My favorite Rain World experience is when I literally walked into a full scale war between a tribe of scavengers and a group of lizards and vultures. I helped the scavengers kill the threat and they followed me and helped me get farther into the area, which was the industrial complex. Things like this really heighten the already amazing experience of playing Rain World.
For me whenever I help scavs kill ANYTHING that thretnes them they hunt me down for no reason even though they my global reputation was high and I have not speared one of em This gives me a deep bias against scavs sadly
1:03:07 You can actually tell if it's a death pit. Death pits have darker colors at the bottom of the screen. It's subtle but not impossible to discern.
Yes unless you're in chimmney cannopy where the jump brings you down a screen with nothing but walls as you slowly slide down into a now in view death pit.
I was trying to get batflies and one flew into the nest. A scavenger was next to me and it reached into the nest, grabbed the batfly, and handed it to me. Had no idea they could/would do that.
It's become one of my favorite games too over the past couple months. Exploring Pebbles and seeing the ending for the first time were especially mind blowing, even if I had no idea what was happening at the time. I think the game captures the spirit of what made super metroid so great: mysterious, connected environments that sometimes don't even have any enemies around to deal with. It lets you just explore and take in the world at your own pace (until you realize the rain is coming, at least). Also agreed on the death pits: the light gray at the bottom of screen can be really hard to notice. But even without that, the placement of some of the pits makes no sense when there's solid ground on the screen right below you.
My guess on illogical pit placement is that VC started designing creature AI and movement and other stuff around pipe transitions exclusively very early on, and didn't find it necessary to add a new type of room connections. Also, a very few rooms actually suffer from it. Right now I only recall Shoreline Tower and that room on bottom-east of Sky Island to have those unexplainable death falls, most vertically oriented spaces are aligned and separated properly.
Rain World is a piece of art that stabs, shoots, and backhands you for admiring it. If you can take that taste the pain this game deals to you, definitely consider checking it out.
I think my favorite Rain World experience was when I first killed a king vulture. I was so hyped I told everyone, even the people that didn’t know about the game. That level of genuine excitement is hard to feel in games nowadays (even in some old games).
4:35 LMAO iggy literally says “STOP MOVING AROUND” Big sis moon does the same thing, if you jump around after returning to her while she’s talking, she goes “can you PLEASE stop jumping around for a minute”
Maybe if Mandalore or Sseth review it. Their playerbase would love this game. I see no other big audience reviewer giving this game a fair chance. Truth is, the first 10 hours of this game are frustrating as hell. Until you learn that the controls aren't janky. You need to time jumps and slides. Learn to roll, climb and swim without mindless button mashing, assess danger in a room before progressing and how long/short your current cycle is before travelling between zones. Most players either get lost or frustrated. They don't go past Industrial or worse go through Drainage which is the hardest level BY FAR (swiming past the cisterns for a new player is next to impossible because Shoreline is where the game teaches you the "flow" of swimming). Outskirts-Drainage should've been closed off until being attuned with Moon or FP or doing a second playthrough. It's a shame because anyone who manages to reach Looks-to-the-Moon is probably sold on how amazing this game really is. Much like Dark Souls with the Bells of Awakening or Stalker with reaching the Bar in Rostok. Other indies like Darkwood or Exanima also do this. If you beat their respective first zones you're gonna love them. It's just that people get filtered before reaching there. Rain World is not hard. Much like nature it's merciless. One mistake will cost you your life. In this game you can feel when death is coming. Jump into a pool of leeches, fail to notice something shining on a level connector or in the ceiling, fuck around weaponless with a lizard, running outside when there's a shadow overhead or battle music is still around, trying to skip a scavenger checkpoint.
what a well made video, i actually felt like i was watching some national geographic documentary! cant wait to see more content from you! just finished the game a couple of days ago, definitely one of my all time favorites and im not even done with it
I’m 100% sure that what this reviewer says they went through is impossible and that they are straight lying for the shock value. Cycles can last for an absolute maximum of around 16 minutes. There is absolutely no way that they could’ve lost hours of progress, because they HAVE to find a new shelter or reach their old one. Complete bullshit.
@@aarepelaa1142 That implies game reviewers are actually willing to play through the game long enough to reach five pebbles in the first place, instead of just giving up and whining about how they weren't hand-held to victory after dying to a noodlefly twenty minutes into the game.
layouts are so carefully constructed it really sells its world. There is a good amount of unique art and visual flare that makes exploration an incentive in its own right. There was a single artist/system coder and a single level designer, both made an amazing job making sure assets and systems were deep, modular and varied enough, then making good use of all the features, although systems are so deep that it is imposible to communicate them to the player without wild experimentation, in this sense the broad modding community really fill the gaps.
Dude your soothing and intelligent narration combined with the long stretches of ambient gameplay really made this video a beautiful experience. (And also funny, which is just icing on an already delicious cake.)
"there is no way to discern from a safe or unsafe fall" that actually isn't true! you can tell which falls are death pits based on whether or not there's a black fade at the bottom of the screen. at 1:03:04, you can see the screen has a slight black fade at the bottom, indicating a death pit. it's a very minute detail though, so newer players wouldn't recognize them as easily as an experienced or veteran player. another way to recognize a death pit from a regular fall is if there's an actual way to get down there other than taking a pipe. if there's no poles or vents leading downward, then it's most likely a death pit. in rooms such as the one at 1:03:13, you can see poles and vents that would bring you downward, and no black fade. falling is still death though, there's no floor at the bottom of this room. SLIGHT ENDGAME SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT! one outlier is the pitfall right before the entrance to the depths, there's no vents, pipes, or poles leading downward, however it isn't a death pit. it's just a long fall, but the fall damage does insta kill you because it's such a long fall. you have to cling to the side of the pit to make it down safely.
Some scavengers have other tendencies aswell, some might be more brave than others, being less likely to free themselves from predators as if sacrificing itself for the tribe. While others are more cowardly, literally jumping when something spooks it and always freeing itself from a predators grasp, the ones with larger mask/horns take lead, and always try to be the one in charge while the one with smaller mask/horns will follow stronger scavengers without question.
I'm one of the "lucky" few who *beat* the game before the updates. To this day I am filled with leftover spite, it poisoned my very soul. Later, just two small changes made it into a genuinely palatable experience. I still cannot recommend it to anyone whom I do not hate, but thankfully I hate all of you. Go play this game.
it amazes me how radically different my playthrough turned out to be to yours, I felt like the directions I was getting form the helper were very inconsistent so I just ended up going wherever I felt which made me end up all the way down in subterranean (coming from shoreline) before I ever got to looks to the moon, got stuck there and gave up. After a restart and second try years later I finally ended up in the correct route to looks to the moon but then I ended down in filtration system and even got to the depths before I ever visited five pebbles. Btw do you see the very bright shine slugcat has in this video's subterranean section? I DID NOT HAVE THAT you unlock that on five pebbles so to navigate the filtration system I spammed the map button 24/7 to see corners and paths. Now frustrated as the depths had a very "this should be the end of the game" look I tried looking online where I should actually go trying not to spoil myself and after giving a brief skim I got that I was supposed to go to five pebbles which was in a more or less "top right" general direction, this made me go through a gruelingly hard route which was [filtration system (start) > drainage system > garbage wastes > shoreline > shaded citadel > memory crypts > the leg > the exterior > climb all the way up to the wall > five pebbles > recursive arrays > the exterior > chimney canopy > industrial complex > garbage wastes > drainage system > filtration system > the depths] Unlike the playthrough in this video not only I got to five pebbles through the wall and never even touched farm arrays but also looped and zipped around the map so many times I was on the brink of giving up more than once. When I reached the end of the game I had clocked in exactly 100 hours and 114 cycles on my second try. This was easily my hardest videogame experience that I've ever had but also the most immersive, as it's apparent from my route I have a very poor sense of direction and get a bit too distracted by deviating into other paths but this was because I went repeatedly with the mentality of "well there's no way I'm deviating too much right? This is an indie game, I doubt the map is that big" man oh man how much I suffered because of that. Despite (or maybe because) all of this now rain world is my favorite game of all time and I definitely resonate with the final sentiment of this video that art is greater than the sum of its parts, I really can't describe how much I love and am constantly fascinated by this game.
@@AC-qu9ng oh yeah that almost happened to me. That bad ending idea seems like it would actually benefit the game but I do think the confusion it gives you is part of the game's identity.
karma gates are such an important inclusion despite the fact that a lot of people hate them. like you said it’s there as a skill check, but along the way they also force you to actually participate in a location’s ecosystem for a few cycles instead of just running through it. some of my most immersive moments with this game were cycles where i did nothing but venture out, find some food, and return home, and there would be no need for that kind of gameplay without karma gates.
I'd like to hazard a guess at why the exterior has such a nonsensical food web. It's because the Daddy Long Legs are an invasive species - they cannot be killed (except by a well placed explosive), are ravenous, tumor-like creatures, and have probably absorbed what rich life previously existed. Only the Dropwigs and White Lizards - both of which are stealth-oriented creatures - remain, as well as the grapple worms, which also make very little noise and probably fail to attract DLL attention.
Counterpoint: orange lizards Also grapple lizards make a lot of noise that you can hear yet which the DLLs cannot. Odd but the exterior is probably the most "videogamey" of regions.
@@Zorro9129 Solid points! The orange lizards set up their living spaces in contained, spherical "homes" tho which are almost impossible for a DLL to enter and are usually out of the way of them anyway. And honestly so do grapple worms, usually. And i'm reaching a bit, but the noise they make might sound like the noise DLLs themselves make when locomoting, which could fly under the radar. I'm aware that this is all an attempt to justify what is very clearly a game balance decision, but the ecosystem this game has constructed deserves it.
Oh so thats what the random moon girl was about.. Yea on my first playthrough I was so confused by it that I ended up trying to do everything I could in the room and you can probably guess where that leads. A lot of stick throwing and eating her bugs. No wonder I was so confused about everything when my first reaction to things was ooga booga caveman throw spear.
I'm looking forward to the DLC Downpour, but I do think the original game seems much more focused on aesthetic and feeling while the DLC is more of a fun exploration of mechanics and lore. Which is totally cool, but it's a separate artistic experience.
I dunno, the DLC having 10 new regions (the original game has 12) and 5 new stories with 5 new playable slug cats seems like plenty of room for new feelings and aesthetics
You're not alone in the fascination of this. In category of gaming, Rain World is perhaps the most beautiful and simple expression and made in parallell to one's (our) own existence and struggles. Simple in expression, complex in execution. Hated and also loved. It is a thing you have to live through to know it. That being but one expression of it of many. All will eventually and inevitably go through it in this place. And much in the tune of it, "so it is."
Game reviewers like the ones at IGN are 9-5 zombies (like most of us) if you truly have passion & skill & the brain to put it together, you make art like this game is, and this video about this game is. Thank you creator!
Rain World in one of the best videogame I ever played in my entire life. It's not even a videogame, it's an experience to live. Eternal respect for the devellopers. Thank you for this guided tour that reminds me lots of memories.
What's also cool that I hadn't noticed until a few playthroughs later is if you jump into the water after running around and jumping, the time you're able to hold your breath is shorter, since his heart is beating faster and using up more oxygen. However, if you stand still, and wait for his breathing to calm until he's not bobbing up and down, you can hold your breath for several seconds longer.
I would argue that the exterior doesn't really need a food chain, especially when looking into the lore. Daddy Long Legs are a rot that intends to eat anything and everything, and given that they have found their way out into the exterior and made a home of it, the food chain is likely entirely destroyed with some creatures extinct now. There is a more present food chain in hunter too, with spitter spiders populating the place instead of daddly long legs, which adds a more present food chain as the lizards and spiders commonly fight and kill one another
Since we're on the subject of the rot and extinction, I'll share a theory. I think the hunter is the earliest slugcat in the timeline, so all these apex predators exclusive to them have died out, possibly eaten by the rot or just lost to time. We can tell they're the earliest because 1) there's less rot for the hunter compared to the other slugcats, which breaks the trend of hunter always having more predators, meaning this is for lore. 2) The monk actually has more rot than the survivor, which breaks the trend of monk always having less predators, so rot quantity is now definitely for lore. 3) All the colorful data pearls are busted for the monk, possibly broken by rain cycles or data loss, which is further evidence the monk is the last slugcat in the timeline, which is further evidence that rot population grows over time.
@@KingMako30 the hunter exclusive species can be encountered in survivor through the lineage system, so they can't be completely dead. but they are probably being fizzled out by the harsh world that the iterators created.
@@KingMako30 it's confirmed already that it's hunter -> surv -> monk the only thing now is there are more slugcats coming in dlc, and iirc spearmaster is the earliest and saint is the last
1:02:46 - Static screens are indeed a result of technical limitations. Creature AIs are complex and lots of stuff is physically rendered at any given time, and all levels are pre-rendered for the sake of performance.
Rain World has been one of my top favorite games for several years now. The controls are a bit difficult to learn at first, especially the complex ones but otherwise it’s a very beautiful game. The AI can be a bit tricky but I love that they integrated sight and sound to many of the creatures in this wonderful game. It truly makes the world feel alive in my opinion. Hands down, I would totally recommend this to my friends as this game is generally very interactive and throws you into an environment you can literally get lost in. The soundtrack is also very well made. The diversity of music fits this game extremely well.
I couldn't figure out how to get a light source the first time I was in there. I could grab one of the cute glowy things but they kept escaping. So I ended up running though the whole thing very quickly. Didn't find out about the spiders till later.
Same! Honestly can't stand shaded citadel with out a light source. Such a brutal zone, definitely gonna go through garbage wastes to shoreline instead next time
man the parts in subterranean with the light shining through look like you were playing minecraft then a shader suddenly enabled itself while you were playing
I finally reached Five Pebble's core... This is the most affecting moment in my gaming life and one of the best experiences in my life. Games can be art when artists want to make games. Artists make art, regardless of the medium. Rain World is proof of that.
It's been a while and four days ago I finally started playing Rain World. Now after 27 hours in this wonderful world I can finally say the experience has been worth every second and every cent. This game is one of a kind. What a beautiful ride.
A great video for a great game.... Thank you for making such a wonderful tribute to a game that doesn't often get much praise (at least from big reviewers).
Well done, this is a majestic presentation I was very immersed with your documentary of the game and I like that you put clips of gameplay without saying a word and just letting the game speak for itself
"This risks alienating some casual players, like professional game reviewers" Now c'mon, don't bundle them all up in the same bag! Casual gamers can still jump over a gap. On a side note, I already knew the artwork here for the backgrounds was phenomenal... but then I saw you ascending the upper parts of the Wall, and how the girders aren't seen totally from the side, but slightly from above, giving them depth, making it feel you're climbing and looking at them from above as well... You can also see the clouds beneath you, showing that here, you're not at risk of dying from the rain. With the city on top of Five Pebbles' complex, as well as the fact that the Shaded Citadel is located directly beneath it, and a lore pearl or two, it seems the rains were already a think with these Ancients, a direct consequence of the building of the iterators. They built the cities on top of the iterators' complexes in order to escape from these rains, which were probably only getting worse. It's fascinating tho, on how we're only seeing a tiny fraction of the world. Just a fraction. The rest of the world might be in an even worse state. Have more dangerous, demented creatures...
I totally agree! It’s very cool to think of the evolution and creatures in the other local communities. Also, imagine all the biomes in them! Really excited for the DLC.
I think the moment I remember best from rain world is when you finally emerge from five pebbles and go across the top of the wall. something about that background and the sheer scope of it sticks with me. that was the moment that made me say "why the hell didn't anyone tell me about rain world?" masterful game
Going back to that moment, I find it interesting that the "faces" (?) of the ancient beings in these murals were scratched off. Like, they are already quite alien and almost abstract in their looks, I don't think seeing their faces would've made them look any more familiar... ...unless...
I can't play this because I just don't have the manual dexterity for this kinda game, so this was a wonderful way to get a good look at it, thank you for the great vid! I especially appreciate allowing it to have long parts with no talking, to just absorb the atmosphere of the game between getting information about it.
After hearing a bit about this game (very late after its release), I was looking for exactly this kind of video and I'm so happy to have found it. I don't have the time to delve into any games right now. While I know that it is impossible to experience the feeling of a game without playing it, I wanted to experience what I could without watching a full multi-hour speed run or lets play. The short 10-30 minute reviews I found just didn't seem to capture the atmosphere of the game. Thank you for making this video. Your guided tour through this world was a treat.
It's so crazy that my playthrough was completely backwards to yours, I don't know how but I went to five pebbles first and then the moon later. I kinda want to replay the game agan just to see what happens with the knowledge I have. Great video btw, I like how the style of the video matches the game
What a lot of people who complain about the game being unfair or too difficult miss is that it's _supposed_ to be that way. The world is harsh, unforgiving and a cutthroat battle to survive. Sometimes it's kill or be killed. Other times, it's about weighing your options, taking risks and either reaping the rewards or being punished for the risk. It's all a very clever parallel to real life ecosystems and animals we share this planet with. Their lives are all about unfairness, risk, reward and ultimately, survival through experience, or luck in some cases.. Rain World is more of an experience than a normal, balanced game. It's a living, breathing ecosystem, and it works _very_ hard to put you in the role of a Slugcat. (Successfully, might I add.)
@r33mote tf are you talking about dude? lmao, Do what you want, im just saying weird and alien creatures are just as cool as real ones. Other than that feel how you wanna feel.
@r33mote I can't tell if you're being serious or you're just a really bad troll, but I'm leaning into you being a troll since you're complaining about someone doing the exact same thing you did in your first comment. At the same time, after looking through your community posts you just seem like a really shitty person who nobody likes. Either way, I'm sorry that being an asshole is the only way for you to feel anything other than emptiness.
While I haven't played Rain World yet (only found out about it from Skurry), I can definitely say this video is a masterpiece. It's amazingly edited, the story explanations, gameplay clips and gameplay mechanic explanations all balance each other very well, and the narration is great. Sub for me, this is the kind of content that I love
WAIT SO YOURE TELLING ME I DIDNT HAVE TO SPEND 5 DAYS TRYING TO PASS (Unfortunate developments) frick off I almost dumped the game bc of that part and you got to dance around high voltage with plenty of food to eat... not fair
For anyone wanting to re experience not knowing where anything is, get the badlands region mod. It's the only custom region that I thought was on par with the game's quality.
I like how scavenger emotions are conveyed in a way just human enough that you can tell if they're displaying negative or positive emotions, but also unique and alien enough that you need to study them to figure out what specific emotions they're conveying. I still kind of struggle with them sometimes, but I've interacted with them enough that I can figure out most of what they're telling me by looking at them. I mostly struggle to tell when they're just trying to greet me, or asking me to give them something. It's sometimes hard to tell when they're doing the "Look! A friend!" point and the "Look! Your spear! Gimme!" point lol
Coming back to this, I was reminded by how this game looked so similarly with Carrion, but then it hits me: Immersive worldbuilding. Same reason why I got hooked into Carrion and also Rain World. Have purchased it but never played it yet, this game deserved to be played on chill time. A moment best enjoyed at night, together with a cup of coffee.
I'm really happy to see the comment section still going. I love this game so much. People are sleeping on this just because its hard. I wish people will warm up to it..
Sigh... let me tell you about my experience playing rainworld so far. So I started in OUtskirts (of course), and quickly made it to Industrial Complex. From there I headed to shaded citadel and befriended a lizard (who is still hanging out there). Next I made it to Shoreline, and after a harrowing experience finally made it to Subterranean. This is where things started to get out of hand. For a couple of long tedious hours I tried to reach the end of subterranean, in the direction of Farm Arrays, although I didn't even know they were there by that point. Realizing that I was at a dead end I proceeded to use one of may passages to transport me back all the way to Industrial complex. By this time I had a slightly better idea of what I was trying to accomplish, so I was trying to look for the echo Seven Spades. So I traveled to Chimney Canopy. I would never be the same again. Getting all the way to Subterranean just to head all the way back near the beginning had been demoralizing enough, but nothing would compare to torturous experiences up on chimney canopy. Up to this point I had a written record of all my deaths, but once I began to die again, and again, and again, and again, and again (do you understand my pain here?), I gave up. In one day of playing on Chimney Canopy my death count nearly doubled, and I realized that keeping track of my deaths was about as pointless as keeping track of every time I ate. Now that I wasn't keeping track of my deaths I had a lot less to lose. SO I became enraged. I threw all previous caution to the wind and ran around with a spear killing every living thing I could. I continued to die, but I was fine with that as long as I took a few goddamned lizards down with me. Join me in the cycle! But it was through this less conservative playstyle that I was reborn. I was no longer TheHatManCole, a scared gamer navigating a dangerous unknown world! I was Slugcat, and this was my home! I was still scared, the world was still dangerous and unknown, but now I was determined! Determined to crack the code and free myself from this Hellish cycle! I finally met Seven Spades, and quickly fled Chimney Canopy. Little did I know at the time that my next objective was just a couple regions away... but I turned back. It was a decision that would forever haunt me. Back through Industrial Complex, back through Outskirts. I had been through these places before, but now they flowed through me; they were a part of me. This was my home. I continued down through Outskirts and finally into the Drainage System. Before I continued on I memorized a map, carefully plotting my path through drainage system to The Depths where I knew that my suffering would finally come to an end. Then I sat down at my desk, crack my knuckles, and booted up rainworld for what was perhaps to be the last time. For several hours I ran the rout again and again, getting lost, being chased, and most of all: being eaten. God knows how many times I died! But I would not be dissuaded from my goal. Finally I plowed through the Depth, by movement no longer clunky, but smooth, almost choreographed. I had finally made it! But had I? Shadowed beings ten slugcats tall hovered before me. They wore masks which bore the strange symbol of "X" inside a circle. I had never seen this before. What did it mean? I shook my head. It didn't matter now, not when I was so close. I proceeded onward. I could not tell you my shock, my horror, when my body was suddenly lifted off the ground, and thrown high through the air... before coming down hard on the ground. I... was dead. How could this happen?!?! I was so close! For one of the few times during this playthrough I looked up an answer. 10.... I needed a Karma level of 10. And to do that I needed to.... Head all the way across the world..... Back through where I had come from.... Again. For a second I was too demoralized to think. Once again I had come so far only to be thrown against a wall (quite literally) and told I had failed. I had failed. Time and time again had I failed, and all those previous failures had accumulated to this one massive failure. What could I do? TheHatManCole told me to quit. He told me to delete Rain World and never return. What was the point of failing again? But I wasn't TheHatManCole anymore. Whenever I booted up this game now I became Slugcat, and TheHatManCole was pushed far back in the depths of my conscious. And was was Slugcat going to do? Slugcat woke up in his familiar dank dark box far away from home. Far away from hope. He look out through the dark tunnels he had becomed so accustomed. His ears drooped and he let out a sigh... a sigh which echoed and reverberated against the walls of the tunnels in an eternal screech. Then Slugcat's face hardened, and he squared his shoulders like he had before countless times. And he smiled. This wasn't the face of defeat, it was the face of resolve, the same resolve seen long ago in the ancients. Then Slugcat picked up his lantern, and hoisted his spear up on his shoulder. Once more he headed out into the world. This is Rain World.
I'm happy you are enjoy it, but this just clearly indicates some failures of the game design. You're told to explore everywhere. But actually there's a highly specific route in mind, and indeed no way to finish the game without it. But the directions of the overseer are so opaque, you can get to the endgame with no knowledge that you're skipping things...
@@CtHtThomasWhile there is a specific route, the game is made for you to circumvent it and explore other areas. It isn't a metroidvania, it's an open world platformer, and beating the game while missing important things is just part of the genre.
@@emperorprimalaspid9738 but my argument is that it fails as an open world platformer, due to the extreme difficulty spikes of going off-path and the highly specific locations of the story events. As a linear game with optional shortcuts for later playthroughs, it's phenomenal. But the nature of these elements make it crazy how little guidance the game gives you
This is weird to me seeing your order of discoveries, because I went through the areas in a completely different order. Subterranean was my third area for example, there's a pathway through drainage system that leads into filtration. And I got into the depths right after exploring that. Realising that it's the final area and where I had to go right after speaking to Five Pebbles was an amazing moment for me, especially when I thought about what the lore behind the place actually was now that I knew it. Great video by the way! Glad to see Rain World getting some attention.
There's multiple paths to the game if i recall, and in a speedrun you can actually skip past 9 biomes or something to get to the filtration system immediately and get to the ending
I have a very complicated relationship with Rain World. One unique to me I hope as I discovered it when it was new. It became a hyperfixation but at the time I didn't own a computer, so I adored a game I couldn't play. I was younger back then. I drew the slug cat and the lizards and ended up even founding the Rain World amino (which I have since only caused problems in and can't in good conscience show my face again on the site) It consumed a lot of my brain power during middle school (I am now graduated. I am young yes I know) and I still hadn't even played it despite what it meant to me. It's been years since I last really thought of this game. And having stumbled upon this video it brings back a lot of sweet memories and good times. I hope I'll think about it more. And appreciate it better now as a work of art. And I also hope I will, for once, actually play it.
This mad lad really went the drainage system route to get to shoreline, great video btw just finished your one on the downpour dlc and came back to watch this one.
I can safely say this remains the de facto insight into what makes Rain World so special. A simple review without the tour would simply not have managed to express the 'organic' and ecological nature of the game. Thank you for the immense effort this project must have taken.
Your video and Wobbles' Rain World Retrospective blog post are my two favorite pieces of Rain World content. The game has been out a while and yet very few people have been able to understand and discuss the game in a way I find satisfying. I appreciate which parts of the game you chose to include here, and which aspects you chose deliberately to leave for the watcher to discover (or not) on their own. Rain World really is a masterpiece of a game. While it won't appeal to everyone, that fact actually propels it to higher heights. Thank you for taking the time to make this.
How does not appealing to everyone propel it to higher heights? There are valid criticisms against this game. It's not "not appealing to everyone" It had some questionable decisions/design that holded it back at launch and still has some of that today.
@@DivyeshVartha EDIT: I think I understand how you feel It might help to look at my unstated implications, "While it won't appeal to everyone, that fact actually propels it to higher heights [for those that appreciate what it does]." I would even change to "...allows it to be propelled..." but I try to keep judgement-y statements as simple as possible. The reason I believe this has a lot to do with how I view games as a medium for artistic expression. I am willing to forgive deviance from the norms when I feel like the work is enriched by those choices. My favourites aren't always "games with no flaws," or "games I can easily share with others" (though often they are), but are almost always "games that were intensely personal to me and offered me something unique." Did I get stuck in a death loop in filtration system on my first playthrough? Yeah. Did I think that was stupid and not my fault? Yeah. But for me to say "Beautiful, confusing, and difficult, 3 out of 5" is to miss all the things RW showed me and made me feel--that most games don't, or can't. And I'd like to think that the reason that's possible is owed, at least in part, to its "unpopular" design choices. With a more streamlined, more accessible, less frustrating Rain World, it becomes less special. Something that's endlessly fascinating about games is how they can resonate with you in a way that's difficult to describe. A game might be able to communicate something to you that you've never heard, or in a way you've never considered. Often, when you play a game like that, it can be hard to recommend it to others... unless you know a person well and understand their tastes deeper than surface-level. Even though I can't and won't recommend Rain World to my best friends, I think the people it does speak to find something unique and intensely personal. The way I see games makes that worth celebrating.
@@-swann I love Rain world's art and unique approach to a game. I loved it so much in fact that it absolutely pains me to think that this gem is not appreciated only due to some trivial design decisions. I feel like very small changes like making backtracking possible at any point in the game, a little more basic instructions and controls (like switching hands), a little more push towards the sticking to the "intended" route, maybe the leeches shouldn't be rng on the other end of the pipe, small things like this would've made it a lot better. I don't think these quality of life-like changes would retract anything from the game. If you paint a masterpiece would you show it off under candlelight? No you'd bring a huge torch. The fact that people won't appreciate it just because of some trivial accessibility issues saddens me. I love the game, I wanted it to be popular so others can get inspired and create more original games like this but I can't in good faith say that it is a well designed game. It is a work of art but as a game, it falls short. Which is a shame because when niche games succeed like undertale and papers please, it shows the world that there is a demand for original passion-filled games that break the norm. What was supposed to be a great game, to me, just feels like a tragedy that could've been avoided. And I hate it for that. Few other things evoke such strong yet mixed feeling for me. Before you, I criticised it and tomorrow I'll defend it. And that's how I feel. Reminds me of the success of Don Quixote. Everyone will read it and have a different opinion but most will enjoy the experience. Not all popular things are great but great things don't have to be unpopular. That's my counter-argument. The things that make rainworld great are not the same things that pushed people away.
Yeah I also love this article experiencedmachine.wordpress.com/2019/09/16/rain-world-reaching-enlightenment-through-unfairness-part-i/ You should really check it out
Rain World is not for everyone. But if it is for you, that probably means you are looking for a singular experience and Rain World is one of those. There isn't something else like it. Get used to that noise indicating you died. Most of the time it will be your fault...but sometimes not. You are just a little animal in a very big world, afterall.
It is a very nice detail that the rebirth thing resembles that of the ancient Indian Society. There it was believed that if you Fullfilled your duty in your Social cast (aka having a lot of karma), after death you would be reborn into a higher cast. This is very similiar to slugcat ascending to a higher plane of existance at the end of the game.
TH-cam algorythm is weird, every time rainworld came back to my mind I always went back to youtube looking for a video like yours. And I only discovered it today, it is really good. I never finished rain world got softlocked in someplace and abandoned it there, thanks for the tour around.
Man I went directly from Drainage System to the Filtration System and into Subterranean. I'm not entirely sure how to navigate out or what would happen if I tried going to the Depths. I assume the game would just say I can't and I'll be softlocked or something.
you wont be softlocked, but you'll hit a point where you cannot proceed and must turn back. try going, from filtration system, right. and just keep going right.
When I first got to an area that had a wall you can climb up and open air on one side, I was attacked by a vulture. One drawn out game of cat and mouse, and several spears later, I actually managed to kill it. That was my best achievement so far.
About the death pits! They are telegraphed to the player, it's just so poorly done barely anyone realizes it. There is a subtle black gradient at the bottom of death pit screens, you can see it pretty well during the transition between your example screens at 1:03:00 Really, the fact that you didn't catch it despite doing such a thorough review of the game is the best indicator that this system just doesn't work. It's also nearly useless in the underhang because of the dark backgrounds 🤷 I've been using this video as background noise for the last week, I love the sections of game ambience mixed between your narration, it's a good video 👍
My favorite Rain World experience is when I literally walked into a full scale war between a tribe of scavengers and a group of lizards and vultures. I helped the scavengers kill the threat and they followed me and helped me get farther into the area, which was the industrial complex. Things like this really heighten the already amazing experience of playing Rain World.
oh man if they made that type of experience more accessible that would be amazing
For me whenever I help scavs kill ANYTHING that thretnes them they hunt me down for no reason even though they my global reputation was high and I have not speared one of em
This gives me a deep bias against scavs sadly
@@tobyk5091
Making experiences "accessible" makes them bland and boring like every other game ever.
@@tobyk5091 git gud
@@servus_incognitus yep a thing based on luck of finding it is geting gud obviously smartass
1:03:07 You can actually tell if it's a death pit. Death pits have darker colors at the bottom of the screen. It's subtle but not impossible to discern.
Ohhh! I didn't know that! I've been playing this game for 100+ hours and I've yet to notice that, lol.
If there is a pipe that leads down, it’s not safe to go down. If there is no pipe or arrow pipes, then it’s safe from my experience
Yes unless you're in chimmney cannopy where the jump brings you down a screen with nothing but walls as you slowly slide down into a now in view death pit.
I once accidentally saved a lizard from a vulture. They instantly became my best friend and followed me around everywhere.
on the next day, you gave him a funny look, so the lizzard ate you, end of the story.
@@BlackRainEntertainNope, they were very loyal till a couple cycles later another vulture ate them coz i was unable to defend them.
I was trying to get batflies and one flew into the nest. A scavenger was next to me and it reached into the nest, grabbed the batfly, and handed it to me. Had no idea they could/would do that.
That’s kinda cute honestly
It's become one of my favorite games too over the past couple months. Exploring Pebbles and seeing the ending for the first time were especially mind blowing, even if I had no idea what was happening at the time. I think the game captures the spirit of what made super metroid so great: mysterious, connected environments that sometimes don't even have any enemies around to deal with. It lets you just explore and take in the world at your own pace (until you realize the rain is coming, at least).
Also agreed on the death pits: the light gray at the bottom of screen can be really hard to notice. But even without that, the placement of some of the pits makes no sense when there's solid ground on the screen right below you.
My guess on illogical pit placement is that VC started designing creature AI and movement and other stuff around pipe transitions exclusively very early on, and didn't find it necessary to add a new type of room connections. Also, a very few rooms actually suffer from it. Right now I only recall Shoreline Tower and that room on bottom-east of Sky Island to have those unexplainable death falls, most vertically oriented spaces are aligned and separated properly.
This right here. This is the best video about Rain World on this website.
yes
I’m writing a critique of the game and this is what I aim to top though that of course is a high goal.
Mathewmatosis’ video too
is there othe websites for rain world videos? like uhhh, pornhub? wait a second, ill look it up.
yes
Rain World is a piece of art that stabs, shoots, and backhands you for admiring it. If you can take that taste the pain this game deals to you, definitely consider checking it out.
Rain world is just one of those games you wish you cold just replay without knowing anything
That's most games though
I think my favorite Rain World experience was when I first killed a king vulture. I was so hyped I told everyone, even the people that didn’t know about the game. That level of genuine excitement is hard to feel in games nowadays (even in some old games).
4:35 LMAO iggy literally says “STOP MOVING AROUND”
Big sis moon does the same thing, if you jump around after returning to her while she’s talking, she goes “can you PLEASE stop jumping around for a minute”
I have a strong feeling this game will get it's deserved fame by some random chance in the future.
Markiplier almost did a playthrough of it, but he stopped after the first episode for some reason :^[
@@davidthegreat He should probably revisit it after doing so many rage games.
I could see Jacob Geller liking it.
Maybe if Mandalore or Sseth review it. Their playerbase would love this game. I see no other big audience reviewer giving this game a fair chance. Truth is, the first 10 hours of this game are frustrating as hell. Until you learn that the controls aren't janky. You need to time jumps and slides. Learn to roll, climb and swim without mindless button mashing, assess danger in a room before progressing and how long/short your current cycle is before travelling between zones. Most players either get lost or frustrated. They don't go past Industrial or worse go through Drainage which is the hardest level BY FAR (swiming past the cisterns for a new player is next to impossible because Shoreline is where the game teaches you the "flow" of swimming). Outskirts-Drainage should've been closed off until being attuned with Moon or FP or doing a second playthrough.
It's a shame because anyone who manages to reach Looks-to-the-Moon is probably sold on how amazing this game really is. Much like Dark Souls with the Bells of Awakening or Stalker with reaching the Bar in Rostok. Other indies like Darkwood or Exanima also do this. If you beat their respective first zones you're gonna love them. It's just that people get filtered before reaching there.
Rain World is not hard. Much like nature it's merciless. One mistake will cost you your life. In this game you can feel when death is coming. Jump into a pool of leeches, fail to notice something shining on a level connector or in the ceiling, fuck around weaponless with a lizard, running outside when there's a shadow overhead or battle music is still around, trying to skip a scavenger checkpoint.
I hope
what a well made video, i actually felt like i was watching some national geographic documentary! cant wait to see more content from you!
just finished the game a couple of days ago, definitely one of my all time favorites and im not even done with it
41:27 this implies that after playing for HOURS this reviewer hadnt found a single shelter, thats honestly incredible
I’m 100% sure that what this reviewer says they went through is impossible and that they are straight lying for the shock value.
Cycles can last for an absolute maximum of around 16 minutes. There is absolutely no way that they could’ve lost hours of progress, because they HAVE to find a new shelter or reach their old one. Complete bullshit.
@@bumblegoot1139 five pebbles.
@@aarepelaa1142 That implies game reviewers are actually willing to play through the game long enough to reach five pebbles in the first place, instead of just giving up and whining about how they weren't hand-held to victory after dying to a noodlefly twenty minutes into the game.
With the intro I thought it was gonna be that old man reviewing this game lol
"that old man" is David Lynch lmao
Over 1600 screens... My god.
Anyone who has done pixel art understands what a feat this is.
layouts are so carefully constructed it really sells its world. There is a good amount of unique art and visual flare that makes exploration an incentive in its own right. There was a single artist/system coder and a single level designer, both made an amazing job making sure assets and systems were deep, modular and varied enough, then making good use of all the features, although systems are so deep that it is imposible to communicate them to the player without wild experimentation, in this sense the broad modding community really fill the gaps.
Apparently they're adding over 1,000 more in the upcoming DLC too.
Dude your soothing and intelligent narration combined with the long stretches of ambient gameplay really made this video a beautiful experience. (And also funny, which is just icing on an already delicious cake.)
For a second I thought the old guy at the beginning was the one who actually made the video
check out David Lynch he rocks.
"there is no way to discern from a safe or unsafe fall" that actually isn't true! you can tell which falls are death pits based on whether or not there's a black fade at the bottom of the screen. at 1:03:04, you can see the screen has a slight black fade at the bottom, indicating a death pit. it's a very minute detail though, so newer players wouldn't recognize them as easily as an experienced or veteran player. another way to recognize a death pit from a regular fall is if there's an actual way to get down there other than taking a pipe. if there's no poles or vents leading downward, then it's most likely a death pit. in rooms such as the one at 1:03:13, you can see poles and vents that would bring you downward, and no black fade. falling is still death though, there's no floor at the bottom of this room.
SLIGHT ENDGAME SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT!
one outlier is the pitfall right before the entrance to the depths, there's no vents, pipes, or poles leading downward, however it isn't a death pit. it's just a long fall, but the fall damage does insta kill you because it's such a long fall. you have to cling to the side of the pit to make it down safely.
Some scavengers have other tendencies aswell, some might be more brave than others, being less likely to free themselves from predators as if sacrificing itself for the tribe.
While others are more cowardly, literally jumping when something spooks it and always freeing itself from a predators grasp, the ones with larger mask/horns take lead, and always try to be the one in charge while the one with smaller mask/horns will follow stronger scavengers without question.
I'm one of the "lucky" few who *beat* the game before the updates. To this day I am filled with leftover spite, it poisoned my very soul.
Later, just two small changes made it into a genuinely palatable experience. I still cannot recommend it to anyone whom I do not hate, but thankfully I hate all of you.
Go play this game.
thanks I hate you too
@@haydensmith4085 its easier basically
@@haydensmith4085 Im not really sure, but I do know that the most recent change was that maps dont reset after death
@@haydensmith4085 They also added a sign in the Underhang that points to a shelter because that one is easy to miss lol
> alienating some casual players such as professional paid game reviewers
More savage than rain world.
it amazes me how radically different my playthrough turned out to be to yours, I felt like the directions I was getting form the helper were very inconsistent so I just ended up going wherever I felt which made me end up all the way down in subterranean (coming from shoreline) before I ever got to looks to the moon, got stuck there and gave up.
After a restart and second try years later I finally ended up in the correct route to looks to the moon but then I ended down in filtration system and even got to the depths before I ever visited five pebbles. Btw do you see the very bright shine slugcat has in this video's subterranean section? I DID NOT HAVE THAT you unlock that on five pebbles so to navigate the filtration system I spammed the map button 24/7 to see corners and paths. Now frustrated as the depths had a very "this should be the end of the game" look I tried looking online where I should actually go trying not to spoil myself and after giving a brief skim I got that I was supposed to go to five pebbles which was in a more or less "top right" general direction, this made me go through a gruelingly hard route which was [filtration system (start) > drainage system > garbage wastes > shoreline > shaded citadel > memory crypts > the leg > the exterior > climb all the way up to the wall > five pebbles > recursive arrays > the exterior > chimney canopy > industrial complex > garbage wastes > drainage system > filtration system > the depths]
Unlike the playthrough in this video not only I got to five pebbles through the wall and never even touched farm arrays but also looped and zipped around the map so many times I was on the brink of giving up more than once.
When I reached the end of the game I had clocked in exactly 100 hours and 114 cycles on my second try. This was easily my hardest videogame experience that I've ever had but also the most immersive, as it's apparent from my route I have a very poor sense of direction and get a bit too distracted by deviating into other paths but this was because I went repeatedly with the mentality of "well there's no way I'm deviating too much right? This is an indie game, I doubt the map is that big" man oh man how much I suffered because of that.
Despite (or maybe because) all of this now rain world is my favorite game of all time and I definitely resonate with the final sentiment of this video that art is greater than the sum of its parts, I really can't describe how much I love and am constantly fascinated by this game.
Wow our experiences were pretty similar. The immersion also put it at my favorite game as well
@@AC-qu9ng oh yeah that almost happened to me. That bad ending idea seems like it would actually benefit the game but I do think the confusion it gives you is part of the game's identity.
karma gates are such an important inclusion despite the fact that a lot of people hate them. like you said it’s there as a skill check, but along the way they also force you to actually participate in a location’s ecosystem for a few cycles instead of just running through it. some of my most immersive moments with this game were cycles where i did nothing but venture out, find some food, and return home, and there would be no need for that kind of gameplay without karma gates.
I'd like to hazard a guess at why the exterior has such a nonsensical food web. It's because the Daddy Long Legs are an invasive species - they cannot be killed (except by a well placed explosive), are ravenous, tumor-like creatures, and have probably absorbed what rich life previously existed. Only the Dropwigs and White Lizards - both of which are stealth-oriented creatures - remain, as well as the grapple worms, which also make very little noise and probably fail to attract DLL attention.
Counterpoint: orange lizards
Also grapple lizards make a lot of noise that you can hear yet which the DLLs cannot. Odd but the exterior is probably the most "videogamey" of regions.
@@Zorro9129 Solid points! The orange lizards set up their living spaces in contained, spherical "homes" tho which are almost impossible for a DLL to enter and are usually out of the way of them anyway. And honestly so do grapple worms, usually. And i'm reaching a bit, but the noise they make might sound like the noise DLLs themselves make when locomoting, which could fly under the radar.
I'm aware that this is all an attempt to justify what is very clearly a game balance decision, but the ecosystem this game has constructed deserves it.
(sidenote - almost nothing seems to want to eat grapple worms unless they're dead. maybe they're not nutritionally worth it?)
Oh so thats what the random moon girl was about..
Yea on my first playthrough I was so confused by it that I ended up trying to do everything I could in the room and you can probably guess where that leads. A lot of stick throwing and eating her bugs. No wonder I was so confused about everything when my first reaction to things was ooga booga caveman throw spear.
yeah other games made me think that i have to do something seeing it was so anticipated, then you know what happens
I'm looking forward to the DLC Downpour, but I do think the original game seems much more focused on aesthetic and feeling while the DLC is more of a fun exploration of mechanics and lore. Which is totally cool, but it's a separate artistic experience.
I dunno, the DLC having 10 new regions (the original game has 12) and 5 new stories with 5 new playable slug cats seems like plenty of room for new feelings and aesthetics
You're not alone in the fascination of this.
In category of gaming, Rain World is perhaps the most beautiful and simple expression and made in parallell to one's (our) own existence and struggles. Simple in expression, complex in execution. Hated and also loved. It is a thing you have to live through to know it. That being but one expression of it of many.
All will eventually and inevitably go through it in this place. And much in the tune of it, "so it is."
Lol... the subtle dig at Kotaku.
“...Alienating casual players like paid game reviewers.”
Damn. That’s a spicy take.
Also I think I might just get this.
Game reviewers like the ones at IGN are 9-5 zombies (like most of us) if you truly have passion & skill & the brain to put it together, you make art like this game is, and this video about this game is. Thank you creator!
I played this game blind in 2017, died about 5 times in 35 minutes, didn't know where to go and quit. Probably should try it again some time.
Rain World in one of the best videogame I ever played in my entire life. It's not even a videogame, it's an experience to live.
Eternal respect for the devellopers.
Thank you for this guided tour that reminds me lots of memories.
I didn't realize till I finished the downpour section, but the video being split into 10 different timestamped sections is such a fantastic detail.
What's also cool that I hadn't noticed until a few playthroughs later is if you jump into the water after running around and jumping, the time you're able to hold your breath is shorter, since his heart is beating faster and using up more oxygen. However, if you stand still, and wait for his breathing to calm until he's not bobbing up and down, you can hold your breath for several seconds longer.
Omg that's so cool :O
Weird comparison but this is how we all thought cyberpunk 2077 was gonna feel like
I would argue that the exterior doesn't really need a food chain, especially when looking into the lore. Daddy Long Legs are a rot that intends to eat anything and everything, and given that they have found their way out into the exterior and made a home of it, the food chain is likely entirely destroyed with some creatures extinct now. There is a more present food chain in hunter too, with spitter spiders populating the place instead of daddly long legs, which adds a more present food chain as the lizards and spiders commonly fight and kill one another
Since we're on the subject of the rot and extinction, I'll share a theory. I think the hunter is the earliest slugcat in the timeline, so all these apex predators exclusive to them have died out, possibly eaten by the rot or just lost to time.
We can tell they're the earliest because 1) there's less rot for the hunter compared to the other slugcats, which breaks the trend of hunter always having more predators, meaning this is for lore. 2) The monk actually has more rot than the survivor, which breaks the trend of monk always having less predators, so rot quantity is now definitely for lore. 3) All the colorful data pearls are busted for the monk, possibly broken by rain cycles or data loss, which is further evidence the monk is the last slugcat in the timeline, which is further evidence that rot population grows over time.
@@KingMako30 the hunter exclusive species can be encountered in survivor through the lineage system, so they can't be completely dead. but they are probably being fizzled out by the harsh world that the iterators created.
@@KingMako30 it's confirmed already that it's hunter -> surv -> monk
the only thing now is there are more slugcats coming in dlc,
and iirc spearmaster is the earliest and saint is the last
I’m not gonna lie at the beginning I thought the old man was gonna be reviewing Rain World. Great review tho
Lynch is the greatest film director alive today, check him out before he dies soon and your experience will be motivated by less genuine interest
1:02:46 - Static screens are indeed a result of technical limitations. Creature AIs are complex and lots of stuff is physically rendered at any given time, and all levels are pre-rendered for the sake of performance.
On my first playthrough I went from outskirts to drainage to subterranean and it was terrifying but it also really got me interested
Yeah, getting through to garbage wastes is what hooked me. Swimming to subterranean is even crazier
Jimmy McGee yeah Garbage Wastes feels like the most “Rain World” area if you know what I mean.
There are eggbugs, flying noodles, centipedes, other lizards, squidcadas leeches- Its less of a food chain more of a food web.
Rain World has been one of my top favorite games for several years now. The controls are a bit difficult to learn at first, especially the complex ones but otherwise it’s a very beautiful game.
The AI can be a bit tricky but I love that they integrated sight and sound to many of the creatures in this wonderful game. It truly makes the world feel alive in my opinion. Hands down, I would totally recommend this to my friends as this game is generally very interactive and throws you into an environment you can literally get lost in. The soundtrack is also very well made. The diversity of music fits this game extremely well.
oh my god i literally skipped 2 areas and i just literally went to shaded citadel thinking that was normal
I couldn't figure out how to get a light source the first time I was in there. I could grab one of the cute glowy things but they kept escaping. So I ended up running though the whole thing very quickly. Didn't find out about the spiders till later.
Same! Honestly can't stand shaded citadel with out a light source. Such a brutal zone, definitely gonna go through garbage wastes to shoreline instead next time
man the parts in subterranean with the light shining through look like you were playing minecraft then a shader suddenly enabled itself while you were playing
29:02 AWWW. the scavenger came out of the nest to give you a lamp :(
as someone who has been playing this game for years, this video gives me so much happiness that the game has potential to reach a larger audience
I finally reached Five Pebble's core... This is the most affecting moment in my gaming life and one of the best experiences in my life. Games can be art when artists want to make games. Artists make art, regardless of the medium. Rain World is proof of that.
"Great art escapes any attempt you make to describe it". What a brilliant and succinctly articulated observation.
I got the game because of this video. I’m on the Shorelines right now. Thanks for this.
I put Rain World on my wishlist and try to return to this video once I experienced it. People love it so much, now I want to play it myself.
It's been a while and four days ago I finally started playing Rain World. Now after 27 hours in this wonderful world I can finally say the experience has been worth every second and every cent. This game is one of a kind. What a beautiful ride.
@@DeathJerrieglad you liked it :)
A great video for a great game.... Thank you for making such a wonderful tribute to a game that doesn't often get much praise (at least from big reviewers).
You didn't talk about the echoes! I had no idea they existed for so long
I like how you managed to separate the video into ten neat chapters, with each being represented by the karma symbols. Very nice tour!
I had other plans. But I’m 30 minutes in.
Interesting style with the big gaps of gameplay. I like it, very good video.
rain world
Drainage system?
Bro im in the chimny place, dont even know if this is the right direction.
nah bro you going the wrong way all the homies go take drainage system
Get away from drainage system, that part is hell, go to the shaded citadel and from there to shoreline.
Well done, this is a majestic presentation I was very immersed with your documentary of the game and I like that you put clips of gameplay without saying a word and just letting the game speak for itself
Alternate title: Man finds another reason to replay Rain World
"This risks alienating some casual players, like professional game reviewers"
Now c'mon, don't bundle them all up in the same bag! Casual gamers can still jump over a gap.
On a side note, I already knew the artwork here for the backgrounds was phenomenal... but then I saw you ascending the upper parts of the Wall, and how the girders aren't seen totally from the side, but slightly from above, giving them depth, making it feel you're climbing and looking at them from above as well...
You can also see the clouds beneath you, showing that here, you're not at risk of dying from the rain. With the city on top of Five Pebbles' complex, as well as the fact that the Shaded Citadel is located directly beneath it, and a lore pearl or two, it seems the rains were already a think with these Ancients, a direct consequence of the building of the iterators. They built the cities on top of the iterators' complexes in order to escape from these rains, which were probably only getting worse.
It's fascinating tho, on how we're only seeing a tiny fraction of the world. Just a fraction. The rest of the world might be in an even worse state. Have more dangerous, demented creatures...
I totally agree! It’s very cool to think of the evolution and creatures in the other local communities. Also, imagine all the biomes in them! Really excited for the DLC.
I think the moment I remember best from rain world is when you finally emerge from five pebbles and go across the top of the wall. something about that background and the sheer scope of it sticks with me. that was the moment that made me say "why the hell didn't anyone tell me about rain world?" masterful game
Going back to that moment, I find it interesting that the "faces" (?) of the ancient beings in these murals were scratched off. Like, they are already quite alien and almost abstract in their looks, I don't think seeing their faces would've made them look any more familiar...
...unless...
@@Mike14264 If I had to guess, I would assume its a Karma thing. Erasing the visage of whoever was depicted as an erasure of their ego.
I can't play this because I just don't have the manual dexterity for this kinda game, so this was a wonderful way to get a good look at it, thank you for the great vid! I especially appreciate allowing it to have long parts with no talking, to just absorb the atmosphere of the game between getting information about it.
After hearing a bit about this game (very late after its release), I was looking for exactly this kind of video and I'm so happy to have found it. I don't have the time to delve into any games right now. While I know that it is impossible to experience the feeling of a game without playing it, I wanted to experience what I could without watching a full multi-hour speed run or lets play. The short 10-30 minute reviews I found just didn't seem to capture the atmosphere of the game. Thank you for making this video. Your guided tour through this world was a treat.
It's so crazy that my playthrough was completely backwards to yours, I don't know how but I went to five pebbles first and then the moon later. I kinda want to replay the game agan just to see what happens with the knowledge I have. Great video btw, I like how the style of the video matches the game
Every path is valid, heh
What a lot of people who complain about the game being unfair or too difficult miss is that it's _supposed_ to be that way.
The world is harsh, unforgiving and a cutthroat battle to survive. Sometimes it's kill or be killed. Other times, it's about weighing your options, taking risks and either reaping the rewards or being punished for the risk. It's all a very clever parallel to real life ecosystems and animals we share this planet with. Their lives are all about unfairness, risk, reward and ultimately, survival through experience, or luck in some cases.. Rain World is more of an experience than a normal, balanced game. It's a living, breathing ecosystem, and it works _very_ hard to put you in the role of a Slugcat. (Successfully, might I add.)
@r33mote Pardon people who want use their own imaginations i guess-
@r33mote tf are you talking about dude? lmao, Do what you want, im just saying weird and alien creatures are just as cool as real ones. Other than that feel how you wanna feel.
@r33mote I can't tell if you're being serious or you're just a really bad troll, but I'm leaning into you being a troll since you're complaining about someone doing the exact same thing you did in your first comment. At the same time, after looking through your community posts you just seem like a really shitty person who nobody likes. Either way, I'm sorry that being an asshole is the only way for you to feel anything other than emptiness.
Amazing Rain World video. Rain World is definitely one of my favorite games of all time and I consider it to be a masterpiece.
While I haven't played Rain World yet (only found out about it from Skurry), I can definitely say this video is a masterpiece. It's amazingly edited, the story explanations, gameplay clips and gameplay mechanic explanations all balance each other very well, and the narration is great.
Sub for me, this is the kind of content that I love
could not have said it better myself 👍👍
This game is so hard, annoying, aimless and bleak.. and I love everything about it. I feel for slugcat, I am a slugcat.
i know this is random but lordy, THESE SLUG CATS ARE CUUUUTE!
IKR! the way they move, look around at things, soetimes reach out their arms for nearby noms ... it's just adorbs!
WAIT SO YOURE TELLING ME I DIDNT HAVE TO SPEND 5 DAYS TRYING TO PASS (Unfortunate developments)
frick off I almost dumped the game bc of that part and you got to dance around high voltage with plenty of food to eat...
not fair
i did the same thing and almost ripped all my hair out but at least after that its smooth sailing to 5p :D
For anyone wanting to re experience not knowing where anything is, get the badlands region mod. It's the only custom region that I thought was on par with the game's quality.
aether ridge is pretty incredible too imo
@@hiphyro It's impressive, and mostly looks good, but the level design is worthless
My favourite part is when slugcat goes ‘its raining time’ and worlds all over those lizard mfs haha
I like how scavenger emotions are conveyed in a way just human enough that you can tell if they're displaying negative or positive emotions, but also unique and alien enough that you need to study them to figure out what specific emotions they're conveying. I still kind of struggle with them sometimes, but I've interacted with them enough that I can figure out most of what they're telling me by looking at them. I mostly struggle to tell when they're just trying to greet me, or asking me to give them something. It's sometimes hard to tell when they're doing the "Look! A friend!" point and the "Look! Your spear! Gimme!" point lol
Coming back to this, I was reminded by how this game looked so similarly with Carrion, but then it hits me:
Immersive worldbuilding.
Same reason why I got hooked into Carrion and also Rain World.
Have purchased it but never played it yet, this game deserved to be played on chill time. A moment best enjoyed at night, together with a cup of coffee.
Good point. Carrion was awesome, Rain World's got a very different pace but I see the similarities for sure.
I'm really happy to see the comment section still going.
I love this game so much. People are sleeping on this just because its hard. I wish people will warm up to it..
I'm that stupid that I thought for a moment that this old man at the beginning is actually the uploader...
I was so hype for a 60 year old to walk me through his favourite video game but this is fine too
I'm bummed it isn't.
the old guy is David Lynch, he's a fairly famous director
Sigh... let me tell you about my experience playing rainworld so far.
So I started in OUtskirts (of course), and quickly made it to Industrial Complex. From there I headed to shaded citadel and befriended a lizard (who is still hanging out there). Next I made it to Shoreline, and after a harrowing experience finally made it to Subterranean. This is where things started to get out of hand. For a couple of long tedious hours I tried to reach the end of subterranean, in the direction of Farm Arrays, although I didn't even know they were there by that point. Realizing that I was at a dead end I proceeded to use one of may passages to transport me back all the way to Industrial complex. By this time I had a slightly better idea of what I was trying to accomplish, so I was trying to look for the echo Seven Spades. So I traveled to Chimney Canopy.
I would never be the same again.
Getting all the way to Subterranean just to head all the way back near the beginning had been demoralizing enough, but nothing would compare to torturous experiences up on chimney canopy. Up to this point I had a written record of all my deaths, but once I began to die again, and again, and again, and again, and again (do you understand my pain here?), I gave up. In one day of playing on Chimney Canopy my death count nearly doubled, and I realized that keeping track of my deaths was about as pointless as keeping track of every time I ate. Now that I wasn't keeping track of my deaths I had a lot less to lose. SO I became enraged. I threw all previous caution to the wind and ran around with a spear killing every living thing I could. I continued to die, but I was fine with that as long as I took a few goddamned lizards down with me. Join me in the cycle!
But it was through this less conservative playstyle that I was reborn. I was no longer TheHatManCole, a scared gamer navigating a dangerous unknown world! I was Slugcat, and this was my home! I was still scared, the world was still dangerous and unknown, but now I was determined! Determined to crack the code and free myself from this Hellish cycle!
I finally met Seven Spades, and quickly fled Chimney Canopy. Little did I know at the time that my next objective was just a couple regions away... but I turned back. It was a decision that would forever haunt me. Back through Industrial Complex, back through Outskirts. I had been through these places before, but now they flowed through me; they were a part of me. This was my home.
I continued down through Outskirts and finally into the Drainage System. Before I continued on I memorized a map, carefully plotting my path through drainage system to The Depths where I knew that my suffering would finally come to an end. Then I sat down at my desk, crack my knuckles, and booted up rainworld for what was perhaps to be the last time. For several hours I ran the rout again and again, getting lost, being chased, and most of all: being eaten. God knows how many times I died! But I would not be dissuaded from my goal. Finally I plowed through the Depth, by movement no longer clunky, but smooth, almost choreographed. I had finally made it!
But had I? Shadowed beings ten slugcats tall hovered before me. They wore masks which bore the strange symbol of "X" inside a circle. I had never seen this before. What did it mean? I shook my head. It didn't matter now, not when I was so close. I proceeded onward. I could not tell you my shock, my horror, when my body was suddenly lifted off the ground, and thrown high through the air... before coming down hard on the ground. I... was dead.
How could this happen?!?! I was so close! For one of the few times during this playthrough I looked up an answer.
10....
I needed a Karma level of 10.
And to do that I needed to....
Head all the way across the world.....
Back through where I had come from....
Again.
For a second I was too demoralized to think. Once again I had come so far only to be thrown against a wall (quite literally) and told I had failed. I had failed. Time and time again had I failed, and all those previous failures had accumulated to this one massive failure.
What could I do? TheHatManCole told me to quit. He told me to delete Rain World and never return. What was the point of failing again?
But I wasn't TheHatManCole anymore. Whenever I booted up this game now I became Slugcat, and TheHatManCole was pushed far back in the depths of my conscious.
And was was Slugcat going to do?
Slugcat woke up in his familiar dank dark box far away from home. Far away from hope. He look out through the dark tunnels he had becomed so accustomed. His ears drooped and he let out a sigh... a sigh which echoed and reverberated against the walls of the tunnels in an eternal screech.
Then Slugcat's face hardened, and he squared his shoulders like he had before countless times. And he smiled. This wasn't the face of defeat, it was the face of resolve, the same resolve seen long ago in the ancients. Then Slugcat picked up his lantern, and hoisted his spear up on his shoulder. Once more he headed out into the world.
This is Rain World.
I'm happy you are enjoy it, but this just clearly indicates some failures of the game design. You're told to explore everywhere. But actually there's a highly specific route in mind, and indeed no way to finish the game without it. But the directions of the overseer are so opaque, you can get to the endgame with no knowledge that you're skipping things...
exactly. Have fun! @@CtHtThomas
@@CtHtThomasWhile there is a specific route, the game is made for you to circumvent it and explore other areas. It isn't a metroidvania, it's an open world platformer, and beating the game while missing important things is just part of the genre.
@@emperorprimalaspid9738 but my argument is that it fails as an open world platformer, due to the extreme difficulty spikes of going off-path and the highly specific locations of the story events. As a linear game with optional shortcuts for later playthroughs, it's phenomenal. But the nature of these elements make it crazy how little guidance the game gives you
The subway trains are also a nice easter egg to one of the concept ideas of the Rain World.
I feel like clarifying that a bellyslide to roll is probably easier and faster than a backflip to roll.
it is an absolute CRIME that you only have 3k subs. the amount of effort you put in your videos is beyond anything ive seen on this site
This is weird to me seeing your order of discoveries, because I went through the areas in a completely different order. Subterranean was my third area for example, there's a pathway through drainage system that leads into filtration. And I got into the depths right after exploring that. Realising that it's the final area and where I had to go right after speaking to Five Pebbles was an amazing moment for me, especially when I thought about what the lore behind the place actually was now that I knew it. Great video by the way! Glad to see Rain World getting some attention.
There's multiple paths to the game if i recall, and in a speedrun you can actually skip past 9 biomes or something to get to the filtration system immediately and get to the ending
For literally no reason seeing the slugcat move around so fast when it's sped up makes me laugh 💀
On my first playthrough I ate Moon. We had very different experiences.
Came for a tour of Rain World. Stayed to see a new world record set for how much game journalist derision one can fit into a single video.
I have a very complicated relationship with Rain World. One unique to me I hope as I discovered it when it was new. It became a hyperfixation but at the time I didn't own a computer, so I adored a game I couldn't play.
I was younger back then. I drew the slug cat and the lizards and ended up even founding the Rain World amino (which I have since only caused problems in and can't in good conscience show my face again on the site)
It consumed a lot of my brain power during middle school (I am now graduated. I am young yes I know) and I still hadn't even played it despite what it meant to me.
It's been years since I last really thought of this game. And having stumbled upon this video it brings back a lot of sweet memories and good times.
I hope I'll think about it more. And appreciate it better now as a work of art.
And I also hope I will, for once, actually play it.
I ate these things flying above the moon.I feel as bad as I should
You can find them in five pebbles and give them to moon
@@jonmurac7068 might do to cleanse my karma
This mad lad really went the drainage system route to get to shoreline, great video btw just finished your one on the downpour dlc and came back to watch this one.
I can safely say this remains the de facto insight into what makes Rain World so special. A simple review without the tour would simply not have managed to express the 'organic' and ecological nature of the game. Thank you for the immense effort this project must have taken.
This video and the game are criminally underrated
yes and yessirier
I was wondering for a second if that old man was the one making the vid lol
"i have been saved by another lizard trying to nom me"
ah the wonders of nature
Your video and Wobbles' Rain World Retrospective blog post are my two favorite pieces of Rain World content. The game has been out a while and yet very few people have been able to understand and discuss the game in a way I find satisfying. I appreciate which parts of the game you chose to include here, and which aspects you chose deliberately to leave for the watcher to discover (or not) on their own.
Rain World really is a masterpiece of a game. While it won't appeal to everyone, that fact actually propels it to higher heights. Thank you for taking the time to make this.
How does not appealing to everyone propel it to higher heights? There are valid criticisms against this game. It's not "not appealing to everyone" It had some questionable decisions/design that holded it back at launch and still has some of that today.
@@DivyeshVartha EDIT: I think I understand how you feel
It might help to look at my unstated implications, "While it won't appeal to everyone, that fact actually propels it to higher heights [for those that appreciate what it does]." I would even change to "...allows it to be propelled..." but I try to keep judgement-y statements as simple as possible.
The reason I believe this has a lot to do with how I view games as a medium for artistic expression. I am willing to forgive deviance from the norms when I feel like the work is enriched by those choices. My favourites aren't always "games with no flaws," or "games I can easily share with others" (though often they are), but are almost always "games that were intensely personal to me and offered me something unique."
Did I get stuck in a death loop in filtration system on my first playthrough? Yeah. Did I think that was stupid and not my fault? Yeah. But for me to say "Beautiful, confusing, and difficult, 3 out of 5" is to miss all the things RW showed me and made me feel--that most games don't, or can't. And I'd like to think that the reason that's possible is owed, at least in part, to its "unpopular" design choices. With a more streamlined, more accessible, less frustrating Rain World, it becomes less special.
Something that's endlessly fascinating about games is how they can resonate with you in a way that's difficult to describe. A game might be able to communicate something to you that you've never heard, or in a way you've never considered. Often, when you play a game like that, it can be hard to recommend it to others... unless you know a person well and understand their tastes deeper than surface-level. Even though I can't and won't recommend Rain World to my best friends, I think the people it does speak to find something unique and intensely personal. The way I see games makes that worth celebrating.
@@-swann I love Rain world's art and unique approach to a game. I loved it so much in fact that it absolutely pains me to think that this gem is not appreciated only due to some trivial design decisions. I feel like very small changes like making backtracking possible at any point in the game, a little more basic instructions and controls (like switching hands), a little more push towards the sticking to the "intended" route, maybe the leeches shouldn't be rng on the other end of the pipe, small things like this would've made it a lot better. I don't think these quality of life-like changes would retract anything from the game. If you paint a masterpiece would you show it off under candlelight? No you'd bring a huge torch. The fact that people won't appreciate it just because of some trivial accessibility issues saddens me. I love the game, I wanted it to be popular so others can get inspired and create more original games like this but I can't in good faith say that it is a well designed game. It is a work of art but as a game, it falls short. Which is a shame because when niche games succeed like undertale and papers please, it shows the world that there is a demand for original passion-filled games that break the norm. What was supposed to be a great game, to me, just feels like a tragedy that could've been avoided. And I hate it for that. Few other things evoke such strong yet mixed feeling for me. Before you, I criticised it and tomorrow I'll defend it. And that's how I feel.
Reminds me of the success of Don Quixote. Everyone will read it and have a different opinion but most will enjoy the experience. Not all popular things are great but great things don't have to be unpopular. That's my counter-argument. The things that make rainworld great are not the same things that pushed people away.
@@DivyeshVartha totally fair. I feel similarly in many respects. Great write up!
Yeah I also love this article experiencedmachine.wordpress.com/2019/09/16/rain-world-reaching-enlightenment-through-unfairness-part-i/
You should really check it out
Rain World is not for everyone. But if it is for you, that probably means you are looking for a singular experience and Rain World is one of those. There isn't something else like it. Get used to that noise indicating you died. Most of the time it will be your fault...but sometimes not. You are just a little animal in a very big world, afterall.
i watch those david lynch “good morning..” videos every single day and nearly believed i had accidentally tapped into one again
you still like comments even after 2 years? lovely dedication to your work?
+ great voice, gotta say ur one of the real ones.
I'm always watching O_O. Thanks!
@@JimmyMcG33 cute
It is a very nice detail that the rebirth thing resembles that of the ancient Indian Society. There it was believed that if you Fullfilled your duty in your Social cast (aka having a lot of karma), after death you would be reborn into a higher cast. This is very similiar to slugcat ascending to a higher plane of existance at the end of the game.
Imho, you are not going full way in your analogy. The end goal in both systems is to escape rebirth altogether -through ascension or nirvanna
TH-cam algorythm is weird, every time rainworld came back to my mind I always went back to youtube looking for a video like yours.
And I only discovered it today, it is really good.
I never finished rain world got softlocked in someplace and abandoned it there, thanks for the tour around.
Man I went directly from Drainage System to the Filtration System and into Subterranean. I'm not entirely sure how to navigate out or what would happen if I tried going to the Depths. I assume the game would just say I can't and I'll be softlocked or something.
you wont be softlocked, but you'll hit a point where you cannot proceed and must turn back. try going, from filtration system, right. and just keep going right.
This needs more attention wtf
This is such a great essay, thank you for giving a new audience access to what's incredible about this work.
When I first got to an area that had a wall you can climb up and open air on one side, I was attacked by a vulture. One drawn out game of cat and mouse, and several spears later, I actually managed to kill it. That was my best achievement so far.
This is absolutely fantastic
About the death pits! They are telegraphed to the player, it's just so poorly done barely anyone realizes it. There is a subtle black gradient at the bottom of death pit screens, you can see it pretty well during the transition between your example screens at 1:03:00
Really, the fact that you didn't catch it despite doing such a thorough review of the game is the best indicator that this system just doesn't work. It's also nearly useless in the underhang because of the dark backgrounds 🤷
I've been using this video as background noise for the last week, I love the sections of game ambience mixed between your narration, it's a good video 👍
THIS IS the perfect guide. Is so complete. I was really searching for this omg