24 exits into Akogare 2 and I'm finding that the harder the game gets, the less I like it. It seems like Mega's way of making levels more difficult is to make the inputs more and more specific, which turns the game into a kind of invisible precision hack. For example: there's a bit in Northern Range where you have to jump, grab a feather and the dive bomb to open a gate, then run a short distance and launch into a spin fly. Except it's possible to both overshoot AND undershoot the divebomb: if you go too early, you fall in the lava, and if you go too late you don't have enough runway to regain P-speed for the spin fly. So you have to learn how to bomb the exact left edge of the platform...except there's no visual cue that this is important, you just realize it after dying a bunch of times. When the levels are easier, I can at least read them fairly quickly and make some progress, but as they get more difficult it's like solving a puzzle that I can't see, and I don't enjoy it much. I also find that the majority of the level design is fairly straightforward, so after two dozen levels it still feels really samey. I did just stumble onto the secret challenge area, which I really appreciated, because it was weird and different. Also, what's the deal with the toy castle hint? Anyway, this hack is obviously very well-made, but I'm starting to think that Mega's design ethos isn't really what I want from kaizo. Which is kind of too bad for me, as Akogare has had extremely far-reaching effects on the kaizo creator community in the last few years.
Also, how the fuck did the second dive bomb gate in the back half of Northern Range make it into v1.1? I died there like 4 times because the switch double-triggered, which meant the wall blinked out and then back again. So either I would get stuck behind the wall with no way to trigger the switch again, or else I would get killed by the reappearance of the wall because I made it onto the switch tiles in between triggerings. It sucked!
Also, how the fuck did the second dive bomb gate in the back half of Northern Range make it into v1.1? I died there like 4 times because the switch double-triggered, which meant the wall blinked out and then back again. So either I would get stuck behind the wall with no way to trigger the switch again, or else I would get killed by the reappearance of the wall because I made it onto the switch tiles in between triggerings. It sucked!