So, I think I may be hooked. I'm certainly enjoying myself, having played some last night after work.
Positives:
+ The item variety is pretty cool in the main from what I can tell.
+ The behaviors of the early monsters are reasonably interesting.
+ I feel like I am making progress on things even when I die a lot, because of upgrading the shop, etc.
+ Eve is really fun to play as.
+ I'm having a lot of fun trying to get Samson, although I am not really proficient enough yet since I keep running into new stuff constantly.
+ The bosses are fun.
Negatives I'm Getting Used To But That Originally Bugged Me:
- The art and theme really bugs me. Not the art style, but rather what is drawn. That sort of sadistic bloody stuff is not really my bag, but I'll tolerate it for good gameplay. After a while it mostly becomes invisible.
- Only being able to fire in the cardinal directions while my enemies can fire in any direction is a tad infuriating.
- The way that my shots drift to the side (taking my momentum a bit) when I am moving makes it hard to do "drive by" hits of enemies. Granted, I understand this lets me fire diagonally in a very indirect way, but it feels needlessly awkward.
- The charge shot is really annoying in that I can't still fire my regular shot and then have the OPTION to charge it.
- Movement itself felt very floaty at first, but now I'm getting so I like it. I think a lot of people had this feeling with Valley 1, ironically.
Negatives That Bug Me But Don't Destroy The Experience:
- No descriptions of anything in the shop before I buy it? I have yet to buy anything, then. With items I pick up, at least I can put them back down again for the most part.
- The speed at which item descriptions fly off the screen is annoying.
- There doesn't seem to be any way to read about the items that I have on me; they have those little icons on the left in the pause menu, and I can't find a way to see their notes.
Where I'm at right now:
- I've unlocked shop tier 1, and now have something like 44 coins in it.
- I've made it to 4 levels down at most.
- I've unlocked Eve.
- I've been playing with that clearer item names mod, which really is niiice.
Any advice on things to do? Right now I've been focusing on Samson, with some looks towards Lazarus, while upgrading the shop. Is there something else you'd recommend I focus on in addition to that?
Lessee....
I agree on Eve, definitely. Pretty good once you get an idea of just how to go about using her. That and trying to keep a healthbar full of soul hearts instead of red hearts, which can be a tad annoying to do at times.
Bosses are pretty fun.... mostly. I'll warn you there ARE a couple of bosses... not many, maybe 3... that I consider to be "broken" in some way. There's no way you'll have encountered them yet, they're all late-game stuffs. 1 of them is fortuntely quite rare. The other two are unfortunately kinda common. I think you'll know them when you see them... fortunately they're not run-enders (unless you're using The Lost, at which point meeting them is probably a death sentence), but they can be just a BIT annoying and tiresome to deal with. Other than that though... most of them are just fine. Even if some can be aggravating, like The Haunt, everyone's least favorite early-game boss. Though you wont meet that jerk till you start unlocking the alternate versions of each area. Er... at least I think he cant appear until then, anyway.
The art and such stops being somewhat gross after awhile. It's par for the course for this developer, really... if you follow any of his stuff, for the most part, MOST of his games end up a bit like this. I always think of his stuff as sorta being the Ren & Stimpy of gaming. In the later stages of the game, Isaac (mostly) stops being gross, and instead shifts to being bizarre. Well, a bit more bizarre than usual, anyway. It's worth noting that there are mods that can change the graphics around; I dont know much about them though, really. Aside from it being occaisionally gross I generally like the overall appearance of it. Granted, I could do without the occaisional poo monsters, particularly since they make such a habit of crashing into me (seriously, I find those REALLY irritating), but still.
The shop, yeah, it wont describe things first. One thing to keep in mind about it and the game as a whole though is that the items are divided into "pools", which different rooms/things draw from. The Devil room only offers things from it's related item pool, and so on. The shop has it's own as well, and for the most part, ALL of the items (I mean the "pedestal" items, as in, the ones that are usually 15 coins in price) *only* appear in the shop (with only one exception I can think of). For the most part, these items are all useful in some way. I can think of a couple that are kinda "meh", but none of them are negative. Wouldnt make a lick of sense to have really crappy things in a shop, nobody would buy them. The item pool for the shop actually isnt all that big, which is good; it makes it easier to remember what sorts of things might appear in there. Grab them and give them a whirl when you can. Though I dont recommend grabbing the thing that looks like a plug unless you have a ton of health. It refills the charges on an active item if you hit spacebar while that item has zero charges, but it stabs you for 2 full hearts for doing so. Obviously this has some definite uses (and I see some Youtubers take it frequently), but yeah, that's the only really dangerous one. One of the best things to grab early on, I think (if you spot it) is the ladder; if you remember what the ladder did in the first Zelda, that's exactly what it does here. It can be very useful. Unless you have flight, then it's pointless. A bunch of the shop items though will be locked at first. Also, dont buy pills unless you have a ton of money; there's always that chance (unless you have PHD) that they'll be bad. Cards, on the other hand, are usually good in some way. Speaking of "PHD", if you spot THAT item in the shop, try to always buy it. Same with the item that looks like a piece of paper with "1+1" written on it; I consider this one of the best items in the game, particularly if you get it early.
The charge shot: Which charge shot are you talking about? Do you mean Brimstone? The huge red deathray? The only charge item (that I can think of right this second) that gives options on how you fire it is Chocolate Milk. Well, no, the Cursed Eye does too, but... THAT thing is best avoided. Most of the items that have "major" changes like Brimstone or whatever outright REPLACE Isaac's normal tears. As a rule, there's a reason for this; most replaced shot types are stupidly powerful when used right. Brimstone in particular is a game-winner; Mom's Knife can murder even the strongest bosses in a single stab if you learn how to use it well (ALWAYS grab either of those if they should appear). Those items for example WILL synergize with other shot affecting items (seriously, you can make them do some REALLY strange things), but they do completely replace normal tears, as if they didn't, they'd be not just OP, but in a special land BEYOND mere OP-ness.
The thing with the cardinal directions, you get used to that one pretty quickly. After enough time with the game, I honestly would be bothered if that were changed; it just wouldnt be right anymore. I *think* the original design reason for this was the simple fact that the earliest Zelda games had Link doing the same thing; he could only ever attack in the cardinal directions. Now, that being said, there ARE tricks you can do to attack at angles. You've seen the thing that lets your shots "drift" as you said. That's the main way to do it (it'll stop being bothersome and start being useful after a time), but there's quite alot of ways, actually, particularly depending on what stats or items (or both) you have at the time. There are some items that are extremely specific about helping you do this. Learning to use momentum to alter the exact angle of your shots is tough, but... every game like this usually has some sort of mechanic like that which takes some time to really master. I'll say this though, it's actually VERY useful once you get the hang of it. The higher your movement speed, the more you can do with this technique. If you're finding it too tough for now, keeping your character speed lower will stop it from drifting as much, but yeah, I'd say to definitely experiment with it. And yeah, enemies can fire anywhere, but they balance this out by being dumber than a sack of hammers, so that works out well enough.
Dont worry too much about unlocking characters early on. Some of them cant be gotten until much later, requiring that you at least defeat the Heart first. Cain is nice and easy to get (he'll probably happen semi-randomly, on one of those runs where you end up with a bazillion coins), and Azazel isnt hard to get either, and is probably the most powerful of the characters. Eden is definitely the most fun (or the most messed up) and it wont take THAT long to unlock that one. Eden starts with 2 completely random items (they could be *anything*), somewhat random stats (within a low starting range) and so on. Is the one I use most, just because it ends up being such hilarious fun. Lazarus might be the most useful early on, since you'll have some leeway with him in that he always starts with an extra life, and has a more powerful form once he does die the first time (that form starts with just one heart though). Getting character unlocks though isnt going to happen yet. You have to be PAST the Heart to get most of them. Focus more on upgrading the shop more than anything else.
Try some of the challenges, too. There's alot of stuff to unlock here, including all of the runes; runes are very similar to tarot cards, and in fact work in *exactly* the same way (I think the game actually considers them to be cards). The second challenge in particular unlocks the Jera rune, one of the best items in the game (IF you use it right). I used it to do this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7lUZoDqLVs Almost got permanently stuck in there, actually, but it sure was hilarious. Needless to say even the highest level shop doesnt normally look like that, haha. The first challenge and the second are the easiest to beat. Though, it's best to defeat Mom at least a few times before doing these. That second one should be the one to really go at though to begin with. Alot of the others can wait. Some of them are *very* irritating. Dont even get me started on the cat one. I'd like to punch whoever thought THAT was a good idea.
Mostly though the main thing to concentrate on right now is simply learning stuff and getting further (and levelling the shop). The main goal early on is simple: reach and defeat the Heart 10 times to unlock the boss that replaces it, and then defeat THAT to unlock the stuff beyond there. If you havent beaten Mom yet though (who is on floor 6), you wont be able to reach floor 8 to fight the heart, as 7 and 8 unlock after beating her the first time. Which reminds me: When you *do* get to floor 6, *dont* enter the boss room until you're SURE there's nothing else you want to do on that floor. Her room is the one and only room in the game that you get totally locked into once you're in there. Every other boss room lets you step back out after the fight, but with her, you'd have to teleport somehow as the door will not return. As for item unlocks, they'll start happening seemingly at random as you hit a variety of conditions during normal play. Once you've gotten past the Heart is when you can choose certain items to really focus on (and some of the best ones become available to do at that point).
Oh, I didn't mention it before, but there's one other major hint here: if you havent noticed yet, there are some rocks that are a slightly different color than others, and have a small "X" mark somewhere on them. On floors 1 and 2, they're particularly easy to spot (hardest to spot on 7 and
. Breaking them with bombs usually releases 1 or two soul hearts, which alone are typically worth the use of the bomb. There's other things you can get from them too though. Sometimes bombing into a known secret room can be more important, but usually, you want these. Keep an eye out and learn to spot them. Their look changes to match the rocks of the area, but they'll always have that small X on them. Also: Bombing mushrooms can get you pills, that can be very worth doing. Bombing skulls (areas 5 and 6) can get you tarot cards. Best to bomb more than one of them at once; I usually do it when I can pop 3 or 4 with one bomb.
And the very last tip for now: If you spot the Bible in the shop (brown book with a cross on it) that can be a pretty good thing to grab, particularly early on. It gives temporary flight for the room you're in when used, but can also be activated to defeat either Mom or the Heart (or the boss that replaces it) in an instant. Dont use it against Satan though, or it just kills you outright. It's not the best item ever, but it really can be pretty darn useful at times.
EDIT: Bah, typos and mistaken words! In particular "NONE" in the bit about the shop was supposed to be "ALL", went and fixed that...
