Little Big Adventure mobile version review

[marcosmapf]

Originally Posted by Lupin

They feel like a waste of my time/motivation to play.

Wat
Wat

Ok

[WebSeed]

DotEmu just posted the following on the Touch Arcade forums (http://forums.toucharcade.com/showth...23331&page=8):

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to let you know that we are working on a major update. We haven't settle on everything that the update will cover but we will do our best. You will however need to wait for around 3 weeks (2 weeks + 1 week of Apple submission delay). You can stay tuned here :
https://www.facebook.com/LittleBigAdventureOfficial
or
https://www.facebook.com/DotEmu
(But we will also reply in this forum when the update will be done).
Best,
The DotEmu Team

My guess would be that they will change/tweak the controls.

[Axx]

Its the only thing that's missing really. Hopefully they sort it out soon enough.

[xesf]

Also hope it has something to turn on/off. More than changing the controls (virtual stick or something) a little path-finding will be brilliant.

[Polaris]

I'm missing a toggle for running without double-tapping.

[xesf]

Btw, we are also missing a Challange leaderboard for a speed run. That will be kind neat, not that I actually will do one, but since it's just a single leaderboard it doesn't give too much of trouble to implement.

[Polaris]

Not a bad idea, since they included a speed-run achievment.

[Blafards61]

What. The. Hell. Have. They. Done. To. This. Game.

It's a nightmare to play on an Iphone. It's unbelieveable. I wanted to throw my phone out of the window by frustration.

Moving Twinsen is a challenge itself. I stopped counting the amount of time he jumped/threw his magic ball/wasn't walking where I wanted him to go for no reason. Walking in straight line is impossible. They made Twinsen follow the cursor like Diablo games but failed to make it work properly: when we stop clicking, stop moving the character. Do not make him continue to walk up to the clicked area, it's completely dumb.

They could improve the game way more if:

1- They made Twinsen stop moving when we stop pressing

2- Added a big round magnetic glass above the finger when we jump/click a case to move to

3- Allowed us to zoom further in

4- Kept Twinsen in the middle of the camera or added a button for that

5- Brought back the Behavior mode; I loathe to see Twinsen suddenly walk because the game didn't recognized my double-tap. Either he run/walk constantly, but not in-between. Same goes for the discreet mode. I've been killed many times because Twinsen decided to walk out of the blue in discreet mode

6- The hybrid between "jump/throw ball" is clunky as hell, perhaps because I can't see where I throw my stuffs, I have no solution for that

I just gave up at the second half of Bu where we have to walk precisely on little platforms. Starting over 10 times is ridiculous for a game I could play through as a child 17 years ago.

Other than that, great port.

[elmuerte]

Once you get past the Temple of Bu it gets easier. Just hang in there. Don't retry too often. First time I went through the temple I also got frustrated enough to stop. I played it in 3 different sessions.

[Darkflame]

3- Allowed us to zoom further in

Wouldn't you just get a pixally mess? They couldn't redo the assets remember (likely too expensive/time-taking)

[Blafards61]

Originally Posted by Darkflame

Wouldn't you just get a pixally mess? They couldn't redo the assets remember (likely too expensive/time-taking)

You could already zoom-in with F5 if I recall well on PC. The games also zoom-in when you use a vehicle, yet you can't zoom as much with the normal gameplay (unlike the PC version where you could just press F5).

Yes, it would be a mess of pixels, but at least it would allow us to do more precise movements.

[marcosmapf]

Originally Posted by Blafards61

What. The. Hell. Have. They. Done. To. This. Game.

It's a nightmare to play on an Iphone. It's unbelieveable. I wanted to throw my phone out of the window by frustration.

Moving Twinsen is a challenge itself. I stopped counting the amount of time he jumped/threw his magic ball/wasn't walking where I wanted him to go for no reason. Walking in straight line is impossible. They made Twinsen follow the cursor like Diablo games but failed to make it work properly: when we stop clicking, stop moving the character. Do not make him continue to walk up to the clicked area, it's completely dumb.

You are exagerating. A lot.
Its not THAT hard to control Twinsen, you just gotta get the handle of it. Walking on a straight line is super easy, all you have to do is click in front of yourself and it moves straight. What is the dificulty in it?
You do realise you don't have to keep your fingers pressed on the screen to walk, you just have to click once and he will walk to the cursor, right?
Also, have you tried using a pen instead of a finger? It may make your like a lot easier if you are having so much trouble

Originally Posted by Blafards61

[B]
6- The hybrid between "jump/throw ball" is clunky as hell, perhaps because I can't see where I throw my stuffs, I have no solution for that

Well I have to agree to this. I just wish they made up a new way to throw the ball, because dragging the cursor from twinsen to the destination makes is too troublesome and causes me to jump a lot.

[Blafards61]

Originally Posted by marcosmapf

You are exagerating. A lot.
Its not THAT hard to control Twinsen, you just gotta get the handle of it.

What if I'm not? What if I really had a bad time? Would you really belittle my opinion to mere exaggeration? It's not because you mastered something with flaws it make it flawless or "good enough" or what I said an exaggeration.
No.
It's not.

I have countless of playthroughs on thousands of video games, including LBA 1 & 2 (and I played through them when I was 5-6 years old, I'm 23). I'm not a newbie when it comes to handling a game.
But what I've experienced in the Temple of Bu is far from being a good and healthy experience. I could handle the flaws prior to this, but I just got turned completely off by it and went straight back to playing on PC.

Originally Posted by marcosmapf

Walking on a straight line is super easy, all you have to do is click in front of yourself and it moves straight. What is the dificulty in it?

It's not about that.

The game has an isometric perspective. Add in there narrow platforms, a small screen, a lack of precision (since you can't zoom in to precisely put your green arrow at the right place), add also your finger and you'll be having the time of your life to lead Twinsen to the end of the said narrow platform without falling. Although I pressed carefuly on a specific case, the lack of precision on a finger was always making Twinsen walking eventually off the platform.
Rince and repeat 4-5 times, with a couple of "throwing the ball for nothing" or "jumping for no reason" and you get my reaction. All of the above could have been avoided with extra work.

It wasn't fun. I shouldn't force myself like that.

Originally Posted by marcosmapf

You do realise you don't have to keep your fingers pressed on the screen to walk, you just have to click once and he will walk to the cursor, right?

Yes. I know. But the lack of pathfinding turned me off. Having to multi-click constantly to keep Twinsen moving forward either made him encounter obstacles (since he's unable to go around a trashcan or a lamppost himself) or alternate between walk/run/walk/run/jump/throw a ball. Therefore, I move him around by keeping my finger on screen which is, to be honest, way more fluid than the point'n'click.

Unfortunately, it's half-done, Twinsen will continue to move forward even if I remove my finger, resulting in frustrating moments.

Originally Posted by marcosmapf

Also, have you tried using a pen instead of a finger? It may make your like a lot easier if you are having so much trouble

A game requiring me to buy an external tool to make the experience enjoyable is a game that failed in its gameplay design.

[Zee]

I definitely need to be more active on here again.

Purchased this as soon as I saw it was available. Haven't played it enough yet though to debate on the controls but has anyone noticed that Twinsen doesn't take damage when you run into walls?? Nice touch.

Can't wait until they port LBA2.

[Axx]

No Lba2 port coming sadly. I remember Fred saying that somewhere, apparently it would be a difficult technical challenge.

[Reek]

I imagine the whole thing with tapping on the location you want to walk to would be problematic in the outdoor bits in LBA2.

[xesf]

Originally Posted by Blafards61

I just gave up at the second half of Bu where we have to walk precisely on little platforms. Starting over 10 times is ridiculous for a game I could play through as a child 17 years ago.

It's not that bad to bypass Temple of Bú. You just can't do it the faster way we do the PC version.

I did get stuck in one part and kept falling for about 4 or 5 times due to controls but that was the only place so far.

Placing the status on the square marks was annoying thought.

[xesf]

Originally Posted by Reek

I imagine the whole thing with tapping on the location you want to walk to would be problematic in the outdoor bits in LBA2.

It's exactly the same, you just need to translate the point coordinates. I don't know that would be the issue.

[Polaris]

Harder to deal with the camera ?

[Darkflame]

Originally Posted by Axx

No Lba2 port coming sadly. I remember Fred saying that somewhere, apparently it would be a difficult technical challenge.

Did they really dismiss it completely?
I do remember saying it would be much harder, but not sure if it was ruled out completely.

On the other hand, plotwise LBA2 might be fairly irrelevant. If LBA3 has a subtitle rather then a number, it would allow to jump straight to 3 without confusing potential new players.

[xesf]

Originally Posted by Darkflame

Did they really dismiss it completely?
I do remember saying it would be much harder, but not sure if it was ruled out completely.

On the other hand, plotwise LBA2 might be fairly irrelevant. If LBA3 has a subtitle rather then a number, it would allow to jump straight to 3 without confusing potential new players.

Weren't they planning to remake the whole LBA1 before the 3rd?

[Axx]

No I don't think so. That, I believe, was a mistranslation!
They were planning a port to the Nintendo DS back in the days of Adeline's post NoCliche short lived revival. But with parent company Delphine's demise, that fell through as well!

DF I can't remember where or when I read this. But I felt it was ruled out completely. Maybe its too costly. LBA for mobile platforms is nothing more than a proof of concept to show publishers that interest exists. That's why its so important we make sure it succeeds.

[Reek]

Originally Posted by xesf

It's exactly the same, you just need to translate the point coordinates. I don't know that would be the issue.

How is it exactly the same? Changes in the camera angle results in changes in distances. If for example the camera is located behind Twinsen, points close to the horizon will seem very close to each other. A 5 meter distance in the game's world could translate to such small distances on the screen that it'd be impossible to point where you want with a finger.



For example, imagine the pic was a level in lba2, and you're playing with a touchscreen. Getting twinsen to land exactly on the line that separates the first two tiles is easy. Now imagine getting him to do that with the line between the 6th and 7th one. It's pretty much impossible. Your finger would be as thick as the distance you want to cross and twinsen's body would probably obscure the whole thing.

[Pimmin]

oh my god it's out?? totes gonna play it soon!!

[Axx]

Originally Posted by Polaris

I'm so dumb, I swear I misread "I need to port this at once."

Focus man, we're loosing you!