LostWinds Winter of the Melodias Feedback Thread

[Callum Rowley]

If you've purchased LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias and given it a play through (and hopefully completed it!), we'd like to know your thoughts on the game. What were the best bits? What were the worst bits? What would you improve or enhance? We want to hear all about your experiences.

Use this thread to spill your mind, and let us know what you think!

 

[statto]

Decided to wait until I completed it before posting here. Just for comparison purposes here are my time to complete comparisons from the first game:

LostWinds: 3:54 (18 of 24 idols)
LostWinds WotM: 4:32 (39 of 48 idols)

OK, now the review (spoilers within):

Firstly, the good. The control system wasn't changed at all, and that's a good thing in my book (if it ain't broke...). Toku still had all his old moves, with the exception of the cape, though there is kind of an explanation for why he doesn't have it, and the game would be way too easy if you had it from the start so that's fine. There's also a new move, cyclone, which fits in well with the already available wind powers. The things that were changed were for the better. The map is a welcome addition, and the secrets were a nice touch, though a little superfluous.

The summer/winter gimmick was really good, and meant there was a new facet to the gameplay with a different type of puzzle. Talking of puzzles, the standard of difficulty is roughly the same as the first game (with a caveat: if you aren't coming into this game new then you already have an idea of the way puzzles will be solved, so it's possible this may be harder for someone fresh to the game). I can only think of a couple of points where I didn't have a good idea of what to do next.

As can be seen from my completion times, this game is a little longer than the first one, but the time is deceiving. If the first game had a map which indicated where you should be heading for next then you could probably knock an hour off my time. Conversely, if this game had no map then you could probably add a couple of hours. I'd estimate the sequel is about 50-75% bigger than it's predecessor. Obviously, that's a good thing.

Sound and graphics remained the same (with maybe a few extra musical cues), and once again, that's good, as it means the game retains much of the charm of the original.

The boss fight in this one was much harder (and better) than in the original. The boss wasn't quite as graphically impressive though.

Now the bad (not much to be honest): I don't think the story was quite as compelling or well done as the original. I loved the story of Balasar told in stills at the start of the original, as well as the epilogue which explained how much had been done, but much was still to do. I'd have liked to have seen Deo or Enril set the scene a little better, and maybe a text-based epilogue. I know space is at a premium, but I'd happily give up the secrets if it meant we'd have got those little touches in the story. I'm really nit-picking with this though.

In conclusion, Frontier have gone from being the company that produced my favourite WiiWare title, to the company that have produced my two favourite WiiWare titles. It's very hard to pick which one is better, but if you liked the first then you'll like the second. Why haven't you bought it already?!

9.5/10

Now time to go and play it again to get all the Melodia idols. Maybe that will keep me going until the third installment (there is going to be a third one right?).

 

[ssrobins]

My impressions

Still looks and sounds great
What can I say, this portion is just like the first one and is still great.

Cyclone, seasons, and The King
The cyclone is an excellent ability. Moving pools of water in a cloud and drilling through the dirt are both satisfying and unique experiences. The former made for some neat puzzles too. The seasons were stylistically a nice touch, although it wasn’t really used for any great purpose. Make it summer to swim, glide, and unfreeze doors. Make it winter to walk up waterfalls and make snowballs. This is an excellent start, but I couldn’t help but think interesting possibilities weren’t fully explored. Maybe in the next one? The King did offer some nice elaboration on the formula, though. That was probably the most interesting part of the gameplay for me because I did not expect it.

Overall story progression is thin
The first game was framed nicely with an overall story about Mistralis and Balasar. Then there was the more immediate story regarding Enril, Toku, and Magmok. I enjoyed the immediate story and I felt like I was embarking on a larger journey. What about the other spirits? What’s going to happen when Balasar breaks free? It even ended with the ominous “To be continued”. Then, comes the sequel. Again, it has a nice immediate story. In fact, it’s better than the first one’s. Involving Toku’s Mom and telling her adventure through the journal entries was a nice touch. But this game didn’t build on the overall story very much. It reminded me of a TV show where they are withholding the “good stuff” for a later episode. I always say, “Waiting for what?” At worst, using all your awesome ideas will cut things short, but at least it was a great ride! At best, you’ll have more great ideas to follow up the first part. I will say that the Melodias, their city, and their king were outstanding plot points, though. If this was part of a larger game maybe I would think of this as good character development and background on Toku, but being a separate-ish game seems to make me judge it differently.

Maybe I’m too stupid for Riveren?
I really liked how the Riveren battled started out. I had a rough time figuring out that The King wasn’t just singing for a set amount of time, but would sing until he got hit. However, once I figured that out, I nailed the first part. The last part BAFFLED me. When Enril told me to hit him, I hit him with everything; glorbs, fruit, fire, windswept “singing” from The King, NOTHING worked. I eventually looked it up, something I hate doing and almost never do, but after an hour, I was about ready to quit the game completely. You can imagine that when I found out I have to hit him with the glorbs he’s shooting at me, not the ones that have already landed, that I was pretty disappointed. Then, I had to actually DO it, which was dumb luck more than anything. I had to use Enril to aim them directly upward so they wouldn’t hit those two upper platforms and then hope Riveren would reappear in their path on the way down.

I messed around with Magmok for a while the first time I fought him, but it became clear what the logical course of action was and it was quite satisfying to pull off. I felt tricked with Riveren, although maybe I’m just too stupid for him!

Still worth it!
Overall, I am glad that I played this game. It’s very relaxing, colorful, and full of heart. Also, its length is refreshing. It does its thing and gets done before things get repetitive. Too many games do not have the depth to last as long as they do. In fact, it almost borders on arrogance how long some games will overstay their welcome with fetch quests and 1000 little trinkets to find. Anyway, I think Frontier has a lot of talent behind it and I wish you all the best!

 

[Callum Rowley]

Some great feedback here It's all most welcome seeing what you guys have to say about it.

Now the bad (not much to be honest): I don't think the story was quite as compelling or well done as the original. I loved the story of Balasar told in stills at the start of the original, as well as the epilogue which explained how much had been done, but much was still to do. I'd have liked to have seen Deo or Enril set the scene a little better, and maybe a text-based epilogue. I know space is at a premium, but I'd happily give up the secrets if it meant we'd have got those little touches in the story. I'm really nit-picking with this though

The stills in the original LostWinds were a great addition, but they took up quite a large portion of space the developers had to play with, which is why they didn't make a return. I'd certainly like to see them return in the eventuality we do a third game, but it'd probably only be if it were to be disc-based.

Glad you enjoyed it though!

 

[blindfish]

Would have been great if it weren't for the poor QA. There seem to be several bugs that mean you can get stuck and have to start from scratch

 

[Andor]

I have just finished the game and I loved it!

I agree mostly with all the good points written on both reviews up there.

The bad things are really small compared to the good ones. The only thing that upset me a little was what blindfish said, I got stuck at one point and had to restart the whole game. I also missed a little bit more information on the other spirits and Balasar, but that was not that bad because you could create new paths for the story and I loved the Melodias.

Among all the good aspects of the game there were some really nice:

- The game's beginning with Magmok following us in the background and helping out was really cool.
- The change of seasons was a great idea and the new puzzles with that were great
- Controlling the king was surprisingly easy and despite the lack of any dialogues he was so charismatic. It was really fun watching him walk and making him stay.
- Final boss with king co-op = awesome!!

Also, I liked a lot the secrets. Actually, in my opinion the best thing would be the possibility to zoom in while playing, the character design in this game is so good and they deserve to be seen better.

 

[matthiasoreklein]

First off, I absolutely love these games! I'm a new comer to the series mainly because I'm a busy poor high school student with little money to buy the games and less time to play them (amazing considering how short and cheep they are). Since I played both of them in a row, they blurred together, so I may refer to both even though I'm giving feedback on Winter of the Melodias.

The Game Play:
Fantastic! I loved it! It's so unique and innovative. The controls were very simple, and I eventually forgot about the actual controller in my hand and it felt so seamless. I love the new powers in WotM! I'm glad to see some motion controls with cyclone. Although, I didn't really use the freeze ability that often. I would usually just slam the fire glorbs as many times as possible before they'd just burst. The map was an incredible help!

The Plot:
I am a very story driven gamer. If it doesn't have a good story, it better have a fantastic redeeming quality. I've been so used to playing platformers in which the princess is kidnapped for the 70th time! I loved Magdi's journal entries and I hung on every word. Her final letter to Toku almost made me cry... yes I am a sap.

Although, I am kind of sad that we didn't here as much about the spirits this time. Sure, we did find out about Sonté, which was fantastic by the way. Her personality was incredible! Other than that, it had a different feel that the original. I desperately wanted to find out exactly which spirit Deo is... the Spirit of Longevity?

Other than my issue of not a directly continuing story, I loved it! Especially Riveren and the Melodias. I thought controlling Riveren at the beginning was wonderful. I loved all the extra fleshing of the supporting characters was fantastic. Smith was wonderful and the Oloua were hilarious with their "tongue suits." The Melodia King was wonderful (I'm running out of positive adjectives). His game play was superb and dare I say, cute.

My Favorite parts:
When Toku put on the Oloua snow suit, my first thought was "THAT IS SO CUTE!" Melodia City was beautiful, I wish I could have seen more of it during its prime. I loved pretty much everything about the game except for a few things.

Parts that frustate(d) me:
In Lower Melodia City, it was very vague what to do. The backgrounds are so fantastic that I sometimes don't know what is intractable. I had to look it up on the internet. I felt a little cheated. Also, the bosses (of both games) were too difficult for me to figure out, I looked up how to beat them too. Their level of difficulty once I knew what I was doing was respectable for a boss, but I felt that I was a little cheated by how almost impossible those puzzles were for me. Now, regarding Riveren specifically, I understand that some of that is unwarranted because of the now blazingly obvious hint that the beginning of the game, but maybe it was just me.

My thoughts and hopes regarding a possible 3rd game:
I would love to see a tad more instruction. You can keep the puzzles just as hard, or harder, but give us the rules to some of the puzzles. Keep the 2d, but maybe add a "twist" to it so we can more clearly appreciate those fantastic backgrounds. They are like a sweet temptation that is just out of reach!

Toku seems like a helpless little conduit who is the carier of Enril's prison/shard. He seems very unnecessary because all of the physical things he does is only to get him to the next location. I would love to see some reason as to why Toku's there. Since Enril isn't completely whole, I would like it if she had some weakness that Toku completes. Enril should have some reliance upon Toku to make the partnership viable. It would be wonderful if Toku has some form of self defense. He could have a c button attack, or something to do with shaking the nunchuck. Honestly, despite his adorableness and his wonderful character, Toku sometimes feels like dead weight.

I would love to see a variety of puzzles. The game was fun, and I'm gearing up for a detailed completion round on both, but it can get slightly mundane. It would be nice to have a change of pace, literally. Maybe some way of having a zipping, quick, race style situation that Toku gets in, using wind to go faster. I know the game has a relaxing soft feel to it, but it made me a little sleepy a points. No wonder it always begins with a character sleeping.

I want to see more spirits, more locations, more characters, more powers, and definitely more of Mistralis in general. Maybe explore the coastline and go sailing. Maybe explore a forest or a jungle. Maybe a hot volcano (every video game needs lava). I have a ton of hope for LostWinds 3. I'd be shocked if there wasn't one. Balasar's still out there... isn't he?

Regarding their length:
I don't have a problem with it. They are short, but deep. In my mind, they are less of a movie like standard length games, and more of an episodic show. They are cheap and take the length I would expect for one fifth of a $50 USD game.

9.1 /10

 

[Michael Brookes]

Toku seems like a helpless little conduit who is the carier of Enril's prison/shard. He seems very unnecessary because all of the physical things he does is only to get him to the next location. I would love to see some reason as to why Toku's there. Since Enril isn't completely whole, I would like it if she had some weakness that Toku completes. Enril should have some reliance upon Toku to make the partnership viable. It would be wonderful if Toku has some form of self defense. He could have a c button attack, or something to do with shaking the nunchuck. Honestly, despite his adorableness and his wonderful character, Toku sometimes feels like dead weight.

You've kind of answered your own question. Without Toku, Enril cannot move through the world, she can affect the wind but no more. With Toku's help she can move through the world. You should also remember that Toku is a very young boy, vunerable. He relies on Enril to protect him, in the same way she relies on him to transport her.

Michael

 

[Vague Rant]

Long-delayed reply, I only finally got around to buying LostWinds and Winter of the Melodias yesterday, and had finished them both by today, so figured I'd give my thoughts while they're still fresh.

I was immensely pleased with the replacement of the vague hinting system with the map; the former suggested I visit specific locations, most of which I didn't take the time to memorise the names of, so the map was a massive improvement. I liked that collecting the idols actually had a purpose (and collecting them was made so much more convenient by the map system), but the profiles were perhaps less interesting a reward than might be hoped; the presence of additional characters in this game made me hope that one of the secrets might be to switch to them, but that there was a reward at all made collecting the idols much more palatable.

Something I was really wishing for in both games as I neared the ending was a teleporting system--the maps aren't immense, but getting from one end to the other for a single missed idol was frustratingly hassling; each time a character mentioned having a gift for me I was hoping for the power of teleportation (and for a moment I dared hope the cyclone was a teleportation skill). Obviously something like this would significantly reduce the length of the game, but I doubt anyone would really mind since you're only skipping the grind. A possibility might be to give players teleportation only after the main goal has been completed, to make collecting idols less of a chore without changing the core gameplay in any way.

I'd love to see a disc-based game which compiles the LostWinds titles (and a third installment!) using the improvements offered in Winter, which simply outclassed the first game in playability thanks to the reworked map/idol system, and of course with still graphics throughout for plot advancement, something missed from the second game. Regardless, my appreciation for a number of hours of unique gaming.