1st May 2022, 8:13 PM
So, I beat the 'main boss' and am in the postgame now, heading towards the true ending. And I'd say that while I love this game, the postgame isn't quite as good as the main game before, and the game ends a bit abruptly. The first six worlds are amazing, with so much charm and fun and just the right amount of challenge for a Kirby game. Every level is a joy to play through and there's plenty of entirely optional replay value if you want to go back and get everything.
However, after that it ends quite abruptly. The seventh world is just the final boss, and you fight it immediately after finishing the world six boss. It's a very cool three-part fight, but there are no levels between, unfortunately; there should have been. Also, there are some long cutscenes near the end of the game telling the story, which is fine... but at the end, why is like two thirds of this one sequence FMV, while you randomly have control for a little bit during part of it? I would have liked more gameplay there. Ah well.
Also, the game has a few QTEs, which are a big negative. No games should ever have QTEs.
And after the end, you unlock the bonus world... which is just rehashes of the old levels. Each of the six levels of the bonus world takes parts of all of the levels from each world and mashes them together into a single overlong level. with that level's boss at the end. And these levels all have odd color filters on which makes them look worse than they did before. You need to collect at least 250 of the 300 new collectibles in these levels in order to proceed, but most of those are in the same places as the hidden guys from the main game, so even if you sometimes need to do new things to get them, it's not very new. It's just the same, but a bit harder. That's alright, it reminds me of the Kirby 1 Hard mode for example, but still, I was hoping for new content and that's not here. The levels have some new challenges, and the bosses are made a bit harder and that's cool, but it's got NOTHING on the postgame world in Super Mario 3D World, for example. If only this game had a bunch of cool, tougher levels like that one has after you finish it... but no. All it's got is this slightly harder mashup or 'go back for the optional collectibles you missed, but it gets you nothing other than clear percentage'.
Also, it still seriously bugs me that Kirby can't fly forever and has a low maximum flight height. You get used to it and the game is designed around this, but Kirby should be a game about jumping and flying, but this isn't'; it's mostly a game about walking around and doing basic low jumps. It does that very very well and is incredibly fun at its best, but... I also played through the original Kirby for GB recently. It's a very short game, but in that half hour I wouldn't be surprised if I spent more time flying than I probably have in the whole fifteen hours of the main game of Forgotten Land... ah well.
Even so, this is a fantastic game and certainly is a must play. There's a reason I not only bought Forgotten Land day one but played through it and finished it so quickly, something I pretty rarely do, it's really, really good.
However, after that it ends quite abruptly. The seventh world is just the final boss, and you fight it immediately after finishing the world six boss. It's a very cool three-part fight, but there are no levels between, unfortunately; there should have been. Also, there are some long cutscenes near the end of the game telling the story, which is fine... but at the end, why is like two thirds of this one sequence FMV, while you randomly have control for a little bit during part of it? I would have liked more gameplay there. Ah well.
Also, the game has a few QTEs, which are a big negative. No games should ever have QTEs.
And after the end, you unlock the bonus world... which is just rehashes of the old levels. Each of the six levels of the bonus world takes parts of all of the levels from each world and mashes them together into a single overlong level. with that level's boss at the end. And these levels all have odd color filters on which makes them look worse than they did before. You need to collect at least 250 of the 300 new collectibles in these levels in order to proceed, but most of those are in the same places as the hidden guys from the main game, so even if you sometimes need to do new things to get them, it's not very new. It's just the same, but a bit harder. That's alright, it reminds me of the Kirby 1 Hard mode for example, but still, I was hoping for new content and that's not here. The levels have some new challenges, and the bosses are made a bit harder and that's cool, but it's got NOTHING on the postgame world in Super Mario 3D World, for example. If only this game had a bunch of cool, tougher levels like that one has after you finish it... but no. All it's got is this slightly harder mashup or 'go back for the optional collectibles you missed, but it gets you nothing other than clear percentage'.
Also, it still seriously bugs me that Kirby can't fly forever and has a low maximum flight height. You get used to it and the game is designed around this, but Kirby should be a game about jumping and flying, but this isn't'; it's mostly a game about walking around and doing basic low jumps. It does that very very well and is incredibly fun at its best, but... I also played through the original Kirby for GB recently. It's a very short game, but in that half hour I wouldn't be surprised if I spent more time flying than I probably have in the whole fifteen hours of the main game of Forgotten Land... ah well.
Even so, this is a fantastic game and certainly is a must play. There's a reason I not only bought Forgotten Land day one but played through it and finished it so quickly, something I pretty rarely do, it's really, really good.