LogFAQs > #977392128

Currently Playing: Zipper

What Is It? Turn based strategy made by Bennet Foddy. Very Foddian. Very strategy.

Gameplay Overview: You take a turn, then bad guys take a turn. You can move to a square and before selecting it, use the crank to see how that effects enemy movement on their turn. You kill enemies by either moving directly into them (front, side, back) or by zipping past them as long as they are on a square adjacent to the path you're moving. You can blind enemies (stunning them) if you kill someone adjacent to them and spray blood on them which comes in handy in the crowded rooms. Enemies kill you in a single hit if you let them reach you first, so understanding movement is key. Speaking of keys, one will spawn in one of a handful of potential spots on the map, and you need to find it to get into the castle for the last handful of challenge rooms and the final boss.

Here's Some Pictures!
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/7e3dbd66.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/f/faca1799.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/e/e71ffadc.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/d/d6727e48.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/8/83051d10.png

Thoughts:
-Oh God not Bennet Foddy
-This is the game that specifically got me to skip doing Season 1 in order because I did not want to play a Bennet Foddy game. He's made Getting Over It and QWOP, both of which are like bottom ten games for me.
-I did try it for like ten minutes when it was next in line, died, got sent back to the start and thought "nope, not today Satan" before wandering off to try other things.
-This game does not want to explain anything to you. Games on the Playdate seem to have all been made with the mantra "figure it out yourself, idiot".
-I'm doing terribly so far. I've figured out moving past the enemies is good unless you don't kill them in which case thy immediately run down after you to kill you, which is bad.
-I thought I could leave and flee enemies, but even if you go to a space which gets you to the next room, they still get a chance to do their moves and kill you if they have enough spaces to do so. That was fun to find out eight rooms into a run and get sent back to the start.
-Does the crank do anything? It doesn't seem to do anything other than make weird noises in the game. Every game definitely needs a "make odd noises" button so I'm glad they included it.
-I feel like I'm just bumbling around and I'm not getting any further. I can handle easy rooms but then you get to one with like four pikemen and its chaos and I don't know what the hell to do.
-Ok, so you have normal enemies. They suck and are easy to kill. Then you have pikemen. They can attack form two spaces away and also block movement one square in front of them by their pike. They suck because they are hard to kill. Then there are ninjas that throw stars and you from across the screen and I have no clue how to kill them. They suck a lot. Then there are elite swordsmen. The can block your attacks from the front but are vulnerable from the sides. A strategy I've found that works is to zip one spot past them to trigger their block, then zip to the side and kill them while they are locked into their block animation. I'm ok with these guys.
-I feel like I'm never really learning what's going on. I get to a room that I can't figure out, die, get sent back to the start with no new info.
-Also enemy placement and patterns are random between runs. Sometimes I'll get to a room and its a lone goon and sometimes I get to that same room and the game goes "hey fuck you" and its four pikemen all spread out super far so I have no chance of lining them up.
-Ok, I finally figured out a strategy for the ninjas. What you have to do is zoom one square past them. They'll hop back a set. Now you move directly next to them and the do not move because they have a one frame recovery from their dodge animation BUT only if you do not trigger another dodge. You don't if you move next to them because you have to zip past to actually attack. Now when you move, you'll kill them because they apparently do not dodge if you are right next to them at the start of the attack for some reason. I find all this out through blind luck when I was trying to just trigger a dodge and escape the room (which was my previous strategy).
-Oh, also you can kill them if you attack them head on. Also, they cannot attack through other enemies, even previously defeated ones. I discover this by accident too.
-Oh, what the fuck I fucking finally figure out what the crank does, also by accident.
-I'm just goofing around with it because it made noises sometimes and other times not, and I discover that if you use the crank when you go to move but before you actually select a square to move, you see where the enemies can move.
-The game DOES NOT tell you this. It is the single most mechanic in the entire game because it makes it actually playable and they do not hint it is something you need to do.
-Like before I was moving space and hoping the enemies would move where I want them to, now I can see where my movement causes them to move. Game changer. The game is playable now! If only the game explained this to me up front.
-Ah fuck I'm actually enjoying this now. I was so ready to write up an unhinged rant about how awful Bennet Foddy was but it turns out I just didn't know how to play this game.
-Like, this is a crazy way to design your game though. It is hard, unforgiving, and also not explained at all by the creator. I guess you're supposed to just figure it out yourself (I did by messing around with things) but it would've made that first hour significantly more enjoyable if I knew what the hell I was doing.
-Yeah I can actually play the game now. It still isn't easy. You still die in a single hit but I can make it through tougher rooms because I know where they're moving instead of randomly hoping for the best.
-Like you would think that "seeing where enemies move" would make the game trivial but it doesn't. You can pretty easily get yourself locked into a "I'm going to die position" if you aren't careful.
-Oh, I think I finally figured out enemy movement after some experimentation. It looks like they always move your spaces plus one extra. Those dirty cheaters. So that's how they can pretty easily corner you if you aren't being careful, and escape isn't a possibility because they mover further than you.
-I get to a castle entrance and I'm told I need a key. I didn't even know there was a key!
-Ok, so there are also guys I can talk to by moving into them in a couple of different spots. They recover my health and tell me what direction the chest is in.
-After playing a couple of times I notice they don't always tell me the same direction, so it looks like the chest moves around on each playthrough.
-I also forgot to mention that if you don't complete the game is 250 total moves, you die. It seems like an insanely high limit though unless the castle is huge.