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xiaomao

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94/100
DIFFICULTY
10/10
OVERALL
10/10
VISUALS
9/10
GAMEPLAY

Adelucid may be the best list demon out there currently. It has one of the most unique approaches to both its gameplay and decoration I've ever seen out of the top demon scene. This song is most definitely a weird one to work with, having quite expansive and serene instrumentation alongside gritty, neurofunk-esque production, but MannyHeffley made it work.

The gameplay is mainly what represents the drums, and by and large it does an excellent job of this through a mix of movement and click sync. MannyHeffley's approach to click sync is unique, as not all of the clicks are actually synced, but when combined with the icons' movement (particularly the low gravity dual in the buildup) pretty much every percussion noise is accounted for. All of this is done without any particular use of flashy effects or high speeds to convey the song's energy; it's purely done through movement, clicks and usage of dual portals where many sounds overlay each other at once in the song, and I absolutely adore this approach because of how strongly connected it is to the song while still being open enough to allow for the expansive, sweeping structures MannyHeffley uses.

The decoration is also absolutely fantastic. The trumpets, saxophones and piano that make up the bulk of the song's melody feel expansive and delicate, almost reminiscent of royal fanfare, and this comes through in the massive swathes of brush-like layers that make up the level's structures. The structures, foreground and background decoration all do this at points throughout the level (albeit not all three at once in order to preserve some separation between gameplay and decoration, which is nice), and the pulsing, organic shape of the layers of colour makes the whole thing feel like waves of fabric or sunlight rippling through tree leaves. I especially love the background in the drop's second half; the huge streaks of reddish-orange feel like petals or an abstraction of a sunset, and contrast nicely with the mainly pink structures. The whole level has a sense of grandiosity to it due to the slight camera zoom and the sheer size of most of the assets used that works really well with the aforementioned melodic elements of the song, and the whole experience is genuinely mesmerising.

This is a rare case where I have nothing bad to say about a level. Granted, this is too hard for me to play and properly judge the gameplay's playability, but regardless this is my favourite list demon of all time and I would recommend it for Mythic. Fantastic work from MannyHeffley and I am incredibly excited for their next projects.

14/100
DIFFICULTY
10/10
OVERALL
10/10
VISUALS
8/10
GAMEPLAY

Pluto is an absolute masterclass in how viscerally uncomfortable it feels to play it. The whole level is made of these pulsing, writhing shades of blue, purple and orange, meshed with a base blackness that prevents the player from getting a good look at most of the level during a normal playthrough. I don't mean this in a bad way, but rather it creates an atmosphere that's dark and feels foreboding since the player has to work to understand much of their environment. Djudjeito couples these aspects with a very trippy forced depth effect in the level's second part, using gradient triggers to make it appear the structures extend backwards forever into infinity, driving home the aforementioned surrealist undertones alongside the mask staring at the player from the background. I love how the jagged, freeform structures are briefly highlighted by the solid black background - it forces the player to pay attention to them and highlights how unnatural they ultimately end up feeling. This combined with everything else I've mentioned evokes this deep internal sense that we the player should not be here, playing the level. It's something I can only recall being pulled off by a select few other levels, such as False Noise by Lumpy.

However, my absolute favourite aspect of this level is its song representation. The dissonant, high-pitched and whining lead synths really accentuate the discomfort that the predrop creates, and I love how the level opens up into a huge, flat expanse with a city and sunset in the distance right as the song becomes quieter, with heavy reverb that sounds and feels cavernous. The quick flashes of blue and the jerky, unnatural way in which the arrows and hands move in the drop's second half are really neat touches that feel mechanical, further driving home Pluto's surrealism in its environments and helping highlight the part's gameplay. This leads into my only major criticism of the level, being that the gameplay is pretty underwhelming and little attempt was made to integrate it in with the level's theming. It feels very normal and doesn't add to the level in any meaningful way; several parts even have blocks that only appear near the player to show the gameplay, and whether intentional or not this feels quite out of place. I feel that either Djudjeito should have fully invested into this concept as he's done for so many other aspects of Pluto, as they're the only parts like this, or found a way to integrate elements of the environment into the structures, such as the huge, jagged rocks in the first drop part.

Regardless, it's incredibly rare to find a level that I feel is this close to being perfect. Pluto takes a base feeling of visceral discomfort, and masterfully applies it to nearly everything within it in ways I've never seen before, showing Djudjeito's skill in world building and visual storytelling. I encourage people to learn from how every element in this level synergises to form the final product, and I would love to see this receive a Mythic rating and stand for the forseeable future as one of the best in its class.

13/100
DIFFICULTY
10/10
OVERALL
9/10
VISUALS
10/10
GAMEPLAY

experiment is one of the first classic levels to have proper non-linear progression. experiment is a puzzle level reminiscent of an escape room simulator, with gameplay that loops infinitely until the player finds a way to escape a loop and move on. This concept is ingenious and takes advantage of the natural repetitiveness of the song very nicely, and the looping effect is seamless in every single part. I particularly appreciate how there are no fakes or important invisible objects; the player is given everything they need to proceed, laid out in front of them in a gameplay loop lasting no more than a few seconds, which makes the level more intuitive for the player despite the novel concept. Despite this, the methods of escape are fairly complex and force the player to work to understand them, from cracking a password by hitting orb types in a specific order in a maze to taking a dash orb way up into the ceiling. The level doesn't give the player anything more than absolutely necessary, but the solutions to them are fair and simple enough to find quickly if the player is lucky or attentive enough, making for an engaging and very replayable experience.

My favourite part of the level, however, comes when the song breaks out of its mantra of repetitive loops and expands fully into a synth-based, high energy section, which is where the level's style completely shifts and briefly does away with the puzzles. This feels like a genuine reward for making it through, and it feels so refreshing to play more traditional gameplay. It's not out of place due to the way the song shifts, and it does visually carry over some of the mechanical elements of the previous parts (mainly in the backgrounds), which I like, but even aside from this the chaotic, glitchy mess of crazy effects and flashing colours looks incredible and is one of the most visually stunning parts I've ever played. My only real criticism is that this level lacks progression. Although this is likely intentional, it's difficult for the player to tell when they're approaching the end of the level until they get there. Some presence of the glitching effects, flashing RGB colours or even the hand drawn lineart would have been neat foreshadowing of the level's climax that would've made for clearer progression.

I'm not sure I'll ever quite forgive experiment for how hard its ending trolled me, but I HIGHLY recommend playing through this level for yourself rather than watching a video if it sounds interesting to you. It's one of the most unique and captivating experiences I've ever had with a GD level, due to the challenging but fair nature of the puzzles and the explosive ending that feels oh so rewarding to experience the first time. I would give this level legendary personally due to the lack of clear progression throughout the puzzle sections, but this is still an incredible showing from everyone involved.

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