Quick Look: Crypt of the Necrodancer

I bought this after the first QL, really fun, and the developers have done a nice job of not only updating it, but putting out meticulous patch notes, which i really appreciate

I didn't think Dan liked computer music.

I think I've seen something like this said about every aspect of Steam. What's your argument against Early Access?

@bjklein: As someone who is supremely terrible at this sort of "enemy moves when you move" gameplay, the drum sounds amazing. Hot tips!

bit of an aside but i didn't realize until i was older how much electronic/dance and electronic/dance inspired music i actually liked when i was a teen (as so many of those elements were incorporated into the bands i liked at the time), despite having the general opinion then that electronic music wasn't really music.

not a comment on dan's taste; i feel what he doesn't like is the more club oriented stuff, or generic pop music. but let's try not to bash on dan for once. :)

also i totally bought this a while back and never played it, think i may do so tonite.

@ripelivejam: Yeah, I think you're right. Also, I'm pretty sure Dan does play somewhat of a caricature of himself sometimes, possibly in a bid to rile people up and have a bit of a joke. I like to think that people are more playing along with it in good humour than bashing Dan, most of the time...

Nope, it's not doing it for me. Constant movement, those flashing floor tiles, naah bro. I liked the shopkeeper singing though but that's about it.

The art in this game is juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust north of crappy which somehow makes it great.

@nonesun said:

At risk of sounding like a total apologist of Dan's opinions of music, he's mentioned plenty of times that he's fully capable of enjoying music in its context, even if it's not something he'd listen to on its own.

Anyway, this game looks really really rad, but the jerky movement (obviously by design) does something to my head that makes me feel kind of sick. I don't think I can play it.

Purchased!

I've paid more for less!

I bought this game when I realised that I can play it with "Rules of Nature".

Crypt of the Necrodancer is fantastic. I highly recommend looking up speedruns of it.

@kblosnack: This is kinda interesting as an addition but sounds like it just makes the game like a Mystery Dungeon game instead. I'd kinda rather go play one of those if I felt the need for that, I dunno

The short answer is that you are paying money for an unfinished product of unknown quality, which may never become a finished product, may be riddled with bugs or not even work properly on your system, and Steam support will absolutely refuse to help you with it in any way - you cannot receive a "refund" for Early Access titles even if they are completely broken.

It is even worse than pre-ordering a game, because at least that guarantees you will receive a finished product - though what qualifies as a "finished product" on Steam these days is of dubious quality due to Early Access.

I purchased Spintires after it "went final" and came out of Early Access, was unable to get it running at all on my system, and the Steam support rep thought it was still an Early Access product when I contacted them about it. Due to their strict policy on Early Access titles, it took me several weeks of emails back and forth before they realized it was a "final" product when I purchased it rather than Early Access, and I was finally able to get the purchase removed and have the amount credited back on my account. (Steam will never give you a refund)

Just look at the mess surrounding Double Fine's Spacebase DF-9 to see how bad Early Access can be - and that's from a well-known developer.

People assumed they were basically purchasing a pre-order for a full game, but instead they decided that it was not selling enough Early Access copies, so they cancelled all development, called the current build "final" and released it. It's currently selling for $20.01 on the store despite being unfinished and far from feature-complete.

Crypt of the Necrodancer is an example of where Early Access succeeded - but that is rare.

Videos like this make me wish they used some sort of talk over volume limiter so we can hear more game audio when no one is talking.

@00: So it's more of a warning to people who don't know what they're doing than a condemnation of the concept of Early Access? That makes sense.

So, you're telling me I can plug in the Hotline Miami soundtrack?

@danryckert I have news. You like heavy metal.

this would be pretty amazing on the vita

@00: I've had two great experiences with Early Access games. Both Mercenary Kings and Crypt of the Necrodancer were games that I bought in their "unfinished" state and thoroughly enjoyed seeing mature from early access to full release.

You are fully entitled to your personal stance to not buy games before they're "released," and difficult experiences with customer support like your story regarding Spintires suck. But throwing the baby out with the bathwater because of the worst stories regarding the Early Access program feels kinda silly. Buying games before they're finished is here to stay (rage at Minecraft for getting us into this).

Don't support it if you don't personally like the practice, but trust in the ability of other people to make their own purchasing decisions.

Just purchased. Really fun and great music.

The voice of the singing shopkeeper reminds me of the opera scene in FF6

You can play this game with a dance pad.

Bought this game about 5 minutes into the quick look. I was really worried that this game's soundtrack would just be EDM stuff but Danny B came through!

Ugh I hope this sells well enough that they put it on PS4.

From what I heard, I prefer A-rival.

I'm in a similar situation. Everything about it seems really interesting, but I just don't think for a second that I would enjoy playing it.

Playing this while answering Dan's incessant questions makes this look waaay harder than it is.

If you're watching this and on the fence because it seems tough, fear not! It really isn't that bad.

Contrary to Brad's remark about playing on instinct, it's actually all about pattern recognition. The enemy types behave in pretty specific ways. Once you get the hang of it it's pretty enjoyable puzzling out how to take them on in the most efficient/safest manner possible.

The levels are short and fast-paced, the retries are quick, and the gear is so randomized it keeps things extremely interesting. So even when you are struggling with a level it's fun just seeing what comes up.

Also, the shopkeeper is known as Freddie Merchantry. So there's that.

And if you don't already know FamilyJules7x, stop whatever you are doing right now and look him up. His game soundtrack covers are incredible.

no offence but this is kinda painful to watch. so many missed beats. i wonder if there was any audio lag cause thats way more important that visual lag

The way the main character hops back and forth makes it look like she needs to pee really badly

Shopkeeper is giving me FF6 Opera vibes. Good stuff.

If this comes to Vita, I'll play it every day.

I'm glad you guys gave this another look, definitely sold me on it.

Sold.

i am pounding my keyboard way too hard while playing this.

The big thing that it seemed brad didn't get about the 'Bard' character is that it isn't that you can move as fast as you want.. it's that you can move as slow as you want. The beat only advances when you move, use him to learn the patterns of the enemies

I bought and played a lot of this game a while ago basically as soon as it became available on early access - and I'll say these two things:

1. The game is much more fun to play than it is to watch

2. It is much easier than Brad makes it look (at least initially, it of course ramps up appropriately, and becomes really challenging later on). Obviously Brad had the double challenge of speaking and playing a rhythm game, which is super hard.

I'm so glad this is out of Early Access - it's fantastic and well worth a try even if you're not sure after this quicklook.

I bought this game already and haven't really played it yet. I tried it out and got frustrated and thought I might as well wait until full release to see if I can troubleshoot with the problem I'm having. I'm a drummer and have been for years. My natural tendency when I played this game was to make the character land on the beat, but that automatically throws off your timing until you break the multiplier. The game wants you to jump at the beat, but I see the landing and the color change on the floor as when I should time it. The only way I can try to work around this is to purposefully mess up the calibration so that it aligns with how I'm trying to do it, but that seems difficult and I might have to do it multiple times.

I know I could just try to get used to how they want me to do it, but after so many years of drumming and the natural tendency my mind has to timing the beat, I don't see how I'll be able to do that. Seems like a lot of work to undo the habit and I don't know if I have that much effort in me. It's a shame, because I really want to get into this game. It looks awesome.

The first time I played a preview build of this game, the devs had a steel DDR pad with them. It was quite an experience. If you guys have access to a USB DDR mat, you should totally pull that out for a UPF!

“Looks like a female Link”