Hero Core

And now I've beaten Zero, the Level 0 specialist.

edited 18th May '10 5:00:18 PM by Ponicalica

Ponicalica: I think he means The Living Warmachine?

Also, the true ending makes me sad. :(

Well, the post mentioned that he was doing as much as he could on level 0 so I figured the rest of the post talked about that, especially since there's a boss you can only fight at level 0.

Ponicalica's got it. He wasn't anything special, but the fact that he existed was a surprise.

I didn't see your post saying you'd beaten it. My bad. :p

Zero's both in Normal and Hard. I had intended for it to be a bit more interesting or have other "level 0 specialists", like a Reaver or Spew, but I didn't want to add too much stuff right before release. Well, I did anyway, but there was a limit. :p

edited 19th May '10 5:16:46 AM by Ulti

SURPRISE REMAR

Just beat the game on Normal, 100%. Might try this "zero thingy" everyone's talking about. I also might try disabling autofire, it felt really cheesy. It was still hard. I am bad at games.

I like the way Autofire is handled in this game, actually. It's not entirely a help. If you use it at the wrong time, it'll bite you.

Due to the limited number of your bullets that can be on screen at once. Yes.

edited 19th May '10 10:22:17 AM by Zudak

Dear god hard is hard. I would probably have taken up cutting again in the Annihilator Factory were it not for the music being so totally badass. The cutting thing is a joke. Self harm is bad kids.

...Then again, half the game is like that. >.>

also, I suck at finding secrets. Can I get a hint or two about Zero? A friend of mine showed me that it exists, and is acting all smug about it.

edited 19th May '10 2:41:33 PM by Slaanesh

Slaanesh: Hint 1: Zero's subtitle is "Level 0 Specialist". This means you have to be level 0 to see it.

Hint 2: You can make it all the way to Tetron at level 0. This is crucial for finding Zero.

Hint 2, subhint 1: There is a room with a drone in liquid metal that looks impassable without the level 2 suit upgrade. Actually, there's a secret move that lets you get in anyways.

Hint 2, subhint 2: Up, down, left, right, shoot.

Hint 3: Zero is in the New Caves. You can get there at level 0 through the Core. It's the exit on the left side.

Hint 4: Zero is in the room right next to where you find your ship.

edited 19th May '10 4:16:27 PM by Ponicalica

Ponicalica: Thanks. When you brought up the use of Expel to get that drone, the rest came to me. :p

I'm still using autofire. I like not having to spam 1 button all the time. Of course, this also leads to finding stategies about when to turn it off, or fire into the closest wall.

Now, to find Zero on hard...

I fire into the nearest wall on some occasions, but the only times I turn autofire off are when there's mines or when fighting that "eliminator" boss who reflects all the near misses. Turning it off and on would probably distract me and trip me up.

Zero is far more worthy a secret on Hard mode than Normal. Man did he get a speed upgrade. Still not as hard as the actual bosses though, or many individual rooms of assorted baddies, or most cores (which are basically this game's minibosses, along with the odd battle door).

Elites on hard. Q_Q

This is really good! I'm not usually a fan of Shoot-Em-Ups, but I liked the original Hero, and the fact that this is a Metroidvania sold me. Daniel seems to be really good at making those. I've beaten Normal and Annihilation, (hated that annihilator near the end, he was harder than the Living Warmachine, which I actually beat on my second try, strangely) and I'm almost done with Hard mode now. (It lives up to its name. D:) Something that I really liked is that it fixed one of the problems I have with difficult Metroidvanias: if you die, you don't lose any progress, meaning that you don't need to worry about re-exploring and refinding items and such. I also liked how you can fight the final boss right from the start.

I think I enjoyed the bosses the most, they were really creative. I agree that the Rock Crusher is a really awesome idea, and I found the Reaper Drone hilarious. (If difficult) I also noticed that nearly half the bosses were Flunky Bosses. Do you just really like that trope, Daniel?

Anyway, pretty much the only thing I would have liked to see more of is plot, since I always like that. Boss Subtitles like with Zero and the Living Warmachine would have been nice instead of just "boss of [area x]", and maybe additional info on defeated bosses accessible from the menu in a "bestiary" section or something too. (Since Flip Hero used to serve in Tetron's army as an Elite, I'd presume he'd know stuff about the enemies) I'd imagine he'd flip out, or at least have some reaction to, seeing the Elites, as well.

Oh, and as one of those nerdy completist types who likes to see all the stats of monsters, I liked the HP Scanner. I found it interesting how the original Hero's pattern of making the HP in bit-resolution jumps (2, 4, 8, 16, etc.) was kept. Blombs seem to break the pattern, though. (They have 3 hit points, I believe)

Anyway, while it's not as good as Iji, (few things are) I still really liked Hero Core. Very good, solid game.

@ Slaanesh: Yeah, the Elites can be pretty hard, but if you make sure to focus on one, it should go down pretty fast. (They both have as much health as the Guardian, but are much more vulnerable) If you're having trouble hitting them, keep in mind that they pause for a few seconds before using Expel — use this to your advantage to get some solid hits in. (Just make sure to keep your distance, and keep in mind that the other one is likely to use Expel soon after, if not at the same time) Once one of them dies, you shouldn't have much trouble on the other one.

Edit: Does anyone know how to get past the forcefield in the Old Base? The generator is destroyed, but the forcefield is still there...

edited 26th May '10 3:50:56 AM by Fool

I've been stuck on a similar thing myself, there's a forcefield in Army Storage that I haven't been able to break open (it has a ? computer in it). Did I miss something?

There is one field that, no matter how many generators you blow, will always stay active. It has a computer behind it with a ? that explains how to use a certain secret move.

You can't turn off the field.

You just have to have enough life to pass through it without exploding.

Thanks a bunch, that was a funny little secret. So far, I found Zero, the best times room, the Expel and Shapeshift codes. Any others I missed?

I tried to do Hard and Annihilation, but my skills are not good enough, and I failed. Miserably. I did get up to the Rock Crusher in Boss Rush, though. Why Remar didn't allow for playing on "normal" mode for the extra stuff is beyond me, the rest of the game is really sadistic. =/

Ah, I was wondering what that "Alien shapeshift data" thing was. Interesting. Does it have any practical purpose, or is it just cosmetic?

As for the boss rush, I've gotten to the Grand Mother. I'd keep trying, if it wasn't for the fact that losing kicks you all the way back to the beginning. -_- I'm tempted to use my own copy of Game Maker to add in some more save points...

edited 27th May '10 4:11:18 AM by Fool

The alien skin is mostly cosmetic, but it is cute. ^_^ It also helps you stand out in the game a bit better, methinks, but it may make it a tad harder to dodge bullets unless you know the hitbox well...

Wait, what? You can edit this game in game maker? Do you need the pro version to do that?

Maybe, I'm not sure. I heard someone say earlier in the thread that they hacked Reallyjoel's Dad mode to get to the next room, so...

I'm far from an expert in Game Maker stuff, though.

Edit: ...And I can't seem to open the file using Game Maker. I am using the lite version, though, so maybe that has something to do with it.

edited 28th May '10 1:50:37 PM by Fool

Boss Rush mode is probably the hardest thing in the game. I've made it up to Star Splitter... once. The first couple of bosses are going to go down almost without trying because of the extra firepower, but the later ones are just as hard as they are in hard mode. Except you can't restart almost right outside the boss room.

Getting up to Grand Mother is a good effort. It's a shame that the game doesn't recognise anything until you actually beat it (and then your score is based on how fast you can do it!)

Yeah, the boss rush was added for the hardcorest of the hardcore. I fail it a lot, usually at Star Splitter or Tetron. I figured at least someone out there would enjoy speedrunning it though.

A "Normal mode" boss rush shouldn't be too hard to add.

Game Maker games are decompilable with a simple program, though it's technically illegal. So it's not difficult to modify my games, aside from understanding my ridiculous coding. >_>

edited 28th May '10 1:47:48 PM by Ulti