Connie and the Essence of Chaos

Maybe it's too early for me to write this review, since I haven't played the entire game, but I finished the demo and I've been following Rye for a while I loved the demo and I'm really glad that there are people who are able to express themselves in such sincere, lovely way with their art, that reminds me a lot of the childhood experiences I had with the original Rayman trilogy

If Ubisoft would stop sexually assaulting their employees for five minutes and give developer Ryemanni the rights to the Rayman franchise already, the world would be a better place. Essence of Chaos is Rayman 1 if the developers didn't ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hate you (or rape their coworkers) - the dream Rayman 1 sequel I've waited my entire life for. It hones in on Rayman 1's strengths as an ultra hard precision platformer in a beaming bright whimsical world, while fixing a lot of the trial and error slop that has always made it one of gaming's greatest “what ifs” for me. But despite the obvious Rayman inspiration, what I loved about this game is that it feels like a love letter to the entire 2D platformer *genre*, taking just as many cues from Donkey Kong Country, Mario 3 and a million other classic genre conventions. Its core philosophy is peak DKC - introduce a mechanic, stretch it to its absolute breaking point, move on to the next mechanic… but then BRING BACK that first mechanic and start mixing it with the second one. It's a symphony of game design, escalating and calling back to ideas in a way that was constantly putting a smile on my face. All creative mediums have similar principles in their skeletons - those concepts of setup, payoff, callbacks, etc. This was a masterclass in the fundamentals of structure, constantly surprising me in a way that rewards mastery of earlier mechanics. I'm not a game designer but I do enjoy writing, and I bizarrely found myself getting inspired by the ways this game plays with structures like pattern recognition and payoffs. And the boss fights, ♥♥♥♥ YES DUDE. As someone who has worshipped the platformer genre for 20+ years as man's greatest achievement, I've developed PTSD eye twitching trauma over “hit the weak spot” boss fights that curse 80% of otherwise amazing platformers. Dodge 500 attacks for 12 minutes, hit the gremlin's butthole while it's exposed for 0.3 seconds, repeat for another 4 hours. So this game's approach made me NUT INTO THE STRATOSPHERE. This game takes the Sly Cooper/Ratchet & Clank/Kirby and the Forgotten Land approach where, with rare exceptions, a boss is able to be hit at all times. This might sound like such a trivial difference, but it makes the boss fights so much more engaging because I always have AGENCY. Rather than the boss fights feeling like rigid scripts I'm learning, there's a flexibility that raises the skill ceiling. I'm not JUST dodging, but also looking for openings where I can chip down the boss’ health DURING those dodges. It turns the fights into these frantic, multi-layered scrambles. A tug of war where I'm weighing whether I can fit in another punch or two before the boss does his next attack, or if I can dodge this one specific attack in a way that allows me to get a hit in mid-jump. Considering the core platforming is usually slower paced, the boss fights act as a perfect juxtaposition to this - they're BURSTS OF CHAOS. However, you might have noticed that I said this game fixes “a lot” of Rayman 1's design flaws. Because unfortunately, I do think this game occasionally suffers from trial and error. From time to time, there's scenarios where the game will give you an obstacle that you cannot humanly respond to in time. A jump across a death pit that you're magically expected to know to do a LIGHT jump over rather than a HIGH jump or you overshoot it and die. That ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ swinging challenge, frequently asking you to swing off grappling hooks with specific levels of momentum to reach the next hook but not TOO far or you die, which it expects you to magically guess first time around MID-AIR. The hidden collectibles suffer from this too. You don't know if you've missed a collectible until you get another one later in the level, a great system on paper because it helps you pinpoint the general area the collectible you missed is. But on numerous occasions, levels are structured in a way where you're unable to return to previous areas. So if you missed a collectible… you have to replay the entire level again. The entire *15-20 minute* level. This was one of the major issues with Rayman 1, so I'm surprised that a game whose mission statement is “Rayman 1 but less ♥♥♥♥♥♥” somehow overlooked this. On a moment-to-moment basis though, Essence of Chaos is awesome. If you like difficult platformers, this is an easy recommendation. Developer Ryemanni has consistently been THE shining star of the Rayman community. After decades of mistreatment from its creators, Ryemanni has constantly been the one to remind everyone how amazing this goofy ass franchise is. Be it through his beloved Rayman and Designer remakes or even just his social media efforts over the years, this dude has consistently kept my love for the Rayman series alive, and there's very few developers in the world right now who I think deserves support as much as him. Go buy this absolute banger post haste. TLDR - One guy takes on the Epstein Island of the gaming industry and wins

This Rayman inspired game with a sprinkle of DKC makes for a fun adventure, although the final moments do ramp up a bit too much in difficulty in my eyes, granted there is an assist mode to ease them out if you want to. Didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did but this was a pleasant time.

Достаточно сложный и довольно прикольный платформер, но если у вас проблемы с нервами. Не советую пытаться это пройти.

The game manages to capture the charm of the original Rayman while also refining the formula, especially when it comes to difficulty. It does away with the lives system, and in exchange, the difficulty curve gets a little steeper, which I think is an excellent decision. I can’t find a single fault with the level design; I think it’s far superior to Rayman in that regard. It also includes extra challenges for those looking for a greater challenge, though I’m not one of them. I loved it, I played it with the same excitement I felt playing Rayman when I was a kid, and it’s now in the “Favorites” section of my Steam library. That said, let’s move on to the downsides. Artistically, it falls short of Rayman, but that’s completely understandable, considering it’s the work of a single person, and it’s still very good. On this point, I’d note that the music is quite uneven, with some great tracks and others that can get annoying. I think starting from the penultimate world, the artistic design of the levels and characters drops off a bit. The penultimate world could be much more thematic, and I think the final world takes a shift in tone compared to the rest of the game that I didn’t particularly like. Something similar happens with the last two bosses, they’re too dark compared to the rest, and they change the gameplay, turning it into chaos with too many things on screen, which I didn’t find fun at all. That said, I think it's amazing how the developer was able to create something like this. Rayman Redemption was a showcase of what they were capable of, and this game is the culmination of that experience. I can't wait to see what they´ll do next.

Muy entretenido, cuando complete algunos juegos pendientes me lo paso

I think this game is really good, you can really tell the amount of love and effort that got it to its release, and the inspirations that have influenced it however this isn't just about the game's DNA, the platforming is great too! if you are looking for a difficult but fair game with a really charming world and a well thought out Codex, with plenty secrets and challenges, this is right up your alley, more than enough to even go beyond the obvious origins from the other limbless hero. get it now!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OR ELSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Connie and the Essence of Great Level Design

Absolutely amazing! Game was such a blast to play through! If you're a general fan of 2D platformers this is a MUST play!