Rating Curve

This level is stunning, in ways I cant even describe.

Serene and calming.

This stands out as my favorite travel level, by a long shot. While I find a lot of them to be decent, I simply find that they cannot replicate the emotions and progression of the original, Lonely travel by FunnyGame. I find a lot of them miss the beauty of Lonely Travel.

The visuals are the standout for me. Using shades of grey for about 3/4's of the level, it gives the level quite the gloomy atmosphere. The harbor section stands out to me with this. A harbor is often a place filled with life and activity, however, here it is seen in a rather dull, sad, city, with zero signs of any life besides yourself. Here, you are quite lonely. However, I also believe this level can capture some beauty in loneliness, throughout the monochrome parts. When you go above the clouds, you are greeted with a beautiful sun, followed up by some beautiful stars, with some pretty floating islands. While this can still be considered a "gloomy" part of the level, I find it to be visually stunning, and throughout the entire level, it slowly becomes filled with more color and life. A glimmer of light shines down on a flower, revealing it to be red, the first use of a color besides black and white in the level. While it is just a glimmer, it shows that there is still some change. Perhaps, the world is healing itself. As you ascend to the sky, the music becomes triumphant, as all color has returned. I find this part beautiful, as although you still remain alone, this is the icon finding beauty in it's isolation. You have finally reached peace. Throughout the rest of the level, you travel through landscapes, each filled with color and beauty of their own. From the depressing start, to a truly beautiful finish, the visuals represent it all so well, in such a fantastic way.

It's a true shame there isn't another travel level that has replicated the magic of this level. Often, there is never a clear progression, and without progression, there is no travel. I've found that many "travel" levels miss this mark completely. It is truly a shame that travel levels had become a trend within the game, because they simply can not impact one like this level does. I do not think there will ever be another level like Lonely Travel, though perhaps that is for the better! I do not ever want the impact of this level to be lessened. Lonely travel is a beautiful story about finding solace in oneself, and finding the beauty in life. I recommend this level to everyone.

very gorgeous level. i love everything it does

I'd like to start this review by talking about how much I adore the length of this level. This level is LONG!! It's length is where 90% of its difficulty spawns from, and I love this approach. It allows this level to feel like a journey, and while some parts feel a tad bit slow, I enjoy it being this way. It allows you to take in the environments this level presents far more, which are stunning. I love how much this level bases itself on nature, and this allows for some really cool areas throughout. My personal favorites were the fungus cave and the hot springs, but I enjoyed all of the areas this level showed greatly.

I'd like to go more into the gameplay now. It certainly can take it's time to become interesting, with it being rather mindless prior to the first boss, but I enjoy it. It's a calming level to play, perfect for it's nature theme and atmosphere. An aspect I like about it is that it doesn't put itself too far out of reach for a majority of players by not involving techniques such as needling and slope boosting, something that could certainly put off players more inexperienced with platformers. (Especially with the fact that needling wouldn't exactly fit with the style this level goes for). The lack of slope boosting is a little surprising considering the reliance on slopes this level uses throughout, but once again, it creates a more welcoming experience for players. A positive for a level like this! I do wish thejshadow would do more interesting things with the mechanics he uses in every single one of his levels, but he makes enough use of them here for them not to feel irrelevant. As stated before, this level has quite a lot of reliance of slopes. Slopes don't always play in the most fun or comfortable way, but I find that this level uses them in a way where they can be really fun and flowy. The 2nd to last checkpoint before the final boss is the best example of this.

This level uses pixel blocks throughout it's entirety, and I feel rather mixed on these. While I find the level looks really good through most of it, I'm not the biggest on the pixel blocks. It's not thaaaat troubling, though.

This level has some great bossfights, some of the best I've found within a platformer. The attacks aren't too frustrating to learn and understand, yet some understanding of them is still required to beat them. The final boss is also insanely sick. It feels like a great climax of everything this level has been building up to, and is also really exciting to play. The level would be great if it was the just the last boss alone, but with all of the added gameplay, word-building, atmosphere, and an extra boss in the middle of it, makes this one of the best experiences one can have within platforming.

Fantastic visual experience, and the gameplay gimmick is really neat. Purchase the UFO if you want the end to be much easier!

This is the perfect introduction to the demon difficulty. I find myself to enjoy the balancing when it comes to the ship, as it encapsulates what a demon is so well. The particularly tight ship gameplay near the end of the level is so stressful to pull off too, and I love that. It puts everything you've learned in the game, from memory, to ship, and puts one great challenge together.

I adore almost every part of this level. The memory at the beginning of the level is a perfect start to it. Not too hard, but I recall it being very intimating at first, and this is a perfect opening to the level. This level manages to intimidate the player in such a way throughout every part, and I'm not sure if I can think of another level that does it so well (Maybe Deadlocked?). The ship at the drop is a perfect encapsulation of this- the fake spikes make this look near impossible, and although it obviously isn't as hard as it looks on first glance, it still manages to be menacing in it's own way. Stuff like this can be said for the remainder of this level, and I couldn't love it more.

I don't mind the poor balancing this level has, either. I find it quite fitting for it to be the way it is, though I have trouble putting it into words. Maybe another time.

I've always considered this to be one of the most fun levels in the game...I like a lot of the decoration, too!!

The emotion I feel from this level is something I can’t describe at all. I’m not sure why I feel this way, or if I’ll ever know, but it is an absolutely stunning level the entire way through. Everything has so much detail, is polished so nicely, it plays incredibly and makes the song feel so powerful, it all easily brings me to tears. I wish I could truly explain why, but I can’t. An incredible piece of work.

beautiful level, one with a vibe and feel that puts me in a good mood. love the theming so much here!! probably my favorite from the contest