Rating Curve

Ultimately, how much you like this level is going to depend on how charming you find it, and admittedly there are a lot of moments where I can truly feel the passion that went into this level. The execution is unmistakably amateur, but every time the chorus rolls around with a brand new transition and the soaring pop-metal vocal melody, I kind of fall into the rhythm of the level.

It's mostly the space in between and around the level where I have reservations. At this point, reusing styles and parts from a creator's previous levels is kind of a trope--if you want to make a big, emotional level about moving towards the future, you have to rehash the past. But here, it just feels like a choice that should've been avoided, partly because I think Sergi's decoration is interesting mostly in its unpredictability and seeing NO MORE roll back around just kind of made me roll my eyes, and partly because I don't think the truly angsty themes in his previous levels are really worth revisiting. NO MORE and What Remains of Me are really, really difficult for me to digest because they are overwhelmingly overwrought, and I'm glad that this level moves away from the emphasis on despair and self-pity and towards something seemingly much more hopeful and intent on growth.

A lot of the intermediary parts stand out negatively in other ways, like the part about a third of the way in that flashbangs the player multiple time, entirely obscuring the level, or the ending part with the very roughly built scenic view and plain black text--okay, can we talk about text? Lyrics are now a staple in Sergidash levels, and not for the betterment of them either. The lyrics are treated with such emphasis in his levels that they serve as block design, air deco, and effects all at different points, usually using a font already built into the game or some simple creation. For a detail that is so prominent, they seem to have very little care put into them, rarely fitting in cohesively with the part (probably the closest we get in this level is the green electric text in the grey part early on, I thought that looked kinda interesting). The other issue I take with the use of lyrics in his levels is that they already feel so dependent on their songs that writing the lyrics out only exponentiates that feeling. Using lyrics as a decoration in this way feels like an admission of guilt, like the entire vision for the level is standing on the shoulders of the song that you chose when really they should serve to elevate each other. This style lives and dies by creativity, and I just don't feel like the parts outside of the choruses and maybe the "stand up and fight" section live up to it.

Speaking of the "stand up and fight" section, while I don't think it visually looks all that great, it's definitely is effective in conveying a sense of persistence and triumph. If there's one thing I can consistently praise this level on, it's that it is able to honestly convey emotion, even if it might lack subtlety at (all) times.

My final note is that beating this level definitely allowed me to see more of the good in it, partly because I enjoyed the gameplay for being a pretty interestingly balanced XL level, which is just kind of my jam, but also because being in the level just allowed me to attach myself more. It's too easy to get caught up in hating something sometimes when it's just a video on your screen, so taking the hour to just immerse myself in it definitely made me more sympathetic. I might not like the level, but I can respect honest-to-god self expression, and if Sergi continues in this direction I'd be thrilled for him and anyone who loves his levels. have fun all

you stand against the end of all reviews in hyper and bolus

The level is pretty damn bad but it really just packs in a solid six of the most iconic bits in any level ever (predrop cube dual into ship, BYE BYE into the drop ship, orb layered ball, ball/cube dual, 8joh, final maze) and that's being conservative. I can't decide if it's genius level design or it's just been so hamfisted into the collective consciousness, but either way I feel like it's gotta be doing something right.