[LET'S PLAY...soon] Iji: An indie RPG sidescroller (NSF56K!)

joshofalltrades

Iji!

A description from the creator's website that I just linked to:

Iji is an action-packed strategic platform shooter with a detailed story, large levels with multiple paths, powerful bosses and lots of secrets. There are alternate gameplay events, dialogues and scenes depending on what you do, a wealth of extras and bonus features, and seven stats to upgrade through a leveling system. Iji herself has superhuman strength and abilities, and can crack Nanotechnology, use her enemies' most devastating weapons against them, and be a pacifist or a killer which changes her mood and the fate of those around her. Soundtrack by Chris Geehan and Dan Byrne McCullhough, songs also by Tom Mauritzon and Captain Goodnight (and LifeForce, but their song was not originally recorded for Iji).

This game is pretty sweet. It's a little flawed in some ways which I'll save for mention in the Let's Play I plan on doing, but when fun is your measuring unit you'll need a tape measure (I just now made that up, how did I do?). It is basically a cross between a Metroidvania and Blackthorne with the graphic style of Out of This World.

The coolest part of the game is how your decisions have a noticeable effect. You can play through the game killing as few enemies as possible and if you accidentally are responsible for the death of an alien, Iji will say something along the lines of "I'm so sorry!" Play the game as an engine of death and destruction (which is my Let's Play plan) and she'll scream "DIE!" at her enemies.

Also, I'm pretty sure it's not possible to max out your character unless you are on the easiest difficulty.

Multiple narrative paths, multiple ways to complete the level, multiple ways to upgrade your nanotechnology. What more could you ask for?

This will soon become my second Let's Play ever. I'm creating this thread in advance so that those of you who desire to play along can sort of get acquainted with the game first. I plan on taking on the hardest difficulty, Ultimortal, with no prior experience at this level. Feel free to support me with words of encouragement or call me a complete dumbass, both are appropriate.

The Let's Play will begin as soon as I finish my Extreme playthrough (I'm on the final level right now).

Discuss!

Casually Hardcore

This game crash on me like none other.

A shame, cause I remember the music being catchy.

joshofalltrades

Oh yes, I forgot to mention. The music is pretty amazing.

DualEdge

Seven Four is my favorite song. It makes kicking a guy through a window into a rocket all the more badass.

Blue map

Edit: I need to pay more attention.

joshofalltrades

Edit: Quite all right, chum.

Thetheroo

Is this game hard?

Will there be cursing involved?

Faffel

Thetheroo wrote: »

Is this game hard?

Will there be cursing involved?

There will be cursing. Things like "FUCK YEAH!" when you kick an enemy off a platform and down through a pile of boxes, then leap down and shoot him in the face and reflect a rocket at his friend, blowing another two enemies up.

Marty

Looks damn good. Shame that vsync doesn't work on modern cards, but at least the tearing is minimal.

Zombiemambo

I can't stand the character designs.

jothki

Faffel wrote: »

Thetheroo wrote: »

Is this game hard?

Will there be cursing involved?

There will be cursing. Things like "FUCK YEAH!" when you kick an enemy off a platform and down through a pile of boxes, then leap down and shoot him in the face and reflect a rocket at his friend, blowing another two enemies up.

There will be no kicking done on Ultimortal. You're not even allowed to upgrade anything besides Health.

AkimboEG

This game has some frustratingly hard-to-reach secret areas.

joshofalltrades

Hm, now I'm not so sure I want to LP an Ultimortal run. Kinda boring watching me run past almost everything.

Pemulis

Sweet! I'd say go for a good mix of entertainment and difficulty.

joshofalltrades

Well, that'll be Extreme, then. Looks like it might start even sooner.

Rent

I had a problem where I couldn't jump while running left, making it impossible for me to reach a certain ledge in Zone...2? Zone 2, I think
Is this normal?

joshofalltrades

Absolutely not!

TheStig

Man just yesterday I was thinking "we need another Out of This World" this should do :P

Clevinger

I love this game. The maker should charge 5 or ten bucks for it, or put it on XBLA. Dude deserves it.

Rent

I downloaded it for a different computer than mine and it worked okay
Weird
Great game though

joshofalltrades

Clevinger wrote: »

I love this game. The maker should charge 5 or ten bucks for it, or put it on XBLA. Dude deserves it.

Dude, yes. I would love achievements for this game. It would inspire me to actually play through as a pacifist. Every time I start a no-kill run I get trigger happy.

In other news, I will start recording this sometime this week. It's hard to be uninterrupted with a wife and two little kids around, so I'll kick them out at some point.

Rent

joshofalltrades wrote: »

Clevinger wrote: »

I love this game. The maker should charge 5 or ten bucks for it, or put it on XBLA. Dude deserves it.

Dude, yes. I would love achievements for this game. It would inspire me to actually play through as a pacifist. Every time I start a no-kill run I get trigger happy.

In other news, I will start recording this sometime this week. It's hard to be uninterrupted with a wife and two little kids around, so I'll kick them out at some point.

You'll never be The Guy with that
Er..
Wrong thread :P

joshofalltrades

Good news, I just finished my Extreme run. I also started an Ultimortal run, but there's no way I'm doing a LP of that -- not because it's tough, because it's boring. There are no health powerups, no shield powerups (except those nanofields) and there's a time limit on every level, which means I'd have to run past every juicy story tidbit.

So, Extreme it is.

Senshi

with Extreme, do you get all the awesome things people have mentioned so far, e.g. "FUCK YEAH"-awesome?

Because that'd be awesome.

Faffel

Clevinger wrote: »

I love this game. The maker should charge 5 or ten bucks for it, or put it on XBLA. Dude deserves it.

He told one of my internet acquaintances that he doesn't believe it's worth paying for.

Rent

Sector 6 boss: You a bitch

joshofalltrades

Senshi wrote: »

with Extreme, do you get all the awesome things people have mentioned so far, e.g. "FUCK YEAH"-awesome?

Because that'd be awesome.

Yep, only problem is it's kinda easy until Sector 7, when the difficulty curve rises sharply.

Craigopogo

You'd better start this soon so I can hear the game's music. It just won't play for me. I've done what the readme and website says (which isn't exactly helpful) but the music doesn't seem to feel like working for me.

joshofalltrades

ASSFUCKMOTHERFUCKINGPIECEOFSHIT AAASSSSSSSSSS!!!

I would like to apologize for that little outburst, but Vista has decided all on its own that I don't need a Stereo Mix for recording. It's not hidden there, it's just gone.

So now I get to scour the internet hoping something can tell me why my Stereo Mix is gone out of the blue. This was my only time today to record, too.

Unnecessary Edit:

I'm reading all kinds of posts saying that Microsoft was worried people might be using their Stereo Mix to pirate music off of Myspace or whatever, so they disabled the functionality in newer drivers.

What a crock of genital wax! Is there anybody who knows a workaround?

Senshi

only microsoft would disable something because it "might be a pirating issue"

fuck microsoft.

that said, I think I'll enjoy watching you play iji more than I'll like playing it--gave it a download last night and promptly fell asleep playing it (not because it was boring, but I was really fucking tired). I didn't like how the controls worked.

Zek

joshofalltrades wrote: »

ASSFUCKMOTHERFUCKINGPIECEOFSHIT AAASSSSSSSSSS!!!

I would like to apologize for that little outburst, but Vista has decided all on its own that I don't need a Stereo Mix for recording. It's not hidden there, it's just gone.

So now I get to scour the internet hoping something can tell me why my Stereo Mix is gone out of the blue. This was my only time today to record, too.

Unnecessary Edit:

I'm reading all kinds of posts saying that Microsoft was worried people might be using their Stereo Mix to pirate music off of Myspace or whatever, so they disabled the functionality in newer drivers.

What a crock of genital wax! Is there anybody who knows a workaround?

Use old drivers?

Schide

See now, this kind of crap is why I hate Vista and never want to have to use it.

That and the fact that at least two relatives' computers who have had it have gotten the same horrible virus and spyware problems, although that may have more to do with shitastic virus protection programs than anything. Although from trying to fix those problems and dealing with Vista, my hatred for it has thus grown a hundredfold.

Anyway. I've never actually heard about this game before and look forward to watching you play it. You know, if it ever let's you.

joshofalltrades

I can play the game just fine, the problem is that I can't record both the game and my mic simultaneously. Actually, I can't even record the game audio since that is part of the stereo mix. Another problem is that even though I can record with my mic, I can't hear it in my headphones as it's recording. It's a giant hairy ball of ass and it wouldn't be a big deal if they hadn't shut off the capability for a stereo mix!

Zek, thanks for your input. I actually tried locating older drivers but I don't even know what my onboard sound is -- all it says is "High Definition Audio Device". The driver is by Microsoft, which is probably more than a small part of the problem, but I do not know where else I would look. Any insight?

Pemulis

Can't you look up your motherboard to find what the onboard sound is? I'm assuming it's onboard.

edit:

You probably already tried this, but apparently it works for some people:

Right click on the speaker icon in the tray.

Select "Recording Devices"

In the resulting dialog, make sure you have the "Recording" tab selected and in the middle of the empty area, right click and select "Show Disabled Devices".

Pemulis

You could also always do the "blast the game audio so your mic picks it up" thing. As a last resort I guess.

Edit:

One more possibility:

Some of the forums are saying something about a program called "Virtual Audio Cable", which apparently works in much the same way as this program (which claims to be free): http://applian.com/sound-recorder/

I have no idea how or if this will work, might be worth a shot though.

Good luck!

Klineshrike

I needed to say this, but because of your mention of this game in the IWBTG post, I DLed and played it one weekend and it was awesome. I personally was driven by the plot, but it was damned fun too.

KupotheAvenger

Yay new Josh let's play! wooo. totally gonna watch this one.

Deswa

If you just want to listen to the music, you could just grab the files from the download, in the music folder. The boss music and credits music are fantastic.

Lly

Ooh, Iji. Loved that game. Looking forward to watching this.

joshofalltrades

Well a potential solution has arisen, but I'm not sure how practical it is.

Some say that a simple cable extending from the Line Out jack to the Microphone jack should allow sound. I'm pretty sure I still wouldn't be able to monitor my mic volume.

Or, and here's an idea, why doesn't Vista just give me back the #$%@ing functionality I already had not 4 months ago?

joshofalltrades

All whining about my Stereo Mix functionality shall henceforth go here in order to restore actual talking about Iji in here.

So, right now my plan is to release the first part along with a little mini-review of the game. If I have time before Christmas, the second video will be a Xmas special.

I'm also independently playing a pacifist run on Ultimortal. Hooooly shit son. It's not easy.

Oh, and I unlocked a hidden costume when I finished my prior Extreme run. Any votes on whether I play with the standard "lab rat" costume or the hidden one?