Murray Bookchin on the Glandilock Seed:
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I’m finishing up anodyne 1 and I think it’s pretty underrated. it does a lot of special and cool medium specific things.
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hey @azurelore idk if you play vidyagames much these days but I feel like anodyne 1 would have some things to say that you’d be interested in
Anodyne 2 is better at everything the first game did well.
I actually liked the first game a lot even! But as a…for want of a better word…Steven Universe-esque mixture of horror, whimsy, queerness, and great writing, Anodyne 2 blows the first out of the water.
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love 2 literalize cultural prostestanism as a physical parasite
(don’t want to give away the game here)
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I have been following the Anodyne games from a distance. The first seems neat, and the second looks like a big leap. Yeah, between mental health issues and poverty I haven’t kept up with much of anything in terms of direct interaction.
I only just finally played Gone Home a couple weeks ago when I visited a friend for a wedding. Got really into the story, as far as I played. Half that time was, uh, leaf-shooting, though, so I didn’t get as far as I might have.
The… whatsis adventure platformer that all the Gamer screamos are screaming about because of its subtle trans flag in a cutscene, that seams neat too.
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I liked art and music of the first Anodyne, but I thought the gameplay and puzzle were a bit bland and I didn’t finish in the end.
But regardless, I am super interested in playing Anodyne 2.
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the gameplay and puzzles are kind of bland, like they are just barely as good as they have to be for the most part, though I honestly think some of the puzzles rely on you exploiting the jankiness of the game’s engine, which I think is really neat and thematically in line with what the game is really about.
I got interrupted by apartment painting right in the middle of the final dungeon, and I only just got to finish this game. I loved the confrontation ending! I’ve been reading a lot of anarchist theory lately, and this game’s themes fit so comfortably into that area of philosophy. It’s great fun to play a game that resonates so closely with the stuff I’ve been studying.
I didn’t expect the postgame. It’s really weird, and it suddenly is a direct sequel to Anodyne 1. You return to the world of the first game, and you deal with the consequences of the tileshifting tool from its postgame. Now the world is all glitched out thanks to the actions of the first game’s player character, and you find evidence of NPCs trying to escape through holes in the world.
Shit, I didn’t know there was a postgame. I can’t believe there’s more Anodyne 2.
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Yeah, when you get the confrontation ending, after the credits there’s a note about how there’s something new in the Nexus. When you go there, if you go straight through to the back, the broken down warp pad that had been there the whole game is now usable.
You also get new items you can buy in the MetaClean shop. One of them is a Nexus Stone, which you can use to warp directly to the Nexus so you don’t have to remember how to get there.
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yeah the way they connect it to the first game is really eerie and great and understated
I think the first game’s post game is way more interesting and cool though! and longer!
like as a whole anodyne 2 is a much stronger game, easily my game of the year so far and I don’t see anything else coming out this year dethroning it. but anodyne 1 is like, idk, I’m sure some people are gonna think I’m tripping, but it’s the closest thing to an icebergvania that I’ve ever played. and the postgame is so mindblowingly strange and bizarre and, if you’re really dedicated/curious, it’s almost as long as the game itself.
there’s a strong sense in both of these games that anything could happen, that there are no real consistent rules, and for me that’s maybe why it feels so nostalgic, because the primitive games of our youth had that same uncertainty of design boundaries and norms. I feel like this is an often overlooked source of the nebulous “sense of wonder” possessed by early 2D/early 3D games that so many people yearn for.
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There’s an Anodyne 1 postgame? All I recall is that I was missing a few cards and that seemed like a very uninteresting thing to do, so I didn’t >_>
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the reward for finding all the cards is a tool that lets you swap tiles/collision and basically break through any barrier in the game. there are all these weird hidden areas and items that you can find throughout all the dungeons and overworld areas. for me exploring all of this was exhilirating.
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I played through Anodyne 1 over the past few days because everyone is always talking about it. The writing could be a little better but I like the colors and atmosphere. Sometimes it feels like it tries to do too much with its limited platforming mechanics, but it never took me too many tries to get past a room.
I like that you can jump over two tiles if you do it right. I don’t remember whether that was ever actually required, or whether it’s totally optional like jumping in Dark Souls.
The PS4 trophies are pretty messed up for that game. When I reached the final boss, I realized that I had only one trophy and wondered whether they were all for doing secret things. Just then, I was awarded one for beating the game with 100% in a few areas. I did have those things, but I had not yet actually beaten the game. (I don’t care about the trophies. I just thought it was funny that almost none of them work at all.)
What I had intended to say here was simply that I also enjoyed being able to explore outside the normal areas and find hidden rooms and see the glitch effect. I’m glad I didn’t know ahead of time that this was possible and I’d like to see more of that sort of thing in games.
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the ability to jump two tiles isn’t exactly required but I think a lot of puzzles kind of expect you to rely on this from time to time. I feel like this is meant as a deliberate reference to link’s awakening where something similar was kind of possible? if I recall?
anyway it’s totally worth finding all the extra hidden stuff! there’s a lot of it! some of it is really weird and unnerving! honestly finding all of that (I did use a guide for some of it) was easily the highlight of the game for me.
I agree with your criticisms – the writing is kind of juvenile at times and it isn’t always so charming, but I also think the sort of edginess it possesses is critical to the parts of the game that are more effective and interesting so idk. the atmosphere is so good throughout that it more than makes up for its shortcomings.
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I retract this statement I am glad I played the original first because some of the callbacks were definitely worth it plus that game stands alone quite well in its own right.
This game is great. I feel kinda bad I got it for free through Epic so I guess I’ll just buy their next game assuming they make one. Lord, if they made an Anodyne 3 what would that even look like? A Gamecube game? The mind boggles a little bit.
I think there is a tiny bit of make-work in this one, but I forgive it. It’s so generous otherwise. There are a few incredible sequences; the whole part where you go into that isometric horror bit after the goofy upside-down Dolphin was inspired and such a surprise. I also find a surprising number of the characters really endearing.
I liked the writing! I thought most of the jokes landed quite well. Maybe the part where Nova gets stuck in Dustbound Village for a while goes on tad longer than it should have but whatever. Oh God, the playroom that Pallisade built for Nova that she mistakes for some kind of ritual site – I’m in an emotionally vulnerable state at the moment but I could have cried because that’s so damn sad.
One thing though, that seemed like a plot hole: The Dust Assassins just sort of stop showing up, and there’s never much of an explanation of them. Just another group of folks living outside the influence of The Center?
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I have not yet read much of this thread because I was waiting for the console release. Which was yesterday.
https://store.playstation.com/en-ca/product/UP0891-PPSA02701_00-RATALAIKANODYNE2
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I played Anodyne 2 over the past two evenings. I got the bad ending and then the good one. I like both art styles and the music. This game made me think of Crypt Worlds at times. As with Anodyne 1, the writing bugged me in places but never got too obnoxious.
One thing I appreciate in a video game is when I really can’t predict what’s going to happen, and this definitely has that quality. This sort of thing:
Nora’s story surprised me and was my favorite part of the game. Jarring in a good way, like the pigs in Paper Mario 2.
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I think I will be soon playing this one on the Switch. It looks the perfect platform for Anodyne 2, to me.
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