Rating Curve

This level is absolutely amazing. It's 6 am and I have not gone to sleep yet but instead of going to bed I'm going to do a review bc why not. Also if you get ads it's because youtube detected copyrighted shit or whatever

Gameplay:

I have very few complaints about this level's gameplay. Every single section in the level, without exception, got consistent from 0 after a reasonable amount of practice. In addition to this, the entire level, from beginning to end, is immensely fun and I only have 3 nitpicks with it. My biggest issue (which is still pretty minor) is that the first 2 clicks of the 38% wave are blind which got annoying sometimes. My second nitpick is that the wave I just mentioned is the hardest part, because if this wave were easier, this level's balancing would genuinely be so perfect that I could not pick a single part as the hardest. My last complaint is that the 92% ufo spam has an inconsistent transition and I died there from 0 because of it which really annoyed me. I also want to mention that you can spam/buffer in the sync parts which is an incredibly nice detail that I massively appreciate.

Decoration:

This level's decoration is perfect. The block designs, structuring and simple air deco are all so good and it's amazing how visually appealing every second of the level is. Being a sequel to xo, it's easy to take too much from the original level and not supply enough originality but Arrow excels at hitting the sweet spot between looking like xo and being original. I also want to mention how much I ADORE the aesthetic of the gameplay combined with the decoration and the song, just like in xo, the aesthetic of the gameplay is a big part in helping the level look good. It's pulled off perfectly here and it once again hits a sweet spot, this time between making it incredibly fun and fitting the decoration and song flawlessly. There are so many parts of the level that should be bad or that have bad ideas in them, but they're all executed in such a way that they fit in exactly right and the level would be worse without them. Another thing I love about Arrow's decoration is the subtle colors that flash in the block outlines during some of the parts that look incredible.

Song:

Normally, I don't judge a level by its song. I only do this in specific cases where the song is unusually great or horrible, and the song that Arrow uses is nothing short of incredible. Not only do I just love the song, but seeing the preview of this level on Jacob's channel 2 years ago introduced me to the band who made the song, half·alive, who have become one of my favorite bands.

Copy pasted from a part of the description of my completion

This level really is great. There were a lot of things that could've made me hate this experience---underestimating the difficulty, arm pain, and a months-long period of inconsistency could've made this whole thing hell. But they just didn't. I still love Tartarus; I love its gameplay, and the satisfying, yet so tight nature of the clicks; I love the balancing, as the inconsistent nature of which turns a far run into an adrenaline-fueled mission to the end of the level; I love the decoration, simple, yet dangerous, jagged and living, ready to kill you whenever you think you're about to come out victorious. Tartarus is one of my favorite levels ever.

Copy pasted from the description of my completion

So yeah. Washed tartarus jumper versus one of the greatest levels ever made. Who will win? Me apparently, even though I've never touched anything this long and I am notoriously awful at easier gameplay.

When I first watched this level, I immediately knew it was one of the best things I'd ever seen, but I didn't consider beating it. Being in the midst of my Tartarus grind and focusing everything I had on beating that as soon as I could, I didn't really consider doing anything else, let alone something so outside my skillset. It might sound crazy coming from someone who's beaten extremes that Commatose intimidated me, but I really mean it. I am so bewilderingly bad at easy gameplay that this level was actually incredibly frustrating. Despite praising this level as one of the all-time greatest, generally, I strongly dislike levels of its length. I consistently find that the trade-off of long levels having easier gameplay than shorter levels, which is necessary to make sure the level is actually beatable, means that the gameplay is not only unengaging because of its simplicity, but unavoidably infuriating. It sucks to die to clicks and timings that are beneath your skill level as a player, and in a level that's 9 minutes long, you will be exclusively dying to nothing but that type of timing. I knew this going in, but it wasn't at the forefront of my mind, and I really wanted to give Commatose a chance. I wanted to justify my placement of this as my sixth favorite level of all time, and so began my three days of Commatose. So much anger, yet so much love. Never have I directed such rage towards something that, deep down, I had no hatred for---nothing but adoration, in fact. Eventually, I figured out many of the gameplay quirks that were holding this level down for me, the biggest one being the ending dash orbs. This level, despite taking less than 1k, took more patience than I have had for something in a while.

Attempts: 895

Enjoyment: 7/10

Level rating: 9.9/10

Hardest part: It's balanced well but the fast part with the short gameplay changes in the 40s

Food rating: 7.5/10

Rating of this level if it were a food: 7/10

President rating: 0/10

Dog rating: 0/10

Free food: yes

Copy+pasted from the description of my completion:

0-12:

This is the worst part of the level. It's very awkward and kind of ugly, but I still don't mind the deco honestly. The real problem is that it NEVER gets consistent, and although it's not hard, it requires focus to not get caught in loops of dying to it. Looking back, this part caused the most annoyance in the whole grind, except for MAYBE the infamous 67 wave.

12-22:

Pretty forgettable but I think this part is pretty fun and the deco is cool. I like how there's a couple alt strats, like at 12%, you can drop or hold depending on if you hit the orb or not. I do have to mention the toggle bugs though. There are two parts where Hideki made an effect that TOGGLES THE GAMEPLAY on and off instead of using alpha triggers for whatever reason. The first of these isn't bad, it can just cause you to not hit the 11% orb and you have to hold and not collect the second key at 12. The second one is way worse though. At 14, you have to enter the dual in a really specific way to avoid the structures literally clipping into your ship and just killing you. You not only have to hit the pads later than normal, but you have to hit them still pretty far to the left AND you have to worry about not misaligning your ship. I was able to get this to be consistent but it's still annoying.

23-37:

Just a click pattern memorization part. Sometimes you'll die if you don't have a brain (I have a brian). Really nothing to say about it honestly.

38-49:

This part is pretty satisfying to pass but very frustrating to die to. It feels out of your control 45% of the time when you die here, but I still like the part overall. The mini wave and especially the ship are so damn satisfying once you learn them, and despite the awfulness of the mirror portal, the ship got consistent.

50-67:

The deco in this part is alright. The focus is on the gameplay, which is fast paced gameplay done right, bar the ship at 54 which is awkward and just bad. That ship ALWAYS felt shitty to die to, and same with the swing copter even though it's free so it really doesn't matter. Speaking of which...

68-74:

This part is BALLS. It's the most inconsistent part, but I can say very gladly that this did only get more and more consistent, except for times when I stopped playing the level for like 3+ days, in which case my consistency PLUMMETED. The wave is SO satisfying to do. Passing this part makes you feel like an actual god, and this is where your heart rate starts ramping up, so it's always surreal to pass. Seriously, after passing the wave 206 times, that 207th was still so hype. And the 1-3 frame (depending on alignment and fps) at 73, DUDE, it's the most satisfying part. I will say that dying at the ship directly after (which I did 40 times lmao) feels like BS and is always a blueball but it makes up for that in how satisfying that part is as well.

75-82:

This is the "easy" part of the hard part, if that makes sense, and it's the worst too, but it still has some extremely satisfying gameplay. That really is the thing with this level, sometimes it hurts to die to, but when you pass it, holy shit. My thoughts on the deco here are the same as 50-67 but I think this part looks a bit better.

83-89:

What do I even say, more satisfying gameplay but damn is it hard. Just this run alone is carried by choke points, I died at 84 over twenty times and 88 almost as many. The start of the dual gets consistent but not at all easy, which can't be said for the second part of the dual which is completely free and you should never expect to die there from the beginning (ignore that I died there twice).

89-92:

What can I say. This is maybe the most satisfying to hit out of any part in any level. When I passed this from the beginning, there was nothing going on in my mind except grit and adrenaline. Good deco too lol

93-100:

Short and chokable, but pretty fun.