This Tournament Was Insane. Im So Hyped Rn And Cant Wait For What's To Come

FINAL THOUGHTS IF ANYONE CARES (SPOILERS FOR THE ENDINGS)

I didn't really change my mind too much

I feel like all of the DLC strengths stayed on paper instead of going into practice. Because, on paper, I really like it - dimension hopping slugcat bonding with an Echo of an Ancient's child with the motive of accepting the next steps in life or/and being at peace woth your inner child is an amazing idea. But it was barely there and barely told?

Half of the Echo encounters I had were dialougeless and with how much of a chore finding this guy around the map was, I forgot I was supposed to even bond with them. I always felt like there was something missing, hell, for the whole game I thought that I'm dealing with an echo of an ITERATOR, only for my friend to notice that "oh wait they're talking about their classmates" after finishing.

I really dislike how the rot was handled in this DLC. I love the idea and the visuals of a rotting world but from what I got from the past campagins, the rot was something so closely tied to 5P and the small world around our two iterators that I fear making it a force akin to the Void made it less special. The roterator was a stunningly disgusting idea which I ADORED, I loved the Throne and the dimensions rotting away, but... it ultimately felt out of place.

Most of it felt out of place for me because of one, single change - the scale. I liked the world of Rain World for being a huge place, an overwhelming maze for such a little slugcat, with its own tragedy in the background... That ultimately turned out just to be a small portion of the world filled with thousands of iterators, also small and meaningless in the grand scheme of things. By opening up to other dimensions it lost this charm. And I would be fine with it if it was something COMPLETELY new. But no - we still have rain and cycles even with no iterators in sight. I felt that there was ultimately nothing explore when hopping from Echo to Echo and from rift to rift (maybe except Outer Rim, that area made me geniuenly interested and felt like it was designed with more sense).

Gameplaywise I think that the regions are a bit too big for their own good. I found myself stuck in countless loops or series of rooms leading to a dead end more often than necessary (the loops were especially irritating, looking at you, Turbulent Pump, my god how I hate Turbulent Pump). Not only that, I haven't really felt what the new karma-nonkarma did. I think it unlocked me more regions with time but because there was around, what? 7?? Starting regions it felt like it didn't make a difference at all. It didn't limit my exploration, I didn't bond with any of then, it didn't have that learning curve like Saint did. Storywise I'm also confused what the Ripples represent and its a bold decision to make them replace THE karma. The force that rules the whole world? The force that every iterator, ancient and scug was in constant stuggle with? Gone. Again, I wouldn't be mad at that if the ripples we got instead didn't feel so underwhelming.

Figuring out the powers of this guy was also amazing because me and my friend really thought we got softlocked with the Shattered Terrace echo. I also still don't know if using the power of hiding really unlocked the rippling-unopened portals or I just got lucky at the one that transported me to Ancient Urban. Really for the whole game I thought that oh, maybe those are rifts that will open with more of the new karma levels but they never did??? As far as we checked??? Everything felt like getting lucky, not figuring things out after trial and error.

Ancient Urban was an amazing location though, visually and atmosphere-wise I just wish we had more build-up to that.

I liked the new creatures but they rarely felt as interactive and alive as the basegame ones. No wonder, there was so many of them and there was no way to mix them all up and make it a coherent ecosystem like the first time. The most interesting interaction with the new creatures I saw was the Moth thingy eating a Vulture with it's tongue.

Also the shelters were so scarce? It always felt like loosing so much progress to the point I got irritated and started shamelessly devtooling around through the labirynths because I just couldn't take getting lost again and again, looking for another rift only to find myself at the starting point with no savepoint in sight. And even with that it was still a struggle. And its not even a skill issue on my side, I don't consider myself some pro player at all, but I managed to complete Spearmaster cheatless, it was a pain in the ass but I had so much satisfaction. The Watcher didn't make me feel rewarded for trying and being curious. The only reward I was getting were yet more regions to get lost at with no end in sight. Also it didn't help that the rifts weren't marked on the map, it would be such a minor thing but a great help (considering there is around 20 of regions its impossible to remember where connects to what, really), especially since one of the endings REQUIRES you to come back to the ones you had visited before. I know we have the randomized teleport power, but it would be cool to also be aware of well, where the gates to other locations are because they can be in most random of rooms.

This is just my opinion, I still want to have a run of the Watcher cheatless after some patches, I read somewhere that there are supposed to be arena unlocks or other things to find around the place. I got less mad at it with time but I just feel a bit bitter that its more of a showcase of stunning visuals than a campagin I'd pay 15 dollars for. But that might be because of currency exchange for me. Either way thank you for everyone that took the time to read and I'll glady listen to other opinions as well because I see they are super mixed

RAIN WORLD THE WATCHER SPOILERS + OPINION/FIRST IMPRESSIONS/RANT AHEAD

I am so disappointed its unreal

I LOVED the beginning and the build-up with the world slowly rotting away??? Seeing locations blocked off, fruit and creatures getting rotten with time , the echo being playful was so, so great and I had the time of my life...

Until the dimension hopping happened.

My god, I am so utterly confused, lost, left with no hints what-so-ever. The new locations are a visual feast (BIG respect to everyone who stood behind the enviromental design and the art itself, its all so gorgeous) but they feel so empty, lifeless and maze-like in a really bad way. Rain World was all about getting lost and feeling small, but those areas don't make me curious to explore them, there's nothing to explore except finding another rift and they just feel overwhelming.

They just don't feel rainworldy at all to me gameplaywise. And don't get me wrong, I'm super fine with making changes to formulas, heck, Downpour DLC is my favourite part of this game because it has so many unique mechanics to offer which were so different from the base game. I personaly don't feel like the world is alive, the new creatures look amazing but I do not see them interact with me or each other in the same way as they did in the past. They feel more like standalone obstacles which was rarely the case before. Most of the rooms are so empty, loop endlessly, I get no hints of where to go or what to look for and stumble upon things either because of blind luck or because my friend (who I was playing with at the same time) went a different path and by pure chance it was the correct one. If I haven't had that outside info, I would be stuck going in circles in a dimension four worlds away from the random one with the correct tower where the echo was waiting for me. I don't know if I'm missing something

I love the new camouflage skill but it was useful only in the beginning, I rarely used it in the dimension hopping part, only in really dire situations which happened rarely. My biggest enemy was parkouring to places only to find out they were dead ends

I'm on level two of the new karma, around 6 hours in and slugchat, help my doomed soul I am not having fun. I'd love to see something that would go further with the idea of the world rotting away but I feel so, so disconnected from whats going on

Super curious about how it could end and what the echo's deal even is, I'm just lowkey scared that it will be as disappointing as the section of the game I'm dealing with right now.

oh princessa what did they do to you /j

Little boys, little guys, quite skrinkly, scrumblo, is artificer jealous of gourmands kids?

i think gourmand could help artificer heal

static ver because i don't know how to make high quality gifs

@/scughive's Will Wood album cover inspired Enot made me really hyped for more horror-esque interpretations of this guy..... So I drew her and the other uncanny anomaly scug

together in every design version of mine

RAIN WORLD WATCHER SPOILERS

born from this conversation with @end-orfino

Literally the two endings

Original:

oh dear how the worlds collided

S L U G H A M M E R loosely based on @fishyaudio's slugcat designs!!

I really really like the outfit @cattyfacepunny gave inv and I wanted to draw my Enot design with it on.... so handsome

Moonie and hunter scribbles that i slowly added more too

Once in a few months I remember I'm looking forward to Doll Eye chapter 2 a lot and make various drawings.... Wanted to post a collection of new doodles here because I always went to tumblr for archived niche series fanart from X years back, so I want to also archive mine here

Silly post with my redesigns

Eye ball

looks at you