Weekly map discussion 8#: From Under the Dragon's Wing

RDs.The-dts-guy wrote: weekly map discussion or it can be better described as review. Every week I will be picking random map from PQ's map pool (excluding bonus and tutorial categories for now, custom levels may happen depending on how this goes), here you can share any opinions, share positive things you liked about the map or just point out pros and cons and express all the anger you have to the person who made the map

7th map of the week: From Under the Dragon's Wing

Category: beginner
Level: 21
Desc:"You've had the opportunity to learn and practice all the skills that will be required of you. Now prove that you know them!""
The level name is a reference to Matan.

Sorry for late post.[/quote]

Super good level. Matan did a fantastic job of making a remix of Grand Finale and the pathfinding potential is really nice. The moving gems next to the hazards are a little irritating, and as clever of an idea the fading platforms and cannon section is, it's a bit annoying to go through.

Overall splendid work. 10/10

(Had to play this level a few more times to get a good feel for it...)
Surprisingly, this Pablo level is actually good. It plays very well with simple but fun challenges, but the level lacks some of the charm of its source material.

This solid level gets a 4/5 from me.

I never liked this level. It feels like a forced copy of Grand Finale, and the sections feel forced too. Pretty poor gameplay imo, largely due to the "just because we can" stuff in PQ. Overall 2/5

4/10

Not to take Kalle's arguments, but this is literally a lazy copy paste of Grand Finale. Well, not as much as some despicable custom levels I saw on Ultra, but the idea is clearly there (and the texturing too ; floor in yellow, walls in purple). Originality speaking, we will pass and try again later. Or not.

About the gameplay, I deeply hate that disorienting propeller as well as the finish section (see : one of Lee's videos), plus the pathfinding possibilites are just hell to find.

Obviously this was inspired by GF and if we take out the idea that it was inspired by something it still feels very disproportional almost as if it will topple down any second.
Every time I play this level I feel odd, I feel lost and have this uneasy feeling that it is so easy to fall down. Gameplay is fine'ish, challenges feel mostly original, it's just hard to enjoy this level. Maybe it is positive feeling from GF and the bar that's set very high by it, maybe it is because GF was spread out more horizontally and FUtDW is set to be more vertical based. This level would've really benefited from having it's own color scheme or having nature theme.

And don't get me wrong, I was excited when I first saw thumbnail of this level but it has allways felt like letdown, never the less good use of PQ's features and nice challenges.

7/10

(First review here ) Solid level with lots of gems, and obviously everyone likes a level that's good to pathfind. I'm taking some points off however because i agree with the main sentiment that lots of the challenges seem forced (almost entirely because they are in isolated PITS, for god's sake), and while i see that "we have all the elements of gameplay so why not use them" it's really not too appealing to speedrunners. While the overall design copied off of GF is cool, and we can pathfind with different combos of gems, this level still doesn't quite do it for me as a speedrunner.

6/10

I really like that this level is inspired by MBG's Grand Finale. And that this level is the Beginner finale of PlatinumQuest just as Grand Finale is the Beginner finale of MBG! The design of this level brings out the familiarity of classic MBG levels and is definitely reminiscent of the original Grand Finale, and the challenges were fairly easy to do!

10/10