Rating Curve

This is a level that I want to like really badly- I loved DELTARUNE Chapter 4 and I especially loved its aesthetic so I was a bit optimistic about this level. Sadly, I think it came out half-baked and not particularly original, which I think is surprising considering MaxX1 and cometface's track record in previous levels.

I think more than anything, this level fails to execute ideas present in Chapter 4 the same way that they were executed in the game, and not in a way that blazes a new trail for itself, but rather comes off as a inferior copy. Chapter 4 plays a lot with vision, light, and color in ways that the previous chapters have not, so it feels really bad that Prophecy (the level) is not able to execute them to the same level; the biggest example being the beginning part with the syncing rings. In DELTARUNE, these rings are supposed to represent sound piercing through the darkness a la echolocation, so it feels very off that they're just reduced to flashy effects here, not particularly interacting with the environment itself. You could probably remove these rings and be able to go through the gameplay without them, since there's background work here, which feels a bit inappropriate for the situation. A similar example is with the IMAGE_DEPTHS block designs (which in Chapter 4 was used in the glass panels which recount the prophecy), which doesn't really invoke the same abyssal, indecipherable vibe that we see this texture used for in the game- this sort of feeling that the prophecy and the very foundations of the game are too complex for mortals to comprehend. But while they're not exactly 1:1 recreations from the game, they don't particularly go out of their way to differentiate themselves from those original textures, which makes the level come off more as lazy.

There are plenty of other examples, such as how the bookshelves in the second half really stick out like a sore thumb (even though they're similar color to the ones in the OG DELTARUNE, they don't work in this context), or how the wisp obstacles feel very tacked on (not aided by the fact that they're default 2.2 animated tiles and thus clash a lot with DELTARUNE's artstyle), or even how the general structuring sits awkwardly between the orderly structuring of the first church dark world and the more messy, collage-esque structuring of Susie's dark world later on. As such it feels very aimless and nondescript. It almost feels like an Airswipe level in that regard, taking motifs present from the game without a lot of the care and attention to detail that goes into building up these worlds.

I will say though, the gameplay here is very well done, and I do think the part with the ringing bells is a very good example of taking motifs from the church dark world without outright copying them- It feels like a natural extension of what we might've seen in that dark world. I understand this was only made in a week or so, but I think a level like this exemplifies how it might be best to sit with a work of art more when we make works inspired by them. Fools rush in, after all.

I feel like it's been long enough to do a proper retrospective on this- I released this about a year and a half ago and I am pretty decently proud of a lot of stuff here, especially the first half of the level, which I think is really cool. The first cube with all the birds with the dash orb beaks was probably the best I've snapped on combining gameplay and decoration. I think the main thing I biffed on here was the progression, which is very apparent if you play this level- there's not a lot of connective tissue to the bird -> egg progression which makes it come out of nowhere. It also doesn't help that it's really abrupt.

I think more than anything though this level is a victim of circumstance since pocke and awesomeme360 released better bird-themed levels with this song months later and I kind of got mogged by them LOOOL. I just wanna say this came out before GO bird and bird world!!! Do not slander me for being unoriginal!!!

Archive pull. It's got some pretty cool background work in a few parts near the drop although I wish they were brought forward a lot more, especially that background during the first ship of the drop, even if it's a bit similar to Dune Boi.