Kirby and the Forgotten Land (March 25th 2022)

[Julius]

Huge first week for the game in Japan:

 

[Glen-i]

Ever since Super Star Ultra introduced the concept of difficult optional boss rushes, I've loved chasing records on them. Best thing about modern Kirby games!

Spoiler

I've started to really memorise the times where you can reliably pull off a charged overhead slash, and I've cut my first time by almost half!

The boss attack patterns are so expertly crafted so that you can predict what's coming with practice.

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by Glen-i

[MindFreak]

Just got through the main game. It was a delight to play in general but having so many secrets on each level made them really slow to go through.

Difficulty wise I was worried because my previous experience with Kirby games was that you could play them with your eyes closed. Thankfully, this wasn't the case with this and while it's not a hard game, it was quite fine. It was too hard for my 4 year old, he kept falling off the smaller parts of the stages which makes me wonder who they are aiming at with this difficulty. 

One thing I kind of noticed was that the boss fights were trying to be fast paced and hard but everything is just a tad slow so I almost always reacted too soon and ended up getting hit. Then I found the dodge mechanic which helped a bit. 

Soundtrack is truly great. Put on my new headset during a play session and it was really lovely. 

All in all a great game with lots of charm and things to do. I got a bit bored after playing it for more than an hour or so but it is always easy to put down and pick up again later. 

[BowserBasher]

Finished the main game a couple of days ago and loved it. I've never been a huge Kirby fan for some reason, I played though Planet Robobot and that was my first real venture into Kirby. 

This was a great game to really get into the games though. Not too hard but a few moments have had me taking a few minutes to find the solution (the hidden Waddle Dees and missions, not the main part of the level). I think the mini portal levels are fun and I think I only had to change the difficulty down to Breeze once for the ice hat one. otherwise they have all been done within a few attempts, some have been annoying in that I missed the target time by a few seconds, one was .08 off the time. But it seems the only reward is an extra 50 coins so I don't have much incentive to go back to them at the moment. 

As everyone has said, the soundtrack is simply amazing and one of the best game soundtracks in a long time. So may great tunes.

I've been going back to get all the Waddle Dees and missions and so far most are not too hard. I've run not a block on one level where I'm stuck on a few but I'll keep at it. I have done all of the first two worlds though. I think I need maybe two blueprints or at least that's what I have seen as locked portals. Think they are in the later areas though, as I didn't do a. lot of exploring there.

I had a go at the post game stuff and didn't do too well, but I think I may do better now I have my abilities upgraded. And as mentioned.  few are very powerful. that sword just takes everyone out.

I think I'm up to around 75% total completed and will go for as much as I can.

 

[darksnowman]

10 hours ago, BowserBasher said:

Finished the main game a couple of days ago and loved it.

It's good stuff, isn't it? Glad to hear you've enjoyed it so much.

My next stop is a boss stage. I'm in the region of 50% done according to the last time I saw the save screen. 

As @MindFreak says, it's a good game to come back to later. Seeing a lot of people 100% it during release weekend (or... day), I know it's not the longest game, so I'm happy to do a few levels--or replay a few to complete missions--and put it down for another day.  

10 hours ago, BowserBasher said:

As everyone has said, the soundtrack is simply amazing and one of the best game soundtracks in a long time. So many great tunes.

Wonder how many tracks are on the soundtrack? Seems like it'd be:
- Forgotten Lands Theme Medley
- Boss approach
- Boss encounter
- Mini boss
- Mini game

 

10 hours ago, BowserBasher said:

I've been going back to get all the Waddle Dees and missions and so far most are not too hard. I've run not a block on one level where I'm stuck on a few but I'll keep at it. 

Some are tricky enough! Longest search for me so far has been "find the back alley". The way you can't go back and check earlier sections of levels meant I finished that level several times just so I could get a look at the opening parts again. Good job the fly-through intro was nice to watch!

Then there are others where I come away with everything first time through so it's all swings and roundabouts. Still hoping to bumble through a defeat so-and-so with such-and-such first time.

[Ronnie]

Now I'm not one of these guys who goes on and on about playing games on the hardest difficulty... but in this case I played Kirby on the hardest difficulty.  Just finished the main game and the post-game, all Waddle Dees found and all but 2 or 3 of the Treasure Road levels. Had a great time overall, nice to play a level based game after just getting through an openworld game.

The polish was pretty ropey at times, at least in the visuals, but you kind of expect that these days from a lot of Japanese devs. The 5 fps background enemies were incredibly jarring, as was the predictable lack of anti-aliasing. But art style wise the game was gorgeous and that's what matters most really.

Bit disappointed there weren't more mouthful mode transformations, I was expecting 10-15 plus, but it felt like the same 3 or 4 over and over for the most part. Otherwise though plenty of content for a full release.

I thought the missions per level made the game much better than it would have been without them. 

So yeah overall, highly recommended if you like 3D platformers.

[darksnowman]

Actually, a boss fight was where I'd picked up with it over the weekend. This evening I continued from a factory level. 

On the point of Waddle Dee collecting, I was given one for "clearing out the first area" in a level there. I mean... yeah. I've cleared out every area and level as I've gone. Not sure how everyone else has been playing but my Kirby is like John Wick. LOL. 

Something I discovered tonight is that A and B make the mouthful mode lift thing go up and down. Like both buttons work for up and down. I'd played every instance of that pressing Y for up and B for down until tonight I pressed B when it was down to see if it would hop and it just went up.  

Jaunted through to seeing the credits. So many thoughts and feelings through that end section. I was chilled to the bone going up that final elevator. From the authentication bit to the top really freaked me out and had the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. It wasn't what you learned, it was the way you learned it. Then that was immediately replaced with a snort of laughter and bemusement as it appeared I'd arrived in a room where Conker's Bad Fur Day and Doctor Who had collided...!  

And then the very last moment of the final cutscene hit me much harder than it probably should've.

Cracking stuff.  

I jumped back in to check what % I've racked up to this point and got presented with a host of newly available things including... a music test! I'm curious to see how many tracks there are, haha. 67% by the way. I skimped on Treasure Roads there after a while but if I'd known that was the credit rolling level I would've held off and gone back to them first. (Also played on hard mode the whole way for what it's worth. )

2 hours ago, Ronnie said:

The polish was pretty ropey at times, at least in the visuals, but you kind of expect that these days from a lot of Japanese devs. The 5 fps background enemies were incredibly jarring, as was the predictable lack of anti-aliasing. But art style wise the game was gorgeous and that's what matters most really.

It's a pity they have to employ these kinds of tricks and techniques but I honestly thought it was okay here as it gave proceedings a stop-motion charm. Possibly the art style helped me favour it in this light. Saying that... I remember MH: Rise doing it too (in the demo anyway) and I was forgiving of it there as well as it looked like a throwback to the special effects in an old monster film.

2 hours ago, Ronnie said:

Bit disappointed there weren't more mouthful mode transformations, I was expecting 10-15 plus, but it felt like the same 3 or 4 over and over for the most part. Otherwise though plenty of content for a full release.

Spoiler

Same.  I thought they'd go to town with it.

@drahkon told me not to get my hopes up and I thought he was shielding me from spoilers. Alas that wasn't the case. 

 

[Mokong]

Is the Frenzy difficulty in the food stall even possible? As soon as that linch rush hits the satisfaction bar just dives

 

[Glen-i]

8 hours ago, Mokong said:

Is the Frenzy difficulty in the food stall even possible? As soon as that linch rush hits the satisfaction bar just dives

I found the second mini-game tougher.

[darksnowman]

On 05/04/2022 at 10:09 PM, Mokong said:

Is the Frenzy difficulty in the food stall even possible? As soon as that linch rush hits the satisfaction bar just dives

Exact same for me.  

[BowserBasher]

Right, main world game nearly done. I have three missions left to do. One in Battle of the Blizzard Bridge, Moonlight Canyon and The Beast Pack's Final Stand. I'm hoping I can do them without looking them up but so far no luck. I'll spoiler tag them in case anyone wants to give a tip. I have done all Treasure Roads and now have all the Blueprints done. Still haven't started on that post game levels.

Spoiler

Battle of the Blizzard Bridge - Take a Detour and find a Maxim Tomato (I just can't see where it might be)

Moonlight Canyon - Remove three wanted posted (I can only ever find two)

The Beast's Pack Final Stand - Remove 5 Beast-Base wanted posters (I can find 4 just not that last one.)

Still love going over all the levels again though, they are so fun.

[Glen-i]

4 minutes ago, BowserBasher said:

Right, main world game nearly done. I have three missions left to do. One in Battle of the Blizzard Bridge, Moonlight Canyon and The Beast Pack's Final Stand. I'm hoping I can do them without looking them up but so far no luck. I'll spoiler tag them in case anyone wants to give a tip. I have done all Treasure Roads and now have all the Blueprints done. Still haven't started on that post game levels.

  Missions to do (Reveal hidden contents)

Battle of the Blizzard Bridge - Take a Detour and find a Maxim Tomato (I just can't see where it might be)

Moonlight Canyon - Remove three wanted posted (I can only ever find two)

The Beast's Pack Final Stand - Remove 5 Beast-Base wanted posters (I can find 4 just not that last one.)

Still love going over all the levels again though, they are so fun.

That Blizzard Bridge one is a lot closer then you might think.

In fact, after you find it, consider jumping upwards, and making your way up a wall. You just might find something else that's interesting.

[BowserBasher]

3 hours ago, Glen-i said:

In fact, after you find it, consider jumping upwards, and making your way up a wall. You just might find something else that's interesting.

OOOH, thanks, glad you were on discord chat too as I would have missed the other other bit. That was pretty awesome.

Also all Waddle Dees are now saved. Thanks to Glens tip for the tomato (which wasn't really a tip) I went back to the other two and found the posters I needed. I must have been blind first time round as they were right there.

Anyway onto post game levels and finding more to do.

[Mokong]

Gods frakkin damnit

 

 

Thankful I eventually completed it

[darksnowman]

15 hours ago, BowserBasher said:

Right, main world game nearly done. I have three missions left to do. One in Battle of the Blizzard Bridge, Moonlight Canyon and The Beast Pack's Final Stand. I'm hoping I can do them without looking them up but so far no luck. I'll spoiler tag them in case anyone wants to give a tip. I have done all Treasure Roads and now have all the Blueprints done. Still haven't started on that post game levels.

  Missions to do (Reveal hidden contents)

Battle of the Blizzard Bridge - Take a Detour and find a Maxim Tomato (I just can't see where it might be)

Moonlight Canyon - Remove three wanted posted (I can only ever find two)

The Beast's Pack Final Stand - Remove 5 Beast-Base wanted posters (I can find 4 just not that last one.)

Still love going over all the levels again though, they are so fun.

This is a cool thing about the nature of findables--we will all spot and gravitate towards things when going through levels... no matter how thorough we believe we're being. I've no doubt you (and everyone else) had no bother finding things that've been less obvious to me, whereas for example, the battles on the big bridge level was one I personally came away with everything at the first time of asking.  

Your spoiler is truth.

@Mokong that's child's play compared to frenzy mode in the food truck!!

[Mokong]

1 hour ago, darksnowman said:

 

@Mokong that's child's play compared to frenzy mode in the food truck!!

Oh don't get me started on that haha, having nightmares about serving Kirby Car shaped cakes

[Glen-i]

Is this a good time to mention that I completed Frenzy mode on my second attempt?

Seemed on the easy side compared to some other Kirby mini-games.

[Ashley]

Got this last week in the end. Was away when it was released and then I thought I'd wait a while but as I had covid I decided to get it to play but then my eyes wouldn't stop watering so I could barely play it anyway...

But it's fun and charming like I expected. It's just a nice simple easy fun game to play. The little intro song thing when you're Carby was cute and I'm glad that wasn't in the demo.

[darksnowman]

 

[MindFreak]

Finally got all Waddle Dees! Doing all the bosses with no damage took some attempts but wasn't too bad - the most frustrating part was how slow it was to restart the level. 

Now for the post-game!

Spoiler

So... the post game levels are just a remix of the old levels and you have to find something new? Alright. A bit of a let-down, I guess.

 

[Glen-i]

1 hour ago, darksnowman said:

 

Geez, we haven't seen Fatty Whale since the DS days, talk about your deep cuts!

[BowserBasher]

Right, just beat the post game stuff. 

Spoiler

OK, that was a tough final fight. I think it took me at least three tries on each form, luckily you get the Ice ability so you can just shield pretty much 99% of the time and just attack in the openings. What an overpowered ability. But not sure how easy the fight is without that. There's a heck of a lot coming at you after the first phase. Then that final Meta Knight phase, again lots going on but can be shielded against for the most of it,

Found this part to be very cute.

OK that final treasure road. What the heck. It kept destroying me. The monkeys with the fire on the floor just couldn't do it. So went and got 5 power up potions, stacked them all and went back in. Found the shield button was a pretty much invincible shield so started using that and found the shield and power up B move which unleashes to spirit things. So with that and the powered up sword attack, I managed to pretty easily defeat them this time round. Not sure that made it easier, maybe a combination of all three.

Anyway. game is at 92% complete. I'm sure the rest is the souls in the post game levels and maybe something else. Colosseum maybe? I may go find the rest of the souls but not sure. I would like to try for the 100%.

Still a great game and Game of the Year so far.

[Glen-i]

10 minutes ago, BowserBasher said:

Found this part to be very cute.

No-one can resist the Kirby Dance. No-one.

Spoiler

That ain't Meta Knight. That's Morpho Knight. Something way worse. It seems that it goes around looking for pure evil and basically eats them to make itself more powerful.

Also, it's been around since the first ever Kirby game.

A lot of the games start with some kind of butterfly in the intro, and then the previous game, Star Allies, decided to take that random intro butterfly and make it part of that deep Kirby Lore.

Still not entirely sure why that... thing... exists. It may be the same species as Kirby and Meta Knight, but it's hard to tell.

 

[BowserBasher]

Right, I'm at 96% now. All main game stuff done and just finished collecting all of Lions Souls. So I'm guessing the last lot needed now are the collection items. The capsules. The Z tournament (I got to 5 to go last time I tried it). I just got the Bling fish so that's done. Anything else I may be missing those that have 100%?

[Glen-i]

1 hour ago, BowserBasher said:

Right, I'm at 96% now. All main game stuff done and just finished collecting all of Lions Souls. So I'm guessing the last lot needed now are the collection items. The capsules. The Z tournament (I got to 5 to go last time I tried it). I just got the Bling fish so that's done. Anything else I may be missing those that have 100%?

Nah, that's it. Colosseum and Capsules.

There are some capsules that you cannot get from random finds or the Gotcha Machine (Some in Vol 1 and Vol 4), if you look at the figurine collection screen, the game will tell you what you need to do to get them when you hover over them. So prioritise getting those before shoving money into the machines.