Good Game Design - The Messenger: Defying Expectations
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- čas přidán 13. 09. 2024
- The Messenger looks like a simple 8-bit homage, but it has SO much more going on under the surface. Let's talk about why it's one of the most unique games in years.
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The shopkepper calling me an animal since we didn't open the map yet was the peak of entertainment at that point.
I loved what he said right after the Messenger told him he didn't have a map: "Are you kidding me?". It reminded me so much of when guys like the Game Grumps make it so far into a game without knowing one of the basic mechanics.
ThePoltergust5000 if you think Game Gumps is crazy with no realyzing things, in the spanish speaking comunity we have folagor, a pokemon youtuber that thought ice was superefective against water and forgot that grass tipes are weak to fire tipes.
@@alecity4877 Wow that's really on another level! I don't have anything at that level from the italian youtube but I remember when I was watching Sabaku's Dark Souls 2 Blind run and right at the start of the game he entered into a coffin to see if it would bring him to a secret lair like in DS 1. It changed his character's sex. He's so focused on the armor stats anytime he's changing armor that he noticed like 20 episodes (of more than an hour each) later.
that's hilarious, i actually have encountered with italian gameplayers searching for some videogames, and i don't know if it is dificult to italians to have content variety in their language, it's something i need to ask ¿what kind of comunity do you have?
PD: i'm responding very late, because I have been without internet for a couple days.
I could talk to the shopkeeper all day. The level design, though... meh. This game had a great deal of potential, but poor level design really dragged it down.
I lost my fricking MIND when I realized that they just turned the level-based platformer into a Metroidvania. I literally sat there staring at the map and realizing what just happened in absolute awe. These geniuses. They did it.
...Is every metroidvania not based in platforming?
IceGear55 no
IceGear55 a metroidvania is a platformer that let's you walk around the world as you please, making sure you explore a lot to get upgrades to progress in different places.
@@dominik94rausch siema
I didn’t quite realize it at first until I suddenly found another path into the catacombs.
I haven’t finished it yet...but I will.
the interactions with the shopkeeper were the best part of the game
I enjoyed the stories, and enjoyed basically every dialog bit.
saddest part is when the big Super Cyclops Bros™ died in such a peaceful position
rafresenden rafresenden. Its fun as hell
Thank you for sharing the top comment of every messenger video.
This is the truth.
In the original marketing for Bloodborne everyone assumed it was simply a werewolf hunting beast themed From soft game. It wasn't until serveral hours in that everyone found out underneath it all was the BEST Lovecraftian horror game ever!
Beat me to it. This is my favorite game and that shift once you get to Rom and then Yahargul is soooo cool
@@mmmmmmmtoast exept the one part where a million assholes get on your ass at once!
wait really woow (i never played it)
@@superdrapekmaan2273 Yeah, it's incredible.
didnt everyone already know it would be an awesome game because it is from software though?
That "Aha! gotcha punk" moment when you check the cabinet while he isn''t in the room is like a 10 minute dialogue of him just popping in and eventually giving you a huge speech on what your curiosity says. And it's honestly one of my favorite gaming moments of all time.
Ori, Undertale, Nier:Automata, Hollow Knight, Hat in Time all were games that I went into with really high expectations and still managed to leave me dumbfounded in one way or another...
Hollow knight was the one that subverted my expectations rather than exceeding them. I was expecting a 6 hour Axiom verge/ori and the blind forest like experience, but the map was HUGE. It turned out to be several time longer and bigger than I expected it to be. Making it a completely different experience than I was expecting.
I bought Ori and the Blind Forest and Hollow Knight because everyone raved about them but especially in Hollow Knight you wander around for hours per 5 minutes of action. It's really dull, and you can't dip in and out of it with spaced out play sessions as it's very obtuse as to what you're meant to do so if you wait to long to play it again, you'll forget what your next objective is and have to restart the whole game. Oh well, I never liked metroidvanias before, and I bought these to try and make myself like them, but they do nothing for me. The only one I've ever slightly enjoyed is AM2R, partly because it's quite easy to work out where to go and there's always action happening in every room, you're always actually doing stuff while wandering for hours.
I don't know whether to try The Messenger. The mechanics of it look really fun, but I was so disappointed to hear it's yet another metroidvania. Its incredibly difficult to find indie 2d platformers these days that AREN'T metroidvanias, because it's the cheaper and quicker way to make levels, so lazy devs use it to save time on development. But I'm sick of them. Ever since Shovel Knight I've been trying to find any modern game that is comparable in quality to it. But good luck trying to find other old fashioned platformers other than Shovel Knight, Sonic Mania and the new Rayman games.
duffman18 exploring and navigating is the action in metroidvanias
@@toowiggly I know, that's why I don't like them. If other people do then that's great, and these games a brilliant for them, I don't have a problem with that. I just wish they didn't exist at the expense of far fewer regular 2D platformers. Weirdly I love exploring in 3D games though. Like I bought NieR Automata recently and it's fun to wander around for hours in that doing nothing. I never knew metroidvania games existed as a kid in the 90s though, so I have no nostalgia for them, and they bore me to death if they're 2D games
@@duffman18 You might like Curse of the Moon! It's basically a Modern Castlvania 3. Unless you don't like pre-PS1 Castlevania! Or Megaman 11 next month, unless you also don't like Megaman!
Mine would be Hollow Knight, expected pretty standard indie metroidvania stuff but got some of the hardest bosses and best subtle storytelling I've seen
Not to mention the top notch atmosphere
Hollow knight was perfect
Yup.
The messenger was more twisty and turnt but Hollow Knight was more atmospheric and felt really good to play
The backtracking in the messenger was the only thing that annoyed me
Well except for the green disc thing I The the fire skyland
I litterally bought Hollow knight because it was on sale, looked nice and got good ratings, i didn't even know what a metroidvania is. I had absolutely no expectations, not even what the gameplay could be. Since then, i completed everything in the game and it became one of my favourite games of all times, so i can say it exceeded my expectations.
Frog fractions, obviously
That, and Doki Doki Literature Club.
Frog what
@@lrgogo1517 my friend, i suggest you play frog fractions for yourself. As a kid i loaded it up on my pc because i thought it was just a fraction game but boy is it a wild ride.
@@thefungus3632 Any content warnings?
@@lrgogo1517 just play it
Kid Icarus Uprising is a game that turned out really different from what I expected, and ended up being one of my favorite games.
I was expecting it to be fairly short, as rail shooters typically are, and I didn't expect the ground sections to be anything special. But the ground combat turned out to be an extremely unique take on third-person shooters that demands skillful play on higher difficulties. Like Smash, it's not as shallow as its simplicity makes it appear at face value - something I should've expected given how it was made by Sakurai, but didn't.
On top of the core gameplay being great, I didn't expect the crazy amount of replay value. There are a ton of weapons that require different play styles, plus the Diablo-like loot system means they can have different buffs, plus you can fuse them to make new weapons with new buffs, plus there's the difficulty slider so you can try levels on higher and higher difficulties to get better loot. You can just keep playing the game forever.
And I didn't really expect anything out of it story-wise; from what they showed, it looked like they were pretty much retreading the original game without actually being a remake, like Super Metroid to Metroid, or Ocarina of Time to Link to the Past. You're gonna collect the Three Sacred Treasures, use them to beat Medusa, roll credits.
And... well, you do.
But then Hades - a character who wasn't even mentioned in pre-release promotional material - tears through the credits and reveals that no, actually _he's_ the main villain, and you're _far_ from done with the game. And the story just goes nuts from there. You never know what's gonna happen next. One level will just be like, "And then aliens invaded!" and everyone just kinda goes with it. And then it keeps going and going. It winds up feeling like Sakurai shoved an entire trilogy into the game to make up for lost time, but they avoided showing two entire thirds of the game in any promotional material. It's like if they shoved the stories of A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi into one movie, but only advertised it as A New Hope.
Probably the most surprising thing about the game, though, was the writing. It's funny, it's charming, it's cheesy, and I love pretty much every single character with a speaking role. Considering how rarely we get Nintendo games where story and writing are a major focus, and how even more rarely we get one of those with voice acting, and how the most recent one as of 2012 was Other M, I absolutely did not expect to care at all about the game's story and characters.
Anyway, I've kinda lost the plot in my babbling about how much I love this game. Basically Uprising did something similar to The Messenger where they intentionally withheld information about what the game actually was before release, so it was a big surprise when you reached that point and realized there was actually way more to the game than you expected. Except in The Messenger's case it's more of a gameplay revelation, whereas in Kid Icarus's case it's more of a plot revelation.
I remember playing Uprising for the first time, getting ready to go to sleep after beating Medusa, thinking "yeah, this is a nice game, but way too short."
and then that scene happened.
Holy shit, my expectations were blown out of the water. I was absolutely amazed at what had just happened, and from there, that game went from "this is okay" to possibly one of my favorite Nintendo games of all time.
Kevin Stevens I’ll never forget how chapter 18 “ the ring” caught me off guard. Even after the whole Hades plot reveal I still expected a straight forward plot. Then they just drop a major time skip like that? Uprising sure was something special
ring of chaos is unbelievably good
I immediately thought of Kid Icarus: Uprising too! I still can't believe I read the Iwata Asks article though where it reveals there's more after you think it's done...I was just so hungry for more information, but it ruined the initial surpise. Luckily it didn't ruin all of it, because the surprises kept coming!
I totally agreed, its one of the games that made me cry at the end... and not because it was sad. But because of how hard I had tried to get through to there
Cave Story is a game that exceeded my expectations in that area. I didn't know too much about the game before buying it, but I was super surprised and pleased when I played through it and saw how deep and touching the story was. It made you really feel for the characters.
Hmm.. Might look into it
Weird, I absolutely DESPISED that game, I had low expectations and it was in a genre I loved, but the game feels soulless and unfinished.
@@leaffen9616 Unfinished? Not at all. Did it feel soulless? Yeah, but that's exactly what made it feel so different to other games I had played. That's why it stood out. The soullessness was almost eerie.
Agreed.
I went into Cave Story with very low expectations, because although people near-constantly praised it, I never heard anything of the story, so I figured it was either bad or non-existant.
Wow was I surprised when I actually got emotionally invested in [SPOILERS] [SO MUCH SPOILERS] and [SPOILERS FOR LIKE THE END OF THE GAME].
The game that blew my expectations out of the water was definitely spec ops the line. I was expecting a modern military shooter, I got... ptsd?
Exactly, that game blew my mind.. too bad it never got the love & attention it deserved
I'm so glad people still reference this game. I just got done beating it and was blow away as well.
Story good, gameplay mediocre, though maybe that was the point
Okage: Shadow King is a pretty standard jRPG that's pretty funny (me and my friends liked to refer to it as knockoff Earthbound), but it has a plot twist halfway through that threw us for a huge loop. Pretty big spoilers if you plan on playing the game.
Basically, the entire game you deal with the fact that your party is basically full of stereotypes. The classic overzealous warrior, the kooky mad scientist, the buff guy obsessed with his muscles, the evil overlord who loves to kick puppies, etc. But slowly over time they start to break out of their molds and become closer and closer to multifacted characters.
And then the plot twist happens; you learn that the entire world is made by the villain, a fabrication of a fantasy world for his daughter to play in. He's effectively brainwashed everyone in the world using his power of classification, so that they're forced to stick to jRPG tropes. And the only reason that your party changes at all is because the main character is so shockingly dull that he was ignored and never given a classification. Because he was never brainwashed, he was able to help the others break out of it.
It was honestly a shocking twist, especially because up until that point the game doesn't have much of a plot at all.
Thanks for the write-up, I'll look into playing it. I stopped just after the part where you started describing the twist, I'm sold and hope I only spoiled myself a little by reading that far into your comment :)
A Hat in Time.
It had everything I could've wanted from a spiritual successor to 3D platformers of yesteryear and more. The tone and humor were by far the most memorable things I took away from the game.
^^ Yeah boiiiiiiiiiiii
Ehhh
Nice! I need to get back to this when I'm less busy. I stopped RIGHT after it becomes a metroidvania.
Why
@@ardi1463 Too many other games atm that took precedence over it. (Dragon quest 11, Spider man, and some others)
So, did you play it?
Mother 3 is a good example of a game that subverts expectations. It first looks like a cute kid game with the blond kid from Smash. Next after and hour or so you learn of X's demise, it is so unexpectected and hit right in the feels. And soon you learn it is only the beginning of a tragic tale of unlucky people.
I second this, Mother 3 is by far my favorite game from a storytelling standpoint. At first it's all happy and cheery, but by the time you encounter the first boss, you know you're in for a ride. Plus, the gameplay is amazing in every way, from the tried and true scrolling health that you can influence by healing quickly, to pressing A to the beat of the battle theme for a combo when selecting Bash. Play it, you won't regret it, people of the comment section!
A Link to the Past defied my expectations, because I was sure I had seen everything and beaten the final boss after getting those three medaillons. I should have known better when I got to Ocarina of Time, because that game managed to do it again.
Same with Link Between Worlds. I completly forgot the title and was amazed when I was sent into Lorule. Chrono Trigger got me the same way at least two times, incredible.
@@coxeruntquefarinam2907 What about tales of symphonia, you reach the final dungeon thinking you are about to beat the game and then you are sent to a second world as big as the first one LOL
Bioshock 1 introduced itself as a typical "zombie-esque" horror game with potential jumpscares. Ooooh how wrong I was.
Fallen Freak Productions Yeeees Bioshock!!!
Definitely Nier Automata.
Just thought it would be a fun action-rpg playing a nice looking girl smashing robots, and ohhh god how not important all this thing is.
I would have NEVER expected this game to be so clever, deep, impressing and creative.
It turned from my typical "I do have my week off" game to my all-time favorite.
Oh? I wanted to get it, but don't have $60 to spare T.T
The story and gameplay looks soooo fun though!!
@@ajhintleman215 You can easily find it for much cheaper now honestly. And believe me it's worth the money.
I really, really wouldn't say the story is "fun" though... but don't spoil yourself. Really.
I tend to forget sometimes that Nier Automata is people's FIRST experience with anything Yoko Taro.
@@ParrotMan01276 i heard of his other works before and already played a bit of DoD1 and Nier 1 (so I didn't have any deep knowledge on them, I wasn't even aware that DoD and Nier were the same story) but Automata was my first Taro game I finished.
(And of course I went to finish everything else after, even DoD2 true ending)
This game is fantastic and I 100% agree with everything you said. Best Good Game Design episode yet and definitely a game worth buying.
Agreed.
"What game became a classic because it defied expectations?" - For me that game was Danganronpa. It was my first ever visual novel that got me into the genre as a whole, only to then find out that every other visual novel isn't a game, it's a book on a computer. Danganronpa is the visual novel with the most gameplay, and that makes it special, but that's not why I liked it. Across all 4 games, the plot twists were so mind blowing I just had to keep playing. It's an amazing game and I would recommend it to absolutely anyone.
Good Plot? You mean 11037?
Laks what could these numbers mean? How about we ask the ultimate programmer?
@@scootingspagoot275 WHAT ARE THE NUMBERS, MASON? WHAT DO THEY MEAN?
Super Mario RPG for me. I was floored by Mario 64 and thought the pseudo 3D graphics of SMRPG was going to lead to a similar experience since I wasn't going to ask my parents to buy me a new system just for one game. Needless to say 6 year old me was confused when I popped that cartridge in. While the concept of moving in 8 directions was there, the action was not what I expected, and I initially found myself putting the game down. Fast forward a year and after getting my fill of SM64 I revisited my SNES to compare again, this time I spent time actually getting into it since my reading comprehension had improved and I found myself loving the game more than SM64. On top of that it opened up the genre of RPG's in general which lead to the whole catalog of SNES RPG's which preoccupied a large amount of my elementary school years. Good times spent with like minded friends that I wouldn't trade for the world.
To answer your question, that easily has to be The End is Nigh, Edmund's game from last year. I remember you talking about it in one of your videos last year. What happens in the future areas of that game blew my mind, and it made everything you do in the game make so much more sense. So good that I made my 45-minute video on it and named it my GOTY.
Dang. I know you gave a spoiler warning, I wish I listened. I was sitting here thinking "yeah, right, how important could the story be in a Ninja Gaiden clone?"
Turns out, really important, oops. Oh well, thanks for the great video anyway. Definitely going to have to get this game.
I think you should still play it, I didnt spoil everything, there's still a lot under the surface. I think the goal was to spoil some in order to intrigue those that did think it was much more simple than it was
@@snomangaming I didn't mean to imply I wasn't going to play it now. You definitely succeeded in making me want to play it more. I was already sold on just the idea of a Ninja Gaiden clone, but planned to wait for a sale. I probably won't do that now and will just pick it up once I'm done with the games I'm currently playing.
I did the same and waited two years, so that all I can remember is "Snoman did a video on this game" and none of the spoilers
@@idk-cc1ep smart move !
I’ve seen a lot of hate for this game I just did not get. The mechanics feel amazing and the challenges are fair and make you feel like you really know the game.
I guess it's mainly because the second part of the game was poorly handled
Also the time travel mechanic was severly under-used, the plot shift direction for no reason at the end, which culminate into a pretty unsatisfying and rushed conclusion
There is also lesser complaints like the reward for all the seals of power being shit, the lack of depth and usage from most of the gimmick mechanics unique to certain worlds, the ability tree being a bit out of place,...
Have you played it?
While I do agree with some of what he said, they aren't nearly as bad as they are made out to be. Problematic yes, but also not too much so.
The second half was rather annoying at times, like SNowman mentioned there are only some teleporter locations and trecking all the way back to a location(the damn bridge or Mushroom marsh) was a pain. The time travel was perfectly fine, though sometimes it could be annoying when you needed to be in one timeline, but the only swap point was several rooms away. The story was great, and the "plot shift" as he called it was clearly telegraphed from the start if you know what to look for, although the literal final scene was something of a sudden stop. Not bad, but it just leaves a less than satisfying taste in your mouth.
I agree the Power seal reward was rather shitty, but also a lot of people, including me, enjoyed getting them anyways because of the challenge of getting them, not the reward for doing so. Most gimmicks in the game were also only found in worlds after the first linear half of the game, so no wonder they don't appear in other worlds. And others do say the ability tree is kind of weird, but I rather liked it, even if almost all upgrades are useful so there is no real "Best" upgrades to rush to in second palythroughs
you've seen alot of hate for this game? Where? I loved it and only seen people liking it.
Steam discussions early after it's release. the first week or so was messy, with a lot of people screaming about rather small stuff.
Subverting expectations: Night in the Woods. I knew it was going to have a good story, but I did not anticipate how incredible the story, characters, art direction, and soundtrack would be. It is one of my favorite games of all time.
It's funny that you mention Evoland, because while that one is a linear progreasion through time, I'm pretty sure that Evoland II did use the time shifting in a similar way to The Messenger.
And Evoland 2 would be one of those games I wouldn't have expected to love so much.
@@InsanityForce Couldn't agree more
@Farm of Potatoesraising Evoland 2. I don't see how you'd interpret it as sarcasm ?
Fun fact: evoland 2 is not a sequel to evoland despite being named like it is
Ive been waiting for this video! I bought The Messenger like a day after it came out snd had a BLAST. I even left a comment saying you should do a video. And even though you probably didnt see it, I'm glad thst you made one.
I went blind into undertale and was so blown away by the ability to spare monsters and that if you restarted some remembered the previous save.
Doki Doki litterature Club. My friends more or less forced me to have a try and I was simply blown away.
As for a game that crushed my expectations... well, Undertale. It's probably the lamest answer since everyone knows about it but that's the first one that came to my mind.
Same here.
Me too
@George Henry Well it looks like someone never actually played it
The only reason anyone gets annoyed by people who bring up Undertale is because some of the fanbase become annoyingly obsessive, but that pretty much happens to everything popular. Anyone who has given that game a chance will probably be able to appreciate it.
Bioshock and Bioshock Infinite too, for AAA examples
For me the obvious answer is Spec Ops: The Line. There's little I can say that hasn't already been said about it but the execution of the whole theme was something that hit hard even tho it was actually spoiled for me before I played it the first time.
The other really big game that fucked my expectations was MGS2: Sons of Liberty. The entire game was crafted to get people hyped for another Solid Snake adventure only to then thrust Raiden in their face. Also the way the entire game breaks down on level towards the end is something that would be perfect in a horror game (RIP Silent Hills). Kojima and his team knew exactly what they were doing when they made that game and its themes have only gotten more relevant since its release. Because of its relevance it actually surpassed MGS3 Snake Eater in my book recently.
What's even nicer in Spec Ops is how they made it seamless. Like how your character orders more violently over time without you totally realizing. The first half of the game, you feel uneasy without totally knowing why.
Jean-Philippe Ouellette The facial expression of Walker also changes over the course of the game going from standard combat on-edgeness to severe PTSD. By the end of the game he has that thousand yard stare.
I also really love that the game has a constant downward motion throughout its levels. Geographically it doesn't make any sense that in pretty much every level you repel from something, fall down somewhere, climb down what-have-you but thematically it fits perfectly.
Braid is one of the first examples of a game providing context for the gameplay via narrative - not just the text, but environmental and interactive narrative as well.
Spec Ops: The line. Never thought It was going to switch to full psychological horror.
Broforce totally defied my expectations. I never expected such a humorous take on the names and traits of major action heroes and the kind of chaotic, explosive and bombastic gameplay it offered. The music was super cool too. Broforce was kinda like The Messenger but in another genre. For me, it ticked all the boxes of what makes a game fun to play, just like The Messenger here.
Iconoclasts for me this year. It said it was a Metroidvania, but I didn't expect such beautiful sprite work, powerful narrative, and amazing soundtrack, all made by one man. In fact, you convinced me to get that game, Sno on your "You Should Play This" months ago.
Personally, the game that blew my mind when I played it the very first time (when it actually came out) was Chronno Trigger. At first I believed it was going to be just a Final Fantasy game with time travel gimmick. But it was so much more. Everything about it blew my mind. How the fights took place in the actual stages, how the main character died and you could actually complete the game with him still dead, how you could do a bunch of side quests or simply ignore them, and the side quests building up the story in ways that they don't usually do.
Hollow Knight, I only got this game because I thought it had a cool aesthetic but the bosses blew my mind and I fell in love with it
Ahh that 16-bit music is so delightfully Mega Drive-y!
Thank you for taking the time to explain this game's hidden depths. It seemed interesting judging from the trailer but I didn't really have an incentive to buy it (although that soundtrack was definitely on my buy list). It's now a definite purchase!
This game need a Oscar for it's Design, Gameplay and Music. I need a sequel badly
Evoland 2 is much more interesting than Evoland 1. It uses the different graphical eras as part of a memorable story, instead of just a quick upgrade like in the first one.
Furi. I never expected such a strong narrative with equally strong quotes in a boss rush game.
Journey, although it’s not quite like you’re saying.
I went in thinking it was a 2d platformer.
...
Yeah.
I was surprised when it was 3D, and due to this I was genuinely interested in seeing the different landscapes in 3D since I’d only ever seen them in 2D.
It was awesome.
I really loved Ori and the Blind Forest, due to how beautiful it was in every aspect, how backtracking was fun, the challenge (Wall Jump can eat a girder) and the ending, which almost brought me to tears. Also, despite being released three-ish years prior, it was still amazing-looking in 2018.
Nier Automata, expected shallow hack n slash game, but had such a in depth character developing storyline
I've played The Messenger and loved its everything. Undertale is also a game that expertly subverted expectations with it's meta narrative. That's the reason the game became so popular in the first place.
For me, it's Lethal League Blaze, but not because it had a hidden twist or anything like that. I knew what I was getting into: A Smash Bros/Pong hybrid with a 90s street art aesthetic. What did surprise me was the amount of polish and depth contained in the game. Bunting, parrying, throwing, special attacks and much, much more makes every match feel like a high-stakes mind game. You have to think fast and predict your opponent's next move, or you get obliterated. At the same time, It's easy to pick up due to it's core gameplay being rather simple. Hit the ball and send it flying at your opponent.
I personally like the 16-bit soundtracks. Reminds me of playing Sega Genesis again.
Yes VERY genesis style soundfonts
Demon' Souls really surprised me back then. I remember being like; "this is like a generic medieval game." looking at videos then a customer (I'm manager at an indie game store) brought his japanes import copy and told me to pkay it. God I'm happy I did. Messenger holds something even more special for French Canadians, the makers being from Québec themselves put French as a language but also Québecois which will have characters use French Canadian slang which helps the "down to earth" feel of the game so much!
Conkers Bad Fur Day on N64. Just think, it was first made as a Banjo-Kazooie clone and some didnt get the memo that the whole thing had changed.
A lot of parents probably bought that without knowing XD
I love your channel so much for videos like this! I've never even heard of this game, but now want to play it so bad!
The system of swapping between two worlds is also in Guacamelee.
in the beginning, I was a bit boared but stayed for shopkeeper, but then came the tower and man, i do not regret continuing
Easily death road to Canada. Started it thinking it would be a generic zombie game, but I learned how fun and funny it is. An easy favorite
also it helps that it has, no spoilers for when, but there is a giant canadian mounty robot!
4:28 I loved this so much, because it turns everything you just did and went through into a prologue for the *REAL* adventure. And I never watched that trailer, I saw some of a boss run and thought it looked fun, so they got me with this hook, line, and sinker.
I went into Cave Story thinking it was just some generic Game Maker game because I had never heard of it before I got it from a lower tier in Humble Bundle back in the day but fell in love the moment I got to the first fight against Balrog for it's unique gun leveling mechanic, the music, and the dialogue. Now it's one of my favourite games and I have bought it at least five times
Sadly by the time I went in to Cave Story I was basically spoiled top to bottom about the game so I didn't really get the authentic Cave Story experience. Still, I'll be damned if it isn't one of the best platformers I've ever played. The characters were charming, the twists were insane, even after knowing about them, the combat is simple yet packed with a ton of depth and the platforming is near perfect. My only complaints are that sometimes I feel the game can be really cryptic and obtuse with things (cough trying to get the best ending cough). Other than that, phenomenal game (haven't finished it yet though, the last 3 bosses are painful).
There's a game called Rime that I really loved because of the twist at the end that made you rethink what the entire game was about
Celeste was a huge surprise for me, I just wanted a fun 2d platformer and I got such an amazing and emotional story that it became easly one of my favorites games.
played the Messenger and gotta say, 10/10 game
the soundtrack, the story, the shopkeeper
everything
Enter the gungeon gave me that same sense. Just thought it was going to be a run of the mill top down shooter, little did I know there was a lot that went into it weather if it's the corks the references are the overall gameplay. Love it
I never watched a trailer, my friend gave my a code for the game to review, I only knew it's some kind of hard-as-hell Ninja Gaiden-clone. Boy, was I clueless. When I got to the end of the 8-bit part before switching eras first, I thought to myself, what an excellently crafted game it was, not realizing it only just began. When it first switched to 16-bit I ran around in the room like crazy, screaming. I lost my fucking mind. The Messenger is one of my favourite games ever and it will stay that way, every aspect of this title is masterfully executed.
Undertale was the most consistently shocking game I've played. My first run was pacifist only without knowing anything about the game's plot or structure.
And then there was the final boss.
Come to think of it, the only other game I can think of to reach this level of consistent subversion in direction was when I played Paper Mario TTYD for the first time as a kid.
Finally grabbed this in last Black Friday and just now beat it. Thanks Snoman, this would have totally flown under my radar without your recommendation. Good stuff.
Pyre from Supergiant Games was like that, I kinda knew it was going to be good because of Supergiant's other games, so I removed any expectations I could have (Pyre being marketed as a sport/storytelling game, not at all genres I'd give even a try) and just went for it, and was blown away right out of the gate.
After Transistor was so good (the first time I beat it I honestly went through it an entire second time in the same sitting) I tried not to get my hopes up too high for Pyre. Obviously it's a beautiful and unique game, but it had its fair share of troubling issues. It was one of those games where every time I scored, it didn't feel very satisfying, and every time I got scored on it felt really dodgy/cheap -- but I stuck around because I loved the characters and had to see how it ended.
Cant wait till The Messenger 2 comes out, and we go all the way into real life level graphics
Okami blew my expectations. I thought the game was done after beating Orochi, only to realize that this was more of a long winded tutorial.
I once bought Pyre for its artstyle but never actually played it until I had nothing else to do but play it, and I was hooked from the artstyle and the storytelling that I think are awesome and really start only after a while of playing the game.
Celeste was that game for me, I loved towerfall so I expected a good ass platformer by the same creator but I didn't expect to cry my eyes out with the story
Kingdom Hearts crushed my expectations. I thought it would be a weird weekend rental, but it's now become a nearly two-decade obsession.
Completed the game last week, and man. I've been waiting for this game since i played Ninja Gaiden. I've never understood why no indie developer had made a ninja gaiden inspired game yet. We have so many old school inspired indie games but not Ninja Gaiden? Best action platformer ever.
Only complaint is that i wish the game was a bit harder, especially the second part.
2 years later and I finally played this masterpiece, thanks Snodude.
I've been watching the stuff you put out for a while now and I gotta say, you're getting real good at this! Love to seeing the content and seeing you grow with it, keep it up!
the tank tops are really bad tho, sorry...
The tank tops are core to this channel
I wish for a world without slogans on shirts, where people learn to express themselves with their choice of fabric, cut and color and not shitty screen printed quotes 👨⚖️
I went into this game not expecting much, hadn't watched anything on it, went in totally blind. Then it easily became one of my favorite games of the recent years.
I guess I ........need to play it
Yeah gonna buy this one for sure
If you like platformers, you absolutely should.
@@bjarkibjarkibjarki Is the story or the plot twist better
Kevin McCabe hmmm well I kinda don't know, so rip.
There are god knows how many reasons why this is in my top 5 favorite games of all time
nier automata became my favorite game because of how unexpectedly outstanding it was.
It blew my mind when I saw the ninja in his 16-bit outfit and in the cloud ruins for the first time in 16-bit, with that YM2612-like soundchip kicking in and a badass stage theme playing in the background.
Metal Gear Solid was a doozy when I first played it. Remember the part where the player finds out where Octopus was the whole time? Blew me away
Iconoclasts was a game I was interested in because I liked metroidvanias, I did not expect one of the best stories in any game I ever played and my current favorite boss of all time.
I just love how youtube now hides the release date
I bought The Messenger because of this video. Absolutely no regrets, it was amazing.
I play relatively unknown or forgotten games anyway but a couple that cone to mind and they all deserve more love:
Rodea the Sky Soldier on the wii - a really interesting take on what i would call a platformer considering you can fly indefinitely in the wii version
Graffiti Kingdom and Magic Pengel on ps2 - as someone who is pretty creative, these games called out to me since you have complete creative freedom to create what ever monsters you want or could imagine.
God hand on ps2 - never had a chance to play it nor looked into it except for the music, currently playing it, I've fallen in love with the combat system and characters
Future Tactics uprising on gamecube - basically valkyria chronicles on ps2/gamecube without the permadeath and much harder, great characters, okay story, fantastic place in my mind
And Tokyo Mirage Sessions on wii u - went in with no expectations, but that battle system is one of the best in any RPG regardless if you like or hate the game
Rodea might legitimately have the best use of the Wii remote controls, and if came out after the system was already dead packaged in with an inferior version of itself for a completely different console. That game has the most absurd release history, and I love it.
Dragon Quest Builders 2 became an instant classic for me. It blew me away how much character and humor they put into a story that could have been just a block game. So much of it is memorable, and at the end of it all, they STILL let you build with complete freedom.
Messenger look’s like it’s straight from the snes library
Just watching the boss fights where the music and graphics switched from each jump and sword clash blew my fuckin mind. Growing up through both the 8 bit and 16 bit era made me appreciate this immensely.
These people clearly poured soooooo much love and talent into the Messenger. If they ever wanted to do a sequel I honestly have no idea how they would top this. They did do an expansion DLC that was fantastic as well.
Okay, I'm convinced, gotta buy it
I remember watching the first few minutes of this video years ago now, and thinking "oh this game looks cool! I'll be sure to play it then I'll finish the video". Cut back to to today and I've finally played and finished the game! XD it's just as great as you say, thank you for inspiring me to play it!
While I’m trying to play dead cells and hyper light drifter right now, I really need to play this sometime
drop HLD for this, in retrospect it was a very unfulfilling game.
9:51, I’m going back some time, but Lost Vikings. It wasn’t at all what I thought it was going to be and I just fell head over heels for it.
This and Celeste are easily the two best games I've played so far this year and both of them defied expectations in their own unique ways. Really can't stress enough how far a little creativity goes nowadays.
I was amazed when I bought Shovel Knight (before the Treasure Trove relabel) to find that there were two more games in there with a third one on its way. I came in for a mega man hommage, and came out with Mega man, Metroid, NES Batman and Wario Land all for $30.
because of AKindAleWar i thought this game was generic 8 bit nostalgia fuel
No, its a generic 8 bit attempt at being nostalgia fuel, failing at even that point. Ale was right sadly.
Maybe ale didn't made it to the twist. Did he mentioned the twist on the review? I can't remember.
AKindAleWar from my hindsight just shits on everything new and trending so I'm not going to bother listening to him.
I don't trust Ale, he's come off as just generally non-sensical to me. Too much ranting, not enough actual analysis.
That being said, many people really haven't enjoyed this game. He could be right in this case
Despite my previous comment writing off Ale, I don't find The Messenger that great.
The Messenger in my opinion was just 'good' enough for me to complete. The metroidvania part of the game was annoying especially when you don't get any noteworthy abilities BESIDES ONE, for certain levels.
You were basically wandering around in order to find more levels, then back to the hub and back to backtracking to find more levels.
More levels? Awesome.
Backtracking, when it really could've stayed linear like the first hour and kept me just as hype?
Not so awesome.
Oh yeah, and it was (especially the last level) pretty damn easy. Vast majority of the bosses could be done in one take, and majority went "I'm gonna give you a telegraphed sequence of attacks, then pause to let you smash me!" 5 times over..
To answer your question at the end: The Unfinished Swan is probably my favourite game that seemingly subverted expectations this way. While the perspective and art style didn't really change, the way you used the main mechanic managed to change up pretty frequently, and the tone changed drastically. At first I thought it was just about a kid travelling in a magical kingdom, but by the end I thought it was a meta-story about the nature of unfinished and abandoned art pieces, and living under the shadow of others' expectations of you based on that unfinished piece. I highly recommend it!
Celeste was my surprise of the year, as I was not expected such a well told story in a platformer ,the level design surpassed all my expectations,and oh god that music.The messenger is going to be at least top 3 for me this year
Same, Celeste was far beyond my expectations as well!
For me, it was Oneshot. I found it, because steam recommended it to me and i was bored. And gosh, downloading this game was the best decision i've ever made! It's still my favorite game of all time!
Personally, when I bought Bleed 2, I thought it was just gonna be a normal platformer.
Yeah, it was much more.
I knew something was up when I noticed that the early areas were designed to run to the right and to the left. I figured it meant that there would be an extended Super Metroid style escape sequence or that The Messenger would have to return to the beginning of the game. Well played.
Beyond good and evil
I’ve never been sold on a game because of a CZcams video, but I think I want this game now. Thanks man.
Fam I just realized the snoman in snoman gaming doesn't have a w
It would be Elex for me. The game that defies my expectations thus making me love it. It starts off nice & cozy, like RPGs generally do but unlike pretty much all the other RPGs, the safe starting area isn't nearly enough to gain any combat prowess worth talking about. Instead, it forces me to venture out into the harsh world where a) everything is out to kill me and b) everything is more than capable of killing me for completing quests from bespoke starting area. The more rewarding the game feels once you grow up.