Crystal Towers 2 XL Progress update 4

[davidn]

I've finished my first pass through the updated game! The new version is completable from start to finish now and it's really been helped by the screen size change. So far I've talked about the graphical updates for Crystal Towers 2, but there were also some things about the gameplay that needed addressing. So let's talk about how the magic system

Comments

[xaq]

Excellent. I have to admit, constantly having to recast Double-Jump or Dash over and over (and over and over and over and over and over) again was a bit tedious. o_O;

[kjorteo]

I kind of knew that making Double Jump permanent had to be on the agenda somewhere, because the need for it was as obvious as the need for more than one spell slot was last time. Still, that being said, allow me to reply to the official confirmation with an equally official thank God.

Though, are Double Jump, Dash, Teleport, and Draw the only four always-on abilities to be converted in this manner? All of those are excellent and I can't thank you enough for them, of course :) but I would make an argument that something should be done about the "oh, fine, let me pause and bring out the spell just to cast it once and put it back" inconvenience potential of Lock, especially since the doors respawn and you have to do it every time.

[davidn]

I need to consider where to draw that line... if the 'key' spells are context-sensitive as well, that doesn't leave a whole lot left! I think that my problem was that I was aiming for a Link's Awakening style experience where you needed to swap items about to deal with different situations, while failing to notice that Link's Awakening is really bloody annoying because you have to swap items about so much.

At the moment I think I'm leaving it with those four spells as abilities, and you can set up shortcuts to deal with the rest, but if it becomes an issue I can re-examine it.

[xaq]

The only other two I could personally see being made into abilities are Lock and Launch.

For Lock, it'd probably make the most sense to just have it auto-cast itself when you approach a door; for Launch, maybe stand in the launchpad, hold Down so the game knows you're trying to Launch rather than Boost, and press Use.