So it's been nearly 2 weeks since I've beaten this level and I've taken some time to marinate on my thoughts. I've heard near-universal praise for this level and while I see where it's coming from a lot of the time and for the most part I do agree with what's being said, I don't think this level is perfect.

I will start with what I liked about the level. I think this level is a great example of why dongchi is so well-liked as a builder, and its what I call "basking in simplicity." dongchi had been making levels for years before he made Light Travel, but in 2017 he started to take a different turn. Most builders were starting to shift away from the more simplistic yet sometimes chaotic level design pioneered by the Korean side of the GD community, yet dongchi chose not to adapt with them. He continued making levels in this style regardless of whether not they would get rated since he wanted to build the levels he wanted to play. In turn, he ended up making a unique style for himself and Light Travel is 9 minutes of everything that makes his style so great.

Looking at dongchi from this angle, it seems like a curveball for him to make a "travel" level. Whenever I hear something is a "travel" level, I approach it with a lot of apprehension since it's a level trend I hold in contempt due to most "travel" levels being uninspired, copying ideas from "travel" levels that came before it, built to be long for the sake of being long, and just not being fun or worthwhile experiences. In spite of these things, Light Travel is very atypical for a "travel" level because it's dongchi just doing his own thing but for longer than usual. Light Travel doesn't try to make a bunch of scenic locations who's designs would likely age like milk, it doesn't try to be exceedingly cinematic or climactic, it's just a solid 9 minutes of great gameplay and simple, timeless visuals to pair it. Light Travel is the 2nd longest rated "travel" level behind Hypnotic Travel (or 3rd if you count dusty travel), yet Hypnotic Travel feels like an unbearable slog while Light Travel does not despite only being 30 seconds shorter. Why? Two main reasons: Light Travel chooses the route of a simpler visual style that won't age as fast which sets it apart from other "travel" levels, while there is not a single thing Hypnotic Travel does to make itself appear unique outside of being the longest of its kind, which it unfortunately succeeded in for years. The second thing is that Light Travel is just fun with its gameplay while Hypnotic Travel isn't. The question of if Light Travel was built for the sake of being a really long level almost never came to me while I was playing it because I instead got to put my mind towards how charming the level was visually and how much I was enjoying the gameplay. The same can't be said for most other "travel" levels, especially not Hypnotic Travel.

One final thing I want to bring up about what I really like about this level is its song choice. "Travel" levels rarely have much thought put into their song choices, and it's glaringly obvious some songs are chosen because they're long enough to make a level of the length they want to. Two artists that come to mind the most are steampianist and 1f1n1ty/Onefin, two talented musicians who both have decent catalogues of songs that are longer than average, but nothing of outrageous proportions like that of Cacola or Phyrnna. I'm not trying to suggest trance music hasn't been used in a "travel" level before - Dem Travel and Dank Travle have also used trance music and released before Light Travel. However, Light Travel represents its song better than either of the two previous levels have, and I would even go as far to say Light Travel has some of the best song representation seen in any "travel" level (which is admittedly a kinda low bar but whatever). Salvation by CrimzonWolf777 is nothing short of a gem of the style of 2000s-early 2010s Newgrounds trance music. It's a simple song, yet its got a great energy and ethereal texture and is a track you can easily get lost in the groove in for 9 minutes. Intentionally or not, Light Travel reflects all of the great aspects of Salvation in its own unique way. The level itself is able to match its ethereal texture and simple production, but it's also something very reminiscent of the older level building styles the general creating meta has shifted away from. Light Travel's style lends itself so well to this kind of trance music that Newgrounds has progressed away from over the years, and vice versa.

Though, there's something that bugs me about Light Travel and it's why I can't give it the extremely high praise it usually receives from other victors: the balancing. XXL+ levels have been something I've become obsessed with over the course of the past year or so, and for the most part I've been able to take most of these challenges of endurance and extreme length quite level. However, this level is different. It's the first time where I've truly felt the mental burden of playing an XXXL extreme demon. I didn't even feel this way on CICADA3302, which is by far my unluckiest experience and a level where I had over 24 deaths past 72%. In Light Travel, 19-26% is easily the hardest part as well as my personal least favorite part. Two of the level's biggest chokepoints are back-to-back here with a really difficult asymmetrical robot dual, followed by a very tricky spider part, THEN followed by a really difficult asymmetrical spider dual. These two chokepoints right next to each other were why only around 10% of my runs were able to get to the first drop at 35%. Some days, I would play the level for a while and just never get to 35% at all and I had great luck if I had a session which got to 35% two or three times. When I was just getting into the level, my enjoyment was around a 9/10 and the more attempts I poured into Light Travel, it slowly started to erode and that's why my enjoyment was more like a 7/10. Another non-negligible chokepoint comes much later in the level at 64-74%, where once again we have two pretty difficult sections back-to-back. There is a cube with orb combos where you must buffer every single orb, which took a long time to get down but eventually became consistent, and a robot that's a bit learny but mostly just a harder raw difficulty compared to the other parts. we've seen in this level. Nowhere near as bad as 19-26%, however I'm willing to bet half of my deaths past 35% were in 64-74%. Outside of these two areas, I don't have much else complaints with the gameplay, but these two sections did bring down the level a fair bit.

Despite my experience being less than I had hoped, I still highly recommend Light Travel to anyone looking for an XXXL level that puts their nerves and endurance to the test, or even if you just want a good entry-level extreme demon that's a fun experience. However, if you choose to go for Light Travel, be aware of the chokepoints in the level since they can easily bring down your experience if you aren't prepared to properly deal with them. Other than that, safe travels!