Yumi's Odd Odyssey, now about swallowing dry meds and sushi

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Immryr
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Re: Yumi's Odd Odyssey, now about swallowing dry meds and su

Post by Immryr »

yeah i can see that working actually as the games have always had kind of different routes through the game with all the different exits in each level. as you say, as long as they aren't gating stuff behind powers etc one interconnected world could work.

here's hoping it's good. (and it gets a pc/ps4 release)
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M.Knight
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Re: Yumi's Odd Odyssey, now about swallowing dry meds and su

Post by M.Knight »

The branching paths in the original games can indeed be seen as sorta similar to sequence breaking stuff and alternate paths in Metroidvanias, but with the added bonus of different exits that give even more variety in the routes. If there's one classic Umihara Kawase aspect that Fresh should not forget when designing the map, it's this one. Getting to the same ending area every time regardless of your skills and your route would be a step backwards, even more if there's a long and mandatory boss fight there.

Given how the other three games have been ported to PC, I wouldn't find it fishy if there were a PC port later down the line, in any case.

EDIT : https://twitter.com/success_g3/status/1 ... 9612948481
Art-style is nice, but aside from that : Waaaat.

EDIT 2 : And now we have some gameplay footage !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOHX_VNoZk0

The hunger jauge seems to be a life bar actually, and it decreases when you get hit by an enemy, as you get stunned instead of dying. You can pull up a menu mid-game and eat stuff you've caught in your bag to restore it, which may or may not impact the enemy-induced difficulty. No idea what the thirst jauge does, however.

The game seems to be divided into quests/missions but each has lots of platforming and stuff with a time limit, just like the previous games so at least this is kinda reassuring.

Bosses are back and you have to damage them, but it seems that you simply have to keep your rope attached to them for continuous damage, which sucks less than Sayonara and the original. Depending on the execution and boss HP it might be even faster than in Shun, though the video gave off the impression that if you have enough HP, it can devolve into a DPS race.

Overall it seems a bit mixed, but still a lot better than what I feared based on the first screenshot.
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BulletMagnet
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Re: Yumi's Odd Odyssey, now about swallowing dry meds and su

Post by BulletMagnet »

Might be interesting for fans of the series.
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Re: Yumi's Odd Odyssey, now about swallowing dry meds and su

Post by BrianC »

BulletMagnet wrote:Might be interesting for fans of the series.
Both protos give me the impression that the designer of the games is a huge fan of Dig Dug.
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Re: Yumi's Odd Odyssey, now about swallowing dry meds and su

Post by BulletMagnet »

Some impressions of a closed demo.
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Re: Yumi's Odd Odyssey, now about swallowing dry meds and su

Post by M.Knight »

I don't know how to feel about the physics being similar to Sayonara's. While they weren't bad, the more technical Shun physics were a lot snappier once you understood them.

If there's one area where I wish we had more info, it would be the boss fights. Shun aside, all of them have been total garbage, and I wonder if the devs are fully aware of that and intend to fix the fact that they take forever to kill or timeout. Here at least there's the HP bar thing and you can apparently speedkill the tadople boss, but will the later bosses have inflated HP or not, that's still up in the air.
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M.Knight
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Re: Yumi's Odd Odyssey, now about swallowing dry meds and su

Post by M.Knight »

A new gameplay video has been released, and we can see how a "mission" play out. The objective in this one is to get to a specific part of the level and reel three items from a tree, which isn't too different from reaching a door. In any case, there seems to be lots of classic Umihara platforming. Also, the thirst jauge has disappeared and we now have Life and Hunger, though the latter doesn't seem to be used here. In addition, there's a very short underwater segment with an oxygen jauge, which is new to the series.

I don't know if it's the first time we hear the music track that's used there as it isn't a Sayonara placeholder, but I like it a lot. So comfy and sweet.

And here is the game's dedicated website by the way : https://swninfo.success-corp.co.jp/swit ... ara-fresh/
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Re: Yumi's Odd Odyssey, now about swallowing dry meds and su

Post by KennyMan666 »

A demo of Fresh is now out on the Japanese eShop, yay!

Will try later.
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Re: Yumi's Odd Odyssey, now about swallowing dry meds and su

Post by mamboFoxtrot »

https://gematsu.com/2019/09/umihara-kaw ... tch-and-pc

another Umihara game announced. No real details tho
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Re: Yumi's Odd Odyssey, now about swallowing dry meds and su

Post by M.Knight »

I am still waiting for Fresh to be ported to a platform I own and it's so weird to have a new game announced so shortly after the previous one. For some reason it feels like bad news to me to have new games coming out so quickly and the franchise being milked so much.

Judging from the screenshots, the art style and many assets are recycled from Fresh. And the article mentions that the game will be multiplayer-oriented, which is completely new for Umihara games. Hopefully it'll work out.

Aside from that, did anyone actually get to play Fresh? I would be curious to read impressions of long-time players about the new game loop and mechanics of that one.
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Re: Yumi's Odd Odyssey, now about swallowing dry meds and su

Post by M.Knight »

M.Knight wrote:Aside from that, did anyone actually get to play Fresh? I would be curious to read impressions of long-time players about the new game loop and mechanics of that one.
Yeah dude, I did, and I think I can satisfy your request Image

Kinda lengthy first impressions so it's in a spoiler block :
Spoiler
Since Umihara Kawase Fresh's PC version recently went on sale and English was added to it some months ago, I picked it up and have been playing that for a few hours. So far I think it's a decent game and the swinging mechanics are pretty solid (with physics more like those of Sayonara's), but the game structure is kinda "casual", if that makes sense. I think I'll be enjoying it until I clear the game, but I'm not sure if I would come back to it just for the hell of it like I would in previous games, despite the swinging and jumping being good.

Since Fresh is split into lots of missions, you can play a few of them at a time, try to clear as many as possible, and then move on to the new missions without really coming back to the previous ones to optimize them or find alternate doors within them.

Most missions' objectives is to go from point A to point B, or in some cases go to several locations to collect specific items. Since the game has a few huge maps instead of plenty of self-contained levels, direction arrows are there and guide you through the path the game wants you to take for each mission. It feels a bit hand-hold-y, like you're just blindly following the arrows instead of experimenting, but not having any of them would be annoying since you would be lost. The original trilogy didn't need those since the stages went to the point instead of having plenty of "noise" (and here what parts of it are noise will be different from mission to mission) It's a compromise that makes sense, at least. And the platforming sections themselves can be interesting as well, but they aren't always as exciting as the original trilogy because bottomless pits aren't as numerous and the missions can't really gradually increase in difficulty as smoothly because they share similar layouts. Still, so far there's been some rather difficult sections like an upwards climb section of the second big map with spikes and tricky platforming.

One drawback on these big maps though is that it's not uncommon to be asked to go through a similar portion of the level multiple times. Even if the starting point and ending point of the missions will vary, there are only so many missions you can do before facing a platforming section you know you've already done before. It's kind of a way to make you learn it more, but it also feels like a limitation of the "big map" design. There was also one instance where three successive missions in the second big map made me do basically the exact same path but just with different items to collect, which was kinda WTF. I wasn't fully forced to do them one after the other since the missions unlock in batches, but still. The story reason for this was to make Kawase learn multiple recipes.

So yeah, cooking : what happens is that you can gather materials on the field, and the enemies you put in your backpack also count as ingredients. if you've learned recipes (usually through clearing story missions) you can get in the pause menu and prepare stuff, as long as you've got the necessary ingredients. Consuming food will restore your HP and Hunger, and potentially give you buffs like a faster lure or reduced damage. Yep, there's an HP bar here, no more one-hit-kills from most enemies. Spikes are still insta-death actually, and bottomless pits too. And somehow the cowpigs also OHKO you on contact. This leniency makes sense given how big the maps are, and how the game wants to be more accessible to newcomers. Another thing you can do is use the backpack items you find to set up checkpoints at specific camping places, so that a death doesn't make you restart the entire mission. This may not be too useful at first but some missions can last several minutes so it's handy.

The addition of HP isn't bad. Even though it definitely makes you fear enemy encounters less (and there can be lots of enemy encounters, especially in the later big maps), it also allows you to cheese the few boss fights and make them not too terrible since you can just continuously hook the bosses for damage and shrug off any contact damage they do by stuffing yourself with food as often as necessary. Not as elegant as Shun's well-designed encounters, but somehow the bosses with this cheesing are better than the terrible OG ones or the kinda annoying Sayonara ones, so it's not without its merits. As for Hunger, it works kinda like roguelikes and seems to be here to simulate the time limits from OG and Shun. The Hunger gauge decreases continuously and when it reaches zero, then your health continuously goes down. Unlike roguelikes though, your health does not go up when your hunger bar is not empty, and you can't die because of hunger even if it reduces almost all your HP. I only felt like I had to recharge this gauge in longer missions. There's also a contextual oxygen gauge when you stay in the few underwater sections. It continuously depletes and when it's empty, your HP deceases until you die this time. Getting out of water entirely restores the oxygen.

For more "hardcore" play, the game features a Time Attack mode, where you can replay the missions you've cleared for faster times and without the ability to eat food items. I haven't really messed with this because playing IL in Umihara Kawase hasn't really been my type of playstyle in general (I only do that for practice), but it's nice that the option exists. Since the missions don't have 100% distinctive stage layouts and maps, it's also harder to pinpoint which ones you like the most and stuff, since they kinda blur together. On top of that, you have some bonus stages, some of them are remixes of past games' stages, but there's also some new stuff, including boss fights (which I haven't tried) and more unique missions where the layouts are new and the difficulty level is high, usually because lots of enemies are there and the stage itself is also challenging.

Another bonus in this game is the inclusion of everyone's favorite candy-addict witch Cotton! You unlock her after reaching a certain point of the story, and the game allows you to play as her in missions. She also has special missions where she has to collect several Willows in the levels, with Cotton music playing in the background. The way she plays is similar to Kawase but she can also hover on her broomstick a bit when in the air, giving her more horizontal+vertical movement. She's easier to use than Kawase for that reason. And since she can swing -> hover -> swing again without touching the ground and control her momentum a lot more thanks to that, she could cover wider gaps more easily. I find it hilarious that her hook is actually Silk lmao. Cotton throwing Silk on walls and enemies really fits lol.

As the PC version of the game was not published by Nicalis but Success instead, you won't have Curly Brace (or at least I haven't found her yet) and the English translation is different, but at least there's a way to buy the game without giving that publisher money if you are concerned about that. The English isn't too bad and I expected worse based on some screenshots, but it's kinda rough at times and you can sense it was made in-house by some JP devs, like when you see some "Nyan" here and there when cat characters talk instead of going for "Meow" and/or merging it within the rest of the dialogue itself. You can still follow the story cutscenes that occur before and after most missions and stuff.

The art style is very beautiful, Fresh is really the best looking game in the series. The other ones can look nice too, but this one is the first where it feels like they have an actual focused art direction with colorful visuals to back it up all the way through. Previous entries felt a bit random in that sense, with some stuff clashing or not being as cohesive, even though nothing looked really bad. OG is fine but some assets look like default placeholder stuff and nothing is noticeably beautiful, Shun is cool but the blocks with the game's name on the texture are just weird, Sayonara is decent but not all the environmental objects look as pretty as the textured blocks, plus spikes look rough and the lighting can be iffy in some darker environments. Here nothing looked underwhelming in comparison with the rest.

The music is also great but I'm still more fond of the Shun OST. I think the tracks here are not as numerous too, I was under the impression that there's one track per big map so you'll hear the same ones a lot. Thankfully they are pretty good. There's also some minor track reuse for some reason, I heard Shun's beach theme being played in the end-of-mission status screen, and the Sayonara 3DS home screen jingle is used when learning a new recipe. It's not like Sayonara's ability to play as different Kawase from the past games and have the levels' music match it, here it's more like they maybe didn't have the time to compose new tracks for everything. Still, not a big deal.

One weird thing : the game screen turns black when I try to access the input rebinding window, so I used anticmicro to actually configure my gamepad. According to the forums, you have to set your language to JP and then you can access the menu...but then it's all in JP so good luck setting it up properly lol. Annoying oversight, but it can be worked around at least.

Overall it's fun, but probably not as long-term replayable as the original trilogy for me. I expected the game to be kinda meh but it's a more chill Umihara experience that can still challenge you with the grappling action. It also makes me wonder what an exploration game with a very large world and no mission structure would be like. The campsite mechanic with the backpacks could work like the limited saves in a RE game and just being able to access more and more of a huge map by simply being better at swinging sounds like an interesting experience. Here the mission structure keeps things relatively focused, and probably for the better. But still, I'm kinda curious now.
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Searchlike
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Re: Yumi's Odd Odyssey, now about swallowing dry meds and su

Post by Searchlike »

Very informative, thanks a lot.

The Umihara Kawase fansite seemed quite indifferent to Fresh!, good to know there are some positives. I read Sakai Kiyoshi wasn't the game's director/designer this time around and was only listed on the credits as "Support", that might explain the different design philosophy.

I'm still on my Umihara Kawase honeymoon, having only been playing these games seriously since last November, so I'm not too psyched to play this one any time soon and possibly ruin some beautiful memories. Looking forward to read further impressions.

So glad you revived this thread, I'll try to keep it alive.
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Re: Yumi's Odd Odyssey, now about swallowing dry meds and su

Post by M.Knight »

You're welcome!
Yeah if you still have lots of stuff to do and fields to explore in the original trilogy, playing Fresh can wait for sure. The players on the Kawase fansite are probably very good and experienced too, so the more casual approach here may not be as exciting. I think the mechanics of grappling are still fun since the physics haven't beeen fucked with or anything, but the mission structure and the maps take some time before making you face the trickier sections, and there's the issue of going through similar bits of the levels several times.

In some ways, it feels like the Darius Burst CS mode of Umihara Kawase. A focus on quantity and amount of missions that may not match the carefully crafted arcade mode, but at least the core gameplay loop is solid so it can still be quite enjoyable.
RegalSin wrote: I think I have downloaded so much I am bored with downloading. No really I bored with downloading stuff I might consider moving to Canada or the pacific.
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Re: Yumi's Odd Odyssey, now about swallowing dry meds and su

Post by Searchlike »

M.Knight wrote:It also makes me wonder what an exploration game with a very large world and no mission structure would be like.
So... there's this new Studio Saizensen game for Steam and Switch that mixes Umihara Kawase gameplay with Metroidvania-style action and it's been out for a month now. I don't really read a lot of gaming news, so I totally missed this. Haven't played it yet, looks interesting.

Myastere: Ruins of Deazniff:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmQde7qkdv4
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Re: Yumi's Odd Odyssey, now about swallowing dry meds and su

Post by KAI »

Glad to hear Fresh wasn't as bad as I thought, hope to play it someday (sadly i missed the latest steam sale).


That Myastere game looks neat.
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Re: Yumi's Odd Odyssey, now about swallowing dry meds and su

Post by M.Knight »

Myastere looks fun from the videos I've seen, though I'm not sure if I like the darker cave/ruin environments and the focus on combat.
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