of this game, you shouldn’t rush pass every enemy the reason being is all of the enemies you pass don’t deload infact they dogpile with all the other enemies as you rush the level for whatever reason
This game would have been impressive beyond belief if it had been like a game jolt, you have 72 hours to make a game, kind of thing, the and rng level design could have been a fun gimmick like, you never know what's coming!, but sadly, it's not, it's just, not good
The fact that they had the audacity to price this at literally the same price as Cuphead is just insane (Edit: more in some countries)
more actually
At least they didn’t try to make it more, that would’ve been truly shameless
@@estherwinchester2831 it is more.
Its actually more, in some countries even more
Who let them cook
While this game wasnt the best, its still nice that the developpers have made a video describing a lot of really good changes to the game to make it better. They actually listened to criticism and the fact that theyre trying to make their game better proves they actually care about their game. it might not be the best, but i cant bring myself to outright hate this game.
Doesn't Enchanted portals cost the same ammount of money as Cuphead? Enchanted portals is trully the "Cuphead at home" game.
@@rafaelascencao6045In the US, at least. In some countries, Enchanted Portals cost more.
@@rafaelascencao6045Yep, enchanted portals is pretty much the cuphead at home. But, i think enchanted portals is in the "better" ripoffs. And by better, i mean that its better than other ripoffs because it at least had some care put into it and is currently recieving updates that fix the issues people were having with the game, its not like all those other ripoff games that are made in a day for a quick buck in ad recenue that are never touched again after release. Enchanted portals was not just made for money like those other kinds of rippoffs. It is easy to see that the people who made it loved cuphead. While yes, the fact that enchanted portals is the same price as Cuphead shows that it was made for money too though. And when i said the game was better than other ripoffs i am not saying the game is good because we all know that isnt true, at least for now...
That's nice to know
Still tampered the trailer to make it look better than the actual game :/
0:22 For people who arent aware of what he means by RNG, Enemy placement is randomly generated meaning that there are times where you cant dodge certain things due enemy placement being so out of nowhere, a perfect example being here: 5:42
that was caused by the game not having a proper spawning mechanic. there's specific triggers that spawn these sliding guys throughout the level but they spawn at the start and / or the end of it and approach your location so they kind of stack over eachother if you move through the level too quickly .
the level generation is mostly for foes that stay in one place as well as the platforming one
Actually all of the levels are randomly generated by an ai minus the bosses
@@Refferixz it's moreso that the problem is the lack of despawn triggers. the enemies could have distant spawns but never despawn if you run past them, which means you have to take your time to attack them they will chase you endlessly as you move through a straight line with no variation
5:47 The reason the enemies stack like that is because, get this, the linear stages’ enemies are PROCEDURALLY GENERATED. If you progress faster than the game expects you to (in this case, running past enemies instead of killing them), the RNG will start stacking enemies to the point where you may not be able to avoid them at all.
In a game like Cuphead, ESPECIALLY in linear platforming stages, you NEED to ensure there’s enough space accounted for between the level design and enemy placement. This is especially evident in World 2; once platforming comes into play, the levels are made completely unfair by the enemies, projectiles, and platforms spawning in with no formula or level planning, leading to situations where you can’t avoid damage at all.
7:35 A mod getting rid of “She is kinda bad though” had me in stitches
This game didn’t use what made Cuphead fun.
Cuphead allowed you to buy new weapons and use them in boss fights but this didn’t allow you to get new stuff!
yeah not enough variety to give a reason to replay
Other things Cuphead had:
-A map that allowed you to pick and choose which boss you wanted to face next
-Run and gun stages that had actual care put into them and only served to bridge the gap between boss fights instead of being shitty padding to hide the fact there's so few levels
-Good player feedback that let you recover from a hit with some reliability instead of just playing a stock sound effect and giving you half a frame of invulnerability so that you can get hit again immediately after
-Tight controls that let you skillfully dodge attacks and didn't take away most of your options once you're airborne
-Memorable characters including villains that are properly built up throughout the game
-Attacks with coherent pattern which you can get better at dodging without worrying about it being entirely random on the next try
-Consistent hitboxes
-Coherent art styles
-A grading system that encouraged you to replay levels and get better
-An engaging parry mechanic that rewarded you for taking extra risk and hitting enemy bullets
-Fun easter eggs and gimmicks
What this video doesn't share is the absolute pain that was David dying to the final boss and saying "one more" whenever we begged him to stop. Fun times.
“Take Cuphead but remove all the great level design”
Correction: level design has been removed ENTIRELY since every run and gun level layout is AI GENERATED.
and the ai only knows how to make a line and spam crap
@@andrewaftontheandroidhedge2780the ai is Little Timmy
pretty sure procedural and ai are different
@@goom4689 it is
Randomly, not AI. An AI would at least have some criteria to avoid overcrowding an area with the same enemies or adding a whole swath of nothing to a level, which this game can and does have.
They were given a grant or something like that from epic games, but it put them on a deadline they couldn't meet so half the art style was changed, multiple ideas were scrapped. Its honestly so sad bc if u look at the trailer, it had so many cool features they had to scrap
They were literally funded tousands and still poorly rushed the game instead of notify or the unfinish procress , they go and launch it as the same price (even more ) than the original game they copy
@@maffe_distroyer money doesn't magically negate your need to sleep or eat, especially since this game was made by like two people...
I wonder if that why they put in that stupid ai generated levels because they were rushed for time so they just made an ai do the work
@@LunaWillow27 yeah but you know , you use money for funding help??? Cuphead was made by 4 , then funded by Microsoft
Minecraft was a team of 4 until the 1,5
The whole fnaf saga (1-5) was by a only guy
So the excuse ?
@@maffe_distroyerYou know that this game didn't reach the funding goal right?
honestly the first level having a boss with a different artstyle for its 2nd phase was kinda interesting (even if it was quite jarring), im disappointed they didnt iterate on that at all for the rest of the game.
Edit: they did for 2 phases of the final boss rush????
What???
Yeah, I would have loved if each boss switched the entire art style in a unique way. The cow could switch to a cyberpunk aesthetic, the crab could make you into a sort of an almost painted look, the princess would switch you to a whimsical almost chibi look, the chicken would switch art styles instead of just designs switching to like an early color cartoon look and then a steamboat willie vibe, and the final boss rush could remain unchanged, as 2 of the “phases” are just 1 phase bosses.
11:08 David passed the first level so well, he had to say it twice
It’s just such a shame. So much work went into the art and animation, and really- it’s pretty stellar, it looks like a modern day kids’ cartoon, or something you’d find on Netflix, and there’s lots of fun ideas dotted around
From little things like the phone charging in the background of the Space Cow fight, to the second phase of the Witch fight, with the drastic art style shift. That takes a lot of assets and patience. The artists animators did an incredible job, that deserves recognition
The game design and sound design however, completely take away from the entire experience. Not only clearly copying Cuphead’s homework without the intricate tweaking and refining, but the original ideas they had, like the different colour magics, are… boring. And underdeveloped. They just… they feel like they were added into levels out of obligation, since they had the mechanic coded.
It’s such a massive shame, the fate that befell Enchanted Portals
I love how the portal gimmick isn’t used in an interesting way and is instead the excuse for doing random bullshit that makes no logical sense by moving the protagonists around between boss phases instead of having a cohesive and satisfying fight.
Like what in the world was that final boss fight?? Beethoven to modern day Cerberus to the book they’ve been chasing turning evil and then into a tree and then into an anime boy??? There’s no way the story cutscenes that weren’t shown here could have made that make sense.
Also, do the cutscenes play every attempt? Are they skippable? I wouldn’t be surprised if you had to sit through them every single time…
yes every attempt, thankfully you can skip the Cerberus one, but the others u cant
When this game was announced I was one of the very first people to jump on it. Yeah it was obviously a Cuphead clone, but to me that just meant Cuphead had inspired its own subgenre. To me that didn’t detract from EP, it elevated CH. I made videos on it for reactions, trailer analysis, covering the Kickstarter, and I even interviewed Xixo themselves twice: once after the announcement and again following up with them after the failed Kickstarter. In fact, those interviews are still the highest viewed on my channel. They genuinely came off as passionate creatives who wanted to build something inspired by what they love.
Unfortunately even back then I could tell their inexperience was leading to some poor decisions. When I asked them about what inspired their cool boss ideas they pretty much admitted they were just throwing whatever ideas they liked against the wall to see what sticks, which to me conveyed a lack of thorough planning. I had asked them if they’d promote the interviews, to which they said yes, but when I released said interviews and tagged them in the Twitter post all they did was “like” the tweet. When I asked if they were going to retweet it or promote it at all they responded that liking the tweet *was* their promotion, and while they were willing to (figuratively) sit down and interview with anyone who reached out to them, they weren’t going to actively bring attention to it. I still haven’t the foggiest idea why they made the decision to choose to squash free promotion (i asked why this is and brought up how they would repost fanart, to which they said if they shared one interview or news piece they’d have to share all of them and it would clutter their fans’ feeds with similar information they didn’t think was interesting, but they could pick and choose which fan art they liked). Then this odd mentality expanded soon after the Kickstarter failed and they ceased all social media presence for a long time, total silence. It led me to think that maybe the project had fallen through? Only for them to come out of nowhere and drop the next teaser with the native Americans that *really* wasn’t well received (side note: insensitive as it was, I don’t wholly blame them as they’re from Spain and totally divorced from American history. Not saying they couldn’t have done their research, but it’s more understandable as they didn’t have a relationship with the culture being depicted). After that, total media blackout *again* until, well, just prior to the game’s release.
I had hopes for this game. I wanted it to be great. I supported it best I could from day one, but sadly they kept making it harder and harder to support them with baffling decisions. The entire thing reeks of two naive, inexperienced but passionate creatives who just got in over their heads and didn’t know how to do any better. I truly hope Daniel and Gemma take this as a learning experience and don’t get discouraged. I, and many others, want them to be better.
"We have cuphead at home"
Cuphead at home:
i feel like they hired like 3 different artists for this game and told them nothing but "kinda like cuphead" and thats why the artstyle is so jank
Only two people worked on this game
I feel like if they had other style changes during the boss fights like the witch and book, it would be a passable game but, just like the colour change, they put it in the beginning, ignored it, only to bring it back in the end
Gameplay aside, my problem with this game is that unfortunately the artstyle...at least the one present for most of the game...doesn't look as nice when it's computer animations vs hand drawn animation. like the bg just does NOT fit with the sprites in the environment. maybe if they didn't saturate the sprite colors so much it could have looked better? I know they were on a time budget (grant from Epic), but kinda wish we could've seen what this game could have been. I like the concept of a space cow overlord and the chicken mafia, and cerberus being a house pet is neat. Unfortunately everything falls flat once you realize most of the concepts are unfinished, none of said concepts are cohesive with each other, and the levels, the main chunk of the game, are all procedurally generated.
Fr like on the cow boss they didn't utilize the space well AT ALL it looks so empty and the background is very distracting especially considering the attacks DON'T HAVE A SINGLE SOUND CUE or at least noticeable ones and you can barely tell an attack is going to happen
The second stage uses the background better, it looks more interesting but everything else is atrocious, there's no audio, no movements, no wind up to show an attack is gonna happen it's actually so bad
After playing or seeing this game a bit, the game over jingle is gonna get digged in to your brain.
Edit: Meant ame ove
I don't know why but this game's main motif like actually infuriates me to no end. I don't think it's very good as a "motif" and kind of felt like somebody came up with it beforehand and just inserted it into every song afterwards. I think I would still be okay with it if they didn't spam it like, every single chance they got. Final boss, main menu and the game over music just... Ughhhh
@@IDontReallyWantATH-camHandleenchanted portals is not just your average turd it's one of those putrid Ransom disgusting turds that sit in a truck stop bathroom for thousands of years till even the flies won't go near it
So glad that David made a video on this absolutely PEAK game. 🔥🔥🔥🔥
yeah "peak"
@@DavidBaronYT this game the game of the millennium!!!11!! 💯 🔥
@@DavidBaronYT bestest game ever 😎😎
Can’t wait for the massive Lost Bits video gonna get made for this game
If I was tetrabit I wouldn't even try
All they had to do was make the run & gun levels by hand and the game might've been okay.
Edit: Also the game is extremely front-loaded, there aren't any unlocks or new gimmicks, just dodging new sprites with different projectiles. The only new thing in the levels is the platforming, which is quite bad, not only due to perspective, but also due to RNG shenanigans. The game just feels like they threw assets from a WIP animation, then built the mechanics around that.
Wow great animation on the crab boss, in the first phase he's barely moving and in the last one he makes grimaces... that's it! Really impressive 😂It doesn't look lazy at all!
The animations doesn't look properly worked on, but the character design is interesting if it was.. say, in a RPG.
We're making it outta the completely soundless room with this one 🔥🔥🔥🔥
13:56 now. Can't wait till he realizes the levels are AI generated and not actually consistent.
*proceduraly generated
Why even have the majority of enemies unkillable???
I laugh my a$$ off after seeing uhyeah video on it and after I saw the description lol
Even now I don’t know why they changed the art style for the game thrice. Honestly I’d think the game would be better looking(ish) if it was JUST the art style from the witch’s 2/3rd phases
Insane mode is actually harder since you have only 1 health for everything, so it's impossible almost.
17:50 Im pretty sure this is a play on the whole "aliens controlling cows" thing. Instead its the cow controlling the aliens.
When i watched this game i thought that it was sooo bad, then i replayed Cuphead and......it got even worse😂
I kinda really like some of the art? Like the second phase of the witch boss fight is actually really neat looking. The backgrounds don’t quite mesh perfectly with the sprites, but both the sprites and the backgrounds are pretty charming. Art wise, I would give this game a B- . The music is also pretty decent, like the crab boss fight theme is really catchy. Music gets a C . Sound design is awful, sound effects are just crappy stock sounds, and some effects just don’t have sound cues. Sound design gets a D- . Gameplay is downright awful. Definitely Deserving of an F. Overall, this game gets a D. If the devs use their art style to make something truly original, there’s real potential.
This game has a Good Artstyle and some Decent Animation it’s just… Everything f*cking else that’s WRONG!
I honestly feel bad because if you watch the trailer for this Game, it had a Really solid idea and Gameplay it just sucks with how the game turned out
Why do the snake and crocodiles from world three look really close to the snake from the jungle book and the crocodiles from Peter pan(?). They look so ridiculously close to the actual disney animations from what I remember that it's genuinely giving me whiplash. Like everything else looks like a flash game and then those two look so Disney to me. I'm not at all saying they're traced but I haven't seen anyone else mention this and I fell like I'm going insane. Is it just me?
Invincibility frames would make this game more tolerable
Jump control too. This game has fixed-height jump and without the dash your horizontal speed in the air is crap, so the choice is "Do you want to jump 5 feet in the air to leap 2 feet across, or do you want to jump to the goddamn MOON to jump slightly farther?
I wonder if someone could actually no hit the entire game that would probably ruin someones mental health but still.
See the issue is that it's not _bad,_ it's just executed poorly and... well, _boring._ You can't outright hate it, and the fact they're actually listening to the criticism makes a big difference. Of course it's not _original,_ but nothing is truly original. And it's definitely not bad for being on such a budget they couldnt make their own sound effects.
They were funded by epic, it’s called laziness
@@DavidBaronYT They still need the money to eat, drink and keep their homes tho-
it’s actually such a shame that this good concept was done poorly, if they took more time to make the game better it could’ve been alright
33:50 best headcam placement ever
As bad as this game is it's honesty got some charm with its flaws and quite a bit of the difficulty does also come from people being bad at the game (ai generated stages and enemy spam doesn't help in the slightest) but it is a bullet hell so bullet hell bosses do make sense (although this games is still bad don't get me wrong but skill issues are real)
He literally played it on the hardest difficulty and then complains that it's too hard and unfair.
Thats really unfair towards the game tbh (that doesn't mean that the game is fair and balanced).
But you shouldnt complain about a game being too hard or too easy if you play on the hardest or easiest difficulty .
Also there have been multiple times in this video were him losing was partially or mainly due to skill issue.
It is still a bad game tho.
But just like you, I think it got it's charm.
But I think some of the levels are way too long and boring.
Also sometimes the hitboxes of some enemies or projectiles are pure cancer.
firstly, it wasnt communicated through the game that Turbo mode was the hardest difficulty, you'd think "insane" would be.
second, doesnt matter how hard its set to, if the games fundemental flaws are visible at any difficulty, its a serious issue. No sound queues for important attacks, no i-frames, and a host of other faults make this game insanely hard at any difficulty, it just took even longer for me cause turbo mode
@@obambagaming1467 The thing is, the hardest difficulty wasn’t “hard.” It was unfair. There’s a very significant difference.
Of course there was plenty of times where he made a mistake and that’s why he lost. That’s a given in these kinds of games. But the game still needs to uphold its end of things by being designed properly.
Like he stated, the lack of sound cues and former lack of invincibility frames combined with the RNG projectile and enemy spam makes it unfair. You’re expected to see everything at once and if you aren’t looking at every centimeter of the screen, you get hit by an attack with no sound warning. Sound cues are very important because a human can only focus on part of the screen at once. They can’t be expected to attack _and_ dodge a hundred projectiles that give no auditory warning, since they need to use their eyes to focus on attacking!
An example of a hard but fair game would be Hollow Knight. A boss like Nightmare King Grimm is really hard because of his speed and the perfection you are expected to demonstrate, but it is _fair_ because you know what attack is being used before it’s too late to react and dodge.
If you aren’t given time to react and dodge, like with the coil during the octopus fight, it’s inherently unfair. Being unable to dodge an attack due to lack of time to react causes the fight to boil down to luck instead of skill.
Hollow Knight has challenges like Steel Soul (hardcore), or upgraded versions of boss fights including no-hit versions. It’s able to get away with this because Hollow Knight is a _fair_ but _difficult_ game. There are a few boss fights that do become unfair during a no-hit challenge due to RNG (oblobbles… god they suck on radiant), but the majority of the boss fights keep RNG to a minimum, which puts a higher emphasis on skill over luck and makes these challenges fair.
Worst part about this game is the no invincibility frames
Edit: I got to the part where they explained they patched them in, but still? They really released it with none??
This pre-alpha demo has potential
If it had proper music and sound design, a less derivative art style, and deterministic enemy placement and level design, it wouldn't be that bad.
EDIT : They already had multiple other art styles they created entire animation sets for, just use one of those art styles and build the game around it, going for the 1930s style just makes the game feel even more like a rip-off, use it for maybe like, one phase, as a reference to Cuphead. The squirrel style looked so damn good, they could've just based it on that.
Why did i make myself watch this? This was the LEAST fun video i saw this week because of how bad this game is.
Same, and I was there for part of the stream.
“I want Cuphead at home”
“We have ‘Cuphead at home’ at home”
‘Cuphead at home’ at home:
Epic has to have forced that price point on them considering the signs they actually cared at some point
not even half way through the video, and from seeing the gameplay, it feels like somebody tried to make one of the unfair cat mario games but cuphead. and somehow failed at that too.
I love how he was talking about the colour mechanic getting abandoned after the first level then almost immediately after he had to use it in the bossfight lol
This literally feels like a Scratch game
Man. Not only is it a rip-off of Cuphead, but it's also a terrible game in general. It didn't even bother making its own sound effects
i'm over here enchanting my portals i got magic in my portals
I watched another youtuber play this and at the end he said "I need to get ge a refund from steam" that is how bad this game is
its awful
@@DavidBaronYT I know it is a doller tree rip off but the people who made the game did their best so I will give them that
"Sound design is my passion"
I half wonder how MUCH of a speed boost Turbo Mode is. Because I can't imagine it being significant without the game looking incredibly sluggish. Cause I'll be honest, it doesn't look like the speed would be the problem. The design seems more like the problem honestly. Sure, things going slower would make it easier to react, but if THAT'S what is defining the difficulty, problem becomes more obvious. Sort of the weird thing with "Turbo Modes" in most games, where you have to ask if it's significant enough to make a difference, and when does it become stupid speed wise? Is Turbo mode the speed that feels more natural for the game? Is it borderline unplayable? Turbo mode sets this weird standard of a game playing well at two notably different speeds.
32:40 in this boss fight it looks like David is the pretty princess since his cam is on her face XD
I was here for parts of these streams, that anime boy at the end is just weird 💀
This game doesnt seem very good from a gameplay perspective, but i do like how it looks. It tried to replicate Cuphead's style and failed, sure. But it's still clear that the artists have talent, the game would be gorgeous if they went for more of an early 00s kid's show aesthetic, rather than rubberhose animation. I particularly like the animation on the knight armor enemies, it has a good energy to it
I really like the greaser chicken design, and using the whole 'cows get abducted by aliens' thing as a way to have a creative spin on an alien boss was a pretty neat idea too (even if they really should've had hints throughout the level as to the identity of the mystery leader and not just be 'SUDDENLY COW', though I guess that'd require the levels not being randomly generated lol) and shit, the basic concept of the Cerberus boss was pretty cool too, but honestly they should've just made animations and put them up on TH-cam, that'd probably be more enjoyable than making a game of it.
david baron plays enchanted PEAKals
time to watch the entire video
9:01 Look Gary! There I am.
(Real deal vs great value)
this game is what cuphead could have been 😥
Enchanted portals>cuphead
if only
As much as this game is lacking in so many basic game features, which is honestly it's most major sin even if it is bad in other areas, too, I can say that at least it's a content farm and a learning experience for the creators.
I couldnt even play for more than 1 hour. Such a shame cus I nevet forgot about it after it was announced :c
The Game desperte needs sound effects for the attacks.
I was watching the stream during World 2. I didn’t even comment.
I just watched the chaos unfold.
it literally looks like a game youd play on an unblocked website on the school chromebook
this game feels like a mobile game
Why can't David play Post Shift 2? Is the current or pre-patch version not available anywhere online anymore?
31:38 my 23rd birthday what they're talking about came out haha
i think people fail to understand the fact that this game did not have the funding, nor the people to make a game as GOOD as cuphead. this game isnt cuphead.
cuphead was literally made by 2 ppl tf u on about
@@DavidBaronYTwasnt it like heavily funded by microsoft or summ
@@DavidBaronYTalso i thought multiple people made the art wow
it was an undisclosed amount, and enchanted portals got their own funding from Epic Games anyways, so its a very even situation
@@DavidBaronYTwait epic games? like fortnite. yeah no wonder this game sucks jesus
Hey David, I can’t see your streams on your TH-cam page. Do you know why that is?
The only way I can find them is by getting them suggested, searching them myself, or seeing them in a playlist
13:40 imagine watching this while listening to DuckTales's moon theme.
6:58 had me DYING.
at least the art style and character designs are pretty cute
“It is not unfair.”
it is not unfair
Let's go, release watch!
could be wrong about this but the run and guns section of this game, you shouldn’t rush pass every enemy the reason being is all of the enemies you pass don’t deload
infact they dogpile with all the other enemies as you rush the level for whatever reason
Me when David enchanted portal
enchanted pissholes
@@DavidBaronYTgame of the year
they didn't play tested this
Is your friend's avatar the dog detective from the movie Food Fight?
I'm sorry, but "2D Coraline" is the most Zoomer thing I heard all week
It just came out on Switch now. How did this happen?!
What if I turn Cuphead into Enchanted Portals hmmm
Magic Portals speedrun stream when?
if you were considering playing this just get the cuphead dlc
This game over killed me 24:07
This game reminds me of Freddy in Space for then Cuphead
11:07 now that we've passed the first level?
The backgrounds are sometimes nice but that’s really it
3:26 hey thats me!
Bro is playing like an IGN Reviewer
Enchanted Peak more like
11:08 EDITTING MISTAKE (now that we passed the first level) (now that we passed the first level)
Why is the frog princess and the witch so ho-
6 world is just like delirium from tboi: unfair, random and broken
why cant david play post shift two?
PC issues I think?
30:59 Ay it’s me! 😀👍
This game would have been impressive beyond belief if it had been like a game jolt, you have 72 hours to make a game, kind of thing, the and rng level design could have been a fun gimmick like, you never know what's coming!, but sadly, it's not, it's just, not good
Average fan game balancing